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"

Hello is anyone out there

Well due to lack of comments I thought I'd try get a cheap plug/comment. I found this on Izaac's blog about how apparently Google alerts this guy Soulfan (who I'm not going to link to just to see if this makes a difference) whenever some one types in the words Guy Sebastian. Apparently it works. However Andrew Finden isn't too sure. However to make it worth Soulfan's while I'll tell a story about Guy.
I wasn't into Australian Idle at all and was going to AGMF (Australian gospel music festival in Toowoomba) with my sister (who is a big Guy Fan). It was announced he was going to preform but only 3 or 4 songs. I felt quite ripped off as apparently it was a big cost but as Bethany was hugely excited we were there very early (AGMF sold out that day) and had a good view kinda on the side of the stage. Guy arrived in a limo and did a couple of songs and whilst he had a good voice, wasn't too inspiring. He then blew me away announcing- "Well since this is Easter we have to sing some Easter songs that remind us about Jesus our Savior who came to earth to die on a cross for us..."
Now where we were sitting we could see his manager or someone with him and he didn't look too happy about this change of plan. Guy then sent off his guitarist and invited us to join him as he launched into some of my Favourite Hymns. Now I didn't expect him to know The old rugged cross and a few others off by heart but he sang them perfectly. His voice really bought out the emotion in the old Hymns hitting the notes right on. After a few songs he then sang Where angels or whatever that song was called and then went his merry way.
That gave me a huge amount of respect for him and his singing. Firstly that he was prepared to disobey his plans/set and then how well he did know those songs. His short message reflected far better the Easter event we were there for than many of the 'Christian' artists who were there as well who have millions of 'Christian Praise and worship' Cd's sold.
I just thought I'd put that out there- I also enjoyed seeing Jason Stevens in the clip for 'like it like that'
P.S. other people who read my blog need to post more too- if anyone does

Pointing to the Light

A friend of mine just got ordained in Sydney. I found out Sydney Anglicans get swords to celebrate this. I want one :) Maybe I will go to Moore. PCQ will need to do better to beat that. I vote Lightsabers to help us point towards the light.

Follow up on Tim Tebow

I thought I would write a follow up on Tim Tebow. I was just going to post a video but Aaran gets cranky about that. Tim Tebow seems to be a polarising sort of person. People either Hate him or love him. There are some people who are filled with hate whenever he is mentioned. Articles like this one have been written. The irony is he hasn't played past College Level. But I do say he seems to impress me immensely. He has put religion back into discussions, speaking the word of God with his voice and even his face paint and all he does is throw a ball around.

But can I just say I was disappointed by the softness of the Focus on the Family add at the super bowl. But it is well worth going to the Focus on the Family site and watching their full story. I think they have set up the website well.

Now Didn't Jesus tell us "All men will hate you because of me" ?(matt 10:22) Well I had to say I searched for a video of where Tebow got a concussion in Kentucky as refereed to in the video and it took me a while to find a decent one- all the rest celebrated that "That Christian Preacher quarterback finally got what he deserved. " I reckon good on him for preaching what he believes and not backing down. For daring to tell people about a God who gives Hope to the needy, love to the broken. If more of our Christians did that it would be a vastly different place- so I put the challenge out to you- how many of your work colleges know you are Christian? Are you setting opportunities for faith discussions. Or are you quietly sitting back hoping some one might ask you something about the cross you wear hidden under your shirt- or the fish on your car? I see the media attack people who do. How have you been persecuted this week because of your Faith?

Patrick Henry Hughes - Inspirational Story

Something to think about when we think we have it tough. Worth a watch about a kid who was blind and crippled but yet incredibly gifted in music. It is also a tale of love of his father.

Commercials from the superbowl

Often the best part of the superbowl is the adds. Here is some of my favourites

Hmmmm reminds me of some syndrome--- can't remember the name though

In a League of its own

enough said

Comment Spam

Sorry about all the comment spam. I've now put it on so you'll have to type in a word to comment. Sorry about that guys, I hate doing it on other people's blogs but I was getting too much garbage

Anti Abortion Add

Often the American Superbowl adds are the main reason people watch american football. Why because it is long and boring. What we see on aussie TV is the shortened version. This year Focus on the Family has teamed up with College football superstar, who Nathan (mistakenly) alluded to here, Tim Tebow to do an anti abortion add. It will be interesting to see if it airs.

Complaints about lost luggage

we've all lost luggage :) but never had this happen