Promoting Hospitality
I have a friend who, when she knows I be over, leaves her front door wide open for me. I knock on the screen door and walk in calling her name and she welcomes me into her home with a welcoming hug. My friend promotes hospitality as she welcomes me into her home. She is a wonderful hostess to all who visit her.
Promoting hospitality at First is so important. We know when people will start arriving and we need to be ready to greet all who come through our doors. We have our Parking Lot Ministry, who helps those in our parking lot, our Welcome Center Staff, who answer question and get people where they need to be, our Coffee Hosts, who promote fellowship with one another and our Nursery staff who so carefully takes care of the littlest of God’s children. Each of these ministries are so very vital to promoting our hospitality within our church, but there are areas that we are missing a wonderful opportunity to greet and welcome each other into our narthex and sanctuary. We need hospitality minglers within our greeting place, looking for ways to help and welcome all who come. We need minglers in the sanctuary helping people find a seat and welcome all who come down their aisle. None of us would sit in our living room and not get up when our company arrived in our homes, we would get up and welcome our guest. It’s not any different here at First, each of us is called to play a part in being hospitable to all we come in contact with on a Sunday or Wednesday.
Our minglers will not be standing in one place, but will walk around looking for those who need help and greeting all they see. Our sanctuary minglers would walk up and down talking quietly, greeting everyone and helping people find a seat. These are such easy things to do, smiling, saying hello and helping with the needs of others. Just think if someone new arrived at church was helped in the parking lot, was helped at the welcome center, but then not helped or greeted as they moved about the narthex or into the sanctuary. They would feel as if something was missing and it is. We need people who are willing to help be minglers in our narthex and sanctuary spaces. People willing to walk around and talk with all they meet. Each one of us are called to show hospitality, as Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers”.
It is so very important to show hospitality and to promote it within our church. We greet people when they come into our homes, should we not also greet those coming into God’s house. Please join me in promoting hospitality and become a minglers in the narthex or sanctuary or both. As I walk around on Sunday and Wednesday greeting people, come along side me and we can do this together.
