Strategy Update

Hospitality - Parish of Tauranga Focusing on Intentional Welcome - Marg

Jeremy and a team have been working on Welcome at Holy Trinity. 

1. If someone walked into our church for the first time, what would they experience in the first five minutes?

They would be greeted by one or two very friendly people at the door who are trained to orient them to the venue, e.g. if they have children, then introduce them to a children's worker or team member. The foyer is warm and a buzzing place, hopefully engendering a sense of manaakitanga.

Hopefully, one of the greeters will see them after service at the cuppa time and ask them to fill in our straightforward welcoming card. This is placed in a box for the pastor to collect on Monday and contact the newcomers. 

2. How do we currently welcome newcomers, and what could we do better?

As above, we could do better by being more diligent about linking with visitors rather than chatting with friends—partly training, partly ‘the club’ mentality.

3. Is anyone responsible for ensuring people feel seen, welcomed, and included?

As above, the visitor card system is overseen by the parish pastor in conjunction with a volunteer ‘integration’ person. We also try to emphasise from time to time that everyone is a greeter, not just the team at the door.

If newcomers return and signal that they will be staying, then the ‘integration’ person will invite them to fill in a form on a tablet computer, so they get emails, newsletters, etc. This also sends them automatically a welcome email from the Vicar and provides details about life at church.

5. How can we train and support volunteers in the ministry of hospitality?

The training needs to be ongoing, as we are all creatures of habit and revert to our ‘club’ mentality and neglect the stranger among us. 

In a fragmented and isolated society, the church can offer an attractive alternative, community in and through Jesus.

How we welcome and make space for the newcomer and stranger is a part of this.

In an organisational sense, this requires three things to do this well. They are intentionality (Making it a focus), leadership (someone who will own this and help others to own it), and culture (Welcoming, warm and safe).

I would love to hear your parishes' experiences of hospitality and welcome. What have you found helpful? What are you currently doing? What might you start doing? I would love to hear your thoughts so we can learn together, graeme.brock@waiapu.com