Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 If your church wants to help your visitors feel loved and cared for when they come for the first time, a gift is one of the best ways to do that. But maybe you're like a lot of churches and you're wondering, what is the best gift to give to our church visitors? Well, in this conversation, we're gonna unpack some of the best options that we've heard from churches across the country. Let's do this. You are listening to The Reach Right podcast, the show dedicated to helping your church reach more people and grow. Well, hey guys. I'm Thomas.
Speaker 2 00:00:33 And I'm Ian.
Speaker 0 00:00:34 And today we're talking about church welcome gifts or visitor gifts and things that churches give to visitors that are there for the first time. Yeah. We wanna break down some of the best ideas that we've heard and give you some feedback on what we think of them. And, um, I think it should be a good, a good conversation. 'cause I think a lot of churches and pastors, we wonder, Hey, what do other churches do here? Uh, and what is an appropriate amount of gift? And how much should I spend on these gifts? And we do think that it is important to give some kind of a gift to your first time visitors. Yeah. Uh, but we wanted to give you some ideas on, uh, the i the types of gifts that we could give. So, um, it should be a good conversation.
Speaker 2 00:01:12 Yeah, I think so. And maybe also it'll be helpful to some that have maybe been giving the same gift for a long time and need, uh, fresh ideas.
Speaker 0 00:01:20 Yeah. No, I think so. Um, this actually came to me, uh, this idea. I was sitting around at a camp this weekend, uh, and, uh, hanging out with a bunch of people. A lot of them are pastors and leaders in their church. And, uh, my daughter was actually given a gift from a church, and this is, this floored me. It was a Yeti Rambler, like a 16 ounce Yeti rambler that was branded with the church information, not just the, the logo of the church basically was on there. Yeah. But this is like a, I I, I don't know what they cost. It's like 30 to $40. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:01:56 It's like 20, well, I was gonna say at a minimum 20. And then I guess depending on the, if it's a Yeti, then yeah. I think
Speaker 0 00:02:01 It was a Yeti it was an actual Yeti Rambler Yeah. That she was given for visiting this church. And I, I had never heard something this, and all my friends were saying, we gotta go visit this church. That sounds amazing. Let's go get those, uh, free rabbis. That's, I, I don't know. It's like, that's a lot of money, obviously, to spend Yeah. 30 to $40 or something on a branded gift at a church there. But I think in a sense it was kind of, uh, it was interesting because all of us were saying we were, we were mostly jesting, but we were kind of open to the idea of going to a church just for the gift. Uh, and obviously nobody, yeah. I, I don't think that's the reason why you give a visitor gift, <laugh>. You don't give it so that people will want to tell their friends and say, you know, the message is fine.
Speaker 0 00:02:42 Hey, the worship's okay, but my goodness, the Yeti there, you gotta go get it. At least claim it go one time and get your free gift. Yeah. So, you know, but if, you know, if that is why that's people come, then, you know, God bless 'em. That's pretty awesome at the same time. So anyway, yeah. It just got us discussing what should churches be giving in these areas and, uh, how much should we be spending? Yeah. And the, the reason in my view as to why we give gifts to visitors in order, I mean, obviously just to be a blessing and build goodwill towards someone with a gift, that always helps. Yeah. But also it is a tool to incentivize them to give information as kind of an exchange there. And again, I, I hate being so formulaic or like business-minded with this, but one of the things you wanna do, if you want to disciple people that are there at your church for the first time and bring them into whatever process you have, is you want to gather their information, name and email and phone number, address, those kinds of things.
Speaker 0 00:03:33 Whatever they'll give you. And we've done many episodes here at Reach write about how, uh, to ask those questions, how to do visitor cards, how to build an assimilation process. We hadn't done one before on what you can give to incentivize that. And so the idea is that, yeah. Um, you're never gonna do like a, a strong, like, Hey, I'm not gonna give you this until I have your information. You never do it that way. But it's just kind of this understood agreement that, hey, we have something for you. What we ask for you in return is that you would, that we would ask, that you would fill out that form and let us know that you were here with us and we just want to know how we can be praying for you. Yeah. Those kinds of things. So to that end, we have six ideas and I think are the things that are most commonly given, uh, that, um, that churches want to give.
