10 Ways To Get Invited Back To A Ministry

Over the past 12 years, I have traveled with my pastor as his ministry assistant and I have hosted guests as the guest services manager at our church.  These two roles have allowed me to look at ministry guests from two different perspectives:  being a guest and receiving guests.  In previous posts I have written about hosting guests.  In this post, I want to talk about being a guest.

Ministries invite you to their church to participate in conferences and special services for one of several reasons:

• They have relationship with you and want you to be a part of their event
• They have watched your ministry from afar and believe you have something to offer their congregation
• They want to establish relationship with you and your ministry

Whatever the reasons are for inviting you to their church, the ministry expects a fruitful and pleasant experience.  Whether you are invited back or not depends on how effectively you minister and what kind of guest you are.  Several years ago, our church invited a well known minister to preach at our annual conference.  We had seen him on television and heard him speak at other conferences.  We were excited that he had accepted our invitation, we looked forward to his visit and were glad when he left.  He was not invited back.

The impression that he left was that he was stand-offish, distant and that he was doing us a favor by coming to our church.  To be fair, this may not have been his intent and it may not be a fair assessment of his personality, but it’s the impression that he left with us.

If you want to be invited back to a ministry, consider the following tips:

1. Be friendly:  A smile and a little conversation goes a long way – even if you are tired from your trip.
2. Respond to ministry requests in a timely manner:  The host ministry may ask for a bio, photo, W9, etc. to be sent by e-mail, fax or snail mail, don’t put it off until the last minute.
3. Be on time for service:  Guests who run late cause anxiety and stress for the host, be on time.
4. Thank the pastor for your invitation:  The host church could have invited someone else but they chose you, express your appreciation.
5. Have expectations but leave your demands at home:  You may be accustomed to a different level of service at your home church but you are a guest.  Don’t be obnoxious by making demands.
6. Minister within the allotted time given:  If the ministry gives you 40 minutes to minister, you should be sitting down in 40 minutes.
7. Do what you were asked to do:  If you were invited to sing, don’t give sermon before you sing.
8. Thank the ministry assistants assigned to you:  Armor bearers, drivers and ministry assistants appreciate a gesture of thanks.  If you took ministry products and they were particularly helpful, consider giving them a complementary gift of one of your products.
9. Accept your honorarium with grace:  If your honorarium is less than expected accept it with grace.  Unless you informed the ministry of a set fee or a fee range, you don’t have the right to complain.
10. Know when to call it a day:  At the end of a long morning, afternoon or evening service your hosts are tired.  They may enjoy your company and conversation but enough is enough.

Most of these tips are just good manners.  Follow them and your host will enjoy your company and may invite you back.

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Tags: good manners when traveling, Hospitality, how to be a good guest