Church welcoming doesn't end at the door

I realise our church is quite large. I realise our lives are getting quite busy. However I am getting fed up with our selfish attitudes towards welcoming new people. And I say OUR because I'm not taking myself out of the equation.

Often doing sound at church I am up the back and it gives a good platform to observe people and in particular our welcoming of visitors. And I'll be honest- we aren't doing the best at it. In fact we aren't even making people other than our friendship groups welcome. Have a quick think- who did you have a chat to in our Sunday's greeting time?

Firstly we need to be more welcoming at the front door. This is more than a hello- If you don't know the people- Introduce yourself- ask people how their week is going. If our friends are on welcoming have a quick chat or hello and move on- Lets not interfere with their welcoming ministry. Clear the entrance way so people can move in. Be aware that the teach people have jobs to do so don't start chatting to them 1 min before service time. Look around for new people or irregular people and even just say hello.

Then we have our welcoming time. Most people don't bother to get up. The ones who do get up first seem to rush off to chat to friends. The visitors or the people who aren't regulars sit quietly by themselves. (ever wonder why they aren't regular?) Eventually someone might come over to talk to them but often it is the same people every week.

I'm going to have a radical suggestion here- If we want to catch up with friends lets not do it at church. Chat up for a coffee on sat or after work. Even do it later on, in the day on Sunday. But lets not waste our opportunities to welcome/encourage visitors or non-regular attendees or people in a different age group in those key times: Directly before church, during church and immediately afterwards. Better yet invite them to things afterwards with you.

Common Willows lets pick up our game. I'm getting sick of people saying "Are they new?" about people who have been coming for a while- but are the first ones to chat to their friends. Maybe if the only time we see our friends is on Sunday- there may be something wrong.

Castle: "Space Cowboy" (Firefly/Serenity)

One of the best moments from Castle

Define desperate

Willows shopping centre had a Save the Fury thing on today. If you signed the petition they gave you a Loyalty card. Get 3 receipts from the food court and you'd get a free prize. One person were so desperate he was crawling under a table to grab a receipt. He then dashed to customer service to receive his prize to be given a teenage mutant ninja turtles pencil case set. Hardly worth it was it Isaac Andrews?

AFL add from 1979

Even though it it has been 30 years still a great song and game

praise song and dance

I just remembered why we don't do interpretive dance... make sure you watch to the end.

Even a Mascot has a bad day occasionally

I've always wanted to have a go at being a mascot. Last year I had a chance to be a stable on the strand mascot. it was good fun- I was worried something like this would happen- Nathan there is even a segway crash.

boy who cried shark!!!

When you are in the Ocean you can't really cry wolf so the next best thing is to cry shark!!!... Immediately you find the beach clears and you have the best surf waves to yourself according to Gold coast surfer Clint Kimmins. In order to clear out the beach a bit he posted on facebook stating that he 'just saw a guys leg get ripped off by a bull shark at Burleigh Cove. Soo heavy'.
Hmmm it worked apparently- who says facebook is bad.

Oh dear

I've had a bit of Trudy moment- after ages of looking at our church roadside Pulpit (message board) I finally got it. This is the sign here.
Now I just took it on face value- yes "God is watching over me" (as bombarded on TV with the Phill Joel song) but only just recognized the Avatar reference- This taken from our church website.
In the movie Avatar, the Na’vi greet each other with ‘I see you’. They dont merely mean I see you with my eyes, but the concept is borrowed from Sanskrit meaning ‘The god in me sees the god in you’ or ‘I see myself in you’. While we don’t subscribe to buddhist or hindu philosophy of divinity in all or all being part of the divine, the greeting is an apt picture of Jesus’ approach to us. He says to us: ‘I know who you are and everything about you. You are made in the image of God, and I want restore your relationship with me’. His expected response from us is also ‘I see you’, but this time ‘I know you are God, I wish to restore my relationship with you, so I place my trust in you’.

It also talks about Jesus being the Real avatar.
Pretty cool- but subtle? Too subtle? What do you think

The Axis of Awesome 4 Chords Melbourne Comedy Festival

I often thought about taking up the piano--- obviously I just need to learn 4 cords.

These are the same guys who did the Election rap before the last Aussie elections

Good Add

What can we do to help (made me shed a manly tear)

Johnny Cash "Hurt"