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Want Your Christmas Guests to Return? Consider These Helpful Hints

December 03, 20243 min read

What congregation doesn’t want their guests during the Christmas season to return, right?  With that being said, there is not always the intentionality, focus, and planning in place to make this a priority or a reality.  With just a few tweaks, the chances of your Christmas guests engaging in the life of the church in January increases dramatically.

Here are some helpful tips for your consideration as you plan for the Advent season.

More Comprehensive Hospitality

Many churches have focused on increasing their hospitality over the past decade. This includes foci on being more friendly, having ample interior and exterior signage, designated guest parking, refreshments, etc. What’s important to understand is that this type of hospitality is indeed important, but this is the baseline in today’s culture. True seekers are looking for ways to connect and relate to the congregation. They want to be recognized for their unique needs and desires. It’s thinking beyond basic hospitality to receiving guests and building relationships.

To create the possibility for this type of connection, a focus on building authentic, trusting relationships is required. It calls for having spiritually-gifted connectors rather than simply ushers and greeters. Connectors offer assistance (be careful not to overwhelm and be sensitive to body language and social cues) in navigating the facility, the worship services, introductions to other congregants and leaders, building tours, sharing coffee together, and follow-up conversations.  These follow-up conversations are not to sell the guest on the church, but to hear a guest’s story and ask questions of the guest to assist in connecting with other people and programs to meet their needs and desires.

Relatable Experience

When it comes to creating a worship experience that is geared towards guests, there are several things to keep in mind. For starters, this is certainly not the time to use churchy words (i.e. narthex) or insider acronyms (UMC, KFC, UMM). Make sure everyone who is leading in worship introduces themselves. Ensure the demographics of your guests are represented in the worship leadership and others serving.

Above all, most guests want to feel a sense of nostalgia and completeness during the Christmas season. This is not the time to create a worship experience and message that doesn’t include the Christmas story and recognizable hymns (i.e. Silent Night). Invoke their emotions. Provide a sense of hope and inspiration. Provide an experience that makes them glad they attended.

Compelling Reason to Return

Planning and pulling off Christmas services takes an immense amount of time and energy. No doubt about it. So much is expended for Adent that churches typically roll into January with low energy and expectations. What if we thought about January a bit differently? What if we invest as much energy into planning January as we do for Christmas?

A church may provide a relevant and compelling Christmas worship experience, but don’t provide a compelling reason or even invitation for guests to return. Create a video or at least a verbal blurb about the upcoming sermon series. The sermon series should touch on a felt need or answer lingering spiritual or relational questions of the guests. A church could even provide index card size invitations and compelling information about the January sermon series to hand out as guests leave the service as a reminder to post on their refrigerator.

Depending on the demographics of your guests, other compelling reasons to return may be connecting with a small group on a topic that meets a felt-need, an event that appeals to their demographic, a featured speaker on a relatable topic, or a musician/singer that is popular amongst your guests.

A church typically receives more guests during Advent than any other time of year. Take advantage of this opportunity by tweaking your planning and implementation. Rather than simply hoping your guests will return, why not focus on the areas of relationship-focused hospitality, creating a relatable experience, and providing a compelling reason to return? By implementing these tips, your congregation is sure to have more returning guests in January. 


