Ministers Blogs
“Greet one another”
Categories: Christian Principles, Evangelism“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more” (1 Thess. 4:9-10).
Paul in 1 Thess. 4:9-10 commends the Thessalonians on their brotherly love and encourages them to keep on loving one another. I feel that way, and I am sure you do too about the Camden Ave. congregation, we are a warm and friendly group of Christian but Paul would want us to keep up the good work in being friendly and kind to one another. Not only is this biblical but it is also important to growing the church of Christ.
In a recent survey by Thom S. Rainer, he reported that 41% of Non-Christians who became Christians and 61% of Christians who transferred their membership to another congregation came because of the friendliness of the congregation. Of course, there are other major factors like evangelism, doctrine, and Biblical preaching, but we must not overlook friendliness of the members of the congregation, our friendliness is important to helping teach and showing the lost what we believe about Christ and His Word.
Many individuals have either turned to or away from the Lord because of the welcome extended or neglected by a local church. All Christians should be concerned about being friendly and greeting one another especially our guests at every service. Here are some suggestions that may help each of us in greeting those who visit the services of the church:
- Go to our guests and welcome them; do not wait for them to come to you and introduce yourself.
- Greet all age groups.
- After you have met them, help introduce them to others.
- Especially if they have children show them their classroom, nursery, and restrooms.
- Make sure they receive a bulletin.
- Invite them to other church activities, church dinners, or out to lunch.
- Ask them to fill out a visitor’s card and place it in the offering basket.
- Ask them to sit beside you.
- Invite them back to our next time of meeting.
“Five minutes—that is all it takes to make a positive or negative impression on guests to our worship services. Those first impressions often determine if guests will return. Because those first five minutes are so important, we want to do everything we can to make sure our guests are sought out, greeted, and made to feel welcome.
I am asking ALL of our members to take one simple step to help make sure our guests feel welcome. For the first five minutes before or after each worship service is started or dismissed, will you look for guests to greet. This is the most important thing we can do to be seen as a friendly and warm congregation. Will you invest five minutes in eternity?” (Adopted from: http://yourchurchcangrow.com)
Remember: “A man who has friends must himself be friendly…” (Proverbs 18:24).
Written by Mark T. Tonkery
