13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful, if not fantastic..., October 6, 2006
This review is from: Serving as a Church Greeter (Paperback)
This book can serve as a helpful resource for church greeters. I especially like the biblical and theological descriptions of the role of greeters, making sure to establish the important fact that greeting is no less important than other serving roles in the church and is not the type of thing that can be done well by anyone. It takes certain skills and attitudes that are crucial to serving as a good greeter, and this book establishes a very solid case for the need for quality greeters.
I also appreciated the special section at the end of the book on parking needs.
Better than most other books on this topic, Parrott manages to describe greeting across a broad spectrum of church and worship styles. Still, there were some assumptions about standard practices that may exist within some churches but are certainly not universal.
Ultimately, I thought that this book was the best that I've read of its type. Its applications do not specifically apply to our greeters ministry to a sufficient degree to warrant that I purchase this book for all of my greeters, as I had originally hoped. However, I do plan to pass it along to the leaders of our greeting teams and use some quotes for greeter training. It's definitely a helpful resource.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A little too short, not enough for training, August 9, 2009
This review is from: Serving as a Church Greeter (Paperback)
I've read a series of books on the issue of church greeters as part of some training preparation for church greeters.
But out of all the of the ones focused specifically on greeters and ushers, currently, Les Parrot's Serving as a Church Greeter is the best, even though its dated and some of the practices in it may not be in vogue anymore.
It is a short read, 5 chapters, with a few questions to think about at the end of every chapter.
The best parts are the 1st two chapters about the development of the greeter as a specialized ministry, the general attitudes of a greeter, and some organizational tips.
Chapter 3 is all on developing a "user friendly foyer." This stuff is helpful for first impressions ministry, and perhaps out of place for a book on greeter training. In this chapter, one can find lots of good tips about preparing the foyer and functions of the foyer.
Chapter 4 is focused on the act of greeting itself -- what is a greeter to do. Most are common sense, but often need to be clearly stated in any kind of training manual. However, this chapter read like a powerpoint slide and seemed absent of stories to demonstrate it's principles.
Chapter 5 is a late addition, focused on the parking lot ministry. As churches have gotten larger, this kind of specialized ministry has taken on a new role. Thus a very short chapter is devoted towards this task.
This short little book can be consumed in one sitting. Most of its contents are common sense organized into a readable format.
I would recommend this book for greeting team coordinators looking for some general ideas. I'm not sure I'd get copies for the entire team or volunteers. Most of it's principles and questions can be covered in a team training meeting.
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