Want to feel like you don’t fit? Well, just go with your wife to her high-school class reunion. Unless you graduated from the same school and the in the same year, all evening long you could really feel out of it. All the people present have so much in common. They are completely engaged in talking about experiences you weren’t a part of.
Would you believe sometimes that’s how new church visitors feel? They’re the odd ones out. They’re the ones who can’t relate to the experiences so common to everyone else there.
I’m convinced one of the skills we need to develop in our churches is making visitors feel more welcome—to feel as if they really belong. It’s avoiding “coded language” that only the regular attenders understand. It’s making sure conversations contain fuller explanations, instead of assuming people know all the background. It’s a host of conscious efforts to genuinely include everyone in what’s going on in the church.
This weekend, if you see someone who looks like a visitor, go up and introduce yourself and say, “I’ve been here at the church for a while. If you’re new, can I answer any questions?” Or, “If you would like me to, I can tell you what I really like about this church.”
Got it?
Believing that you will benefit significantly from reading it, I sincerely invite you to read my latest book entitled The Sermon Sucking Black Hole—Why You Can’t Remember on Monday What Your Minister Preached on Sunday. This book is available at Amazon.com by clicking here.
This book gives some solid tips to the people sitting in the congregation to help them remember what you’ve said from the pulpit when they come to worship services in the church where you serve as pastor.
Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.
You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.
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