Most churches don't have an invitation problem. They have a connection problem. Leaderscape founder Michael Murphy shares the VIP team strategy from the Build the Church podcast: why every guest is God's guest, why your welcome team matters as much as your worship team, and the eight steps to stop losing the people God is sending you.
How to build a VIP team that treats every guest as God's guest. From the Build the Church podcast with Michael Murphy.
Every pastor knows the feeling. You preach your heart out, people respond to the altar call, cards get filled out, and then the same faces look back at you the next Sunday. The new people are gone.
Michael Murphy knows that feeling too. In his first year pastoring his own church in Sydney, he saw a thousand people make decisions for Jesus. He celebrated every one of them. Then he looked out at the end of the year and realized almost none of them had stayed.
"We have not stewarded any of these people that you've given us," he prayed. That moment started a journey that would eventually become Leaderscape, the coaching ministry he now uses to help churches around the world engage guests and make disciples.
On this week's episode of Build the Church, Michael shared the strategy at the heart of that work. It's called the VIP team, and it begins with a shift in conviction that changes everything downstream.
The foundation isn't a tactic. It's a belief. No one who walks through your doors is a visitor. They are God's guests.
Heaven has been active in every person's life long before they crossed your threshold. Ask anyone about their journey to church and you'll hear story after story of God's fingerprints. So Michael challenges churches to retire the words "visitor" and "new people" entirely.
Here's the picture he paints. Imagine Jesus walked up to your welcome team on Sunday morning and said, "I've got Bob and Kate with me. Can you make sure they're looked after today?" How would Bob and Kate be treated? Coffee in hand within minutes. Personally walked to every room. Royal treatment.
That's the standard, because that's actually what's happening every single week.
Jesus said make disciples. Michael's observation is that many churches let disciples instead. They leave connection to chance, funnel new people toward a tent or a table, and hope they find their own way in.
The problem is spiritual, not just practical. The enemy isn't threatened by someone sitting in a chair and saying amen at the right time. He's threatened when people get connected to the church and step into their mission and destiny. That means a brand-new person faces real interference on their way to belonging: the distraction, the phone call, the lunch invitation, the "I'll get to it next week" that never comes.
And here's the key insight. The new person is the least equipped to fight that battle. A mature believer is far more equipped to take charge of the moment. That's the job of the VIP team.
Michael makes a claim that stops most pastors in their tracks: your welcome team is as important as your worship team.
Picture walking into your auditorium before service and finding the lights off, with one worship leader sitting unplugged on the edge of the stage. "Couldn't get a good crew together. It's just me today." You would be boiling. So why aren't we equally bothered when there's no one-to-one care ready for God's guests?
You could book the greatest worship lineup in the country, advertise like crazy, and fill your building. But if you're not ready to receive the guests, you've wasted the money.
A VIP team is not a rebranded greeter team. Greeters shake hands, and their job is done after a warm smile. Ushers have a dozen other responsibilities. The VIP team has one job: connecting with God's guests and building trust quickly.
Michael calls them "undercover angels." No lanyards, no team shirts. To a first-time guest, they're just a friendly regular. A supervisor helps spot new people and deploys team members one-to-one, concierge style.
The math is simple. Believe God for guests at 4% of your Sunday attendance each week, and build a team so that 8% of the room is ready to receive them. For a church of 300, that's 12 guests a week and a rotation of 20 to 24 recruited team members. If you're expecting twelve guests, two greeters at the door is not a plan.
Start with the conviction. Teach your leaders that every guest is God's guest. Run your numbers. Hand-pick your team. Script the conversation and train it in your huddle. Then offer every guest a high-touch guarantee: "We'll walk with you to the degree you want us to."
Listen to the full episode of Build the Church with Michael Murphy wherever you get podcasts.
Go deeper with Leaderscape. DM Michael on Instagram at @michaelrmurphy, mention Josh and the Build the Church podcast, and share a little about your church.
Michael Murphy is the founder of Leaderscape and the author of Accelerate, with a foreword by Pastor Chris Hodges. He served as executive pastor at Hillsong Church and pastored in Sydney for 18 years before founding Leaderscape.
