W6 How to become a welcoming church

A DIY training aid

First published on this website in September 2025

Synopsis

This workshop offers a three-hour training session for welcome teams at church services or even for the whole congregation. This event has always been great fun! It is based on a number of practical exercises with a certain amount of input too. There are six sessions.

1:  What would a visitor make of us?
Three case studies of newcomers who arrive for a service

2:  Does everyone here feel at home?
But what would they see of the welcome we give each other?

3:  God welcomes each one of us
Bible input from the story of the Lost Son and instructions from the book of James

4:  The Good Welcome Guide rep arrives
A number of tests to show how welcoming we really are

5:  Two ideas to enhance welcome
Take-away literature and the idea of a specialist Newcomers Team

6:  Always speak to strangers
The main exercise: words to use and avoid, principles to follow and errors to avoid

Using this material and its handout sheets any church can lay on a great training morning for all their welcomers or for the whole congregation.

There is a set of eight hand-out sheets to accompany this material which can be accessed here: