BellaOnline Forums Family Christian Living The church greeter - practical suggestions

If you attend church, you may or may not be accustomed to greetings at the front door. I have never seen a church greeter manual but I have some suggestions based on my eperience.

The Church Greeter

Hi Lynne,

Great article! I love the greeter's at church they are the first impression a visitor get's when visiting a church. And yes, their is no manual on being a greeter but you made a good point about what one should be. Thanks for sharing!

I thought about your article today when we did the peace greeting during Mass. It is very easy to be greeting someone and be moving on to the next person at the same time.

I was a greeter and an usher at my church and we were called the "Hospitality Team". We didn't have a manual per se but we were trained. As part of the training, we were told that people coming into the church make up their minds in the first seven minutes of walking into the door whether they will be coming back the following Sunday.

We had two greeters at the door, one would greet people when hey come in and the other would hand out the programs or newsletters or whatever your church may call them.

There are many different reasons why it may seem like a greeter was just giving you a quick greeting and seemingly looking past you. One could be as you mentioned, that the person didn't really want to be there doing that but was doing it out of some sort of obligation. Another reason could be hat there were twenty people coming in the door at he same time and the greeter was rying to welcome everyone as not to miss anyone, he/she could have been watching the sidewalks for snow or ice and waned to get out there to shovel or put de-icer down during inclement weather. That last one was an extreme example but I myself have been guilty of doing that.

A greeter should take the time to make people feel welcome when they come into the church but when a bunch of people are coming in at a time, it is hard to genuinely focus on one person for very long. Our hospitality team also split up the jobs every week so the same people are not doing the same job every week. Our hospitality team also had ushers inside the sanctuary greeting people as they walked in and showed people to seats if the church was getting crowded and seats were hard to find.

We also had to make sure that the pastor and the music ministry had glasses of water by their stations, we had to make sure that the sunday school classes were adequately staffed, we had to make sure that their were collection envelopes on the backs of chairs, we had to make sure that the sidewalks were clear of ice and snow, we had to walk through the parking lot during the service to make sure there was no trouble or anything out there, we had to make sure hat he rest rooms were clean and had toilet paper and paper towels, we had to pass around the collection baskets and bring them into the office and lock them up until the counters could get in there and take care of the money. We had a slew of responsibilities that went beyond just saying good morning to people as they came in. Granted, welcoming people is very important but we had a lot of other things on our minds to make sure the service went off without a hitch.

During the fourth week of the month, I was a captain of the hospitality team and there had been times when I didn't have enough people on my team so I may have been a bit lackadaisical in greeting people but that's because I was worried about getting people to help me out during the collections and stuff like that.

So the next time a greeter doesn't really seem sincere in his/her greeting, just keep in mind that they may have other things on their minds regarding the service and their other duties.

I attended one church that really impressed me with their greeting customs. The "greeter" had no other duty but to welcome everyone who came through the door.

The greeter offered his hand to shake, put his other hand over mine and said, "Welcome to our church. I hope you enjoy the service. Please join us in the dining hall after service so we can introduce you to the Pastor and his family." After the service, the greeter managed to contact again the new people and invite them in for coffee and pastries and to meet the Pastor. It was a wonderful way to become acquainted with people in the church. In the "dining hall" everyone sat around the same table like a huge family and made the newcomers welcome without putting any pressure on them. It was like going to Grandma's house for Sunday supper with all the relatives there.

For regular, returning members who came through the door, the greeter acknowledged them and just said "Good to see you again! Don't forget to join us for refreshments after the service."

The focus of the "Greeter" was on the new people and regular members understood this, so did not stand there and chat at the door holding anyone up.

Phyllis, the greeter you mentioned sounds terrific. He knows the purpose of greeting

Sometimes greeters get the Martha syndrom - worried about many things when on thing is necesary.