Our worship assembly is a special time. It is a time when we gather together as the church at one time and in one place, all with the same purpose. The worship assembly is first and foremost about God’s children coming together to worship Him and to build one another up (i.e. Ephesians 5:19ff, etc…).
There is another element to our assembly that the Bible speaks of, and that is the element of the visitor to the assembly. James mentions the visitor to the assembly:
James is showing that the attention you give (or do not give) to individuals in your assembly is an expression of your “religion” (James 1:27). If you fail to greet and treat your visitor with the love that you have for yourself you are failing to keep the Law of the King (James 2:8). This makes you a hearer and not a doer (James 1:22). This places us in a position of judging our neighbor (James 2:4) and James asks, “but who are you judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12).
Failure to greet and treat the visitor in our assembly is a serious matter. How we treat them is an honest reflection of our true nature and condition. If we fail to show the visitor in our assembly the love that we would want shown to us, we find ourselves in a place of judgment.
Based upon this truth here are several suggestions of ways that will aid us in carrying out the royal law towards our visitors in our assemblies. First have visitor eyes. Visitor eyes are the basis upon which the rest of the suggestions are built. As an individual, and as a whole church, it is necessary to develop and commit to an attitude of always thinking about the visitor in your midst. It’s easy to watch the visitor walk in and out. It’s even easy to say a word or two to them. But visitor eyes are a heart and attitude that wants to see that the visitor is treated the way you would want to be treated if you were visiting.
Second you can ask a visitor to sit with you. A big group of people they have never met before can be very intimidating. When a friendly smile asks a visitor to sit with them it can go a very long ways. This allows the visitor to feel at ease as you are helping them through the motions so they aren’t asking themselves constantly, “Am I doing what I’m supposed to do? I don’t want to stand out!”
Third you can have assigned greeters at the doors of your assembly location. This is a good way to make sure that visitors are quickly greeted upon arrival. The greeters make sure that the visitors’ information is taken so you can follow up with the visitor. The greeter also will explain to the visitor what classes are going on and where their children’s classes are. The greeters can also hand out any material you have specifically designed for the visitor. It’s a good idea to have a visitor’s packet with information for the visitor to take home. There is one word of caution on assembly greeters. It’s very easy for the entire assembly to thing that since we have greeters I don’t need to do anything personally with the visitors. This could not be further from the truth. The greeter does not replace the individual responsibility of each and every member to show his true religion towards each and every visitor.
Fourth you need to follow up with your visitors. A follow up contact expresses to the visitor that you thought about them. Try to make your follow up contact as personal as you can. In other words, don’t just send say generic things in generic ways. If you send them an email, or a letter, try to include something personal about their visit. Maybe mention something they said to you when they visited. Maybe mention something from the assembly that day. You can also get a group together that takes turns delivering cookies and a thank you for visiting card to all your visitors a day or two after their visit. The best way to be sure your visitor will only be a one-time visitor is to not follow up.
Fifth you can ask your visitor out to eat. It just so happens that our assemblies usually end right before meal time. What a great opportunity to ask your visitors out to lunch. You can spend that time getting to know them better as well as talking to them about the church. By doing this you are already connecting the visitor to the church and beginning the process of relationship building.
Sixth, and finally, is to be devoted to F-3-4-V. F-3-4-V stands for first three for visitors, and means that every single member should spend the first three minutes IMMEDIATELY after the assembly to SEEK out ALL the visitors that day. Once you find them you personally introduce yourself and tell them how much you appreciated their presence, and how you are looking forward to them coming back. Just imagine an entire room full of people lining up to greet the visitors. Imagine how you would feel if that’s how you were treated. You would feel special! So will our visitors if we do the same. This is easy to implement. All it takes is educating the members on what F34V stands for. Then whoever dismisses the assembly simply has to say “Members, always remember, F34V.” This way the visitors don’t know that you are reminding the members to greet them, and at the same time it’s reminding your members to greet them.
