Poll: Name tags in church

December 4, 2011 in Welcoming

In my experience, people have pretty strong opinions about name tags in churches – either you love them, or you hate them.

At my church, we have blank sheets of sticky labels with the church logo printed on them. When people arrive at church, their name is written on the label, and they stick the label on their shirt.

I’ll tell you what I like about name tags:

  • They help you to greet or farewell people by name. Newcomers are pleasantly surprised by this – even when they realise they’re wearing a name tag!
  • They avoid awkward conversations with someone you met last week whose name you wouldn’t otherwise be able to remember.
  • They remind us that church is about people – it’s not like a movie theatre where a bunch of random people sit together. Individuals are important.

What do you like about name tags?

I’ll tell you what I really don’t like – pre-printed name tags for regular attenders. For the person who is new and desperately doesn’t want to stand out, a hand-written name tag screams “you’re not one of us!”.

What are your thoughts about name tags? Vote, and share your comments below.

Do you think name tags in church are a good idea?

View Results

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  • Jason

    One church I attended used name tags for one month each year. That way, people who knew faces but not names got a chance to learn names more easily and it was done at the time of year when most new attendees were present.

  • http://twitter.com/stevenst Tim Stevens

    I like the write out your name every week option.

    Don’t like the pre-printed ones for the exact same reason as you. 

    I wonder however. Is there a size limit where using name tags just gets too difficult. i.e I’m not sure it would of worked in my previous congregation of over 250 adults, but in my current congregation of 60 it would probably work just fine.

  • Shannon Christman

    If I visit a church that has nametags, my first thought is that the church is either too big or too impersonal for people to really know each other, and that’s not how a church should be. Not having nametags gives a better opportunity to introduce yourself and start a conversation. (“I know I’ve seen you here before, but I don’t know your name. My name is Shannon.”)

  • Melody

    doesn’t it depend…its a tool…I’m for it if its working but not if its hindering…and let face it…there are some people out there you will never satisfy… =)

  • Jackie

    My church has pre-printed name tags for regulars and sticky labels for first-time visitors. By the next week, those sticky labels are turned into pre-printed tags. We have a strong sense of hospitality and extravagant welcome, so I’ve never seen the sticky labels allienate people, only the opposite. It’s a great conversation started and the congregation goes out of the way to welcome newcomers. The name tags were a major selling point for me when I first visited.

    Also, they have our hometown listed below our names and are color coded by region because there are a lot of regional fellowship opportunities to get to know our neighbors!

  • david

    There are 2 ways name tags are unhelpful. One is the “I’m in, you’re out” message of pre-prepared nametags have. Sticky labels solve that. I’ve seen it done well at secular networking casual functions.

    The other issue is the lack of depth of connection. Note, this is not an issue for the casual secular networking function because we are there possibly only once. We might swap contact details with someone, or we may leave the function and never meet any of the attendees ever again. This is not (or at least should not) be the situation in the church community (if it is to be a community in any real sense of the word).

    Sure, if i have my “David” name tag on, a bunch of people might say “Hey, David – How’s your week been” (the standard fallback question when you don’t know anything about the person). These name-greetings fill us with a nice (but counterfeit) feeling of community, which innoculates us against authentic community. We get all the warm fuzzy feelings of people calling us by name (and thinking they care) without actually going to the effort of being vulnerable, or sharing any in-depth information, or experiencing any of the true fellowship (or growth) that comes from actual community.

    Here’s an experiment i’ve wanted to do – as an antidote to the placebo-effect community: Step1 – pick a medium sized church and attend several times (enough to meet a few people more than once).  Step 2 – After a 3 week absence, attend again, but fill out the label with a different name. Step 3 – observe how many of your “community” now refer to you as Brian, Mark or Larry – whatever is on the sticky label.

  • http://joannamuses.com Joanna

    I’m very much in favour of nametags. I find remembering names difficult which makes being a new person somewhere awkward and more overwhelming than it has to be. 

    When I joined my current church I felt quite loved by someone going to the effort to make me a printed nametag by my second or third week there. 

  • http://spiritualmeanderings.wordpress.com Sentinel

    I’m a big fan of them.

    Church is about community, whether you’re a newcomer or have been there for a while. For a newcomer, it’s much easier to keep track of a lot of new people quickly if you have the reinforcement of seeing a nametag, and the “outsider without a tag” is not necessarily a problem. It can make it easier for people to recognise you as a newcomer, and consequently make more effort to welcome you and get to know you. Also, at our church, if you drop off your contact card on your first visit you’ll probably have a nametag by your second week.

    For regular visitors, it makes it a lot less awkward to chat to “that guy who you’ve said hi to a couple times over the past six months but darn, you just can’t remember his name right now”.