Last week we looked at the Ten Most Important Minutes for a guest at church. Today we talk about another ten very important minutes for a guest in many churches--the Awkward Minutes.
The Ten Most Awkward Minutes for a guest at a new church are the five minutes before the service begins and the five minutes after the service ends.
Before the service begins, guests make their way into the worship center, find their seat and sit down. As they wait for the service to start, in many churches, no one speaks to them. It is awkward. Often they sense others looking at them and trying to figure out who they are, what their connect might be to the church, and if they have visited another Sunday previously. Yet the guests are simply there and no one speaks.
When the service ends, these same guests collect their belongings and make their way to the exit and often find no one speaking to them on the back end of the service either.
In the days of traditional buildings and traditional practice (like the church of 66 in regular attendance I spent the first 14 years of my life in), the service would close with one last song, long enough for the pastor (and his wife) to walk down the center aisle to the back doors (or are they the front doors), where they would greet everyone (but rarely a guest cause guests were rare) on the way out.
Don't get me wrong. The pastor should have a personality better than shoe leather. He should show care and compassion, be neighborly and kind. But the pastor alone doesn't create an inviting environment and neither do a select few. Rather, the people as a whole must prioritize making an inviting environment. This means making a great first impression in a guest's first ten minutes and eliminating the awkward ten minutes when a guest wonders why everyone was so friendly when they arrived but seemed to drop them like they were hot once in the facility.
Next time you happen to be a first time guest at a new church, take notice of those Ten Most Important Minutes and Ten Most Awkward Minutes, while vowing to never lose the guest mentality.
The Ten Most Awkward Minutes for a guest at a new church are the five minutes before the service begins and the five minutes after the service ends.
Before the service begins, guests make their way into the worship center, find their seat and sit down. As they wait for the service to start, in many churches, no one speaks to them. It is awkward. Often they sense others looking at them and trying to figure out who they are, what their connect might be to the church, and if they have visited another Sunday previously. Yet the guests are simply there and no one speaks.
When the service ends, these same guests collect their belongings and make their way to the exit and often find no one speaking to them on the back end of the service either.
In the days of traditional buildings and traditional practice (like the church of 66 in regular attendance I spent the first 14 years of my life in), the service would close with one last song, long enough for the pastor (and his wife) to walk down the center aisle to the back doors (or are they the front doors), where they would greet everyone (but rarely a guest cause guests were rare) on the way out.
Don't get me wrong. The pastor should have a personality better than shoe leather. He should show care and compassion, be neighborly and kind. But the pastor alone doesn't create an inviting environment and neither do a select few. Rather, the people as a whole must prioritize making an inviting environment. This means making a great first impression in a guest's first ten minutes and eliminating the awkward ten minutes when a guest wonders why everyone was so friendly when they arrived but seemed to drop them like they were hot once in the facility.
Next time you happen to be a first time guest at a new church, take notice of those Ten Most Important Minutes and Ten Most Awkward Minutes, while vowing to never lose the guest mentality.
