Welcoming
For the last month or so we have had a group of people, a mixture of long term members and newer members, looking at our building and offering suggestions. The idea is that they would walk around our building to see how welcoming is our space. I suggested to them as they do this to try to see it as if they were first time visitors. Would they know where to go, is the building in good repair, and does the sanctuary feel like a worshipful space. It’s hard for us sometimes to remember what the building felt like the first time we walked into it.
The reason behind doing this is to make sure we are as welcoming as we can be to first time visitors. We don’t get a second chance at a first impression. The goal is to have a building that feels welcoming by making sure it’s easy to know where the sanctuary is, where to drop the kids off for Sunday school or the nursery, where are the bathrooms, and who do I ask if I have a question. We don’t want our building to be a barrier for people but a comfortable place that they will enjoy being in.
Also part of the group were people with special needs or parents of special needs children. We want to make sure our building is accessible for them. Wright’s Chapel has been so open for many years to those with special needs and we need to make sure our space is a comfortable and safe place for them.
We received great feed back from this group. There were suggestions of better signage, cleaning up some clutter, making the welcome center more visible, and making our entrances clear. There were also big suggestions like paving our back parking lot (which is in our capital campaign plans). We also received suggestions on how to be more accessible for those with special needs. Making sure there is room for a wheelchair in the sanctuary and classrooms. Our trustees will be looking at all of the suggestions and working on different areas. Some things will have to wait till we have the money and other things will be done quickly.
Going through this process has helped remind us that our goal is radical hospitality. Wright’s Chapel is a wonderful community minded church. We take seriously our mission of Making Disciples and transforming the world. We want others to join us in that mission. Making our building feel comfortable and welcoming, combined with our already welcoming people, will go a long way to moving first time visitors to active members.