Speaker 0 00:04:15 Now, I, we did rule out some of those that we feel are maybe a little bit older and things that you shouldn't do. But these are the ones that I think that still probably have some, uh, some merit as a gift that you can be giving at your church there. Yeah. So, yeah. Uh, I'll kick it. Yeah, I'll kick us off here. Yeah. That's it. Uh, the first one is to give them a book. And this is probably of the six, my least favorite of all the ideas here is giving them Right. <laugh>, uh, giving them a book. But I will say that is one that I have done and we had a decent level of success, uh, doing this. So, but when we say a book, it's typically some kind of a, um, apologetics book, uh, or a devotional type book. Right. Or some kind of a, a book that would help people maybe take a next step in their faith journey.
Speaker 0 00:05:03 Uh, right. So the, um, some of the ideas, like, so what we did at a church I was pastoring is we gave a Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. We gave him that book. Yeah. Yep. When people would come for the first time, uh, great book, um, powerful, makes a great compelling case for Jesus and, uh, his existence and the fact that he is also the Lord of the universe. Uh, that's kind of the idea behind it. Other ideas would be things like mere Christianity by CSS Lewis, uh, more than a carpenter. Those kinds of books that are more apologetics minded. Um, I think that these are really great, but the risk you run with giving a book like this is that number one is, I'd say most people probably won't read it. Um, that's just, they're, it's not necessarily cheap. It'll probably, even at bulk rates will cost you, you know, maybe $10 a gift for something like that.
Speaker 0 00:05:52 And, you know, the reality is, is that a lot of people don't really care. I know with my reading list, I'm very selective on the things that I put into there. 'cause I only have, it's not so much affording the books is the problem, it's the time to read the books. That's the big bottleneck for all of my reading there. So that's kind of the downside. And then there's just the idea that a lot of people won't even be interested in it. Or a lot of your visitors might be people that are already followers of Jesus. And, um, this is not something that they're, they necessarily need to hear again. Um, yeah. So there's all kinds of rubs with those kinds of things. But I do like the gesture. I have tried it, it did work to some degree. If I was starting a new assimilation process now, I probably wouldn't choose a book, but it is one out there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So any thoughts on that, Ian? Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:06:36 No, I agree with you. Totally. This was my least favorite as well, and I was kind of like the first one I was like, ah, boring. But, um, no, I agree with all of that. I think what my church has done that I've, uh, that we've done for the last several years that I, I think is a good strategy is I don't, we've never given books to first time guests, but we do give books to these types of books that you mentioned. Um, and we give them to someone who has just made a recent decision for Christ. So if they have kind of come for the altar call or they have, you know, uh, raised their hand at the end for that, whatever that went down, we mentioned, if you have made that decision, Hey, stop by our connection center. We want to give you a great book that'll guide you on this new path with Jesus. So that has worked well because those folks that have recently made those decisions, they're more ripe, I guess, and would be more desiring of a book like that. So, um, but um, yeah, so I think you're right. I agree with all of that. Think
Speaker 0 00:07:33 It's just still in the vein of being a free gift that you give to someone that is newer to your church in most cases. But yeah, I don't know that it's something that I would do for every visitor that comes in because it's just, it, it just can't be tailored enough and something that everybody would appreciate the same way, so. Right. Yeah. And
Speaker 2 00:07:48 That's good. That's good. Well, this next, this next one I like, uh, and I think it's kind of, uh, I don't know. This one will probably be timeless for a while, <laugh>. 'cause everyone likes coffee. It's a coffee gift card. Not everyone likes coffee. No. But most people, even if they get a coffee gift card at most coffee shops, they can go get a, something other than coffee that they would like, like cake or whatever. Uh, obviously Starbucks, uh, if you do choose Starbucks offers numerous, uh, things other than coffee. But, um, yeah, I think this one, you can't go wrong. Um, that was, you know, my, my thought behind the coffee gift card. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:08:22 I think a coffee gift card is great. I think that it's something that I personally would encourage you to have a local bent towards it, so. Sure. Yeah. That's good. Everybody has a Starbucks gift card and it's obviously the, um, as far as the value of it, everybody can use it. It at some point, whether you like coffee or not, you can go in there and get something. But I think I would probably, if I was doing it, um, I would find whatever that local coffee shop is, uh, that people do tend to like. And as long as it's accessible to everybody in your community there, I think it's a great gift. Um, usually $5, I think. Would you say that's an appropriate amount Yeah. For that gift card, or what would be normal, would you say? Well,
