Smile! Many of us are just as shy as they are. But we are in a familiar place, and they are not. A smile can go a long way to welcoming someone to a “foreign land.”

Say “Hello! My name is . . . . . ” For the really bold among us, feel free to shake their hand. And if you’re really crazy, ask their name and challenge yourself to remember it.

Show them around. Once you’ve said hello and helped them follow the worship, maybe you could show them around the church building (especially, pointing out the bathrooms!).

Think of it as your house. What would you show them? What would you want them to know or see about this place?

Of course, these are the basics of the Christian community in which we live. We want to remind you to be alert as the students return for a new semester.

1. When the service is over, intentionally go to someone you don’t know well and greet that person before reconnecting with your friends in the congregation.
2. If your congregation “Passes the Peace,” feel free to move out of your section to share God’s peace with someone on the other side of the sanctuary.
3. Call someone whom you haven’t seen in worship recently and just say, “Hello.”
4. Sit somewhere different one Sunday morning and engage the people around you in conversation.
5. Arrive early for worship and walk around the sanctuary to make sure things are neat and straight.
6. Arrive early for worship and walk through the restrooms to make sure they are neat and well stocked with supplies.
7. If your congregation offers activity bags for young children, take a moment to see if they are well stocked and easy to find.

The article is entitled: The Death of Middle Judicatories.

Somewhere along the line, I learned that there was a difference between the maximum seating capacity of a sanctuary and the maximum comfortable seating capacity of a sanctuary. Quite simply, if your sanctuary is 80% full, then you have reached your maximum comfortable seating capacity and the chances of continued growth in that service are significantly reduced. I have also learned that in rural areas, where people are used to having more space, you may reach your comfortable seating capacity when 60% of the sanctuary is full. Once a sanctuary feels full, then regular worshipers are less likely to invite someone else to church and new worshipers are more likely to feel uncomfortable when the arrive.

At St. Michael, I have been operating on the assumption that our sanctuary would be full at 80% of capacity, but based on my experience in New York, I am beginning to wonder if our community might be just rural enough that we are reaching our comfortable seating capacity at our 11 AM service even though the building is only filled to 70% of capacity. I need to look at this more closely over the next few months to see if this theory is true, but my experience in New York has reminded me that just because a seat is unoccupied doesn’t mean there are comfortable seats left in a sanctuary.

Welcome to one of the greatest ages of mission the Christian movement has ever seen. Welcome to the first century. Welcome to the twenty-first century. Welcome to a mission time. . . . This is no longer a churched culture. I encourage you not to mourn its passing. Do not long for a return to those days when going to church was the thing to do. The church is never at its best in a churched culture.

The church is at home in an age of mission. . . . When church going was a staple of social conformity, the church was nonetheless ill at ease and out of place. Despite all the cultural status conferred on it, the church was restless and uncomfortable in a churched culture. Yes, it has enjoyed its prominence as a cultural institution and the pedestal on which it was perched. Yet the church has realized, albeit dimly, that it is not called to be admired by the world. Intuitively it has been restless to serve, not to be served.

Whenever the church accepts the perks and the prestige, it becomes a slave of the world. It is no longer a servant in the world. It becomes beholden to the world. The danger is that it will be distracted from its mission and become a pleasant irrelevancy in the culture. Its voice becomes muted, its message muffled. The good news of joy, wonder, grace and hope is stifled.

When the church allows itself to become a pleasant irrelevancy, it becomes simply an amiable activity for those few who may have an occasional interest. The culture can then simply ignore the church.

Fortunately God invites the church to mission direction, not worldly distractions. And, fortunately, the church retains a latent memory of how to share the mission. The church that endures beyond a churched culture is a church that knows best how to live in an age of mission. With God’s help, the church rediscovers its beginning and thus lives out its true identity as servant in the world.

Sometimes we learn something and it inspires us to act. Sometimes we act and it inspires us to learn. It seems to me the key is to discover which methodology connects to you and to the people with which God has blessed you. What I discovered this week is that for my youth, having them live a life of compassion and service is a wonderful way to inspire them to learn more about God.

First, change the culture of welcoming by doing an exercise at the beginning of the service that we have been calling “100 seconds of Fun” at the church where I was interim. After I welcomed everyone, I asked the congregation to move about for 100 seconds welcoming as many people as possible. We chose 100 seconds in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the congregation. Two weeks ago, a guest told me on the way out that our congregation was the friendliest she had ever attended.

Second, change the culture of welcoming by using your church’s governing body to be a greeting force. Take the group into the sanctuary and tell them to sit where they normally sit and then have them divide the congregation into areas in which they will be responsible for welcoming everyone in that area and introducing the guests to as many people as possible.

Third, change the culture of welcoming by having an Art Lee type person at the door who welcomes everyone and finds out information about the guests. Art was a member at one of my congregations who took the responsibility of being in the narthex before and after services. He gave me the names of all guests when I exited at the end of the service and then talked to each guest when they came out, introducing them to all around. Art was a natural who shared a warm welcome that became contagious and spread.

Try one, two or three and see if they can help change the culture of welcoming at your congregation.

As I think about these changes in myself and the way that I do ministry, I have started to wonder if congregations are adapting quickly enough to changes in communication. For example, should the church have a cell phone so we can send and receive text messages from the church to our youth? As people become accustomed to receiving a constant flow of information, what does it look like for a congregation to shift from a large monthly newsletter to a system which provides ministry news in small digestible bits through multiple streams? As everyone transitions away from having one home phone number to having their own personal phone number that they carry with them constantly, how will we respect the privacy of staff and congregants? In general, I guess it all boils down to this - how will we adapt to the possibilities these new communication tools provide and the expectations that they create?