Do you know how to follow up on Christmas guests so they'll return in January? Here's your checklist
Getting guests to drive back to your church the following weekend and first weekend of the year is the ultimate WIN of your Christmas services because once they are attending, they can experience connection. Once they are connected, they can follow Jesus alongside you.
Great news! We compiled every Christmas post I’ve ever written into one giant ebook full of checklists! It’s called “The Complete Christmas Engagement Guide” — and it’s totally free!
We often say at my church that “Christmas is our Super Bowl”. I think it’s yours potentially too.
Here’s why.
In cities all over the world, on television and social media, you can see people singing some of the most theologically rich songs ever written about God and about Jesus. Those gathered in public squares, award shows, and other places have eyes closed, tears coming down their faces, and sometimes even their hands lifted. Why? The reasons probably amount to a mix of deep nostalgia, yearning for family and connection, and the unique ability that the “God becoming one of us” message has for relieving the aches of being human.
This means that people are more apt to gather at your Christmas services than any other service you have all year long including Easter. For me, this also means that if we are not treating Christmas as our greatest opportunity to reach people for Jesus, we are forgetting the entire message of Christmas and we need to recalibrate.
For the last few years, 18% of all the guest cards we receive all year come from our Christmas services. That’s almost 1 out of 5! That’s why we are having 36 Christmas services campus-wide this year. All of them are designed with a clear invitation to begin the journey of following Jesus and return for the message series in January that was chosen with their needs in mind.
Whether your church attendance is 50 or 50,000, a clear invitation to follow Jesus is key… plus one more thing that a church of any size can do.
At my church, we have come up with a special and strategic way to follow up on guests, campus wide: a way that we don’t use with guests at any other time of year. Why?
Because Christmas guests are different than the guests you and I meet on any other weekend of the year.
Think about it: Guests who show up at your church on other weekends come because they are actually searching for a church or for God in some way. They googled your church to find out more and decided to visit or knew someone who attended and felt for some reason that now was the time to begin that search.
Christmas guests are different.
They are not coming necessarily because something has happened in their lives to make them seek God. More likely, it’s the power of nostalgia, the search for a “Christmassy” experience for their family, or the obligatory family church invite on the way to a traditional meal and gift-opening that has landed them in your place of worship.
So know this: if Christmas guests are there for a different reason than normal, you must follow up with them differently than normal.
Here’s how to follow up with guests from your Christmas services this year, with a checklist to make it happen well.
This is the postcard we are using this year to encourage and track return guests from Christmas, front and back.
➊ Between Christmas and your last weekend services of the year:
Surprise guests with a hand-written postcard mailed to their home, redeemable at your cafe or your welcome center for a free gift. The gift could be a special coffee drink, homemade cookies, $5 gift card or church swag that you already have but they don’t.
Have a team ready to write these postcards and even enter their contact info into your database during Christmas services as guest cards come in. If postcards are pre-written, all that this special team may need to do is address them. This team should meet in a room with holiday music and food so that it is a place they will enjoy serving.
This means not sending the usual welcome email to them this week for at least these two reasons:
In the days following Christmas, guests are not thinking about finding out more about your church on an email. They are in holiday mode. A hand written post card thanking them for coming that also represents a free gift feels much more in tune with their headscape and will make a more favorable impression.
Since many churches close their offices between Christmas and New Years, no one has to enter data or send emails. Just have everyone enjoy the holidays and save all that for after the new year.
Fun fact: We have found that worship attendance on the last weekend of the year is low, but that a significant number of those who attend came for the first time at Christmas! This second time visit is influenced by the positive first impression before your Christmas service, the thoughtful and strategic content of your service, and the redeemable postcard they received for a free gift.
2. Shortly before the first weekend of the new year:
Send guests from your Christmas service a special Happy New Year email from your pastor (or campus pastor if you are a multi-site church). Use this email also for guests who attended the last weekend of the year.
Having the email arrive on Friday is good as unchurched people do not have a habit of attending church so if the reminder comes at a time when they are making decisions about their weekend, it will have a greater return.
Some also may be thinking that attending this church they have visited once or twice now should be a resolution for the new year. That’s why an email sent on the Friday before your first services of the year could be strategic. Include a Happy New Year wish and some of the normal info that you would share with first timers to maximize impact.
If you have entered their info into your database during Christmas services in real time, then sending off this email should just be a few clicks for your admin or volunteers when they come back from the holidays. Everybody wins!
Another fun fact: Our January and February worship and Next Steps attendance are our largest of the year. I believe this is influenced by the fact that this follow up plan encourages people to come 3 times. Third time visitors are 70% more likely to become regular attenders than 1st or 2nd timers.
Why does this matter so much? Because once they are attending, they can experience connection. Once they are connected, they can follow Jesus alongside you.
Get the checklist for this post (along with 62 other action items!!) by downloading our free ebook, “The Complete Christmas Engagement Guide” →
TO CHEW ON WHILE WE CLIMB
Use these questions for discussion and start helping guests climb the Assimilayas with your unique team of Sherpas today.
➊ What is the one thing you will be asking guests to do at your Christmas services? Is that the best ask or is there a more strategic one?
➋ What do you normally do to follow up on your guests at Christmas services? What are the results you can point to from that follow up plan?
➌ Does your follow up plan for Christmas take into account the unique motivations of Christmas guests as opposed to guests you host at your services the other 51 weekends of the year?
➍ How could you use or adapt the checklist to form a plan that will help you connect your Christmas guests like never before and see them come to follow Jesus?
