• Engage

    How Not to Shepherd Visitors

    Today I’m happy to welcome Aussie guest blogger Anna Stoyanoff. You can read her bio below. Have you ever felt like the only person in the room troubled by what someone is saying? Recently I had such an experience, looking around at the nods and thoughtful note-taking of others and thinking, Aren’t they hearing how disturbing this is? As I sat through training for ministry workers about what to do when visitors attend church, the speakers used Christian language: “We want to love them well.” They spoke a lot about being shepherds and caring for sheep. If only they’d described the kind of shepherd Jesus was…. Instead, they went on…

  • Heartprints

    Becoming a Welcoming Church

    As parents, we know all too well the pressures of simply getting out the door on Sunday mornings with kids in tow. Along with that comes the added pressure of checking our children into their classes, making sure teachers know about a child’s allergies, or calming a tearful toddler. When it comes down to it, welcoming new people isn’t always on our radar. And sometimes, the bigger problem is that we think our church is already so welcoming that it won’t make a difference if we fail to greet a guest. Thom S. Rainer (church consultant and author of Becoming a Welcoming Church) learned not to ask church members if…