I Have a Question, Where Should I Put It?

[quote=Jonathan Wilson]

Rebecca, 

I agree with Mavis that Worship is perhaps the best place to post your question.  I encourage you to do so and I hope you get some good feedback.

Thanks for your question and thank you Mavis for your suggestion.

-Jonathan

[/quote]

Jonathan,

With respect to you and Mavis, I am going to disagree with you on this one.

As I read the Worship forum, there are the exact kinds of things there that I would expect to find: ideas for worship on certain days, contemporary vs. traditional, questions and ideas about songs, technology and worship planning. Everything there is about worship itself, and what I'm asking about is what's happening before and after worship.

I would like to suggest that maybe there is room here for a new category, possibly something like "Welcoming Ministries" where people can discuss things that make a visitor feel welcome at church; things like greeting and ushering as well as visitor follow up. I recently finished reading Fusion by Nelson Searcy and Jennifer Dykes Henson, about assimilation. He opens this way:

"Next Sunday the Spirit of God will prompt hundreds of thousands of people... to visit a church for the first time. The Sunday after that, He will do it again. God is consistently blessing His Church with regular guests. Are we doing all we can to accept and honor His blessing?"

He asserts that each guest who walks in the door is a gift, and challenges the reader to ask if their church is ready to receive that gift and make each person feel welcome and wanted. I don't agree with everything he says, but he's got some good ideas worth considering.

We have Worship Director and Committee, and they work really hard with our pastor to plan worship that is enriching for regular attenders, as well as offering a glimpse of God and His amazing grace to whoever attends that day. I hope that any guest might sense a bit of that grace each week in worship.

But what happens if nobody talks to them during coffee hour after church?

Or they can't find the nursery when they arrive?

What if they fill out comment card but nobody follows up?

What if any or all these things happen, but against the odds, they come back anyway? Will they feel more welcome next Sunday? What if they don't come back at all because one of these things happened and next Sunday they go to brunch instead? The point is, if they don't come back, they won't be touched by grace next Sunday.

All this to say, I think there are a lot of questions related to this area specifically that are outside of what most Worship Planners or Directors are tasked with. I think there are some people out there that have really good ideas for how to make guests feel welcome (and hopefully every one of them is just dying to post a comment on the network.) I think it's worth considering another category.

Thanks.

I like the using the word "Connections"! 

What's "Fun Bunch"?