Strategic Growth Initiative’s Enhancement of Our Care System for Guests
UBC has a formal and informal system of caring for guests.
The Sunday Experience Initiative was introduced in September, giving deacons and various volunteer groups a step-by-step process of encountering guests. Greeters are charged with welcoming guests, introducing them to other members within the worship space, collecting the guest’s information, providing a gift from the church, following up with the guest after worship, submitting the guest’s information to the office, and following up with the guest within the next few days.
The informal system of caring for guests comes from UBC members who take it upon themselves to engage in conversations with guests, inviting them to sit with them in worship or to attend Spiritual Formation, and sometimes inviting the guests to lunch after worship.
Part of this process will be to evaluate these current systems, find how they can be improved, how better serve the guests, and how they can empower the congregation as a whole.
Additionally, we should also consider what it would look like for UBC to have a formal system for each potential interaction a guest might have with UBC, whether on Sunday morning (worship, spiritual formation, or Church of the Nations), Sunday evening, Family Tree Café, Connect Groups, Off-Limits, and so on. In other words, what would it look like for UBC to utilize a uniform system across all ministries and potential connections with guests?
A couple of questions to consider…
What does that process look like? How do we train various ministry leaders, deacons, and staff to be fully equipped to care for guests? Who else needs to receive training?
How do we train the entire congregation to be familiar with this system and in creating an authentic and formal process of hospitality? What tools can we use to equip our members to care for guests, such as local restaurant gift cards to take guests out for lunch after worship?
What does the process look like from being a first-time guest to a deeper relationship with UBC to full membership?
Get Connected with the Strategic Growth Initiative
The Strategic Growth Initiative (SGI) is an invitation into a tremendous conversation about who we are, why we do what we do, and how we might experience exponential growth. Conversations will lead to brainstorming, testing of ideas, discernment of God’s leadership, and maneuvering to step into new practices.
Each member of UBC, whether the newest among us or tenured, has something to bring to the conversation. Will you join the conversation?
Get connected with the SGI by downloading an overview of the initiative from www.ubc-br.org/sgi or pick a copy at the narthex.
On September 22, UBC will host a church-wide gathering, at which we will focus on casting a vision for the initiative and have first meetings of various SGI teams.