Kay’s purpose is to Equip and Empower Leaders of Faith Communities How to Engage in More Effective Ministry.
Kay Kotan is the founder of You Unlimited (coaching, consulting and training company) and The Greatest Expedition – a collaboration of more than twenty thought leaders providing resources and insights for a congregational journey to develop new MAPS (ministry action plans) to reach new people in your community.  Kay also launched Multipliers’ Movement – a gathering of kingdom multipliers for sharing, equipping, and encouraging.
She is a CoachU and Advanced CoachU Graduate, an accredited coach (PCC: Professional Certified Coach) with the ICF, International Coaching Federation, a Certified Path 1 Coach, and once served on the faculty at Coaching4Clergy.  As a passionate lay person, she has a banking background and has been a business owner for more than 25 years.  Kotan has served as a church developer for conferences and worked with churches, pastors, conferences, and judicatory leaders across the country for more than a decade.  She is most proud to be the wife of Bob for over 30 years and the mother of their adult son, Cameron.
Kay is the author of multiple books, workbooks, and resources including Gear Up:  Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church, Cry From the Pew, Full Schedules, Barren Souls, Being the Church in the Post Pandemic World, and Journey Preparation: Surveying Your Church’s Landscape,  as well as the co-author of the books titled:  IMPACT!:  Reclaiming the Call of Lay Ministry, Small Church Check-Up, Insights on Productivity, Renovate or Die – Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, Ministry 3.0 and Get Their Name , Ten Prescriptions for a Healthy Church, Necessary Nine – Nine Things Effective Pastors Do Differently, Launching Leaders:  Taking Leadership Development to New Heights, Strategy Matters:  Your Roadmap to Planning a Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat, Voices of Christmas: A Daily Devotional for Advent and Expanding the Expedition Reach Through Marketplace Multipliers. Mission Possible for the Small Church. Inside Out: Everting Ministry Models for the Postmodern Church, and more. Kotan and her co-author Bradford published their third version of the best-seller, Mission Possible:  Simple Structure for Missional Effectiveness.  

Mrs. Kotan spends her time investing in pastors, laity leaders, congregations, and judicatory leaders through equipping, coaching, and creating resources to help them discover and live into their fullest missional potential of effectiveness and fruitfulness to reach people for Jesus Christ.  Through her enthusiasm, truth-telling, and passion, she challenges those who encounter her in both their thinking and their doing.

Kay Kotan

Kay’s purpose is to Equip and Empower Leaders of Faith Communities How to Engage in More Effective Ministry. Kay Kotan is the founder of You Unlimited (coaching, consulting and training company) and The Greatest Expedition – a collaboration of more than twenty thought leaders providing resources and insights for a congregational journey to develop new MAPS (ministry action plans) to reach new people in your community.  Kay also launched Multipliers’ Movement – a gathering of kingdom multipliers for sharing, equipping, and encouraging. She is a CoachU and Advanced CoachU Graduate, an accredited coach (PCC: Professional Certified Coach) with the ICF, International Coaching Federation, a Certified Path 1 Coach, and once served on the faculty at Coaching4Clergy. As a passionate lay person, she has a banking background and has been a business owner for more than 25 years. Kotan has served as a church developer for conferences and worked with churches, pastors, conferences, and judicatory leaders across the country for more than a decade. She is most proud to be the wife of Bob for over 30 years and the mother of their adult son, Cameron. Kay is the author of multiple books, workbooks, and resources including Gear Up: Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church, Cry From the Pew, Full Schedules, Barren Souls, Being the Church in the Post Pandemic World, and Journey Preparation: Surveying Your Church’s Landscape, as well as the co-author of the books titled: IMPACT!: Reclaiming the Call of Lay Ministry, Small Church Check-Up, Insights on Productivity, Renovate or Die – Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, Ministry 3.0 and Get Their Name , Ten Prescriptions for a Healthy Church, Necessary Nine – Nine Things Effective Pastors Do Differently, Launching Leaders: Taking Leadership Development to New Heights, Strategy Matters: Your Roadmap to Planning a Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat, Voices of Christmas: A Daily Devotional for Advent and Expanding the Expedition Reach Through Marketplace Multipliers. Mission Possible for the Small Church. Inside Out: Everting Ministry Models for the Postmodern Church, and more. Kotan and her co-author Bradford published their third version of the best-seller, Mission Possible: Simple Structure for Missional Effectiveness. Mrs. Kotan spends her time investing in pastors, laity leaders, congregations, and judicatory leaders through equipping, coaching, and creating resources to help them discover and live into their fullest missional potential of effectiveness and fruitfulness to reach people for Jesus Christ. Through her enthusiasm, truth-telling, and passion, she challenges those who encounter her in both their thinking and their doing.

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