I have to admit, I am surprised this was a big reason. Our church is growing, and we have believed that this meet and greet was part of the reason for the success. Folks seem to genuinely enjoy it.
We will have to ponder it, now.
Oldplayer
As a rule, introverts hate meet and greet, and some of them really, REALLY hate it. Extraverts tend to like it. Supposedly the majority of Americans are extraverts, which if true means meet and greet likely works more often than it doesn’t.
Our church has greeters at the door who just say “good morning” or whatever, and generally direct new people to the guest book, and to coffee downstairs after the service, but they don’t necessarily shake hands (the smart ones wait to see if someone offers a hand first).