There is another element to our assembly that the Bible speaks of, and that is the element of the visitor to the assembly. James mentions the visitor to the assembly:
“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? ”(James 2:1–5, NASB95)
James is showing that the attention you give (or do not give) to individuals in your assembly is an expression of your “religion” (James 1:27). If you fail to greet and treat your visitor with the love that you have for yourself you are failing to keep the Law of the King (James 2:8). This makes you a hearer and not a doer (James 1:22). This places us in a position of judging our neighbor (James 2:4) and James asks, “but who are you judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12).
Failure to greet and treat the visitor in our assembly is a serious matter. How we treat them is an honest reflection of our true nature and condition. If we fail to show the visitor in our assembly the love that we would want shown to us, we find ourselves in a place of judgment.
Based upon this truth here are several suggestions of ways that will aid us in carrying out the royal law towards our visitors in our assemblies. First have visitor eyes. Visitor eyes are the basis upon which the rest of the suggestions are built. As an individual, and as a whole church, it is necessary to develop and commit to an attitude of always thinking about the visitor in your midst. It’s easy to watch the visitor walk in and out. It’s even easy to say a word or two to them. But visitor eyes are a heart and attitude that wants to see that the visitor is treated the way you would want to be treated if you were visiting.
Second you can ask a visitor to sit with you. A big group of people they have never met before can be very intimidating. When a friendly smile asks a visitor to sit with them it can go a very long ways. This allows the visitor to feel at ease as you are helping them through the motions so they aren’t asking themselves constantly, “Am I doing what I’m supposed to do? I don’t want to stand out!”
Third you can have assigned greeters at the doors of your assembly location. This is a good way to make sure that visitors are quickly greeted upon arrival. The greeters make sure that the visitors’ information is taken so you can follow up with the visitor. The greeter also will explain to the visitor what classes are going on and where their children’s classes are. The greeters can also hand out any material you have specifically designed for the visitor. It’s a good idea to have a visitor’s packet with information for the visitor to take home. There is one word of caution on assembly greeters. It’s very easy for the entire assembly to thing that since we have greeters I don’t need to do anything personally with the visitors. This could not be further from the truth. The greeter does not replace the individual responsibility of each and every member to show his true religion towards each and every visitor.
Fourth you need to follow up with your visitors. A follow up contact expresses to the visitor that you thought about them. Try to make your follow up contact as personal as you can. In other words, don’t just send say generic things in generic ways. If you send them an email, or a letter, try to include something personal about their visit. Maybe mention something they said to you when they visited. Maybe mention something from the assembly that day. You can also get a group together that takes turns delivering cookies and a thank you for visiting card to all your visitors a day or two after their visit. The best way to be sure your visitor will only be a one-time visitor is to not follow up.
Fifth you can ask your visitor out to eat. It just so happens that our assemblies usually end right before meal time. What a great opportunity to ask your visitors out to lunch. You can spend that time getting to know them better as well as talking to them about the church. By doing this you are already connecting the visitor to the church and beginning the process of relationship building.
Sixth, and finally, is to be devoted to F-3-4-V. F-3-4-V stands for first three for visitors, and means that every single member should spend the first three minutes IMMEDIATELY after the assembly to SEEK out ALL the visitors that day. Once you find them you personally introduce yourself and tell them how much you appreciated their presence, and how you are looking forward to them coming back. Just imagine an entire room full of people lining up to greet the visitors. Imagine how you would feel if that’s how you were treated. You would feel special! So will our visitors if we do the same. This is easy to implement. All it takes is educating the members on what F34V stands for. Then whoever dismisses the assembly simply has to say “Members, always remember, F34V.” This way the visitors don’t know that you are reminding the members to greet them, and at the same time it’s reminding your members to greet them.
You may think, “We do a good job at greeting our visitors.” That very well may be true. But the question should be, “can we do better?” Can we excel still more? Sure we can! What will you do to excel still more in showing the visitor to the assembly that you love them as yourself?
