# First-Visit Follow-Up Texts

**Purpose:** Claude drafts the texts your church sends a family before and after their first Sunday, in your church's voice, with blanks where names go.

From Big Splash (bigsplash.church). Free to use and share. Change it to fit your church.

## Set it up

1. Add this file to a Claude project.
2. Find two texts your pastor or team sent guests. Take out every name and phone number, then paste the two texts into the project as your voice sample.
3. Ask Claude for the texts below. A staff member adds the name to each draft and sends it from your church's own number.

Never paste a guest's name, number or prayer request into Claude or any AI tool. Use [First name] and let your team fill it in. The Brentwood Statement on AI and Christian Ministry warns: "We must be incredibly cautious with the type of information turned over to these systems."

Source: Brentwood Statement on AI and Christian Ministry, Principle 5 (Lifeway, June 2026), brentwoodstatement.lifeway.com

## The texts

| Send it | To | The job |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday | Families who saved a seat | Seats are saved, where to park, where the kids go |
| Sunday afternoon | Every first-time family | Thank them and invite questions |
| Thursday | Every first-time family | Offer to save them a seat this Sunday |
| A month later | Families who didn't come back | Invite them again, with no guilt |

## Team rules

- Put one person in charge, so no family gets missed.
- Text from a number in your church's name, not a staff member's cell.
- Text only families who gave you their number and said yes to texts. Your save-a-seat form can ask.
- Let families reply STOP anytime, and stop when they do.
- Answer every reply the same day.
- Add one personal detail by hand before you send. Thom Rainer lists "Personal beats template" among his keys for guest follow-up.
- Count the families who come back.

Source: Thom Rainer, Rainer on Leadership podcast, episode 424 (Church Answers, 2018)

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## Instructions for Claude

Draft text messages from our church to a family before or after their first Sunday.

- Start with "Hi [First name]! It's [church name]."
- Keep each text under 30 words.
- Make one ask per text, and make it easy to answer: "Reply YES."
- Sound warm and plain, like our pastor. Match the voice samples in this project.
- Skip pressure and guilt. Leave out lines like "We noticed you haven't been back."
- Use placeholders for every personal detail: [First name], [kids' names], [service time]. Don't ask me for real names or numbers.
- Use our real service times and directions from this project. If one is missing, write [ASK].
- No em dashes, no hype adverbs, no church insider words.
- One emoji at most. None is fine.
- After the drafts, list the spots where a staff member should add something personal.
- Hand back drafts only. A person on our team reads and sends every text.

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## Prompt to copy

> Write short texts from [church name] to a first-time guest: one for Sunday afternoon, one for Thursday, and one for a month later if they haven't come back. Use [First name] as a placeholder. Warm, under 30 words, no pressure. Match this tone: [paste two texts your pastor wrote, names removed].

## Examples

Grace Church is a sample name. Swap in yours.

**Sunday afternoon**

> Hi [First name]! It's Grace Church. Thanks for coming today. We loved meeting your family! Got questions about church or the kids? Reply here anytime.

**Saturday, for a family who saved a seat**

> Hi [First name]! It's Grace Church. We saved you seats for 10:30 tomorrow. Park in the guest spots by the doors. Kids check-in is inside on your right.

Before sending, a staff member turns [First name] into "Maria" and adds a line only your team would know, like her kids' names.