Serving on the Welcome Team
Welcome Team,
Thanks for your service and commitment to creating a warm and inviting environment for everyone who enters the doors of First Family Church.
You are a huge part of what makes our church “family.” Thank you.
The FFC Welcome Team exists to greet, assist, and be an encouragement to people entering our building for Sunday services.
Each week, people come into our building for a service carrying various weights on their shoulders, like anxiety, worry, hopelessness, busyness, anger, and doubt. The goal of the Welcome Team is to make each individual feel loved, welcomed, and helped as they enter and exit our services. A person’s first impression as they enter a church can make or break their experience. We want each person, especially those who don’t know Christ, to feel loved and welcomed so their heart is open to hearing the good news of the gospel in the service. By being a part of the Welcome Team, you can be a link in the chain of someone coming to Christ. It may seem like a simple or easy gig, but it’s incredibly important.
I look forward to continuing to serve alongside you in this effort.
Tanner Battles
Overall Expectations
Frequency Since there isn’t a large time commitment to serving on the Welcome Team (25–30 minutes each Sunday), please consider serving every week, if possible! Of course, that’s not feasible for everyone due to life stage, schedules, etc. Our goal is to see each volunteer serve regularly, at least twice a month. Twice a month is a frequency we believe most can attain. Our desire here is a regular serving of the mission, just like our desire is for regular celebrating of the gospel at a service, and regular growing in community via a Small Group.
Bring your “A” game Please come ready to serve. Remember, we want to do things with excellence. Please be sharp and professional, friendly, inviting, and on top of things every time you greet or usher.
Arrival Plan to be at your designated location at least 20 minutes before the service you’re greeting for. Some people arrive very early, and we want to make sure they’re greeted! Make sure you pick up a lanyard at Volunteer Headquarters (VHQ) before doing so. VHQ is the door to the right inside the Student Center, across from the kids check-in desk. You’ll see the red VHQ sign. You can serve before the service you attend, and arrive at the church 25 minutes before the service (5 minutes to walk in and pick up your lanyard and get to your spot), or, you can serve the service after the one you attend.
Check your area Once you’re at your designated spot, be aware of your surroundings. Maybe there’s a piece of trash on the floor, or a rock in the middle of the walkway. Please be ready to take care of any of these sorts of issues that may arise.
Know what’s going on Take a look over that day’s bulletin (inside the Worship Center doors) or digital bulletin (emailed) so you know what’s going on if anyone has questions about something going on at the church. If you don’t know the answer, you can take people to the Connect Center or ask a staff member if there’s one nearby.
New people Always be on the lookout for new people. As you continue to regularly serve on the team, this should become easier as you start to recognize and remember more and more people. Oftentimes new people will have a certain “look” on their faces. Introduce yourself and ask them if you can help them in any way or if they have any questions. If you learn that they’re new, take them to the Connect Center, and the person serving there will take over.
Conversations This is a tough one for all of us! You’ll certainly see many people you know coming into the service, including many of your friends. But for the time you’re fulfilling your role as an usher or greeter, you have a job to do. Of course, new people or people who need assistance are different. But talking with your friend about last night’s game isn’t what you’re there to do. If you’re struggling to end a conversation with a friend, just politely ask them to talk with you about it later so you can continue to greet people.
Be ready to help Whether it’s a mom of three with her hands full, or someone struggling to get up the ramp, always be ready to jump in and help. Politely offer to help before doing so. If someone wants to know where something is, walk them there and chat with them as you go, don’t just point. (We want to be HyVee, not Walmart)
Smile! This may seem obvious, but it still needs to be said! A smile can go a long way in making someone feel welcome. Better to err on the side of too much joy and enthusiasm than not enough.
Serving with Excellence
We believe that while we are serving people, we’re also serving the Lord Jesus, and that means we do it with excellence. Colossians 3:23–24 says:
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
Therefore, we do whatever it takes to carry out our mission with excellence for Jesus.
East/West Door Greeters
Purpose The greeters’ primary purpose is to hold the door and welcome every person with a smile and greeting, while being ready to assist in any way needed.
Doors Please hold the door open for every single person that enters and exits the building while you’re at your post. If it’s suitable weather (aka not letting really hot or really cold weather inside), feel free to prop the doors open with the black door stops that should be near the doors (the west doors are a little raised off the concrete, so you’ll need to stack two stops on top of each other).
Arriving/leaving As stated previously, please arrive at least 20 minutes before the service begins. Please stay at your designated doors until at least 5 minutes after the service has begun. Often, people will continue to trickle in until 10 minutes into the service. Please only leave once it’s been a few minutes since you’ve seen anyone, and you don’t see any cars pulling into the lot.
Worship Center Ushers
Purposes The ushers’ main purposes, besides greeting people as they enter the Worship Center, are to help people find seats and hand out bulletins to those who need them. Keep an eye on where open seats are, and walk people to seats if they’re having trouble finding one.
