Mention something about that past Sunday that either happened during the service or that you talked with them about personally. Acknowledge them by name, not just in the вЂDearвЂ™ line. Your guests need to know you took time out of your day specifically for them.

Not the whole thing, but at least the opening and closing couple of sentences. And invite them to come back again sometime. Communicate that you are available if they have any questions about the church or their experience on Sunday. Let them know you are glad they got to join you. Just acknowledge their presence that previous Sunday. Keep it simple.ДonвЂ™t try to say everything in the note and donвЂ™t preach. It can be an email, a letter in the mailbox, even aВ FacebookВ message, but find a way to send a note to yourВ guests letting them know youвЂ™re thinking of them. This can be a challenging task, but it is possible.

You need to strategize how you will collect their information when they visit. ItвЂ™s kind of hard to follow-up with guests if you donвЂ™t know their names email address and/or physical address. Get contact information when people visit. ItвЂ™s an indirect way to encourage your guests to think about you again that week, and come back. ThereвЂ™s always a chance your guest will pick that up off the kitchen counter during the week and look it over. ItвЂ™s icing on the cake if you can also give them information about an upcoming activity that might interest them. Ideally, youвЂ™ll give them some sort of gift and a little information about the church. IвЂ™m not talking about the Sunday morning bulletin. Let them know they are valuable and important to you. Think of that restaurant you visited for the first time who gave you bad service. It doesnвЂ™t matter what kind of follow-up you have, if guests donвЂ™t feel noticed and valued when they arrive if they donвЂ™t have a positive experience at your church, then theyвЂ™re not going to be interested in returning. GUEST FOLLOW-UP IDEAS: Treat your guests like VIPвЂ™s when they visit. Guest follow-up isnвЂ™t the answer to all your assimilation problems, but it is one proven strategy that will help you along the way. Truth be told, we decided to make another visit to the church that very next week. And he told us about a couple other things happening in upcoming weeks we might be interested in. It was just a simple note to let us know heвЂ™d love to see us again. The letter was an invitation to join them again at church. He also made mention of a conversation we had together for our brief moment together the previous Sunday morning. It may have been typed up nice and neat on church letterhead, but we couldnвЂ™t miss the fact that the pastor mentioned my wife and I by name in the letter as well as all four of our kids, by name. Not just a cookie-cutter letter with the same three paragraphs youвЂ™d expect to see on a thousand other church follow-up letters. Which is why we were so impressed when we received a personal letter from the pastor later that week.

Our church experience became a back-burner memory that we might drudge up again that next weekend, if we werenвЂ™t too busy with other things. In other words, we got back to our daily lives. We went to work, shopped at the store, fixed dinner, put kids to bed, took the car to the shop, mowed the lawn, watched a movie, cleaned the house, went for a walk, bused our kids all over the place, worked on our budget, and a million other little things. We also proceeded to do what nearly all other guests do after their first visit to a local church. My wife and I left that afternoon encouraged and relaxed. We were even greeted informally after the service by a few random people as well as one of the pastoral staff. The service was interesting and engaging. The people seemed friendly and interested in us without being pushy or fake. We were welcomed at the door, handed materials at a Guest Services table and told what to expect and where to go. A while back I visited a church with my family for the first time.

Invitation to church services example