Ready! Set! Go! Help Easter Visitors Feel Welcome

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It is important to prepare to welcome new Easter visitors! Following are some practical tips to help you be visitor-ready for your Easter service!

As we are approaching Easter, one of the two most attended church services of the year, it is important that we prepare our facility and our volunteers to welcome new Easter visitors!

We want these new people to feel as though they are VIPs! Additionally, we want them to be greeted, feel comfortable, and valued. As a church, we want our first-time visitors to have a real connection with the church family, without feeling pressured or “on display”! We also want them to enjoy their experience so that perhaps, Lord willing, they will want to return next Sunday.

Now then, let’s explore some very practical tips and checklists to help you prepare for new guests on Easter Sunday or any Sunday!

Get Your Church Ready To Welcome Visitors

A great way to prepare is by doing a building walk-through with “visitor” eyes, or even better, invite a neighbor or co-worker who does not attend your church to do it with you. Then, ask them their opinions as you go through your facility from the outside all the way through the inside of the building.

Here is a list of great questions to ask:

1. How Is Our Church Signage?

Is our parking lot properly signed? Do we have special guest parking close to the door? Do we have clearly marked handicapped parking spaces?
Is it clear where the entrance to your main lobby, worship center, or sanctuary are?
Do you have a welcome team outside to help point the way with a smile? What about putting out extra signage/or special flags? Have fun with it. Make it decorative and celebratory!
When the first-time guests enter the building, is it clear where they need to go to find the hospitality/coffee area (if you have one), or where the sanctuary is? Are the restrooms clearly marked? Is there someone present to direct families with kids to classrooms or the nursery?
Is the children’s area bright and inviting? Consider putting up some colorful decorations or banners!

2. But Are We VIP-Guest Ready?

We not only want to be ready for our first-time church visitors, but we want them to feel like VIP guests and arrive with a warm welcome! Is the church building and all the other areas clean? Gather a team of volunteers and walk through these areas together, then assign teams to tackle the work. Working side by side builds relationships, and also, it’s just more fun to do the tasks!

Are the bathrooms sparkling with plenty of extra supplies if needed? What about having some extra touches like a basket of individual hand sanitizers or packets of tissues? What about a nicer soap dispenser or fresh flowers in a bud vase? Think of amenities in a nice restaurant or hotel where guests are valued!
Are all the trash cans in the building empty and clean on the outside to start off the day?
Have all areas been dusted, even the ones we don’t normally think about? This is when a guest/friend coming in prior to Easter to do a walkthrough could really be helpful, not to mention eye-opening!
Do we have a “clutter corner” –– we all know the one, where things just seem to be deposited or heaped up because no one has taken the time to put them away or knows where it belongs?
Is the worship area clean? Are pens, Bibles, offering envelopes, etc., available and in clear sight? Are we considering guests with wheelchairs? Do we have an area in the sanctuary where they can park, and is it clearly marked?
How about reserving the back row or section of the back rows for late arrivers, so they don’t have to awkwardly crawl over people to get a seat?
Some day/evening during the week prior to Easter, do your tech checks. Make sure all the mics are working, and the videos, graphics, screens, and computers are all online and running well. Don’t find out on Sunday morning that something needs batteries or to be updated!!
Make sure you have both entry and exit greeters at the doors of your church. A “thanks for coming”, “have a great day”, or “so glad you came”, goes a long way when it comes to making your new Easter visitors feel valued.
If you have more than one service, like a sunrise service, or due to COVID-19 you have to do limited numbers in each church service, and make sure someone is appointed to recheck all the restrooms and common areas for cleanliness and supplies. Consider appointing someone to do a sanitizing spray between services.
Have masks available in baskets and hand sanitizer in the lobby. It lets a lot of these guests know that you are concerned about their well-being.

