Within the first three minutes after a guest or visitor has entered into our parking lots they have already decided whether they like the church or not, whether they will return or not.

Three minutes!

The pastor hasn’t even had a chance to say hello.

First impressions matter. First impressions absolutely matter.

Few ministries are as important as greeters. The greeters set the tone for those visiting our congregations. Greeters of the first face guests encounter. Greeters are the first impression guests have of the welcome and grace of Jesus Christ.

I share the story Nicky Gumbel (the Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, and the founder of Alpha) about the important role greeters play.

Aged thirty-three, Barbara Claphane came to live in London. She decided she was going to look for a church. One Sunday morning, she arrived at HTB. The young woman who was welcoming people at the door smiled at her and asked her name. Because of that smile, Barbara came back the following week. When she walked in the next Sunday the same person said, “Hello Barbara!”

Because the person on the door remembered her name, she decided that she was going to come back every Sunday. That was in 1947. From then on Barbara came almost every Sunday until she died, soon after celebrating her 100th birthday. She made a huge impact on the life of HTB (including running the finances of the church for many years). I wonder whether the young woman on the door had any idea of the difference she made by remembering Barbara’s name.

Greeters, you are the first impression people will have of the welcoming face of Christ. Thank you for your amazing ministry!

So someone is using my church email address to sign me up for all kinds of things.

Thus far, this person has signed me up for:

• a Tunnel Bear Club (no idea what that is)
• contacted a counselor saying I need help (I actually do need help, and do use counseling). But said that I was a father to two sons and serving as a pastor of a wayward congregation. Clearly this person doesn’t know the Little Church or Lakewood Grace.
• a National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (this is my favorite. Cracked me up!)
• as a volunteer United Church of Christ (No thanks. Already pretty busy with my church and denomination), Focus on the Family (I have great respect for Focus on the Family)
• and the list goes on.

And using my name and email to leave comments on other church’s web pages. That part is not too cool. I have no idea what you’re saying using my name and email.

So, you. Yeah you! The you that is impersonating me. I’ve got a couple of things to say to you.

First, whoever is doing this, you’re pretty creative. A good mixture of stuff.

Second, get a life! Try Jesus. He can really change your life around. He changed mine!

Finally, if you are checking out my blog and church web page because you got a weird message from my church email address, please know it wasn’t me.

 

It is so easy to give opinions.

It doesn’t cost a thing to go on Yelp or Google and give a poor rating.

But what we forget is that every business and every restaurant we so non-chalantly rate is someone’s life. They have given themselves fully to their business. They want it to succeed. It’s so easy to hide behind the screen and give someone a low rating.

I get that we live in a highly mobile and social media savvy world.

But it’s a cruel world where the only thing necessary to become a critic is a screen and access to the internet.