Ushers cabinet There are pens, sermon notes, and Bibles in the cabinet inside the doors should people need them. We try to keep the top fairly clean and organized, so please don’t pile a lot of things there.
Doors Once the service has begun, you can close the south doors (closest to the Student Center). If there is a lot of noise going on in the gym, go ahead and close all four doors and open one as needed to allow people in. If it’s fairly quiet in the gym, feel free to leave the north set of doors open until a few minutes into the service before closing them all.
Seating As people arrive late, it’s very important that you keep an eye on where empty seats are located. Feel free to walk over and hang out in the back right corner of the WC, and the other usher can send people over to you if there are open seats over there. What we don’t want is people standing in the back for extended periods of time trying to locate seats. If you’re already aware of where the empty seats are, then you can approach them and direct them to the seats.
Count Once the sermon has started and everyone is seated, you can begin the count. You’ll count everyone in the Worship Center, on the Worship/Production Team (on stage, in the booth, and backstage), anyone in the Cafe, and anyone upstairs in a class. One usher should remain at the doors to open the door and assist people as needed.
During the service After count has finished, only one usher is needed at the doors. That usher should remain standing by the doors in case someone needs to have the door opened, and to ensure the door doesn’t make noise as it closes. The other usher should sit near the back left and be ready to assist if needed (cleaning up spills, handing something out at the end of the service, etc). There are paper towels in the ushers cabined if needed.
As the service ends Open all four WC doors when the benediction verse is being read. Be available at the doors in case anyone needs assistance with anything.
Offering collection After the last service, the ushers collect the offering (For accountability’s sake, spouses cannot collect the offering together) and the attendance sheet. There are three boxes inside the WC doors, and one at each of the west and east entrances. Just lift the box up off the wall to remove it, and slide it down to replace it. Collect all 5 boxes in the black tray found in the ushers cabinet. Take them to the office upstairs (ask Tanner for the code). Use the key in the tray to unlock the door across from the front desk, and place all the offering into one of the collection bags. Place the bag into the dropbox safe in the same room. The tray, attendance sheet, and any Connect Cards can be left on the front desk.
Worship Center Roaming Greters
Purpose There are two primary purposes of this role: 1) Interact with people in the Worship Center on a deeper level and 2) As the WC fills up, become an aid to the Ushers in helping people find seats. An important thing to remember for this role is that it is not just a time to chat with your friends, except with a lanyard on. Greet people and have conversations, of course. But keep your eye out for people or families sitting alone, and engage them. If you don’t know them, introduce yourself and make a mental note of their names. If they’re new, encourage them to fill out a Connect Card and take it to the Connect Center after the service and pick up their welcome gift. Ask them if they have any questions. This is definitely the most intentional of the Welcome Team roles.
Parking Lot Attendant
Purpose Provide the first smile our members/guest see when they arrive to FFC. You will direct people on where to park, welcome them to FFC and answer any questions they may have. You will be in communication with the other team members to direct cars to other lots if necessary.
Time needed 30 minutes prior to service and 15 minutes after service starts
8:30 Service- 8:00 to 8:45
10:30 Service- 10:00 to 10:45
Shuttle Driver
Purpose Safely operate the church van to pick up and drop off members and volunteers from offsite parking sites to the FFC building.
Time needed 30 minutes prior to service and 15 minutes after service starts
8:30 Service- 8:00 to 8:45
10:30 Service- 10:00 to 10:45 and also after service from 11:45 to Noon
To be a shuttle driver, you need to fill out our approved driver form for insurance purposes.
Scheduling
We use a system called Planning Center, specifically Services to do all our volunteer scheduling. Currently, we utilize signup sheets, which allow each volunteer to sign themselves up. This fall, we’ll be transitioning to request-based scheduling. To help make scheduling as easy as possible for everyone, we encourage you to set your service and frequency settings, specifying which service(s) you prefer to serve at, and how often. To do that, visit services.planningcenteronline.com or open the Services app, and click on your profile icon in the top right corner, then select Teams. From there, you can edit your service times and frequency preferences. Then, whenever you get a request to serve, you’ll get an email or Services notification asking you to accept or decline the request to serve. Please do your best to respond to the request by end of day Wednesday of the week of the serving request so there is sufficient time to find someone else to serve. Scheduling via Planning Center is the primary method to serve at FFC. If you have any scheduling issues or need help, contact me.
Miscellaneous
Umbrellas If it’s raining, there are umbrellas inside each of the west and east doors. Please be ready to go out and offer to escort people that may not have an umbrella.
Cleaning up If there should happen to be something that needs to be swept, mopped, or cleaned up, please take the initiative and take care of it. Mop and cleaning supplies are in the supply closet (to the right of the pop machine), and brooms are in the storage room (to the right of the Café). This is locked, so find me or a staff member for a key.
Questions
I’m here to help! Feel free to reach out if you have questions or need help.