Modern Ekklesia: Resources for Leaders on Church and Culture

Engaging First Time Guests So They’ll Want to Come Back: Part Two

*Just in case, here’s the first, and third part of the series.

So hopefully by now you’ve realized you need to have some kind of system in place to follow up with first-time guests. Most people probably have well over a hundred first-time guests in the course of a year. So how would your church be different if you were able to get some of them to come back and become part of your church?

Think about it.

Today I’d like to introduce the most important part of this assimilation process: a response card. We call ours a connect card. Most churches have a response card of some type, but most don’t use it effectively. Let’s look at a picture of one and then add a few comments.

I know it’s not the most impressive thing you’ve ever seen, but I think there are a few strategic elements.

Notice the first three lines. On most response cards we ask for information that people don’t care to give and that takes the longest time to write. Here people can put their name, email address, and then we ask them to check off if they’re a first or second time guest, regular attender, or member. This is the most important information. Many don’t like sharing their address, but won’t mind sharing their email, as long you promise to not do anything weird with it or sign them up for something. Next is the address line and best contact phone number. Finally, on the bottom, is the line where they can write in how they found out about the church.

Here’s a few extra questions that people commonly have regarding the connection card.

A connect card is placed inside every program every week. And the program is given as people enter the “sanctuary” or “worship center” part of the building. This ensures that every person can use it to respond.
It is introduced during the welcome part of the service. At Pioneer Memorial Church we have one song, the welcome time, then a continued worship set. During the welcome time one of the pastors will come out, ask the people to greet and welcome each other, and then draw their attention to the program. We ask them to pull out the connect card and say something like this:

“This morning when you came in each of you were given a program that looks like this (hold it up). Inside the program you should have a connection card that looks like this (hold it up). If you’re a regular attender or member you know how these work, but if you’re a first time guest we’d love to get to know you a little better. So we ask that you fill out as much information as you’re comfortable sharing.”

I then let them know to keep the card handy, because we’ll be making reference to it a little later in the service. Here’s what the back of the card looks like.
The card is then reintroduced during the end of the message. I make an appeal every single week using the card. This is where the card goes to work. So here’s what we say no matter what we’ve been preaching on:

“I’d like to invite you to pull out your connect card one more time. At Pioneer Memorial Church we encourage everyone, whether you’re a first or second time guest, regular attender, or member, to take some kind of “next step” in your walk with God. So I just ask them,
“so what next step is God calling you to take today. Maybe your next step today is to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Or maybe you’ve never been baptized before. Baptism is a public confession that you belong to Jesus Christ. If you’ve never taken that step, take a moment to check it off and we’d love to begin preparing you for it. Or maybe you’ve been jumping around to lots of different churches, but God is finally impressing you that this is the place where you need to be. If that’s you, just check it off. So just take a few moments between you and God, and write down whatever next step God is calling you to take.”

I then give them an additional 30 seconds or so to write in their response. We then collect the offering, and this is the place where they can put in their connect card.

So those are the basics of the connect card. In the past, I didn’t make appeals every week. Or when I did, I never had a way to respond and follow up with those that had made decisions. Now we know exactly what decisions are being made and how to follow up with them effectively every single week.
Next time we’ll look at what happens after the service is over.

So have you tried a version of this? What would happen if you could effectively follow up with every decision that was made in your church?

About Rodlie Ortiz, D.Min.

On the pastoral team at Pioneer Memorial Church on the campus of Andrews University. Tech geek.

Comments

  1. Chris Bullock says

    Yes, Rodlie, I have been trying a "version" of this… very similar with slightly different content, etc. I like that you offer the Discipleship classes. Those are from Warren, correct? Or at least influenced by his material? Do you do those? Do you require people begin with 101, then move on successively? I was doing this religiously when we first started and then stopped during the summer series. I actually had people (even leaders) complaining about always having these cards to fill out – which of course, I tried to drive into their heads that it's a tool to connect to visitors & give opportunity for those who want to respond. We still do a "GET FUSED" card with the info, a place to check off for starting a relationship with Jesus, volunteering or getting a call from the pastor… but I stopped the "next steps" side of the card where I had steps based on the specific teaching of the day. Honestly, that was difficult for me to adjust every week and print new cards each week. I wonder how productive that method was and if it's worth doing again. But I do like the idea of having a card that you use each week to gather info and provide a place for people to make decisions. We still use our cards and ask them to write on the back sometimes, but I think I'm going to go back to something a little more structured like what you have — although we are not offering any classes yet – we are just about to launch our new small group ministry — called EPIC Groups, this fall… since FUSIONchurch is now only 5 months old. I would like to know more about your Discipleship classes though… who does them, when, how long, what material, etc. Thanks bro.

  2. rodlie says

    For the discipleship classes we were using that model, but we're transitioning to a different model. Yeah, it was based of off Rick W's stuff. After going through the cycle several times I came to a conclusion (which I will probably write about), that these classes don't work that great. They are long, and people don't retain stuff in shot-gun bursts of 3-4 hours. So right now we're just retaining the membership class, which i narrowed down to two hours, and will do all other discipleship through the small group system (ala Simple Church and Activate). Getting leaders to fill out the cards every week is not the easiest. But I continue hard on my people to fill them out. This is the best way we've found to get responses from people. And it works! Maybe we can talk later this week. I'll hit you up on FB to confirm. Cheers.

  3. Billy says

    Thanks Rod for the tips on this stuff. We did it for the first time in West Houston SDA today. I even got our contemporary service to move the offering time to after the sermon to better accommodate the card – sweet and no complaints, only praises! so basically I have several hundred of these now on my desk for first thing Monday morning – and I can't remember the last time I looked forward more to a Monday morning! LOL To boot, I was introduced to an unchurched 2nd time guest family of 3 (first time was last week) and actually had a tool to use to make sure I had the essential information to follow up! felt so good, and I will be personally visiting with them this week and the husband might volunteer to help with our AV ministry! keep them in prayer as I follow up this week. -ciao for now, Billy

  4. rodlie says

    That rocks, bro. Nothing like being able to pray over and respond to people that wanted to take some faith steps. blessings as you continue to implement.