I believe in healthy church growth that seeks out non-believers, invites them to Jesus and the church, encourages them to attend a local body, and then follows up with them for ministry and conversation. To do all these things, I realize you must get contact information from folks. So, I understand when a church asks me as a guest to fill out a visitor’s card.
At the same time, I seriously wrestle with whether to complete the card. In fact, I may choose not to. Here’s why:
- I’m highly introverted. You know this information if you’re a regular reader. I don’t want to be singled out once you have my name. You may never intend to do that – that’s not the way your church greets guests – but I don’t know that when you give me a card. I feel safer when I can control my space.
- Your process puts me on the spot before I ever get a card. If I have to raise my hand in order for someone to give me a card, I’m probably not going to do it. You might as well turn a spotlight on me and interrogate me.
- I don’t know what you’re going to do to me. Seriously. I don’t know what you’ll expect of me after you get my card. I’ve been asked to stand. To give some information about me and my family. To tell where I live in the community. To come forward. To raise my hand so they’ll see my hand waving in a crowd of hundreds. Again, you probably don’t do these things, but I don’t know that as a guest.
- My email inbox is already too full. If I give you my email address, that just means more emails to respond to (or delete). And, when I’ve given my address in the past, it’s not just one “welcome and thank you” email I receive. It’s apparently seemingly every email the church sends out.
- I’m afraid you’ll be knocking on my door each week. Please hear me on this one: I still believe door-to-door visitation and evangelism works in many setttings, and I’m not arguing against that approach. I just know that I’m often traveling during the week, and I don’t want strangers coming to our door when my wife is alone. Call us, and let’s set up a time to meet if that’s the next best step.
- I’m not looking for a church home. That’s most often my situation. I’m visiting as a church consultant, or I’m there to spend time with a friend. I have my church home. Filling out a card might imply more than I want to imply – or it might put into motion a follow up system that really doesn’t apply to me.
- You haven’t given me time to complete the card and/or told me what I should do with it. If I have only a few minutes to fill out the card, I’ll still be deciding whether to do it when the opportunity passes. And, if you haven’t told me what to do with the card if I do complete it (or, if your directions are for me to find someone to give it to), I will see no reason to do it.
So, how can you help people like me? Primarily, tell me up front what you will do with my information. If you tell me you’re not going to embarrass me or hound me, I’ll be more inclined to start a conversation with you. Then, keep your word.
What thoughts would you want to add?
We put a card in the bulletin and ask evryone to complete it so that no one is singled out. We give instructions on when to turn it in and we tell them what we do with the info. Most importantly we tell them we will not come to their home unannounced.
I like this approach, Kevin. Thanks.
I will generally try to mitigate most of these fears and questions by saying “give us as much or little info as you comfortably want to share. And I promise we won’t show up unannounced at your door during Wheel of Fortune!”
Good plan, Doug. Thanks!
I, like you, am an introvert. I am also hesitant to fill out a visitors card because I don’t like ministers calling on me like used car salesmen. :). This is also the same reason I don’t like the meet and greet time. Way too much to handle for us introverts.
I can handle the “meet and greet” time as long as nobody meets me or greets me. 🙂
We put our card in the bulletin and ask guests to fill it out. There is adequate time in the service to do so, and we give instructions on how to turn it in (2 methods). Based on articles from Dr. Lawless and Dr. Thom Rainer, we recently changed our card and our approach. We invite our visitors to give us the means of contact they would prefer. They can then choose to give us a phone number, email, or physical address, and we follow up by that method. Our total number of filled-out visitor cards has gone down, but our efficiency in follow-up contacts has gone way up!
Thanks, Stacey, for this suggestion. Blessings!
I’m with you Chuck, though I’m an extrovert. I think the key to getting the data from people is to 1) Allow them to control the process (ie. you invite it, don’t force it) and 2) demonstrate integrity and patience in how you handle every other aspect of the experience. If you prove yourself regularly, you’ll get lots of data. If you control and make folks uncomfortable to get the data, you’ll likely get lots of Homer Simpson, Kanye West, and Ben Dover data.
Thanks, Dave, for the good thoughts.
We try to ‘push’ the card only one-on-one. We ask first-time guests to come see (me) at the Kiosk where we want to give them a coffee mug to thank them for being our guest. Then, one-on-one, I ask if they would fill out an info card so we can keep them informed of some events going on just for them – such as our coffee connect where they can meet our senior pastor, etc.
It’s not a proven method yet as we are dabbling in all of this to see what works and what doesn’t. But, so far we’ve had fairly good results.
Thanks for the input, Kevin.