How to Define Your Guest Services Leadership & Reporting Structure
This is the next installment in our ongoing “Large Church” series, which looks at guest services through the lens of the larger congregation: those with an average attendance of 800 or more. See the entire series here.
In an earlier article in this series, I proposed seven ways that larger churches struggle with hospitality. Struggle #3 is The lack of a clear leadership structure. Even in larger churches of 800 or more people, I’m surprised at how often the Guest Services role is poorly defined or poorly-placed in the overall staff reporting structure.
Here are five ways churches can bring clarity to their Guest Services roles:
1. Beware of the multi-tasking many-hatter.
Whether you call it Connections, First Impressions, Guest Services, or the Welcome Ministry, a dedicated hospitality role is still a relatively new phenomenon for the modern-day church. What I’ve often seen is that this role gets placed on top of existing roles, as if it’s a super-sized fast food combo of an entree, a side, a drink, and hey let’s throw in an extra couple of sides for kicks and giggles.
Now I get it: not every church has enough budget or enough need for a dedicated full-time Guest Services role. Even in our massive multi-site church, it’s a rare exception that a staff member only does Guest Services. But we have to recognize a couple of key things:
- No matter how gifted a leader, there’s only so much they can lead.
- When someone wears multiple hats, one hat will get the focus and the others will get what’s left.
Neither of those are very compelling to the church that wants to staff towards hospitality.
2. When multi-tasking is a must, batch the “similars” together.
But wait. You say. What if there’s no choice? Fair point. And in 99.9% of churches of any size, you’re not going to be able to make a case for a dedicated full-time role. But in those 99.9% of cases, do what is sensible.
I’ve seen more than a few worship leaders who are also in charge of guest services. Which is great, except they’re mostly on stage and rarely in the lobby during “go time.” I know of a lot of churches where it’s the church admin’s job to manage the hospitality volunteers. Far be it from me to knock a church admin’s ability to get crazy amounts of things done, but this doesn’t feel like “other duties as assigned.”
So I’m arguing for doing what’s sensible. Pair the guest services role with the membership or assimilation role. Or keep guest services on the same job description as a “non-Sunday” role, such as local outreach or midweek small groups. But never…never put someone in a position where they have to be in two places at once, every single weekend.
3. Provide a guide for the grandfathered-in teams.
As a church grows and someone gets tapped to be “in charge” of hospitality, there are going to be historical structures that have to be realigned. For me, that was our church’s long-standing usher team. They had functioned on their own as lay leaders for decades, and suddenly along came the young buck staff member who was creating new policies.
This has to be navigated carefully, but it must be navigated. Your Guest Services umbrella will never be effective if seating reports to one staff member, parking reports to another, and the first-time guest follow up is handled by a volunteer. Everything needs to report through the same structure and ultimately to the same person (more on this in #5 below).
[Related post: How to Lead a Grandfathered-In Volunteer Team]
4. Be a voice in the room for weekend plans.
If Alexander Hamilton taught us anything, it’s that there’s a room where it happens. And while I don’t believe that every voice can or should be in every room, I’d make an exception for those who plan the weekend vs. those who pull off the weekend.
Here’s what I’ve seen more than a few times in churches of all sizes, but especially those struggling with the Guest Services reporting structure: the pastor and worship leader almost always plan the weekend services in conjunction with one another. An executive pastor usually drops in to see how much money will be spent and to make sure the offering is taken (kidding, XPs). But often, the person who has to take what’s said on stage and translate it to the lobby and parking lots…that person is not in the planning.
Lead pastors, hear me: your ministry will be better and your sermons will be stronger if you bring your Guest Services Director in and let them give shape to your vision. Give ’em a voice. Bring ’em in the room.
5. When you can’t provide a paycheck, still provide a title.
I get it. Even churches of 800+ don’t have a magical money tree where salary and benefits appear out of nowhere. You may not be able to fund a 10 hour or 20 hour or 40 hour staff member who focuses on guest services. To be clear, I think once you hit the “large church” status you should be moving towards that role. But until you get there, make sure that there is one person who carries the title and shoulders the responsibility to carry it out. Someone has to give shape to the entire process, as alluded to in point #2 above. Someone has to be the standard-bearer. Someone has to be the decision-maker.
[Related post: Own It and On It]
