As I am writing this, we are at the beginning of what I consider the holiest time of the Christian year, conveniently called Holy Week, therefore you would think that I would post about that. I was going to do that at first, then I got “the letter,” which moved me to write about the importance of hospitality, particularly since you may be receiving guests for Easter Worship.
Let me give you a little background. As part of my official duties there will be times that I visit local churches or worship, either as part of a consultation or for encouragement and support. Then there are times when my wife and I just visit different churches for worship, which is one of the benefits of not serving in the local church. Last month we did that, picked a church in an area we would be visiting in order to join them for worship.
Everytime I visit a local church, whether personally or professionally, I always sign in. I do this to test their guest follow-up process. On this particular occasion, I did just that and heard nothing following the visit, which is fine because not every church has a process in place. I didn’t give it much thought until I received the invitation to attend Lent and Easter worship. This was a bit strange since the letter came in the mail right before Palm Sunday, which is the end of Lent/beginning of Holy Week, but this is just parsing words I guess. The invitation to Easter was appreciated and the theme seemed uplifting for a form letter. What caught me off guard and soured me a bit was the solicitation for money, even including an offering envelope for me to use.
Needless to say, this bothered me a bit moving me to write this post. It bothered me because this was the first time I heard from the church and it was asking for money. It doesn’t affect my opinion of the Congregation, we enjoyed the service and will return, however I thought about this from the perspective of a “normal” person. How would they respond? Would they return? Would they be put off? Perhaps. Just in case let me share some hospitality information, tips and tools.
Whenever I think about hospitality, my thoughts turn to the book of Hebrews, particularly Hebrews 13:2 – “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” This is a reference to Abraham entertaining angels in Genesis 18:2.
In the ancient Hebrew and Christian traditions, the basis for hospitality toward the stranger is an openness to learning about another person. At the heart of this is listening, not to respond, but to understand, an understanding grounded in sympathy and empathy. When we provide space for others to share their stories, stories of life, faith, fear and joy, we should be moved by their individual experiences. At the heart of hospitality is the desire to foster and develop a relationship with your guest.
This relationship begins with a solid follow-up process. A simple one I have used throughout the course of my ministry begins with collecting information. This can be done by a simple form, both printed and online (particularly in this age of hybrid worship). Once the information is collected, treat it sacredly. I would spend Mondays calling each person who had signed in. It was a quick call or a voicemail, introducing myself and thanking them for worshiping with us. That was my only agenda, unless they wanted to talk more. I then handed off the person to another member who would write and mail a handwritten “thank you for worshiping with us” note. This added a personal touch. We would finally send a “form welcome letter” with more information about the church and her ministries. After so many “visits” we would invite them to an informal “get to know you gathering” and eventually to our next steps class. The whole idea was to help us develop a relationship with the person and help them build relationships with others in the congregation. This is just one suggestion. What does your church do for follow up?