St. Paul's United Church of Christ

A friend of mine was required to travel for his job. This travel often included two and three week blocks of time away from home. It was his practice to attend church, and he could visit up to 20 churches a year. I asked him about his experiences as one who was often a first time visitor. The first words out of his mouth were "No one hardly ever greeted me." He is a very honest person, and I believe him. I feel sad for him.

To be a church that builds ministry, a first step is to be a welcoming and assimilating church. The step toward being a more welcoming church begins before we arrive at the church building. But before we get to that, here is what might occur to prevent us from greeting that newcomer.

We have some assignments to do for the church that morning. We are busy.
We have been meaning to call Harry or Mary all week, and it is on our mind to get to them right after the service.
We are not that outgoing.
We are tired.
We don’t want to offend someone by greeting them only to find out that they have been attending for a while.
We don’t have "greeting newcomers" as a priority for our life at church.
We don’t have "greeting newcomers" as a habit in our church life.

And so, my friend visits 20 churches in one year, and no one hardly greets him. Do you think that is "Christian?" What better thing could we do on a Sunday morning than to greet our neighbor, learn their name, and exhibit a welcoming spirit?

I encourage you to consider and commit to the following BEFORE arriving at church.

Decide that one of your ministries is to robustly greet another person at church this Sunday and every Sunday.
Commit to make part of church business the learning of a name of someone.
Look around each Sunday. Who looks beat up? Go and greet them.
Ask a newcomer out to lunch and pay for their meal.
Make sure everyone who makes the effort to visit St. Paul's for the first time knows that they are welcome, important, and appreciated. Make it your mission.

I wonder what would happen if my friend visited our church this Sunday. I wonder if we would be that rare exception for him, where he was sought out and valued. It seems like a "Christian" thing to do, does it not? What will be your response to this challenge?

Blessings! ---Pastor Brad

From Our Council President - April, 2010

Hello everyone,

We had a great Spring Planning Conference! Thank you to Sal Maggio for leading our session. We had 12 people in attendance and we talked about what direction we wanted our church to go. Some of the items we discussed are as follows:

Hire an intern from North Park College to help establish a youth program.
Sponsor a program to help seniors on a monthly basis. This would possibly include a light lunch including an activity e.g. bingo, bunco, etc.
Ways to better utilize the Boy Scout troop
Improve outreach services to our members (meals, grocery shopping, etc.)
Expansion of our community outreach ministry
Establish a Vacation Bible school with our share partners
Develop an adult Bible study program

As a reminder, our summer activities will include:

Saturday May 22nd at 4 pm	second annual Backyard Bar-B-Que,
Friday July 9th, 9 am to 2 pm	Yard Sale,
Sunday, August 15th	Ice Cream Social following worship

Hope to see you at one or all of the above!

Debbie Wisowaty Council President