Last month I transitioned from many of my responsibilities, such as overseeing our deacon development (which has entered a more mature season, we've installed 3 new deacons and have 3 more identified this year) into thinking through the process people go through from the time they visit the church, through connecting, being developed and being sent on mission. Over the next couple months, I'll document some of these thoughts in a Ministry Design series focusing on Connecting, Developing & Sending. 

The first step in this is greeting people when people visit our church.  Most churches have 'greeters' to welcome people on Sundays.  But how many churches are deliberate about using their greeters as a ministry beyond hospitality?  Each week I typically speak to 2-3 visitors who are attending a Kaleo service for the first time.  The 3 most common reasons people visit Kaleo are: they have newly moved to the area, they are looking for a new church or their life is in a transition.  In each of these there are direct ministry opportunities for us to provide these people. 

• People that are new to the area need to find gospel community and fellowship.
• People who are looking for a new church are leaving because there was some un-met need (whether consumerism driven or legitimate we are still responsible to minister to them.)
• People who are in a life transition (loss of job, health, death in the family) many need counseling, intense prayer and support.  

How do we connect with these people and gather this information in order to minister to them?  We are looking to train our greeters where there will be a 'front door' welcoming greeting team and a second greeting team inside near a resource table to meet these people.  Our goal is to partner these guests with people in our church who can help minister to them and help them connect.  We would hope to have our people pray for, meet with and love these guests. 

How do you ensure you connect with all visitors?  We will offer guests a Kaleo Vision Package.  This packet would include our vision/values and a cd that they could listen to in their car during their 15-minute drive home from church.  At the same time we would gather their information if we had not received it.  On subsequent visits 2nd time guests could pick up copies of our worship cd and third time The Gospel for Real Life (or other resource).  This is how we would see our greeting operating as a ministry to those who visit Kaleo.