Emphasis Preaching Journal

A Witness and Outreach Committee set church growth as their priority for the new year. In an effort to discover why visitors never seemed to come back to their church for a second time, they sent teams of visitors to attend other churches. The question they were to answer after each visit to a different church was this: "Would I go back to that church for a second visit?" They discovered that the churches they would go back to were the churches where the people genuinely made them feel welcomed in Christ's name. They found that it was one thing to have greeters; but if the people in the seats around them didn't speak to them before and after service, then what was the point? It was great to have a hymnbook and a bulletin; but if the people around them didn't have the courtesy to help them use them, thy why try to worship? It was good to call the service a family service; but if their children were frowned at for being a little noisy, was it truly a family service? It was nice to be invited to the coffee hour; but if no one but the pastor talked to them, then were they really welcomed in Christ's name? Our Witness and Outreach Committee discovered that what separated the churches that they'd worship at a second time from the churches that they would not go to again were those where they were truly welcomed as if they were Christ.
-- Conroy