The pressure created by putting a title like that on a blog
is not lost on me but I love this process.
I have seen so many exciting and dynamic churches use this documented
process and heard the success stories enough to know that this process has meat
on its bones.
I heard it said
somewhere that “Assimilation starts in the parking lot” and that is where we
will begin. The key to this process is
getting as many first time guests in through a particular church entrance as
possible. Most churches have lots of
ways to get in but we want to funnel the first time guest through the front
door. The easiest way to do this is to
have a designated first time visitor parking area. One thing that I think is greatly
underestimated at many mid sized churches is the parking ministry. With a well
trained parking lot ministry you can quickly fill and exit the church parking
lot in an orderly fashion.
The next step is signage.
I tell my churches that the first time visitor check in area needs to
have a sign so big that blind people feel its presence. “FIRST TIME GUEST CHILDREN REGISTRATION” Why
be subtle here? Below that sign is going
to be the first time visitor desk. At
that desk will be a computer station running the Fellowship
One Check-In application. There is no need for a touch screen at this
location. A fast typist and the Zebra
LP-2844-Z printer is all you need. A well trained volunteer can even begin putting the information into the system by reading the card upside down as the parental unit is filling in the information.
The next step is getting your first time guest registration
card in their hand. The picture below
shows you the key elements. While the
parental unit #1 is filling out the registration card the Super Greeter (here
to for known as SG) will come and introduce themselves to the additional
parental unit and kids.
As you might imagine with a title of SG they have to be
special. This is not the position you fill with people that say “I was thinking
of volunteering this weekend… Do you have some place to put me?” This is the
position that people are promoted to.
The perfect person for this position is Chatty Cathy. You couldn’t shut her up if you wanted
to. Come on now you are picturing
someone in your mind right now aren’t you? This person is super friendly, super
nice, super knowledgeable, and has been at the church since they laid the
foundation. They need to be well versed on security procedures in the
children’s building. They need to know all of the teacher’s names or at least
recognize them. They need to know the
difference between Nursery and Preschool.
They need to know what curriculum is and how it is applied at different
levels in the Children’s Ministry. When
I think of this person I picture my mother.
I am fairly sure that she has never (not even once) sat by someone on a
plane where by the time they touched down she didn’t know if they were married,
how many kids they have, where they went to school, where they live, and why
they are on that plane.
When the parental unit #1 is done filling out the card they
hand the card to the regular greeter behind the counter who then enters
parental unit #1’s name and DOB into the check-in system. The Regular Greeter (here to for know as RG) then enters in each child’s name, DOB,
and any allergy information into the check-in system and prints off the
nametags. The nametags are then handed
from the RG to the SG who then grabs a church map and circles all of the
classrooms where the children units have landed. While the map is being circled by the SG the RG re-instantiates the database by configuring the flux capacitor using the Heins-Bergenstein method which all churches should know by now.
They then escort the family to each of the classrooms
dumping the before mentioned information on the family. They introduce the parent to each of the
teachers and explain that since the 80’s we no longer take homeless people in
off the streets and make them nursery workers.
Nowadays we run a background check on every teacher. Not only that but we have strict policies in
place to ensure your child’s safety.
After walking the parents to each classroom and explaining
the differences between the curriculum and drop off/pick up procedures they
escort the parents to the sanctuary.
Once there they help the family find a seat near the back of the
sanctuary so that if they get paged it will be easier for them to exit. They show them the screens used to page and
tell them what to look for. They then
introduce them to the Smith family who always sits there waiting for the next
first time visitor family to arrive and be friendly to.
Rinse and repeat…
Matthew McMaster
Currently Building My Own Flying Delorian