Speaker 2 00:08:57 Definitely at least five Yeah. <laugh> until you go under five, that may come off the, uh, as cheap. Uh, but uh, yeah, I'd say five, no more than 10. I'd say 10 is pretty, pretty generous. Anything I
Speaker 0 00:09:09 Would think. So basically the idea is you would get one nice cup of coffee. Yeah. And I, I don't do a lot of, I, I live in Hawaii, and so our local coffee shops are, you know, like just astronomical how much things cost here. Right. But I would assume in your area, can I go into Starbucks and get a a, I don't know, a mocha or something like that, or a, a cappuccino for $5 or less? Is that right? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2 00:09:30 You can, I mean, you're not gonna get all the extras. I, I'd think, uh, you know, if you ask asking for an extra shot of espresso or something else in there, you're probably gonna go above, uh, above five. Or if you're gonna get a venti or a large size, you're definitely gonna go over that. But yeah, it's incredible
Speaker 0 00:09:46 What coffee costs. Now, it would cover
Speaker 2 00:09:48 <laugh>. I know, right. It would cover a good cup of coffee, so five
Speaker 0 00:09:51 Bucks. Yeah. And so maybe that, maybe when you hear these, and, and this might, I wanna say this here as we're getting into these ideas, these things are, are not free. And they do cost churches a lot of money. You're paying for these gift cards. Oh, yeah. Um, and I, I know that we used to buy them, we did coffee gift cards as well. When I would buy a case for Christ, we were talking about in the books before, we'd buy a hundred at a time. Yeah. I'd go to the local coffee shop, but they would always, I remember this, we would, I would usually buy a hundred of these coffee gift cards at a time, and we would do $5 gift cards. Um, yeah. The way we gave these out is we would actually send a personally handwritten, uh, letter or a note in the, or like a card, I guess, in the mail.
Speaker 0 00:10:30 And in that we would slip a $5 gift card in it too, saying thank you for being there. So another way to give out these gifts, but we would buy a hundred at a time. And I know it would drive the clerks nuts to have to process a hundred gift cards. It would be, they'd have to basically make an appointment to come and do it when you're doing something like that. But anyway, uh, keep that in mind as you're thinking about it. But I think that's a good one, uh, universal, and I think it's something that actually people would appreciate when they do that. The next one, I think there's a question mark as to whether or not people will appreciate it. And I think this is one that maybe has some, some controversy around it. Is church swag, um, does it, yeah. Is it a gift to give someone some swag from your church as their visitor's gift? And I, I kind of see two sides of this. Like, so we have that extreme case I mentioned earlier with the branded Yeti Tumblr where people get that and Right. You know, clearly even with the brand from the church, I think everybody appreciates a Yeti Tumblr. People were bringing all their Yeti tumblers, like camping. That's kind of a time when you bring out all those things. But I mean, I don't know. You of course, I know you have a Yeti, you use it every day it seems like. Right? So use it every
Speaker 2 00:11:37 Day. Yeah, of course. It's been a hundred degrees here every day too. So, yeah.
Speaker 0 00:11:40 So I think the, the, this, this, and you can kind of juxtapose that with some of the more traditional kinds of church swag. So things like the cheapest internet mugs you can possibly find, uh, that are, you know, flimsy and chip all the time. Pens, uh, t-shirts, uh, those kinds of things that are the cheap T-shirts, um, that people like. So I, I think it's kind of a, a double-edged sword, uh, in that it, it is cool. I get the idea behind swag. I love the idea that I could give people something that's kind of a two birds, one stone scenario, uh, where, um, you give them something and they wear your advertising <laugh> out from that point on. Yeah. But the problem is that, like, I think most people, like if they get a t-shirt, for instance, let's see from your, say from your church, like, they're not gonna just like wear it out to like their average every day.
