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This article appeared in the Nov-Dec 2007 issue of Net Results magazine.

This year, thousands and thousands of churches will host “special” services for Christmas Eve. Some will be focus on family style services with children’s programming. Others will create more formal services with magnificent choir musicals and perhaps even some drama. Still others will opt for more traditional experiences with “lessons and carols” and candlelight. However, one thing most churches will have in common is that they’ll spend untold hours in preparation and many, if not most, will spend hundreds of dollars advertising their events trying to enlist the participation of the growing “unchurched” population in their communities in the hopes that those who attend will return.

Although most churches will put significant time, effort, and funding into their Christmas Eve efforts, the fact is, most will see little or no return on their investment. Insufficient or ineffective follow-up plagues the church and frustrates the efforts of even the best planned and executed worship service.

Hand-Offs: Not Just for Football Anymore

In American football, one of the most common plays is for the ball to be handed off from one player to another. In the world of church, the hand-off needs become one of our most common plays as well, but for the church, the hand-off isn’t about a ball—it’s a targeted invitation.

Take your Christmas Eve service for example. When guests visit and the service comes to an end, most will leave (at best) with an invitation to come again to a “regular” worship service. They may even have a bulletin insert that reminds them of the Sunday worship times. But let’s suppose that your Christmas Eve service is targeting local families. Ask yourself what could you offer that they would consider foregoing their Sunday morning sleep-in and family time to visit your church instead?

If you know your target community well, a dozen ideas have already probably popped into your mind. Perhaps a January sermon series on “Bullet-Proofing Your Marriage” or “The Seven Moral Fibers for Kids.” On the other hand, you could host a special event for new parents or announce the opening of your new Christian Day Care center. There probably as many good ideas as there are churches. The key is to never hold an event without creating and planning a hand-off event.

Once you’ve created and planned a hand-off event, the next thing is to make sure you let those attending the Christmas Eve service know about it. You could make a verbal invitation. You could include one in the bulletin/program. Or you could create an insert, hand-out, fridge magnet, or brochure—anything you can put in their hands so they can remember the upcoming event after the Christmas rush.

However, as important as this is, it’s just the first step. The hand-off is incomplete until you’ve done some great follow-up. But you can’t do great follow-up until you …

Get Their Names

By creating, planning, and inviting your Christmas Eve crowd to a well-targeted event you can reasonably expect a return on your investment. However, the hand-off event is probably not going to appeal to every guest in your service. For instance, if your hand-off is a “Gang-Proof Your Youth” seminar series, there may be families with only younger children who aren’t interested. And if they don’t get the hand-off you offer, experience says they’re fairly unlikely to return (until next year). On the other hand, if you get their name and contact information, you can invite them to an event that might meet a need later. The question is, how can you get those elusive details?

· Pew Pads, AKA Friendship Registers. These are quite popular in many churches. Besides being a distraction from the flow of the service, the “Please Sign In” game is relatively ineffective in most instances.

· Registration Cards. These cards are often placed in the pew rack or included in the bulletin/program. In general, guests are invited to fill them out and drop them in the offering plates in lieu of money. These tend to be slightly more effective than Pew Pads.

· Registration Cards 2. Some churches put a new twist on registration cards. Instead of guests-only filling out the cards, the whole congregation takes a moment at the beginning of the service and everyone is asked to fill out the cards completely and then they are passed to the end of the aisle where they are picked up by ushers. This portion of the service often coincides with the worship team, band, or choir singing a special to maintain the flow of the service. Because everyone is completing a card simultaneously and passing it to the aisles, this method works fairly well.

· Door Prize. Sometimes it might be advantageous to offer a door prize of some sort in order to gather contact information. For instance, for a Christmas Eve service, you could put together a New Year’s basket with a variety of snacks and offer it as a door prize. Of course, to register for the door prize, everyone has to complete a registration card. When we’ve done this, we’ve made it clear in previous communications to the church that church members aren’t eligible for the door prize, even though during the event we encourage everyone to register. This ensured we created a measure of good-will with our guests.

· Event Registration. With some events, it is appropriate to ask for registrations before or at the event. For instance, at a church carnival where Bounce Houses, hay rides, etc. are being offered it is certainly appropriate to register participants.

The key here is to find a way to get the contact information that works in your setting. Because once you have the contact information, you’re all set to …

Follow-Up

Insufficient and ineffective follow-up is the bane of the church. I’m amazed at the number of churches I work with who tell me they are committed to growth, but who have virtually no follow-up programs in place. I was in a church recently that used the registration pads faithfully each Sunday morning, but when I asked what they did the names they gathered, they admitted that they simply filed the pages each week so they could track attendance figures for their denominational report.

A variety of studies have shown that when a guest receives a personal visit within 24 hours of their attendance at a church event that they’re over 80 percent more likely to return to the church a second time. The percentages drop off significantly as the time between event and personal visit increases. Only ten years or so ago, it was important that a lay person do the visit, but our studies show that this has changed. Today, a guest is more likely to return if the senior pastor or another staff member (who has been visible during the event) visits within 24 hours.

Effective follow-up demands multiple “touches” by the church. Below are a variety of follow-ups that could be (dare I say should be) added to a growing church’s repertoire.

· The Requisite Welcome Letter. In general, these are the letters created once and reused for the next twelve years via Mail-Merge with only the addressee’s name changed to disguise the fact that a secretary pressed “Print.” Many churches even have the pastor’s signature electronically pre-printed on the form letter. However, nobody’s fooled nor impressed by this kind of ineffective follow-up. A follow-up letter is necessary, but it’s only valuable if it’s personal. Even busy pastors of some fast growing churches are taking the time to dash out a hand-written note on stationery to each first-time visitor. Does it take time? Sure, but the results appear to be well-worth the effort.
And while you’re writing, make sure you invite them to a targeted hand-off event.

· The Newsletter. Add guests to your newsletter mailing list immediately. If your newsletter isn’t due out for over a week, send the latest newsletter immediately following the guest’s visit. (For best results, send it on a different day than the Requisite Welcome Letter above.)

· Email. Many folks prefer email to almost any other method of contact. Savvy churches send an email note to the guest inviting them to some sort of a hand-off event. Savvier churches add the guest’s email address to their regular email update lists.

· The Telephone Call. Sometime during the week a friendly call from a volunteer asking if they can answer any questions can go a long ways towards building relationships. It is best if the caller at least met the guest, but of course that’s not always possible.

· The Gift. Many churches effectively take a small gift to the visitor during the week. These offerings are often homemade breads or cookies, handmade crafts, or small house plants. These gifts are marked from the church and are delivered by a lay volunteer during a “sidewalk” visit, that is, a visit that doesn’t include accepting an invitation to “come in.”

Let’s wrap up by getting back to Christmas Eve and the hand-off. If you take the time to create and plan a targeted hand-off for your guests; if you put details of the event in their hands; if you get their names and contact information; and if you engage a follow-up plan, you’re much more likely to see the return of these guest more sooner than later.