When it comes time for a volunteer gathering of your greeters where you are planning recasting vision or providing some basic training, here are 10 steps to prepare for the meeting.
1. Decide the details of the session.
- Where it will be.
- When you will have it.
- Who will participate on the training team
- W’ho will be invited to participate as learners.
- The duration of the session.
- Whether you’ll do the session multiple times to involve more people, etc.
2. Refreshments
It’s a known fact. Provide small refreshments to create a fellowship atmosphere.
Determine who will be responsible for those arrangements.
3. Personal Invitations
Personally invite the people who want to be part of your meeting. Send them reminders (email, phone calls, text messages, etc) ahead of time. Consider these tips for recruitng volunteers at this time. These training meetings are an excellent on-ramp for new volunteers.
4. Publicize
If you choose to open your meeting to the entire congregation, publicize the training in church publications, announcements,
etc.
You may find some interested people not on your list of people to personally invite.
5. Pray
Pray for the training session to be successful. For example, you could set a goal for the desired number of participants, and then pray about it.
As you have people signing up for the meeting, begin to pray for each person by name. Pray that they would come with an attitude to learn and to catch the vision for welcoming the guest and visitor.
6. Prepare your supplies
Review your training material in advance. You may need to locate different items, like white boards, flip charts, data projector. You may have chosen an ice-breaker to use that requires some items like sticky notes and pens.
7. What can you delegate?
As you review your content and the structure of your meeting, what can you delegate to volunteers on the spot? Think of ways to increase the involvement of your greeter volunteers.
Ask them to read Scripture, be role play partners, or maybe event present some of the material in their own manner.
You might want to be considerate and contact people ahead of time to give them time for any preparations they feel they need to make.
8. Preview
If you use any greeter training videos (such as mine), be sure to preview the videos before the training.
If you are using any videos you’ve downloaded from YouTube or other sites, be sure to test run them before the meeting.
Cue the video clip(s) ahead of time.
9. Know your Bible Passages
Make sure you know the Bible passages you are using. You might want to consult some Bible Study materials ahead of time to prepare any discussion.
For lists of verses on Hospitality, see these posts from EvangelismCoach.org
- Biblical Examples of Christian Hospitality
- 21 Hospitality Bible Verses
- 14 Bible Verses on Welcoming the Stranger
10. Prepare your handouts
I’m guilty of forgetting this one. Prepare handouts for who have signed up. Plan on a few extras to have in case people attend but haven’t registered in advance. Recycle the left over handouts.
Do you lead your greeter ministry?
I’ve written a book for leaders of church greeter ministry. Click on these links to read more (at Amazon).
You can get the 2 DVD Combo Set of Greeter Training DVDs from the store, or get the download only versions here.
Elizabeth Perrin says
I wish that there was a way for me to print your information so I can use the information such as preparing for a usher/greeter meeting. So much to write down. This would make it more user friendly.
EvangelismCoach says
Thanks for mentioning this. I have installed now a printer friendly feature at the bottom of every article that will enable you to create a print out.
Chris.