First-Time Guest Bags: Why They Matter (and What We Use)
This is an updated version of a previous post.
For several years now we’ve handed out a small gift bag to all of our first-time guests (FTGs). There are three reasons why we do it, and why these bags really matter to our overall FTG process:
- The bag is a simple way of showing our appreciation for a guest’s visit. Because they’ve trusted us with their time, we want to have a simple, tangible way to say “thanks.”
- It gives guests some specific next steps. We begin with the end in mind and know what our intention – and their pathway – will be after their first visit. (We’ll cover that below.)
- But most importantly, our bags serve a grander purpose: they mark our guests so that we can treat them with care and focused attention throughout their first visit.
Whatever size church you have, it’s not always easy to know who’s seasoned and who’s new. Your guest services team might be shy about engaging with people because oh geez what if I’ve met them already and reintroduce myself again?!? A FTG bag clearly identifies a first-time guest without them necessarily knowing they’re being identified.
So what’s in the bag?
We keep the bag intentionally streamlined, because we want to clearly define the next step. We don’t advertise every small group, men’s bacon breakfast, and Mommy and Me outings. We don’t drop in a copy of our constitution and by-laws or provide instructions on setting up online tithing. We’ve held a hard line on great suggestions over the years, because we believe that what we don’t include lends more weight to what we do include.
Our bag has only three printed pieces and a gift:
Welcome brochure. This is a simple one-fold that highlights our “big five” that many of our FTGs want to know about: Kids, Students, and College ministries, Small Groups, and Explore the Summit. That’s our monthly newcomers event, so it gets top billing in the brochure.
How Can I Know for Sure I’m Going to Heaven? booklet. We took a brief article our pastor wrote and retrofitted it for a little book. In just a few pages he goes into great detail on what the gospel is and why people need a relationship with Jesus. And on the last page, we invite people to learn more by coming to Explore the Summit.
Explore the Summit inviter card. This is the one item that’s not already in the bag. Our FTG team uses this card as a talking point to specifically invite people to their next step (there’s even white space where the team member can write in the date of the next ETS event.)
If you’re keeping score so far, that is three invitations to Explore the Summit. Seems sort of clear what the expectation of a next step is, right?
Drink tumbler. This is the gift in the bag. The choice of gift is important: we intentionally wanted a big chunky cup in a flat bottomed bag so that guests would have to keep it out of their pockets or purses, thereby making the bags visible and fulfilling the “mark our guests” value I mentioned above. (I reckon we could’ve had the same effect with an inflatable raft, but then you have to buy air pumps and it just becomes a whole thing.)
As a side note, this drink tumbler underwent a major change recently in order to minimize our church branding and maximize our identity with our community. More on that in this post.
Now it’s your turn.
If you don’t have something that you give to your first-time guests, there’s not a more practical idea I can share with you than a first-time guest bag. We debuted our bags in the mid 2000’s, haven’t looked back, and – at this point, anyway – wouldn’t dream of doing away with them.
Over the years bags have increased engagement, allowed us to fast-track conversations, and given us easy, non-awkward ways to know who’s new.
Figure out what your first-time guests’ next step is, and design a bag around that.
Have more questions about our First-Time Guest bags? This post was written just for you!
Photo credit: Austin Franks
