So No One is Invisible - by Jeff Bills

In the Message last week on Empowering Leadership, we read in I Timothy 3:2 that one of the marks of a leader is the gift of hospitality. The practice of helping people feel welcome, at ease, and cared for is one of the basic ministries of those who follow Jesus Christ. It is also one of the ministries where it is easy to become complacent.

Ask someone to describe what his or her church is like and you will immediately hear the word “friendly.” The fact is, that in many churches, visitors experience anything but a sense of a friendliness. I visited a church last year during my sabbatical that I really enjoyed. I loved their facility, the worship service was inspiring, and the pastor’s message was very good. But I left at the end of the worship service feeling as if I were invisible. No one spoke to me, shook my hand, or acknowledged my presence in any way. Even the person who handed me the bulletin looked right past me! I drove home from that church determined to renew my commitment to the hospitality ministry of HOPE.

I asked Pastor Rick to provide leadership to coordinate our Lobby Ministries in working with our volunteer leaders and support staff to enhance our ministry of welcome. This team has taken up the challenge and their efforts are really bearing fruit.

We launched our WOW team (Warm Our Welcome) to seek to ensure everyone who walked through our doors—both visitor and regular attendee - would be greeted and that if they needed a helping hand, someone would be there. I love the spirit the “WOW-ers” bring into our lobby on Sunday mornings.

More recently, we have moved away from the two-coffee systems (free coffee at one end of the lobby that tasted bad and good coffee that cost money at the other end). We now have good tasting, self-serve coffee that we accept donations to defray costs. The Soul Café continues to offer the same warm service that “Miss Liz” created when the Soul Café launched three years ago.

To our surprise and delight, a grocery store had a beautiful coffee service counter that was collecting dust in their storage area which they offered us at no cost! So take a moment this morning to check it out and offer a shout out to God for this great blessing.

Why do we go to all the trouble of providing coffee and pastries and why do we have a team of people who each week serve in our lobby ministries? We do all of this because hospitality is the doorway into one of our core purposes, which is to “connect people to one another through authentic Christian community.”

If you would like to be part of this vital ministry, talk to Pastor Rick or Judy Loane for more information about what is involved.

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