Archive for guests
How to Help Guests Feel Welcome in God’s House, Pt.8a
Posted by: | Comments8. COMPLETE, don’t Compete with other Churches
When a small group of 16 people first launched The Dialogue Church on Easter, April 8th, 2007 we had no idea how challenging the road would be, BUT MAN HAS IT BEEN WORTH IT! We are seeing Jesus save people, literally save people from total destruction; we are seeing Jesus change lives, restore marriages, rescue teenagers from drug abuse and suicide, and young men surrender to purity!
It was tempting in the early days of our church plant to “pit ourselves against other churches” in an attempt to make US look better – can you see how jacked up that is. Our Church is really GOD’S CHURCH and so is every other church that determines to lift up the name of Jesus according to the Scriptures and invade the culture with the Incarnational ministry of Jesus Christ!
So, we decided to become PRO-CHURCH, no matter how different the church or how big the church or how small the church – we are going to cheer on, celebrate, love on, share with, and promote the churches that are PROMOTING JESUS ABOVE ALL ELSE! You won’t catch me trashing another church that is actively transforming lives in the way of Jesus – and you won’t see me allowing anyone else around me doing it either! It is God’s Church not mine (now this doesn’t mean we don’t call sin – sin; and we don’t call deception what it is – deception. We need to uncover lies and injustice, but we don’t need to dog God’s church simply because we are jealous, envious, or different.
Most of the unchurched people in our community already have an uneasy feeling about the “division” in the church today. As many see it, this is the problem with world religions – religions divide, divisions cause conflict, and conflict starts war – and war creates chaotic power struggles where nobody really wins, but a lot of people die. NOW, I am not saying I think that way, but if in our churches we spend more time “TRASHING OTHER CHURCHES” in stead of TEACHING PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS AND SIMPLY BEING THE CHURCH – then we won’t see a lot of changed lives and we will only confirm the suspicions of the unchurched – that we can’t get along! But we know better, Jesus said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have LOVE ONE FOR ANOTHER! Let’s be ONE!
We are a BIG PART of an amazing movement of churches here in New England called NEW ENGLAND UNITED, pioneered by Pastor Anthony Milas of www.GraniteUnited.com. We are the 4th church plant out of GraniteUnited.com and our desire is to continue “churching” New England through this network of amazing churches. We share teaching resources, financial resources, fund new church planters, mentor young pastors, love on one another, take a pastors retreat every year together as a family of pastors and their families, we host a men’s conference every year (www.warriorconference.com), and a women’s conference every year, we have monthly leadership gatherings, and now we are starting a new branch of ministry training for all of our volunteers to be equipped for “kingdom impact”; another new venture is doing servant evangelism together – check out www.unitedlove2010.com!
How to Help Guests Feel Welcome in God’s House, Pt.8
Posted by: | Comments7. Give Away FREE STUFF
Giving away free resources and gifts is one way of showing guests that we appreciate them and their willingness to investigate the spirituality of Jesus at our church and hopefully to encourage them to come back again – where they can experience Jesus on a hole nutha level!
We love giving away FREE STUFF because it helps to brand Jesus & His Church as GIVERS instead of takers (which is clearly the biblical view on Jesus & the mission of his Church). Many unchurched people think that God and His Church are simply on the TAKE. But that just isn’t true, GOD IS A GIVER, NOT A TAKER – and we are here to prove that one GUEST at a time!
Giving away free stuff, especially to guests, is such a fun and simple way to demonstrate God’s HUGE HEART OF GENEROSITY. TheDC has learned this art of generosity from watching other amazing churches here in New England and around the country. Every week we get to give away FREE STUFF, not just to our guests but to regular attenders, members, and those who have never even attended our church. We give away free SERMONS online, free bibles, free books, free food, free coffee, free literature, free t-shirts ALL IN AN EFFORT TO COMMUNICATE AND DEMONSTRATE WITH GREAT CLARITY THE JESUS OF THE BIBLE – HE IS A GIVER, NOT A TAKER!
