Decide to open your church
- Make the decision to keep the church open.
- Designate a welcome manager.
- Organize the welcoming: indicate that the church is open and welcoming.
- Ensure that the premises are clean.
- Create a welcome area. Think also of the children. Provide a children's corner with a small table, chair and don't forget the drawing book (and maybe a small library).
- Inform the visitor: welcome text - information about the parish and heritage - interpretation panels of the symbols.
- Be interesting in all your communication: short texts, anecdotes are more interesting than the enumeration of dates and successive priests.
- Be professional: all communication materials must be of equal quality (leaflets, visiting documents, welcome table, guest books).
- Make it memorable: your church is unique and the visitor must feel it.
- Do not forget some flowers and a musical background. "I still have one more idea to complete Ronchamps, it's that the music comes talking to the unknown visitor both inside and outside" (Le Corbusier).
- Plan meetings and musical performances or concerts, because a building where there is movement is a safe building.
- Carry out an inventory of the church's movable property, keep it up to date and keep unsecured valuables in a safe place. Guides available to carry out the inventory. Info: contact Open Churches.
- Take security measures.
- Remember that a closed church does not cool down criminals. Statistically, there are more thefts from closed churches, and these are sometimes discovered after several days, several weeks, if not several months and the chances of finding them are almost nil.
