Your church plan a visit page: what to put on it, and what to skip

Before anyone walks into your church for the first time, they have already been there once, on their phone. Usually on a Saturday night, deciding whether to go. Your church plan a visit page is the one page built for that moment. It answers the questions a nervous guest won't ask out loud, and it is often the page that decides whether they come at all.

I think about this a lot because I've been that guest. I grew up in a church planter's home and I've pastored a small church, and I've still walked into plenty of churches where I didn't know a soul. The questions are always the same. Where do I park? Which door? What do people wear? What do I do with my kids? How long is this going to be?

A good plan a visit page answers all of that before they leave the house.

What is a plan a visit page, really?

It's one page on your website written for someone who has never been to your church. Not members, not regular attenders. Just the guest.

Most churches already have this information somewhere. The service time is on the home page, the address is in the footer, and the kids ministry has its own page three clicks deep. The problem is that a guest has to hunt for it, and a guest on a Saturday night won't hunt for long.

So a plan a visit page pulls it all into one place, in the order a guest thinks about it, in plain words. It's the website version of a greeter who walks you to the door.

What should be on a church plan a visit page?

Here is what I'd put on every one, in roughly this order:

1. Service times and how long they run. "Sundays at 10:30, about 75 minutes" beats a bare time. People plan lunch, naps and babysitters around it.
2. The address, with a map link that opens on a phone. Tap it, get directions. Say which entrance to use if your building has more than one.
3. Parking. Where it is, and whether there's guest parking up front. If the lot fills up, say where the overflow is.
4. What to wear. One honest sentence. "You'll see jeans and you'll see ties" tells people there is no wrong answer.
5. Kids. Is there a nursery? Children's church? What ages, and where do parents check in? For parents of young kids, this is the whole decision.
6. What happens in the service. A couple of sentences about the music, the message and anything that might surprise someone, like communion or the offering. Tell guests they aren't expected to give.
7. Who they'll meet. A photo of the pastor, or of the people at the welcome table, with first names.
8. One simple way to let you know they're coming. More on that below.

That looks like a lot, but the whole page can still read in two minutes. Short sentences, one heading for each question, and a real photo or two.

A real example from Cornerstone in Cheshire

Cornerstone Church in Cheshire, Connecticut is my own church, and it's a site I built, so I'll use it. Their Plan a Visit page opens with "We've saved you a seat." Then it gets practical fast. Four Sunday services at 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 and 12:30, each about 70 minutes. The address. What to wear: "Whatever's comfortable. You'll see everything from jeans to button-downs." Kids: safe, age specific rooms for birth through 5th grade at every service. And when you arrive, look for the team at the welcome center.

Notice what that does. A guest reading it on Saturday night now knows which service fits their morning, that their kids are covered, and that someone will be waiting for them. That's most of the fear gone.

Notice where it lives, too. Plan a Visit is in the main menu, it's a button on the first screen of the home page, it's the first card under next steps, and it's in the footer. A guest never has to look for it. If you're working out where it belongs on your own home page, I walked through that in church website layout.

Should you ask guests to tell you they're coming?

I think you should offer it, and never require it.

A short form on the page, with a name, an email, which Sunday and how many kids, lets your team be ready. Someone can meet them at the door by name. Someone can walk the kids to their room. For a guest, being expected is a very different feeling from being noticed.

Keep it optional and keep it short. Don't ask for a phone number and a home address before they've even met you. And say plainly what happens next: "We'll save you a seat, and someone will meet you at the welcome table." No surprise visit to their house.

Then follow through. If someone tells you they're coming and nobody greets them, that's worse than having no form at all. After the visit, the follow up matters just as much. I wrote about a simple weekly system for first-time guest follow-up that any small church can run with volunteers.

What to leave off

A plan a visit page gets weaker every time someone adds just one more thing. A few things I'd keep off it.

Your full history and statement of faith. Link to your beliefs page for the people who want it, and some will, but don't make every guest read it first.

A list of every ministry. A guest isn't choosing a ministry yet. They're choosing whether to come on Sunday.

Insider words. "Fellowship hall," "the Commons" and "narthex" mean nothing to someone who has never been inside. Say "the room on your left as you walk in."

Stock photos. A guest can tell. One real photo of your actual front door or your actual welcome table does more than a smiling model ever will.

A ten minute test for this Sunday

Hand your phone to someone who has never been to your church, maybe a neighbor or a friend from work, and ask them to find three things on your website: what time to show up, where to park and what happens with their kids. Don't help.

If they can do it in under a minute, your page is doing its job. If they're scrolling and squinting, you know exactly what to fix. Honestly, this is the most useful thing you can do for your website this week, and it costs nothing.

The page that says you were expected

A plan a visit page isn't really about information. It's about hospitality. It tells a nervous person that you thought about them before they arrived, and that there's a seat saved for them. Churches have always been good at that in the lobby. This is just the same welcome, a day early.

If your church doesn't have one yet, you can write it this week with the list above. And if you're a small church ready for a new site altogether, every Church Studio template comes with a Visit page ready for your details, plus guest follow up built in, for $39 a month. You can try Church Studio free.

Photo by Sóc Năng Động on Pexels.