The Visitors' Photo
Every church should have a digital camera for taking pictures of visiting families. It also needs a color printer.
A volunteer who knows how to use the camera should ask every new family if they would like a photo for their record of the visit. Some families will agree. Take several photos.
At the end of the service, this camera person should present the family with an 8x11 color photo on high quality paper. These days, this costs very little.
People do not throw away nice color photos. The picture will remind them of the visit.
Then the camera person should ask for the names of everyone in the photo. Tell them that the photo will be posted on the visitors' picture board. This should be located in the lobby.
The church should call for at least three families to volunteer as greeters for this family the following week. This means that every adult family member should memorize the names of each member of the family. If the church needs to supply additional photos to the volunteers to held them remember, fine. The volunteers must commit to saying hello by name the following week.
I am not good with names, but whenever I was inside prison walls, I made sure that I knew every resident's first name if I had been introduced. That was up to 100 names. I worked on this every week. It made a difference.
At the 1998 Christmas dinner, the freeworlders were allowed to bring their wives. The residents lined up outside the dining hall. My wife and I walked by. One of them said hello. I stopped and introduced him to my wife. I identified him by name. He was amazed. "You remembered my name." I replied, "Of course I did, Otis." I still remember, eleven years later. You can train yourself to do this if you must . . . and with visitors, someone must.
Each volunteering greeter family must commit to pray for a minimum of five minutes per day for the visiting family. Pray that they will return. Pray that they will understand what they hear. Pray that there will be an opportunity to chat. Pray that all of the greeters will remember their names.
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