What’s Your G.E. Quotient
One of the ways churches want to stand out is by their culture of friendliness to newcomers. I call this the G.E. quotient, meaning our guest engagement factor.
One of the truths and experiences we hold dear as believers is how God designed us as relational people who find great joy in all the various relationships He blesses us with: marriage, family, siblings, friends, neighbors, classmates, teammates, gym partners, work colleagues, affinity groups, church family, AND meeting those who are new to our church.
How would you rate your G.E. (guest engagement)? Do you consider yourself friendly or unfriendly? Do you find yourself always talking to the same people every Sunday and inadvertently overlooking the newcomers?
Well, I ran across a stunning post that reminded me we may not be as friendly, welcoming, and engaging as we may think. A pastor shared about meeting a new family who had recently visited several churches, and the mother commented on how many people at this church had spoken to them. He asked, “Is that unusual?” She responded that hardly anyone had spoken to them in all the churches they visited and then started to cry. It was clearly a pain point for her. That morning she and her husband had already been invited to a small group. Then the pastor wrote this: Hospitality is real ministry. The little things matter.
Then…I began to read through the posted comments:
“I recently moved to a new city and had to look for a new home church. The first church I tried I got one smile from a greeter. I attempted to visit the information desk and was ignored by an associate pastor. I tried for a few more weeks with the same response. I tried other churches with the same outcome.”
“This is true. We had a hospitality ministry to backpackers in Ecuador. When we returned to the US, not 1 person from the many churches that we visited initiated a conversation with us. Not once.”
“Yes. I am church hunting and felt this. I continued to attend one church, waiting 18 months for their "epic" hospitality to reach me, trying to make friends and get people to even remember my name or invite me personally to stuff. I eventually gave up. Still looking”
“True story. We visited several churches in our area over the last few years and usually only the pastor spoke to us. We stopped visiting and resorted to home church. I began praying for God to lead us to a church if He wanted us in one. He answered.”
“I travel a lot, visit many churches and I wonder how many congregation obtained their base attendee's as most are very unfriendly. I try to position myself to meet people and be approachable, but I feel ‘invisible’. I am single and even the church is a couple’s world.”
That’s enough. There were more. It seemed the common refrain was how unfriendly churches could be. I HOPE THIS IS NOT TRUE AT CC.
We are commanded to “greet one another…with a holy kiss.” God made us to need and want connection. There are so many who feel isolated, alone, lost, disconnected, hurting, and wondering if they matter and more.
Will you join me in not defaulting to the comfortable friends and fellow members we know and love so much, but be an army of one and be on the lookout to greet and meet new people to you and maybe someone new to our church. Do not let anyone be left alone. Do not let anyone be invisible.
Focus on the first part of “Greet one another” and if you see the new person or couple or family come again and again, then you can think about the “with a holy kiss” part…maybe…haha.
Pastor Jeff
“Why do bad things happen to good people?That only happened once, and He volunteered.”