Hello, I am a Newcomer to your Church...
You cannot know the reason I am here this morning. It may be as simple as a move to your area or as complicated as a personal crisis that leads me to seek strength from God. In either case I am here.
I will probably remain here and come back to worship with you next Sunday and the next Sunday and the Sunday after that, if you will do some things for me. Won't you please...
Smile at me as I walk in the door. You are the first impression of the church during the first few months I am in your building, and this impression will probably stay with me for a long time.
Help me find my place in the service. I will not find your help an intrusion. In fact, I will remember your kindness.
Speak to me during the coffee hour. I know you want to see your friends or settle committee business, but I may find it hard to believe that you truly care for each other unless I first see evidence that you care for the stranger in your midst.
Tell me good things about your church and your clergy. I want to believe that I have come to a place where people love each other and where they believe they are doing something exciting and important for the Lord.
Notice me, even if I am not "family." I do not want to feel invisible just because I am unmarried, a single parent, a teenager or an older person.
Talk to me again the second week when I come back, and the third and the fourth. I am still not part of your parish family. Please don't feel you have "done your duty" by me just because you made a point of greeting me the first week I came.
Invite me to become part of some church group or organization. I need more then worship every Sunday. I need to know that I am accepted and affirmed by a group of people within the church who know me by my first name and who care about me as an individual.
If you can find it in your heart to do these things, I will come back again and again to worship with you, work at your events, teach in your church school, pledge, and become an involved member of your church and my life will be immeasurably enriched.
~Author, Rev. Christopher Chamberlain Moore
I will probably remain here and come back to worship with you next Sunday and the next Sunday and the Sunday after that, if you will do some things for me. Won't you please...
Smile at me as I walk in the door. You are the first impression of the church during the first few months I am in your building, and this impression will probably stay with me for a long time.
Help me find my place in the service. I will not find your help an intrusion. In fact, I will remember your kindness.
Speak to me during the coffee hour. I know you want to see your friends or settle committee business, but I may find it hard to believe that you truly care for each other unless I first see evidence that you care for the stranger in your midst.
Tell me good things about your church and your clergy. I want to believe that I have come to a place where people love each other and where they believe they are doing something exciting and important for the Lord.
Notice me, even if I am not "family." I do not want to feel invisible just because I am unmarried, a single parent, a teenager or an older person.
Talk to me again the second week when I come back, and the third and the fourth. I am still not part of your parish family. Please don't feel you have "done your duty" by me just because you made a point of greeting me the first week I came.
Invite me to become part of some church group or organization. I need more then worship every Sunday. I need to know that I am accepted and affirmed by a group of people within the church who know me by my first name and who care about me as an individual.
If you can find it in your heart to do these things, I will come back again and again to worship with you, work at your events, teach in your church school, pledge, and become an involved member of your church and my life will be immeasurably enriched.
~Author, Rev. Christopher Chamberlain Moore