Greeting Others

First impressions are everything. There is so much nervous energy from a person who is visiting a church for the first time. They may be coming alone or bringing the whole family. Regardless of their situation, they are coming to vet the situation (research), find restoration or look into broader resources. The three R's

Research: This could be a person who is "trying church" again. Maybe this person carries church hurt or has a preset expectation. They may be completely off-put, quiet, observant, and skeptical. That is ok. I feel like when we see others putting up a wall, our natural instinct is to take two steps back. My best piece of advice is to throw that intuition out the door. Lean into an uncomfortable space but don't make it uncomfortable. You want to break down the inhibitions and the preset skepticism. The best way to do so is to contrast their expectations. Watching body language can help tremendously. Greeting others should consist of more than hello. You want to be as resourceful as possible. Everyone is looking for a connection. Connect others through Lifegroups, leadership, or resources.

Restoration Seekers: A good tell-tell is someone who lacks eye contact or makes aggressive direct eye contact. They either don't want others to know what they are carrying or they are desperate for someone to notice the pain they are in. The best thing to do in this situation is not to overwhelm others. You need them to make the first move because it has to be a choice. We also don't want to create a co-dependency issue. We always want to point others to look up not lateral.

Resource Researcher: Family dynamics change. We know kids grow up, blended families become one, and college kids age out amongst a long list of other life changes. Sometimes people will be on the lookout for churches that meet their new needs. As much as we want to hope that others are focused on whether we are Biblical forward and inviting they may already have that. They may be on the hunt to see if this is a great fit for their kids, marriage, and looking for specialty groups. There should always be a loud and obvious area for new visitors to come to find, read, meet, and engage with resources to connect them to their specific next step.

The last bonus category is the Non-Starter. You know a person who are drugs to church. The teen with tude, the dad dragging behind, the mom on mute, and so on. The best thing to do in this situation is to not disengage and to not over-engage. The goal is to learn one important thing about them because honestly, that is probably all you can get out of them. As the leave service make a point to use their name and refer to what you remember. This lets them know that no matter what their experience was that you cared for them as a human first. you hope to see this person return and you can again reiterate what you know and hope to learn one more thing about them. Don't make your conversations about trying to push them into any groups or commitments. Just work on caring about them as a person and let them lead through their own interests and comfortability.

Rom 12:13-20

Matt 22:39

Heb 13:2

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