A Theology of Biblical Hospitality

I started reading a book today called Beyond the First Visit: The Complete Guide to Connecting Guests to Your Church by Gary L. McIntosh. It's not going to win any awards for shortest book title, but it's a great book. I wanted to record here some of the things that stood out to me:

• Growing churches...spend a significant amount of time getting ready for their company - guests.
• Research studies completed by Dr. Win Arn and Dr. Charles Arn in the mid-1980's found a direct correlation between friendliness and potential growth. In short, they found that friendly churches had great potential for growth, while less friendly churches had little potential for growth.
• Most people think their church is a friendly church. It doesn't matter if the individuals who think that are attending churches in danger of closing, in the midst of twenty-year-long plateaus, or bursting forth in growth. Everyone thinks their church is friendly.
• In reality, our church is only friendly to the degree that those visiting our church perceive it to be so. If visitors do not perceive us as friendly, we are not.
• Our goal in being welcoming to guests is to reflect the welcoming God we serve. When we are welcoming, we are simply following God's example. When we aren't welcoming, we aren't reflecting God to our guests. Jesus modeled the welcoming nature of God by welcoming people. Luke describes one incident when Jesus tried to get away from the people to rest: "the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing" (Luke 9:11). Later, as tax collectors came to Jesus teaching, the Pharisees and scribes criticized him for welcoming sinners (Luke 15:1-2). As God's people, we are to be welcomers just as God is a welcomer.
• When we welcome guests, we open the possibility that they will welcome God into their lives.

My prayer is that God will help New Day become the warmest, most friendly and welcoming environment in all the Pioneer Valley and northern Connecticut! Because it's cool and the in thing? No! Because it's biblical and helps us reflect God to our guests.

When a Volunteer Steps Down

Volunteers step down from their roles of service for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the role they were serving in wasn't a good fit, other times its simply due to an upcoming busy season in life, sometimes its for personal reasons, etc. Regardless the reason, its very important to honor the sacrifice and efforts of the volunteer for the time they were able to give. Sometimes it's easy to focus on the work they will no longer be able to do vs focusing on and celebrating the work they have already done. A church is a non-profit and works primarily though volunteers. That being the case, volunteers will come and go. That's the nature of the beast. Sometimes they will go and never return. Other times they will go and after a bit they will come back. And we never know which it will be. That's why it's so important to never burn any bridges when someone steps down from a volunteer role. We honor what they have done. We thank them for what they have done. We leave the door wide open in case they ever want to return. And we speak highly of what they've contributed thus far and look with hope to their involvement again in the future. Paid staff don't have the luxury of coming and going, but volunteers do. I'm not trying to promote a lack of commitment on a volunteer's part. I'm not saying a volunteer can just show up to teach or serve or sing when they feel like it and you, as a department leader, should just take what you can get. That's not at all what I'm talking about. That's not following through on their commitment when they've agreed to serve. I'd be highly in favor of uninviting such a volunteer from serving if they acted like that. What I'm saying is when someone steps down, you should try not to take it personal, you should realize this is the nature of non-profit work, and you should express gratitude and the utmost appreciation for services rendered. This is New Day way of responding when a volunteer steps down.

Sunday Reflections

Today was a special day at New Day. Here's some of my reflections:

• We took a step of faith in starting a second service and it's already paying off. Last Sunday we had 258 people in our single service. Today we had 128 in our first service and 161 in our second, for a grand total of 289 people. It was insane!
• I thank God for the successful transition. I can honestly say that even after all the reading and interviewing me and my team did in investigating how to successfully switch from one to two services, there were still a lot of unanswered questions. But we did what we could and trusted God with the rest. And God came through in providing one thing after another that we needed to make this work.
• I'm also very thankful to my staff for all their hard work in preparing for a second service. Each department had to raise new volunteers and make provisions for two services instead of one (i.e. worship in two services, host team in two services, kids workers for two services, collecting the offering for two services, etc.). Everyone stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. I've really got a great team for which I'm very grateful for.
• I'm also thankful for the volunteers who made the transition possible. Without the people who stepped up to volunteer, putting their hearts and hands where they were needed most, this wouldn't have been possible.
• I can't believe I'm about to write this, but I think very soon we'll be needing to add yet another service! This is a good problem to have and even though it represents untold hard work, I say BRING IT ON! I want to use my life to point as many people as possible to God.
• I really think this year is going to be a huge turning point for New Day. As we fill up two services we'll be ready to add a second full time staff member. I can't even tell you how much I'm looking forward to that! It'll be wonderful to have someone else besides me working 40+ hours a week on New Day.
• I have a strong inner sense that we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg - that we're just beginning to step in to what God has for us. This makes me celebrate what God is doing today, while looking foward with great anticipation of what he'll do tomorrow (and in thefuture).