A Church Community That Welcomes with Open Arms
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."…John 13:34,35
The church I am referring to takes the matter of being a welcoming community to a new level. It is a small congregation of about 65 people but everyone is engaged in welcoming each other and visitors to the worship service. When I arrived I was greeted at the door but also before I could find my seat several others in the congregation came to greet me and to welcome me.
New people are welcomed publicly by the pastor and there is a time in the service where people are given the opportunity to move about and extend peace to others in attendance.
All of these genuine expressions of love create an atmosphere for worship that is quite unlike anything I have ever previously experienced.
This church also has some amazing stories of interactions with people from the community. For a period of time the church held nightly prayer meetings. People passing by would stop in to see what was happening. Among them were people of other faiths and of no faith at all; seeking answers to their life questions. From my experience it is rare for people who have no background of attending church and no relationship with Jesus to simply walk into a church and seek answers to their questions.
As I have reflected on this situation I have come to these conclusions:
God can trust the people in this congregation to be warm and welcoming to anyone who walks through the door.
The Holy Spirit is supernaturally directing people, who would not otherwise be interested in church, to boldly walk in with their questions.
It is possible to create an atmosphere of love among the people of God that is contagious within the congregation and the community outside of the church.
Discipleship begins with evangelism and evangelism sometimes begins with the contagious overflow of genuine love from people who have learned to live out the new command to love one another.
K R Paton
President