Ah, the age old debate, how early is too early to decorate for Christmas?

I know there are some passionate opinions on this topic. While many of us will never see eye to eye on this debate (no christmas lights until Thanksgiving!), there is one thing we can all agree on: it’s never too early to start planning for Christmas services at church.

Your Christmas services, aside from maybe Easter, is when you will see your biggest jump in attendance all year. Inconsistent attendees, first time guests, out of town family, will all make an effort to attend a christmas service. 

So, how do you make sure that you have everything in place to follow-up with your first time guests, engage with your irregular attendees, and equip your regular attendees to invite all of their out of town guests? 

You utilize proven church communication strategies powered by church text messaging, email, and invites! 

Church Invite Cards for Services

There is a lot going on around the holidays. I’m sure you maybe chuckled a bit when you read that. Massive understatement, right? Well, even though people are busy, we can’t neglect the power of invitation. Obviously you can encourage your congregation to invite people from the stage, on social media, and hopefully your church has even built a culture of inviting. 

However, want to know what’s really helpful? 

Church invite cards your attendees can take and give out to their friends and family. You can also create digital copies for them to share on social media, send via email, text, etc. This tangible invite takes away some of the “I don’t know what to say” and serves as a physical reminder that there are people in their life who need to hear about the hope of the Christmas story this season. ChurchInk has some really beautiful invite templates and bundles. Canva is a great resource too, (and it’s free)!

A First Time Guest Follow-Up Plan is Crucial

After your attendees hand out hundreds of invitations, you can expect to see a lot of first time church guests at your christmas services.

Okay, maybe not hundreds of invites, but it is true. Many people who are otherwise apathetic about attending church decide it’s something to be valued at Christmastime. Maybe it’s a family tradition, a beloved grandparent who begs, or God’s presence moving in this special season, but it captures the hearts of many. So you want to make sure you’re ready to follow-up with this huge influx of guests you will see at your Christmas services. 

You see, most people who are attending your church for the first time have a lifestyle pattern of NOT attending church. So even though they may have a profound spiritual experience, or simply find that they’re more open to church than they thought they were, they still have a new habit they have to create. New habits take time and intentionality. That is why, here at Text In Church, we are so passionate about consistent, relevant, and sufficient first time guest follow-up. 

I’ve heard too many stories of people who have a great worship experience at a church, but then never go back. On the flip side, I’ve also heard story after story of an individual or family who felt seen and pursued by a church and that had a massive impact on their life.

We actually have a FREE workshop, The Boomerang Framework™: Christmas Edition that teaches you what you need to do to follow-up, for how long, and how to do it effectively. You can register to watch it here. 

Utilize Church Text Messaging for Members

Alright, you’ve equipped your attendees to invite, you’ve got a proven, powerful guest follow-up plan ready to go, now what? Well, let’s not forget about the role of your regular attendees at Christmas. There will be volunteer needs, toy drives, extra services, and so much more. Not to mention, you want your regular attendees to be at your services worshiping. You want them to participate in the advent series and the Christmas Eve service and have their own soul filled up amidst a crazy season in our culture. So how can we do that well? 

Text messaging!

Text messaging is the most common and most comfortable way for most people to communicate. This blog post has some staggering statistics on text messaging (and some great church texting basics!) So when we have needs, events, and reminders for our people, texting is the best way to…

1. Make sure they read it 

and

2. Get a response back.

I hope your heart can feel some of the joy and hope in anticipation of Christmas this year. With church invites to hand out, some helpful church text messages cued up to go out to your congregation, and a powerful, proven guest follow-up plan for all those first time church guests you will see, this is bound to be a Christmas to remember!

Related Content:

The Boomerang Framework™: Christmas Edition Workshop [Free Online Workshop]

Streamlining Christmas Guest Follow-Up: Tips and Tools for Churches [YouTube Video]

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