Church Visitors: What NOT to do

Visiting churches, especially when searching for a new faith community, is a varied and interesting process. As we've visited a couple churches in the last few weeks, and talked to several others who are experiencing similar situations, I simply had to share some things you don't want to do. You may never see these in a book, but they're important nonetheless!

1. Don't add one-time visitors to your church-wide e-mail distribution list. A nice "Hello, thanks for visiting..." e-mail is fine, but hold off on adding people to a general distribution list. Too much information too soon!

2. Don't ask parents to give their driver's license numbers, weight and other personal information in order to drop their kids off in the kids' church area.

3. Never chase first-time visitors out into the parking lot to give them a laminated card for their children to make check-in easier next week. Just don't do it.

4. If you offer sports programs as part of your church, don't serve communion to elementary school children during the program without talking to parents first. This message is especially for those of us from Evangelical backgrounds. Respect parents and families and save this for a different time and place.

With all these things in mind, I do have to say that we have been warmly welcomed at each place we visited. I have enjoyed this process and look forward, for the most part, of more visits to come. In the meantime, it's nice to have a bit of a laugh!

How about you? Have you had any similar church visiting experiences that stood out to you? I'd love to hear about it.