Waynesboro Church Of Christ

Welcomes You!

A pasted message from Matthew!

Past Message From Matthew

Posted Date: May 29, 2008

I walked into the Carmax to buy a new family minivan. A nice young salesman greeted me at the door to provide help and service. His purpose was to answer questions, direct me to the cars that I would be interested in, and to make me feel comfortable. You walk in most business locations and there is someone to greet you. There is a friendly smile and a desire to help. Have you walked into a few of our church buildings recently?

I remember a while back I was visiting with a congregation. Usually I shake hands and force people to greet me. But this day, I wanted to understand the perspective of an introverted individual. I made a rule to talk as much as people would talk to me. I went into the building and sat down. No one greeted me in this congregation of 250 . Finally I was spoken to, with a “can you move over, we sit on this pew.” No hello, no are you visiting, just move over. After this, I heard a voice behind me declare “what are we going to do now; he is sitting in our pew.” This really made me feel welcomed. A nice loud enough hint was given so that I would know not to sit there again.

Companies do everything possible to make its customers feel welcomed in a store. This is why there is a nice older man or woman as a Wal-Mart greeter. But sometimes in the church we will not even get up from a pew to walk over to greet a guest for the services. We will walk right by someone without even making eye contact. A perfect stranger will sit behind us before services begin and we will not turn around to make some conversation. Sometimes congregations have a period of greeting before the worship begins. This always makes friendliness seem so forced. Ok, I will talk to you, if I must. Mostly, you can tell the level of desire that a congregation has to grow on the level of friendliness the congregation shows. When the worldly business is friendlier than the church, there is a serious problem. The level of friendliness will seriously determine the level of growth in a church.