Speaker 0 00:12:35 You're going out to the town wearing your church t-shirt necessarily. If I got one like that, that wasn't something that was really cool looking, I might wear it like to do gardening or something like that around my house or, you know, something like that. So it is kind of a, a double-edged sword with those things. And I, I wonder, and maybe I'd interested, see what you think. Do people roll their eyes at that? Like, oh gosh, okay. What am I gonna do with this? Yeah, you keep your right branded, um, first Baptist Church mug, I don't really have any use for that. I have 95 mugs already. I need to throw out 12 of 'em that are in my cabinet to make space. So I don't know. Yeah. What do you think about all that, Ian?
Speaker 2 00:13:11 No, I think you're right. I, I think this one is probably the, the one with the biggest question mark, um, behind it, because yeah, I think it could be, if it's something I would say no, I think it has to do with the demographics, uh, in the community you're in. If you know that, you know certain swag things are trending in your area, uh, then it could be well received. But I also, my first thought was that it almost kind of, it could be perceived as the church, you know, assuming that like, I'm gonna come back <laugh> or assuming, hey, I'm gonna go in and start representing your, you know, like for something like a t-shirt with a logo on it, like, I'm gonna start repping your church locally. Like, I, I don't think a ton of people would think that, but you know, if it is something that is branded, I mean, that's saying, Hey, I'm behind this. Just like, you know, everyone wears people who wear Nike or Adidas, they're behind that brand. Right. Or they, they like that brand. So, yeah, I don't know. I think you just gotta be careful. I think my thought closing thought on is being careful and knowing, try to know what people would receive the best, how it would come off. Takes a little more thought with this, something like this. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:14:19 No, I think so too. And I, I would just, I would caution people about this. If, if you're gonna go the church swag route, don't just look for the cheapest piece of church swag you can give people. Right. Assuming it'll be great. Oh yeah. I think, yeah, if you got oodles of money and wanna do Yeti tumblers, yeah. I think that'll go a long way. Uh, but I think swag outside of that, if you're cheap t-shirts, cheap mugs shirt, I would caution you and say, you know, think twice maybe before you do that.
Speaker 2 00:14:45 That's good. That's good. Now this next one I thought was unique. Um, this actually, I was like, oh, well I haven't thought of this one. Um, donating to a charity on some on the first time visitor's behalf. Um, so that was a, a little interesting to me. So, um, but I kind of liked, you know, what was behind it. And I think that if, if someone's newer this, this can give them the, uh, you know, the impression that your church is really behind other things other than just church on Sunday. Yeah. Uh, that, that, you know, if it was a donation to a local food bank or a, a global charity or, um, you know, salvation Army or something, I think that could give someone a good impression. And if you're doing it on their behalf or, uh, maybe it's a charity that, you know, they, um, are are passionate about.
Speaker 2 00:15:35 I mean, that takes obviously some, um, understanding Yeah. Uh, in getting to know, uh, getting to know what that person's for as far as charity. But I think this could be a real unique one. Um, and, uh, definitely would help, uh, you know, the outreach orient not, I don't wanna say outreach oriented church. We hope every church is outreach oriented, not, not even oriented that you're doing outreach somehow. Yeah. <laugh> we recommend that for every, every church, but I think it could really help give people that impression. So I liked this one. I couldn't think of too many negatives here. Yeah. Maybe just, uh, taking a little bit more work, uh, for the church and thought behind it.
Speaker 0 00:16:14 Yeah. I think that, um, the, there's a, I got this, this is an idea that I actually heard first from, uh, the Pro Church, uh, show or Pro Church podcast over there. Uh, yeah. They do a great, uh, great show. Yeah. Uh, and they talked about this as an idea as they think is the best one to do. Um, I have some mixed feelings about it. I think it, I I I am mostly positive, I'd say. Um, I think it's great. Uh, it kind of models the idea that your church is, has a culture of giving, and that's something that is really valuable to kind of create within a church there. Um, I think the strategy that seems to work the best is that you give people the option to give. And I think this is an important caveat that it's not to any charity or any nonprofit, because it would be hard for churches in a lot of cases to write, um, for instance, like, uh, to write a check to the Freedom from Religion Foundation or something like that.
