We've come to the end of this series of making changes in our churches to welcome the newcomers.
The last suggestion to making your guests feel more comfortable is to simply be yourself. It’s weird, but visitors can quickly detect fakery and problems in a church. They may not be able to put their finger on it, but they can tell when the atmosphere is charged with tension or charged with Jesus.
One of the biggest issues in the church today, especially in the developed world, is the fakery that goes on. Christians in America are notorious for including a plastic smile with their Sunday outfits. To their fellow church attendees, everything in their world is “fine” and “good.” So good, in fact, that it can’t be real.
You have issues and I have issues that we are dealing with. You know it, and I know it. Now, you don’t have to spell out those issues, and I may not tell you what I’m struggling with. But, to lie about our world to our fellow believers only serves to harm our integrity, especially to the unchurched.
Granted, visitors don’t expect your greeting to be accompanied with a laundry list of your sins from the past week. But, if you’re being honest with yourself and your accountability partners, you will exude a personal atmosphere that says you’re not faking it when Sunday rolls around. You will be oozing the freedom that you found in Jesus, and THAT is contagious. Newcomers will want more of that.
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