We see churches in the New Testament giving to the poor, giving to other churches, giving to one another and giving to the mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ! As a 3 year old church plant we have experienced all of those things; our mother church GraniteUnited.com has really led the way in teaching and modeling for us what it means to GIVE GENEROUSLY, as they never ceased to bless us and bless all of God’s churches all over New England and around the world! May we cultivate the same kind of God-hearted generosity!
How to Help Guests Feel Welcome in God’s House, Pt.2
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday, I talked a bit about how we can prepare for guests in God’s House, the local church. Today, I want to speak into some practical ways we can help our guests feel welcome in God’s House.
Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! (Hebrews 13:2 NLT)
1. Start with a warm invitation to your church.
Every conversation about your church with an unchurched person is an invitation to your church, whether you realize it or not. People can pick up on our negative attitudes and our sarcasm. If you want to help guests feel welcome in God’s House then start by HONORING THE HOUSE in every conversation, on facebook, in emails, on your blog, at the salon, in the home, at work, in the pubs, clubs, and cafes around your community. Let your words be seasoned with grace, and be as wise as a serpent in the words you use. And most importantly be sure to TAKE A REAL INTEREST IN THEIR LIFE FROM THE START, and don’t be afraid to share how Jesus & His church has changed your life. You may want to carry around some INVITE CARDS to your church that you can hand out at the end of a conversation! Why not? I do it all the time, most people are very appreciative! Be sure to have a link to your website on these cards:-) At theDC we make these invite cards available before the launch of every new sermon series so our Jesus-peeps can pass them out to their friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, & whomever else.
How to Help Guests Feel Welcome In God’s House, Pt.1
Posted by: | CommentsEvery week at The Dialogue Church we have the opportunity to make guests feel welcome in God’s House (the local church). One of our core values is that “people far from God really do matter to Him” and its our responsibility to help our guests feel welcome in His House! So, let’s talk about how to PREPARE FOR THE WELCOME!
For most of our guests they have never really been a part of a church, and for many they have never even been to a church (except for a funeral or wedding) – and we know how those can make us feel. Most of our guests are unchurched, meaning they aren’t already part of a church anywhere and typically never have been.
For most people, going to any place as the new comer can be quite intimidating and nerve wracking. I remember recently going to “an event” and I was the new comer. I wanted so badly for someone to notice me and greet me, but not attack me and try and get me to do something I didn’t feel comfortable doing. Most of our guests are looking for something spiritual, something that will connect them with the divine, the transcendent, the other side, the other world, the other Way. They don’t know how to describe it and they don’t know how to define it, but they sense IT is there and they want to not just learn, but connect, they want to experience, they want to breathe it in, they want to consume it, wrestle with it, discover it, and bump & grind with it. But by no means do they want to admit or convey that they are RELIGIOUS – but they are looking for something spiritual.
As a pastor I can get sidetracked and think that because unchurched people don’t want to associate with anything “religious” that they in fact don’t want anything spiritual, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I believe we live in a generation and culture that is craving the supernatural. Look at the rise of everything paranormal, supernatural, and other-worldly; in the movies, music, and all over the web people are going crazy for the supernatural.
So, the challenge for the church of Jesus isn’t to get people interested in the supernatural, its to show people the SUPERNATURAL POWER OF GOD THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST!
I believe when people come to our churches they want to see, hear, and experience the SUPERNATURAL. Well, the best way for that to happen is to teach them about Jesus, let them rub shoulders with the people of Jesus, bump fists with the Body of Christ, have conversation with the kids of the Creator, and intermingle their lives with the culture of the Kingdom!
One more thing about preparing for the WELCOME…I have a very high view of the church (my ecclesiology). I simply believe that there is no greater place for someone in your community to go than your local church. Why? Because the local church is the only prescribed agent by God to make known the message of Jesus Christ, the local church is the only organism on earth with a promise to be unstoppable with hope, faith, and love! If someone in your community had received an invitation to the White House and an invitation to your local church – then I would vote for the local church. Don’t get me wrong, meeting the President of the greatest country in the world would be a very high honor, BUT JUST IMAGINE GOING INTO GOD’S HOUSE AND MEETING THE KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS; I mean really meeting Him for the very first time and finding out that He has invited you to sit at the table with Him, to be a part of His family for all eternity. Well, I would say that is an invitation you don’t want to pass up.
