Paperwork is the visitor card. Money is the offering plate. The aisle is the altar call. This is the small-talk anxiety — mid-service greet and after-service coffee.
You can leave after the amen. That is a complete first visit.
Two different moments
Mid-service "greet your neighbor" lasts about 30–60 seconds. Turn, say good morning, sit back down. Handshake optional. Nod works. You are not opening a friendship application.
After-service coffee hour is the lobby or fellowship hall after the final amen. Cups. Cookies if you're lucky. Optional conversations. Completely different pressure from the 45-second handshake.
Do not mash them together in your head. One happens in the pew. One happens after you could already be in the car.
Leaving after the amen is normal
When it ends, people linger. You can linger. You can also walk to the parking lot. Both are allowed. There is no fellowship attendance sheet.
If you stay: lobby or hall, "first time here" is a complete sentence. Grab a cup. Cup-in-hand is the visitor hack — something to do with your hands while you decide whether to talk or exit.
Welcome desk? Optional. You can walk past it. You can also stop, say you're visiting, and keep moving.
Not every church does coffee hour
A lot of Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian Universalist, Assemblies of God, and Pentecostal rooms run some version of coffee or fellowship after. Plenty don't.
Check the listing. Do not invent a coffee cart for rooms that don't have one — LDS meetinghouses and mosques are not running the same lobby script. Read the actual page for the place you're walking into.
Find the room first on the lander that matches what you typed. Then decide if you stay for the cup or leave after the amen.
After it ends
"Thanks, first time" still works on the way out. You do not need a forever church on try number one. You need a door, a start time, and a seat. The social layer is optional.