Speaker 0 00:17:08 If you're, you know, people that are actively working against the church, you don't just say, Hey, any charity, but I think you maybe have a list of three or four approved local, or maybe I think local charities are probably best. So things like food banks or maybe, uh, family resource places or whatever it would be. Um, yeah. But giving people the option to choose from one of these four to make that kind of a donation. And maybe it's something your church is already partnering with these organizations, uh, and you're gonna give anyway, so it's not like, um, you know, it's kind of costing them anything, uh, to do it. So it is interesting. The thing I question though is like, the whole idea of donation made in your honor, gifts, do people really care about that? Like, is that something that people would want to, like there?
Speaker 0 00:17:55 There's a, and this is something that's a little bit old reference, I guess, but there's a, uh, great Seinfeld episode where George decides that he can just make up a charity and tell people in a card, Hey, your donation has been made in your honor to the Human fund. Uh, and so he made up this human fund and just gave it to everybody until he finally got caught, uh, doing that. And it's, that's the whole theme of the episode there. So that's funny. I, I think that everybody kind of, um, in that episode at least they kind of said, well, okay, great. Made a donation for me who really, that's not a gift to me. Like that's a, yeah. That's something that, and I don't know, maybe this is because I'm a, um, I'm right on the Gen X slash millennial line. I hear that a lot of Gen Zs just have a much more of a, a culture and a a, like they're, um, just, they're, they're really wired towards generosity and this is something they really value. Yeah. Uh, so maybe it will work better with younger, uh, churches, perhaps. Yeah. But I don't know. So I kind of question whether people feel how special it is that they are there and if they really embrace that with this kind of a gift. But I do like it in general. I think it's really a good idea.
Speaker 2 00:19:00 Yeah, I didn't think about that, but I, I agree. I think, uh, like, well, one thing I, I said, you know, think through that, decide if it's right for your church, but it was unique,
Speaker 0 00:19:09 So. Yeah. Absolutely. So, alright, next one. Um, I want to emphasize the first word, large candy <laugh>, large piece of candy. I'm not saying give them a Hershey's kiss and say, Hey, thank you for being here. That's not what we're talking about. Um, I was part of a church when I first came into ministry, I was part of a church that did this. Uh, and it has to be something that stands out, right? So if it's just a, it can't even be like a Snickers bar or a pack of Skittles or something like that. It has to be something that is big. So what we used to do, uh, at this church I was part, part of is we would give a half pound, like one of the old school full size Hershey chocolate bars. Uh, so, um, and we used to be able to source them, I don't know how we like wrote to Hershey's and a local distributor and got 'em for like a dollar a bar.
Speaker 0 00:19:56 Uh, but you know, now these would probably cost you like $7 with inflation and just what things cost <laugh>. But it was a really big half pound bar of chocolate. And we would give this away to every first time visitor. And when you, you know, it's one thing to, and this people may have changed, I don't know, but I think in like, we are wired, hardwired to like these kinds of things, most people, and if you're a real health conscious area, maybe if you're in Yeah. Portland or something, you might want to not want to go this route. But I think that <laugh> in general, people do love, uh, these kinds of gifts. So I'm thinking things like big bars of chocolate or fancy boxes of like, uh, Godiva chocolates or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. It has to be something that is actually a value to people.
Speaker 0 00:20:37 Yeah. And it will cost you something to do that, but I think you'll get a good response rate if you say, Hey, you hold up a big bar of chocolate every time during your announcement and say, if you're a visitor, I want to give this to you, come and see me afterwards. Or hey, um, you know, just let us know you're here for the first time. We'll pass you one. You'll get a pretty good response rate on something like that. So I like the idea of large candy. It is innate in our human nature that we desire it <laugh>. So that's a good one.
Speaker 2 00:20:59 Yeah, I think so. And even if you don't, like you said, if someone's health conscious or whatever, they, they'll have someone that they can easily give it to, right? Yeah. So, uh, now <laugh>, there's someone that you, you everyone knows that's gonna want some candy and Yeah, I like how we're emphasizing large. I, it made me think, uh, of the worst candy to get at Halloween, right? No one wants the smarties. Yeah. Uh, no one wants like the little, uh, what's the next worst one in my, my opinion, corn nuts. Like don't do corn nuts or the candy corn, right. Candy, candy, corn. That's what? Corn, corn. Corn nuts.
