Dear Small Church Pastor,
Letter #10 was about creating bonds with the physically diverse family that exists in small church settings. Allow me to continue this concept with some thoughts on expanding the church family that you pastor.
Most people develop comfort zones in which they operate. This is especially true when it comes to a small church setting. People have a tendency to form cliques made up of family and close friends, even when worshipping together. This tendency can hinder the expansion of a church community when new people begin to attend worship services where there is already an established set of groupings within the congregation.
The congregation that doesn’t easily admit new people into their established groups will have to be instructed in the concepts involved in becoming more hospitable to new arrivals. Caring for strangers who are new to an area is one of the commands stated in scripture. In order to help a congregation improve their hospitality (caring for strangers and foreigners) in connection to new people, the leadership will first have to develop good hospitality themselves and then encourage everyone else to do the same.
Allow me to recommend a book to you entitled Becoming a Welcoming Church by Thom Rainer. I have successfully used this small book with a congregation in order to help them become more welcoming to new attenders. I gave a copy of the book to all the families in the congregation, and then we covered the principles through lessons and messages designed to encourage the congregation to become “welcoming” to new people who visited our worship services.
The results became evident when we had new people arrive over the next few months. Almost everyone in the congregation welcomed the new attenders and spoke to them each time they visited. They invited them to join in for dinners, youth events and other church activities. They called them to chat and to thank them for becoming part of our congregation. They visited them or called when they missed services. There were invitations to go fishing, exchange recipes and help each other with projects.
The most important aspect of the new-found hospitality was that new people would thank the congregation for accepting them just as they were. There were few judgmental looks at physical appearances. (You’ll be blessed if most of your folks are not judgmental when it comes to dress, tattoos, hairstyles, etc..) The new people were genuinely appreciative of the “we’re glad you are with us” attitude the congregation was displaying.
All the time the established members were interacting with the new arrivals, they were building relationships with them. As time passed, those relationships began to strengthen. The new people were becoming accepted as part of the church family. That resulted in growth of the family, and that growth brought in new opportunities for people to be ministered to physically and spiritually by the congregation. And aren’t we supposed to help our people mature and become more and more like Jesus as we minister to them and with them?
The process of becoming a hospitable place of worship will take some time to be established and to work its way to fruition. The process will require people learning that acceptance is more than a handshake and an insincere “Thanks for coming.” They have to learn that physical growth must be preceded by spiritual growth, or the physical growth will not endure. You may need to start by explaining what hospitality means.
The bottom line of this letter is: Help your congregation learn how to expand and include more people in the family of God through hospitalitiy.
Sincerely,
A Small Church Pastor