Your Christmas Guests Are Coming. Is Your Follow-Up Ready?
Christmas is coming. For a lot of churches, that means more guests than any other time of year.
So here's the question worth asking now, while there's still time to answer it well.
What happens the week after?
The Christmas guest problem
We pour everything into Christmas. The music. The candles. The kids' program. Months of planning go into one service.
Then the new year hits. Everybody on your team is exhausted. And the guests who walked through your doors on Christmas Eve quietly drift away.
In Boomerang, Tyler Smith and Ali Hofmeyer call this the Silent Goodbye. Eight out of ten first-time guests never come back, and they don't tell you why.
The book also names exactly why it gets worse in December: "The week you are sick, the week of the funeral, the week of the Christmas push, the follow-up that depends on you remembering simply doesn't happen. And the guest never knows it was an off week. They just know they didn't hear from you."
Christmas guests often carry something heavy
People rarely visit a church on a whim. Boomerang describes five disruptions that tend to bring someone through your doors for the first time:
- divorce
- death in the family
- displacement (a move)
- development (like a new baby or a marriage)
- disaster
At Christmas, a lot of those disruptions feel sharper. A first Christmas without someone. A new city with no family nearby. A family that looks different this year.
They came looking for something. The 144 hours after that service go a long way toward deciding whether they find it with you.
Build it now, not in December
You are not going to build a follow-up system the week before Christmas Eve. You're going to be printing programs and finding one more volunteer for the nursery.
That's why October and November are the right time. Build it once, test it, and let it be ready when your biggest crowd of the year shows up.
Why six weeks fits Christmas perfectly
Boomerang lays out a six-week follow-up plan in three phases:
- Week one: make them feel seen. This is the heaviest week, and it starts the same day they visit.
- Weeks two and three: invite them deeper. One low-stakes next step.
- Weeks four through six: keep the door open. Steady, lighter, never gone.
Now think about that on the calendar. Six weeks from Christmas Eve carries a guest right through the new year, when a lot of people are already looking for a fresh start. Your follow-up is still showing up at the exact moment they're deciding what their Sundays will look like in the year ahead.
Most churches stop after a week. That's how a Christmas guest can be gone before January is over.
Be realistic about your January
You can run this plan by hand. The book walks you through it, and a faithful spreadsheet beats an abandoned platform.
But be realistic about what January looks like for your team. Could you personally follow up with every Christmas guest for six straight weeks, right after the busiest season of your year?
This is where a system earns its keep. Text In Church sets up the entire six-week plan in about an hour. You set it up once, and it keeps showing up for your Christmas guests while your team rests.
Get ready before the crowd arrives
Start with the book. Boomerang gives you the full six-week plan, every message, and the reasoning behind each one. The hardcover is free, you just cover shipping, and it includes the audiobook and the Boomerang Kit. Get your free copy.
Ready to have it running before Christmas? Try Text In Church for free. Your Christmas guests are coming. Make sure they hear from you.