Speaker 0 00:21:29 Corn nuts. That was always the worst too. But
Speaker 2 00:21:31 Yeah. But Smarties was always my said. Yeah, don't do anything like that. That a big box
Speaker 0 00:21:35 Of smarties. They'll love that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:21:37 Make it, make it decent. So, but, uh, yeah. No, that's good. So well blast, uh, this is our last, right? Yep. But not least. Um, I like this one too. This is a locally made product. Yeah. Um, so everyone I think is for local, right? Um, you know, um, by supporting local businesses, supporting, uh, local vendors, those types of things. So, um, I know that's big here in the Austin area, and again, i, I wouldn't see where it wouldn't be big, um, or, or positively looked at. So, but yeah, it could be things like, uh, uh, I liked this one, A jar of locally sourced honey. Yeah. Um, so, uh, who doesn't like honey? And it's also really good for allergies. We have horrible a allergies here in the Austin area. And then, um, handmade soap. I know that's a thing. There's a lot of people that, uh, do handmade soap and, um, or it could be, uh, craft, it could, a lot of people, they do local, they do jewelry. That's not crazy expensive. We're not talking about white gold or anything, uh, there. But, um, yeah. And I think you should know local vendors and businesses. Yeah. Hopefully, uh, if, if you're a pastor or a church leader, you should be aware of those. And I think something like that would always be well received. And it's thoughtful too. I think it's, it shows that you're being thoughtful. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:22:51 I think so too. Like, so you don't want it to be like just a choky of some kind that someone doesn't really care about or they can, you know, put on their bookshelf, but, you know, probably won't. I think something that's edible is always great. So when you say things like a, a honey, I mean, that's something that's kind of, everybody would appreciate that. Um, and I think, yeah, just being hyper-local. Uh, so if you are in, uh, I know I was pastoring in Wisconsin, so we, we have seen people that were giving honey at their church to before, but, you know, Wisconsin, when in Rome give cheeses or, you know, these kinds of things, it's cheese curds, so that's local. Uh, that makes sense there. It make, uh, a bag of cheese curds might make sense for something like that. But yeah, you gotta use discretion on your specific area.
Speaker 0 00:23:31 Uh, here in our area, um, a lot of churches do lays in Hawaii, which makes sense. Um, oh yeah. So, and there's something special. There's, I, I know to people that aren't from here, it might seem like odd, uh, that you would put a flower necklace around someone that comes to your church for the first time and most people would dislike that. Uh, here it is such a thing of honor that people do. Yeah. Uh, and a way of kind of sharing, um, uh, giving someone honor and sharing intimacy with people and it's something that is actually appreciated. Uh, so that is something that's locally handmade, those kinds of things. So yeah, there's a lot to the, um, that idea. I think that's a good one. But all of these ideas, I think the main thing is you want to do something that is generous.
Speaker 0 00:24:13 Uh, and I understand there's the other end of that is that the church has budgets you have to meet, and so you can only Yep. Yep. You, you can't give hundreds of dollars to everybody that's there for the first time worth of goods, but you do wanna do something that makes someone feel generous. Like, like your church is generous and they feel special and honored by it, and you'd have the highest likelihood of them saying, yes, I'd love to. Yeah. You know, do that exchange of information and Yep. I'll receive that gif. That is really kind of you there. So, um, these are just some of the ideas though that we've had and we feel are some of the best. Yeah. I would love in the comment section of this video, wherever you're watching it or listening to it, I'd love to hear what you think and what your church does and how it's working for you.
Speaker 0 00:24:54 Um, I imagine this is one of those things that we don't tend to change very often. You know, you've done something that works. Um, I know churches that have been doing the same thing for 30 years, uh, when it comes to their visitor gifts. Yeah. So I'd love to hear what's working for you in your area. Let us know down in the comments if this has meant anything to you. Uh, it would mean a lot to us if you would rate review, yes, subscribe, do all those kinds of things. Uh, want to take a second to thank you so much for being a part of the Reach Wright family, and we hope to see you next week. See you.
