Being a welcoming church

Good morning Trinity Tribe,

I hope you are well! We had a fabulous time seeing the new Narnia movie yesterday. It was quite good! If you have a chance to see it, I recommend it. Look for the themes of self-sacrifice and temptation. This would be a great movie to take someone you know who is not a believer in Christ. It raises questions of sin and forgiveness that might the perfect jumping off place for you to share why you believe in Jesus with someone else.

Please send in any announcements as soon as possible! I would love to have the bulletin done and printed early this week. I would also like next week's bulletin printed this week as well. If there are any announcements, I would love to have them extra early.

We do have one more name of a needy middle school student that needs to be adopted. If you feel called to help someone in this way, please let me know ASAP. Remember, all gifts and food items must be at church by Wednesday. Or feel free to drop them off with Becky or on the parsonage porch.

Christmastime is a time of year when people may walk through our doors at Trinity. People are searching for a deeper meaning to life. They may have fond memories of childhood from church. They may want to sing carols. Or they may just stop by on a whim. We need to be ready. I gave each of you an invitation to use to invite someone to worship next week. If you didn't get one, stop by the church office to get one or two or ten.

Knowing that we will have visitors in the next few weeks, I thought it was important to think about how we need to be prepared for visitors. How welcoming is our church, really? Every church thinks it is a welcoming church, even the churches where the people will yell at you for sitting in "their" seat. How can we make people that walk through our doors at Trinity feel welcome?

There are some people that I can count on speaking to a visitor during our greeting time in the service. Thank you for going out of your comfort zone to do that. I pray that God gives all the rest of us courage to do that. Most visitors sit towards the back. I usually don't get that far, so thank you to you back row people for your hospitality to visitors!

I know for a fact there will be visitors in the pews this Sunday. Several of Kenna and Hanna's guests are coming are from a different denomination that doesn't worship in the same way we worship. How can we make them feel comfortable? I have tried to put more information in the bulletin that would help a newcomer…for example not everyone knows the Apostle's Creed or the Lord's prayer. So, I am intentional about page numbers. I have tried to add directions to the restroom in order to be hospitable. I try in my welcome to extend radical hospitality and be visitor friendly. Holding hands and singing "The Family of God" could be a very uncomfortable time for a visitor. Therefore, I try to explain it in my welcome. What have I missed? What made you feel comfortable or even uncomfortable the first time you came to Trinity? Or what made you feel comfortable when you have visited another church?

I visited a church at the beach many years ago. They had the visitors stand up, introduce themselves, and then they gave us a loaf of bread. I appreciated the delicious bread. However, standing up and introducing myself was VERY UNCOMFORTABLE for me! However, that was one of the church traditions. THe members liked it because they got to know a little about the visitors. I can't blame them for wanting to know who was worshipping with them. However, it was not comfortable for me, the visitor.

Here are some easy yet solid ideas about being welcoming to newcomers. I invite you to share your ideas as well! What makes you feel welcome in our church or in another church you may visit? What else could we be doing to make people feel welcome?

Welcoming Ministry
TRAINING MANUAL and PLANNING HANDBOOK
Here are some ideas that might make it easier for you to welcome others to our church. Feel free to come up with other ideas or adapt these on your own. These are just to get you thinking about welcoming as a personal ministry, right there in the pew, and a lifestyle for our church.

Circle of 10: Greet anyone, member or guest, who comes within ten feet of you. Make a special effort to greet the people you don’t already know within your Circle of 10.

Rule of Three: Please do not talk to other members for the first three minutes after the service. Talk only to those you don’t know or people you know are guests. It takes guests about three minutes to exit the church after worship and we need to make sure someone has made contact with them before they leave.

Don’t know what to say to a guest? Here are a few conversation starters:
1. Offer a handshake and say, “Hello.My name is _____________, and you are ...?”
2. Wait for a response and repeat the person’s name so you make sure that you get it right and so you can more easily remember it.
3. If you think you know the face but can’t recall the name, try this approach:
“Hello, I’m ____________________. I believe I’ve seen you here before but I don’t know that we’ve had the opportunity to meet.What is your name?”
4. Don’t be embarrassed if you’re greeting a member and don’t know that person’s name—or be offended if someone doesn’t remember yours. We need to offer grace to one another, just as we would to new people.
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