The guest group. WIN! WIN! WIN!

March 14, 2014 by Chris Parker Leave a Comment

The picture you see here was our guest group last week. At our program we always start as a large group and then break out into small groups.

When everyone breaks for small groups, we invite all guests and the friend that brought them to hang around for the guest group. We make it special, offering ice cream… what would you do for a Klondike bar? Go to guest group!

After the guest attends the guest group at least twice, and they want to continue showing up to the program, I transition them into a small group. This will eliminate those who just visit once or are unsure if they want to participate in your church program. It is difficult for the small group leaders to gain traction when new students are popping in all the time. Here’s the other really cool part, I encourage the student pastor to host the guest group. I get to meet every student that comes through the door this way, they hear our vision for them being here, and they don’t feel invisible or glanced over! WIN! WIN! WIN!

I host the guest group in the large group space. This eliminates transition time or having your guest adjust to another room or setting. Asking easy generic questions is the way to go. Keep things surface level, share the vision of your ministry and what you hope to offer them, perhaps ask one or two questions pertaining to the message.

What do you offer your guests?

Creating & Maintaining a Visitor Follow-Up Process (DIY4.10)

April 21, 2013 by Chris Parker 2 Comments

This is in response to a former article I wrote on DIY Student Ministry. This is the fourth of ten areas that I’m covering in this series.

A new student walks into your room on a Sunday morning…better yet, do they? Thousands of students every year go unnoticed or aren’t given the opportunity to even make it to the threshold of the youth room. Many churches forfeit their opportunity to welcome the student by lack of promoting and advertising the time and location in which students meet. Let’s face it, the day of parents dropping off their teenager at the door is coming to a close; unless the teenager themselves can find out when and where you are meeting, then you just lost many potential students. Where are your signs? Are your meeting times and info on the church website, how about social media? I’d love to discuss on how to better encourage the number of visitors to your program but first I would find it incredibly important that a solid foundation is in place for welcoming the visitor.

It’s music to the student pastor’s ears when they hear, “We had 10 visitors today!”…that’s great, but the question I would silently ask myself would be…”Are they coming back?” Understanding that you hold some responsibility on whether or not a visitor returns is a huge deal! Do you have the pressure from your church to “grow” your youth group size numerically? Well, have you considered that the only way to grow your youth group numerically is through new attendees (visitors that come back)? This shows just how important a visitor follow-up process can be.

My Visitor Checklist:

Did you get their contact information?
Did you give them a gift in exchange, thanking them for coming?
Did you connect them with someone they can identify with: school, grade, hobby?
Did you personalize a follow-up step? Phone call, post card, gift drop, etc.
Did you connect with the parents?

If zero of these things happen, the likelihood of this student returning is slim to none. However, each step improves your chances of seeing that student again…if you complete all 5 steps I estimate you have a 60-70% chance of seeing that student again, especially if they do not have a church home and enjoyed their time. I helped restart and improve this process in my new role at Gateway Church, but this is not something I do on my own. Striving to get away from a DIY SM, I have invited others into this process that can be far more welcoming and do a better job at maintaining our process. Knowing the next teen that walks through my door could experience life change forever and a relationship with Jesus Christ – partly because we were faithful to help them get connected and stay connected, now that’s a reason to get excited about a visitor follow-up process! (theology disclaimer: We take no credit for their salvation, but would like to think our faithfulness to this kind of process is God gracing us and allowing us partner with Him when it comes to seeing life change!)

I recommend the book Fusion. This doesn’t directly apply to student ministry but many of the follow-up methods can be repurposed for welcoming teenagers.

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You only have 7 minutes!

November 24, 2012 by Chris Parker Leave a Comment

I remember like it was yesterday…there were donuts, good donuts. And there were people with smiles. We played a game that seemed like semi-organized chaos, boys were throwing crumpled up paper at the girls and the girls were throwing them back at us. I don’t remember a single word the youth pastor said, actually I don’t even remember the youth pastor. One thing is for sure though, I felt welcomed and I wanted to go back. That was 7th grade at the church I grew up at. I had entered the youth group and I didn’t want to leave…and I didn’t, I stuck with it on a weekly basis through graduation of high school. All of those feelings of awkwardness, not belonging or people staring at that pimple on my forehead went away. I was in a place where I felt accepted immediately and had an all access pass to friends, leaders and my youth pastor.

Now I’m the youth pastor and I see an average of 5 guests a week… I want them to get connected and stay connected to God and others. How many guest do you see on a weekly basis? How do you make them feel welcomed? Do they come back?

“Seven minutes is all you get to make a positive first impression. In the first seven minutes of contact with your church, your first-time guests will know whether or not they are coming back. That’s before a single worship song is sung and before a single word of the message is uttered.” – Fusion

Fusion has helped me work through some of my “assimilation process” as I strive to make our visitors noticed, welcomed and always invited back to be a part of our group.

As staff, we do an okay job of getting students checked-in, giving them a gift and getting their information. However, I feel like that’s where it starts to unravel. We will call the cell phone number, leave a facebook message…but follow up for students is just down right hard.

FOLLOW UP!
Giving the students a gift or having them fill out an info card is the easy part. Following up and keeping that system alive is tough! What does your follow up process look like? How do you manage it and keep it fresh for students?