We had visited this good church before, but this time when no one talked with us after church it bothered me because my pregnant wife was feeling ill. Church should be a safe place to feel ill considering all the “love people” stuff churches typically talks about.
Lindsay sat down hoping to get over her temporary illness during the last few minutes of the service. But it didn’t go away. The service ends, and everyone rapidly leaves. And we awkwardly sit. She needed water, but she also needed her husband to stay next to her. So we sat, alone. Not one person came over to talk with us during this long five minutes, and while it never bothered us before that no one talked with us, it bothered me that time.
I am not trying to bash this church, I am just trying to figure out how not to repeat this mistake. What do we do to establish a church that makes everyone feel welcomed?
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5 comments:
The church must do better at teaching that life is more than about us, and Christian faith is bigger than personal faith. For some reason we have done a poor job of helping people imagine what the reign of God is about. The Church must gain an imaginatin of life as the restoration of God's world. This means living as a peculiar people who are seeking to bring mercy not sacrifice to the world.
Kevin-
Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that our often individualized American faith seems to be detrimental to our ability to understand God's global reconciliation. God is redeeming the whole world not just singular souls.
When we learn to exist for our non-members.
What if we came to church with the mindset that we are going to find someone to join us for lunch who has never been at a table with us before?
I think Josh's idea would go a long way. Not that we shouldn't expect a shift in behavior by all the "flock", a very practical approach to this is to assign some of your more outgoing members or elders to watch for these folks that might slip through the cracks.
Kurt
Josh/Kurt- I agree that we as a church need to change our mindset that Church isn't about us but helping others.
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