What should I do when someone Plans a Visit to my church?

When running your Plan Your Visit system (on your website, through Facebook Prayer Ads, or through other ads), it's important to pay attention and see if anyone is planning a visit to your church. When they do, make sure you call them within 15 minutes. This is key to getting people to actually show up at church!

Here is a script to call Plan Your Visits:

Example script: Hey John, this is Pastor Chris! I saw that you Planned Your Visit for this Sunday so I just wanted to reach out and introduce myself to you personally, and answer any questions you might have like where to park or what to wear. Just give me a shout whenever you get this. Looking forward to connecting with you!

What if I can’t call Plan Your Visits right away?

If you miss the 15 minute window, that's okay - especially in the evening. Just call as soon as you can. I always shoot to call within 15 minutes from 9am-9pm, but obviously if someone plans a visit in the middle of the night, you don't need to call right away.

How do I get more of our Plan Your Visits to show up to church?

Get your best relational person, ideally a female, as the one making the initial connection. Keep working on the approach until the team is GREAT at building excitement for the visit, reducing fear, and inspiring people to show up.
Call them immediately. Ideally within the first 15 minutes. And be responsive in your Church Fuel inbox. During the call be sure you answer any questions they have, build excitement about the visit, get them to confirm their date and service time, and share about the ways you are preparing for their visit.
Have on long-term perspective. It is hard enough getting "church people" to show up. Since we're trying to reach people who are far from God, and don't have a life pattern of attending church, it SHOULD take a while.
Make the goal getting to know and build a ministry relationship with the person. Church attendance is the overflow of that - not the other way around.
Set the goal that they attend their first Sunday before the 3 year mark of when they planned their visit. That may sound ridiculous at first, but it will change your perspective on the relationship.Typically...30% people will show up the first Sunday. Another % will show up in the first month. Another % will show up at your next community event. Another % will show up the next Easter. Another % will show up the next Christmas. Another % will show up in 18-months. 100% are opportunities to minister, pray for people, share the good news, and keep on inviting them.

If you have this perspective and keep it up consistently for the next ten years, you will impact a lot of people.

Ministry flows out of relationships. Relationships take time. - Pastor Scotty Gibbons