We’ve partnered with thousands of churches, and with their help, we’ve crafted a church welcome speech that simply works. Members and guests are actually taking action in response to the speech! We know you have a ton on your plate, and since we love seeing churches thrive, we’re giving you this church announcement template completely free! (It’s the least we can do to lighten your load!)
We have kept this formula simple and straight-forward; you can pretty much copy, paste, and then tweak to fit your needs.
We call it the Cornerstone Method. It’s the building block for earning trust by making your people feel welcome and providing them a clear next step. Your goal here is to collect their information in order to effectively follow-up church guests after their visit.
If you fail to gain a guest’s contact information, then you can’t follow-up with them (scratching your head about follow-up? Make sure you aren’t making any of the 3 critical mistakes of guest follow-up ). If you can’t follow-up with them, then your chances of building that relationship with them has failed. Hence the name “cornerstone”; without this basic foundation, nothing else can be built.
So, without further adieu…
Welcome! I am glad you’re here and chose to spend the morning with us! My name is Adam, and I am a part of the welcome ministry at City Church. My family and I have been here for 3 years and love being a part of this amazing community.
Our church is focused on and dedicated to building up strong Christian families; hopefully you will get a chance to see and experience that as you worship with us today! A recent example of how we are striving to build up families is the parent workshop we had this last week.
As I mentioned a moment ago, I am glad you are here with us! If you are a first time guest, we’d love to connect with you! We know everyone prefers a different method of communication, so you can either fill out a connection card in the seatbacks in front of you and drop it in the offering plate later in the service, or take out your phone and text the word Welcome to 816-482-3337. We hope to provide you important information about our church, open a personal line of communication, and give you everything you need to see if this place is a good fit for you!
Again, Welcome and if you have any questions please stop by the Welcome center. Stephanie would love to chat, and she has a free gift for you!
You might be wondering why this welcome speech at church works so well…
For most of your guests, you will be the first impression they get of the church and what kind of people are in your community. People like to put a name to a face and they will connect even deeper if you share a little about yourself, too. We recommend introducing yourself with your name, your role in the church, how long you’ve been in the church, and some connection to the community.
Now, it’s time to get to the heart of your church. Who are you as a community and what do you stand for? This is a perfect place to tell a super quick story or give an example of your church living out that value in real life. Use specific numbers, groups or events for greater impact.
Sometimes, you have to tell people exactly what you want them to do. Otherwise, they aren’t going to do it. Spelling out your expectations clearly and having multiple ways for people to provide their information is crucial. We aren’t begging here though, just simply providing the different options and asking them to complete the action you want them to take.
Before they take action, they need to be able to answer the question “Why?” Let them know what they can expect if they give you their information as well as the benefit of doing so. It’s also ok to talk about what others have thought in order to prove that it’s ok to trust you and your church.
Click here to see the perfect welcome speech in action.
Use the Cornerstone Method this weekend to connect with your guests and members and get them to take action! PLUS, we thought it would be helpful for you to have a Cornerstone Method Worksheet (link directly to your new PDF resource) with not only the copy and paste script, but also questions to help you form the perfect welcome speech for your congregation.
Remember, the 4 elements are…
- Welcome: Introduce yourself
- Connect: Tell your story
- Desire: Tell them what you want them to do
- Why: Why should they and what is going to happen now?
- Don’t rush – You have important things to say, so make sure your people can actually process what you are saying.
- Include some pre-service slides to peak interest.
- Look up – It is super hard to follow someone that is just reading from a paper.
- Practice – Prepare for your welcome speech by reading through your speech ahead of time so you are familiar with the content, allowing you to look up and… (which leads us to our next point).
- Stay on topic – A little ad-lib here or there isn’t terrible, but try to strip down your content so you can keep their attention.
- Mix it up – Keep things fresh by using different presenters each week. This could be your children’s ministry director or someone on your hospitality team.
- Look happy – It may seem obvious, but try your best to be comfortable up there. Smile and have energy, it’s contagious!
- Use props – If you have a gift for your guests, have the speaker hold it up so the guests can make a visual connection to what they are supposed to pick up, making it more likely they will connect with someone at the welcome center.
P.S. If your church has a different goal in mind for your church welcome speech , say introducing a new program or inviting your congregation to sign up for an event, check out this free welcome talk training video series ! You can download each script to this 5-part series as well.
P.P.S. What is the most important goal your church is trying to accomplish during the welcome speech? You may also want to check our guide on church welcome letter.
