‘Master Greeter’ offers
more than a handshake

By MEGAN PARKS
CNNW reporting intern
   VANCOUVER, Wash. — It would seem a simple enough gesture: shaking someone’s hand and welcoming them in to another Sunday church service. Perhaps they would even be handed a welcome pamphlet. But to “Master Greeter” Rich Liedtke of Vancouver, Wash., greeting is more than just a hello.
  “It’s about making people feel important and feel at home,” Liedtke said. “When they feel at home, then they are prepared to listen to what the pastor has to say.”
   Liedtke is the founder of Master Greeter ministry and has written a booklet entitled How to be a Master Greeter. Written in 2004, the booklet has sold 13,500 copies and has been sent out to nearly 3,000 churches worldwide. According to his web site, www.mastergreeter.com, Liedtke’s booklet aims “to educate and train your church leaders, greeters and ushers to become Master Greeters throughout the church.”
   When Liedtke started greeting in 1993 at Vancouver First Church of God, he realized that what people — and especially visitors to the church — are looking for was friendship. Driven to learn more about being a better greeter, Liedtke realized not much information existed on the subject. “There was a lack of good instruction about greeting in other publications,” he said.
So Liedtke compiled his own ideas, drawn from what he had read and his own experience. Since then, he has e-mailed 250 churches per day to promote his booklet.
   After his booklet’s publication, Liedtke started holding seminars in different churches across the Northwest. Since he started teaching at seminars in 2004, Liedtke has traveled to more than 13 states, as well as to churches in the Caymin Islands and Singapore. In October 2008, he traveled to New Jersey and Texas. Available seminar dates for this month also can also be found on his website.
   Mainly focused on instructing pastors, ushers, and church leaders, his seminars emphasize the importance of the first contact with a visitor.
“The visitor is sent to you by God and they want friendship. They want friendship from you,” he told church leaders at one seminar. “Most importantly, they want to find out about a friendly God, and the more friendly they feel you are, the more likely they will come back.”
   He also teaches that the visitor is a church’s biggest advertiser. According to Liedtke, it is the visitor who will potentially tell other people about the church. “The new will bring the new,” he said.
   The way Liedtke establishes a friendship with the person is to learn their name, not just for that Sunday, but every time that person comes back. He starts by introducing himself to a person, prompting them to answer back with their own.
  “The way I remember their names, is that I repeat their name two or three times during the conversation with them,” he explained. “Then I write it down and review it during the week.”
   Liedtke has a pocket book that includes more than 2,000 names of church-goers from the last two and a half years, and he will often go up to six months back to review them, should they come back into the church.
   Liedtke says the most meaningful part of the Master Greeter ministry has been watching how churches have changed after using his greeting methods. One church in Hollywood, Calif., has shown a huge increase in the congregation’s size since hosting three seminars there. Prior to learning Liedtke’s techniques, their average high attendance for an Easter service was around 200 people. On Easter Sunday 2008, they reported having more than 500 people. “The most amazing thing about that church,” Liedtke said. “They only have three parking spots. Everyone had to park on the street and walk, but they came anyway.”
  “It’s about changing a stranger to a friend,” he added. “Being a friend to new people opens them up to hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

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