Welcoming is one of those areas in which churches can always improve. Kel Richards talks to Jim Ramsay of Evangelism Ministries about a new resource that aims to help churches do just that.
Welcomer’s Training Course (DVD x 1, leader’s manual x 1, participant’s manual x 5)
Available from Evangelism Ministries
T 02 9265 1582
Kel Richards: Jim, wouldn’t it be terrific if, every time someone walked into a church, they felt really welcomed and ended up thinking, “This is a good place to be!”
Jim Ramsay: It would be terrific, Kel. In fact, those first few seconds when you walk into a building—even as you’re approaching the building—are so important.
KR: When people walk into a church and end up feeling as though they’re invading everyone’s privacy, that’s not a good thing. How can we turn that around?
JR: Well, it has to happen a long time before the person actually gets to the building.
KR: So, in other words, the moment they walk in is too late to start.
JR: Absolutely. We’ve got to start by looking at the place into which people are coming: the physical building, both inside and out. Imagine you’re driving up to your church. Even as you approach the building, you’re probably thinking, “Where do I park my car?” And when you have parked your car (if you come by car), you’re then faced with the problem of which way is the right way in.
If you understand Gothic architecture, you may know which is the right door. And if you’re familiar with the school building in which the church service is being held (as many are these days), you may know how to get inside. But there needs to be decent signage, and there needs to be people not inside the building welcoming people, but outside the building welcoming people. I remember on one occasion going to a church in a place where you had to walk through the door, go up a hallway and turn right before you reached the welcoming table. For some people, by that stage, it’s all over.
KR: Does your training course cover the building and what should happen with the building?
JR: Yes, it covers the building and encourages people who are committed to welcoming well to review their building in a constructive way.
KR: Say Sunday morning comes and I turn up as a complete stranger, and the building is all terrific and the people are terrific. That mustn’t be the end of the process, though; aren’t there things that happen after that first visit that are important for welcoming?
JR: Certainly, because we don’t only want people to come to the building, we want them to come to Christ.
KR: I believe that one of your sayings is “We need to open the front door and close the back door”. Is that right?
JR: Yes. Indeed, we want to stop people sliding out the back door for the wrong reason. Some people may well go out the back door for reasons of their own personal choice—for example, the place may not suit them so they decide to try elsewhere. But if they went through that back door because we were disinterested, unloving, socially awkward or inflexible, we have a problem. We don’t want people to slide out that back door. Once they’ve met with us in our church congregation, we want people to stay so that we can enter into relationship with them and teach them about the Lord Jesus.
KR: If a church goes through the programme you’ve prepared in this package, how will it become different?
JR: What the course tries to do is to change the culture of the church. I know churches where many of the staff are just marvellous at welcoming new people, but the members of the church, even though they’re nice people, don’t want their lives disturbed, and so they do not work very hard at welcoming outsiders. A friend of mine went to a church once, and sat in a seat on the aisle three seats from the front. He was there nice and early. But the minute before church started, another person walked in, stood beside him and said to him, “You are sitting in my seat!” Quick as a flash, my friend said, “How stupid of me! I should have realized that!” Then he got up and sat somewhere else. Now, that’s an extreme example of bad welcoming. But that sort of thing can occur, and where it does, the culture of the church needs to change.
KR: Does the training package cover all of these things—the building, training the people, and so on?
JR: Well, first of all, it gives you examples of what to do. There’s a training DVD that models good and bad welcoming, and a worksheet for each participant: you work through it yourself, and reflect upon your church and your own behaviour towards people. There’s a manual for the leader on how to set up a good welcoming programme, there’s a manual for the welcoming team members that they can learn from, and there’s a DVD that will take you through the whole process step by step. It’s something more than just being handed a piece of paper which says, “Here’s the welcoming regime for our church. Now go on your way.”
KR: It sounds to me like it’s more than just training. It sounds like it’s fun.
JR: It is. It’s great fun.
