No one stands alone

I was reminded this Sunday of one of our core values at Community Hope as I visited another church. One of our core values is 'No one stands alone." This value simply means that when we see somebody in our congregation that is all alone we go and stand by them and engage in a conversation. This also could mean that when someone visits our church for the first time and we see them sitting alone that we go and introduce our self and be friendly and make the visitor feel welcome. Sunday we visited a church in the Pella area. Right before service began, the worship leader talked for about four minutes on the importance of getting to know one another. He then gave everyone about three to four minutes to greet. It is always interesting to look through the lens of a guest in a church and not the pastor. As our family stood there, we only had one person come up and greet us. We stood there for the awkward three to four minutes and had no meaningful conversations with anyone. In fact, the whole time we were there we did not have one person come up and engage us. Now I am not being harsh on this church as the worship was very good and the message was good as well. The reason I bring this up is simply for the benefit of our church. Let's not just have a value for the sake of having a value. Let's practice this value of "No one stands alone." The church we visited was a very large church. This made me think that the larger we get the harder it gets for this value to be practiced. When we were 80 people, it is easy to practice engaging new people and making them feel welcome. It was even easy at 100 and 120. But what about 200? What about 250 or 300? This value will get harder and harder to practice as we grow. That is why it must be intentional. Here are some simple things we can do to make sure "No one stands alone."

1. If you see someone in the foyer that looks lost, go up to that person and introduce yourself.
2. If there is someone sitting in the sanctuary all alone, ask if you can sit by them and engage them in a conversation.
3. During greet time-PLEASE DO NOT ALWAYS GO TO THE SAME PEOPLE THAT YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH. Find people you don't know so well. Greet them and make them feel welcome.
4. If there is a guest with children-make the children feel welcome. Jesus said that if you welcome one of these little ones you would be welcoming Him. Tell the family about our great nursery and children's ministries in the education building.

I want to encourage all of us to continue to reach our to new people. I believe that in these last days, God will bring a harvest to our church. As they come in, we must be ready and welcoming. Let's make sure that "No one stands alone."