Welcoming All
I love meeting with my friends, it’s so much fun greeting one another and catching up with each other. Meeting someone new is still a little scary for me. I’m not a natural at meeting new people, and yet God has placed me in the position to do this almost weekly. I have to remember to do things that make others feel welcome and remind myself of what I should say. If God has given me the courage to help make people feel welcome in our church, he can do the same for you.
“Help me welcome everyone to
our church: A smile goes a long way to make others feel welcome.”
Sometimes I need to remind myself to smile. It’s such a simple thing to do to make people feel welcome, and yet I have to remember to do this—especially when things aren’t going the way I expect them to go or when the cares of this life feel overwhelming. When I do smile, it helps to change my thoughts because I do have so much to be thankful for. A smile will help those new to our church feel the same way, thankful that someone has seen them and making them feel known and cared for. A smile goes a long way to make people feel welcomed and loved.
Greeting others after worship is over is often more important than greeting them before. After worship we have a chance to introduce ourselves and invite them to stay for a cup of coffee. We have an opportunity to take them to the welcome center to receive a welcome packet, to introduce them to those sitting at our table or to show them around our wonderful building. If each of us would take 2-3 minutes after each worship is over and greet someone we don’t know, everyone would feel welcomed.
There are so many ways to greet someone other than saying “hello”. We can say “welcome to church”, “we are glad you are here”, “it’s good to see you today” or “ welcome, we are happy you’re here this morning”. We can say these things to everyone we meet at church, and if you don’t know their name, simply introduce yourself asking them who they are. Saying something like this: “Hello, I’m so glad you are here this morning, I’m Kathryn and you are?” Once they say their name, say in return “Their name, I’m so glad to meet you”. Then you can invite them to stay for coffee, take them to the welcome center and even introduce them to those you know and the pastors. I know this is not easy to do for most of us, as I need to remind myself almost every Sunday to do these things.
Please help me in welcoming everyone to our church: Smile, it goes a long way to make others feel welcome, Greet someone new in the first 2-3 minutes after worship is over and say “welcome to church, I’m ‘your name’ and you are?.” First Fest is coming up and it would be a wonderful time to put these actions into practice. I hope that you will join me in welcoming all.