Train Your Greeters-Ushers & Helpers For Easter Visitors

Every church has its own methods of acknowledging guests. Some give away gift bags, have special name tags, etc. In any case, just make sure that you are prepared with enough gifts for Easter Sunday and that you have a system in place for who is responsible for distributing the gifts or where they are placed for guests to pick up.
Previously, we mentioned that it’s good to have a greeter outside to make sure people are being directed with a smile. It’s great to have a couple of people stationed at the main doors and open them for every guest. (Some people don’t care to touch door handles with Covid issues. This allows them not to have to worry, as well as makes them feel that VIP treatment!)
Make sure ushers are attentive and actually directing guests to their seats, answering any questions, etc. Also, make sure you have them in 2 different areas and that they are paying attention to the Easter visitors and not just chatting with friends!
Do you have a hospitality or coffee area? Make sure that it is neat and well-stocked, and that you have someone there assisting people as needed and engaging in conversation with guests.
If you have more than one service, make sure that the hospitality area is freshened and restocked for the second service, not just “leftovers” from the first!
A good Easter training session for all volunteers is a very useful tool. Get them excited about what God can do. Make sure they know that their part of the team is important. Let them ask questions and make suggestions. Then, spend time in prayer together for God to work!

Prepare Your Church For Little Easter Visitors

A great children’s ministry can be what brings a family back to your church. The next step we need to take is to make sure that our children’s ministry areas are clean, sanitized, and ready to handle Easter visitors with a smile!

Here’s a checklist to go through the children’s area:

Have all baby blankets/sheets been washed?
Has anyone sanitized the toys and the stuffed animals? Plastic toys can be soaked in tubs with warm soapy water; stuffies can be thrown in a dryer with a dryer sheet and high heat. Also, there is a cleaning product called Green Clean, that is child-safe and can be lightly sprayed on toys and children’s equipment.
Have the children’s books been wiped down lately?
Are all the supplies in the nursery stocked? Extra diapers, wipes, hand sanitizer, disposable hand towels, and scented diaper disposal bags?
Do you have little step stools for kids to wash their hands in your restrooms or in the children’s restroom (make sure they are clean)?
Make sure to spray through all the rooms the day before services with a sanitizing air freshener, so everything smells good. (Remember we make an impression with all 5 senses!!)
Do we have snacks available for all the classes and do we have snacks that are gluten-free and nut-free (Cheerios is a good standby for this one) and water for a drink? Make sure to have small disposable cups and napkins.
Have you checked out the condition of your crayons lately? Replace them if they are looking tired, or even better, find someone who melts them and molds them into fun newly shaped crayons (ideas on Pinterest).
Have some fun music playing or a children’s worship video as the children enter the room. Make it a welcoming environment!

Train Your Volunteers For Little Easter Visitors

Have a meeting with those who will be helping that day, and have extra people in the wings ready to jump in if needed.
Go over all your safety procedures, diapering policies, checking-in processes, etc., just to be sure everyone knows. Encourage them, cheer them on, and make sure they know how important their role is. Have a prayer time together about the services and the children that will come.
Do you have an information card for parents to fill out for new children with info about allergies, food issues, or anything else you may need to know?
Don’t pressure parents to have to drop their child in the children’s area. Make sure they know they can take them back to worship service if they would feel more comfortable.
Encourage your volunteers to use those wonderful gifts that God has given them to make this a wonderful day for your guests. Use children’s names, praise them when they complete tasks or help, thank them for coming, and thank parents for bringing them!! And smile!
Do all volunteers/workers have name tags, lanyards, or some way to identify them as workers?
Do we have enough printed materials, crafts, or busy bags? Or whatever you give kids, make sure to have extra.
Give out a first-time kids welcome pack with info about your church/children’s ministries and upcoming events as a little gift, and make sure to give it to the parents so they can check out the contents first.

So are we ready? Can we do it? Yes, we can, and with the Lord’s help, we will! Remember this, the most important thing that your whole congregation can do is to pray, pray, pray!!

Most importantly, pray for those volunteers, pray for your pastor and the message, pray for those Easter visitors that God would speak to hearts, and pray that all things would be done and said in a manner that pleases God!!

Go serve with joy!

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