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Visitors
Some great insight from Erik Shaffer
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“As I visit congregations I am noticing a trend. As a visitor, I am not looking to join a company or business but a family of believers who want to include me and my family. These are the top things we get wrong with our visitors.
- As a visitor I do not know what classes are offered or where they are located please let me know and help me find the right rooms to go to
- As a visitor don’t tell me welcome and walk away just as fast to talk to another member who you have talked to all week
- As a visitor don’t make me drop names of people I know or schools I have been to so I can be included
- As a visitor introduce me to other members who have similar family dynamics to create an anchor
- As a visitor invite me to sit with your family to make me feel included
- As a visitor don’t shake my hand and tell me to have a good day when I see you and other members making plans to go out to eat but invite me to go out with you or the group
- As a visitor make me feel as though we have been family for a long time and we just need time to catch up.
- As a visitor never turn down the opportunity to study or to get to know me better. (Honestly, have asked several preachers to study and have been told they would love to and then nothing)
- As a visitor please know that I am looking for a church home. Don’t assume my beliefs on groups I have been a part of previously or judge me for where I might have gone but asked me.
- As a visitor treat me the way you would want to be treated at a family reunion with family you have not seen for ages but are so glad they came
I know this is a long post but I wanted to give a visitors perspective to what I see and observe as I visit certain congregations.”
~ Erik Shaffer
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"For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"
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