To Greet or Not to Greet

Tonight as I was leaving the church after a committee meeting, I held the door for a young woman and her daughter entering to attend an awards banquet for a local gymnast team. Outside, a group from my meeting were involved in what looked to be an animated discussion. One of the men was making the point that many schools and organizations were using our facilities but we weren't taking advantage of the opportunity to welcome them into the building and help them feel comfortable. We were basically just providing a meeting space. He recommended having a team of folks to take turns acting as church hosts for the various ceremonies, concerts and plays.

A couple thoughts came to mind.

Honestly, my first thought was that I didn't need yet another reason to stay late at church. As a minister, my family many times gets the short end of the stick because there is always something ministry related that I could spend all my time doing. In fact, I'm trying to get folks in our church away from being tied up with "church stuff" every night of the week. I was looking at maybe an hour with my kids before they had to go to bed (and I also needed to eat dinner and mow the lawn - I know I'm not alone with this kind of scheduling challenge). I'll comment more on this in another post.

But my second thought was that he's right. We can't settle for an "if we build it they will come" mentality. It's certainly true, we get a lot of folks wanting to use the church, but using our building doesn't accomplish what we're ultimately about in and of itself. People might be impressed with a facility, but buildings don't produce life change. God does, and He chooses to do it through people. My friend wasn't suggesting a beat them over the head with a Bible strategy, or a fill their pockets with pamphlets gimmick, rather a human touch that has the potential to rub off a little of the Divine more than any stained glass window or really big room. A friendly greeting and a point in the right direction (to the event or the bathrooms) can leave someone with a different impression of a church that might just bring them back.