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Why welcome?

I (Bob) have been the visiting preacher at literally hundreds of churches. Even if my wife arrives with me she tends to become invisible at the church door. All too often where I have been feted, my wife has been ignored from the moment she received a hymnbook to the moment she finished her coffee. I should add that my wife really enjoys meeting people. But in many churches nobody even takes the trouble to say ‘hello’ and find out. Almost invariably, if church leaders have told me in the vestry what a friendly church this is, then my wife will assuredly have been ignored – what they mean is they are so friendly with each other they have no inclination to befriend the stranger.

Most churches think they are a friendly church because church members are friendly with each other. We may not realize how unwelcoming we appear to the outsider. The sad truth is that 90 per cent of the people who try out our churches fail to join them. In many churches it is normal not to speak to newcomers. We are not usually openly hostile, we just ignore them and eventually they go away.

But churches that do welcome and befriend the stranger are creating the sort of growing, flourishing community Jesus wants his church to be.

Everybody Welcome is about making welcome central to all we do and the people we are. Just think what the impact would be if not 10 per cent but 25 per cent or even 50 per cent of the people who try out your church succeed in joining it!

Welcoming newcomers into the worshipping community is a ministry not just for the clergy or other leaders but for every member of every church.

Everybody Welcome is a course for every church-going Christian who believes that belonging to their church is good for them and can be good for others. The title indicates not only that everybody should be made welcome but also that everybody should be welcoming.

Everybody Welcome aims to change your church by three routes:

1	helping every individual to have a welcoming approach to newcomers. So it is important that as many church members as possible take part in the course.
2	identifying priorities for decision and change. At the end of the course the church council or other leadership group should identify priorities and then develop and implement an action plan for improving the church’s welcome and integration of newcomers.
3	setting up a Welcome Team, whose specialist ministry is to help newcomers through to being contributing members.

Welcome as a growth strategy

I’ve been studying the factors involved in church growth for many years and have reached a most surprising conclusion. At least it surprises me, and I’m sorry now that I’ve been so slow on the uptake.

We sometimes overlook the fact that it is Jesus’ own job to draw all people to himself (Matthew 16.18) and he is still doing his job. The main problem and opportunity for the growth of the church today is how well we who are already in the church welcome the people whom God is sending us to join the church. It is as surprisingly basic and simple as that.

I can actually demonstrate this for an average church mathematically with some simple algebra, but if you want that take a look at the Course Leaders’ Manual!

Welcome and the gospel

The hospitality of our welcome is central to our Christian calling. The gospel is about unconditional acceptance into the Body of Christ. Peter learned this lesson in Acts chapter 10 when, having accepted lodgings in the particularly smelly house of Simon the Tanner, he was taught in a vision to accept Gentiles as well as Jews into the church.

Welcome ministry is part of our response to God’s ministry of reconciliation that he shares with his church. 2 Corinthians 5.18 says: ‘All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.’ There is huge power in effective welcome because it is the very expression of the gospel of reconciliation between God and humans, and between humans. The heart of the gospel is that all are called, all are included, all who ask to enter are allowed in to the kingdom of heaven. ‘You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus ... There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3.26,28).

In the world around we see alienation, isolation, division, barriers, people who are unwelcome here, there and almost everywhere. In the faithful Christian church it does not matter whether or not your face fits – we have a gospel of reconciliation, a core value of radical inclusivity, a community of welcome to all. Your welcome, your inclusion, is based not on what you can give but on what can be given to you. You are welcomed in by grace, flowing from the supernatural love that God and his church already have in their hearts for you.

If anyone did not deserve to be welcomed it was the prodigal son. He had betrayed his father, squandered his money and ruined his family’s reputation. And yet, as the son skulked home in search of a servant’s meal, the father, ever watchful, rushed out to embrace him while he was still a great way off. Such is the prodigious welcome of God the Father for all his children making the slightest gesture of return from afar to the warmth of his family home. And such should be the prodigious welcome of his church to all who glance in our direction.

So we know the marvellous gospel theory that ‘all are welcome’ in the Church of Jesus Christ. Some churches struggle with this, others offer such a welcome that all manner of people are drawn to Jesus Christ through their welcome and friendship. But none can be complacent.

So we know what we should be like even if we sometimes fall short of high standards. Often the reason we fall short is not our lack of willingness, our rebellion against the ministry of reconciliation, our resentment at the prodigals. It is our lack of confidence, our fear of straying out of our comfort zone, our awkwardness with the stranger, and preoccupation with our own needs or stress that breeds indifference to others.

On our weaknesses God has compassion and yet he calls us to grow strong. This is where Everybody Welcome comes in – this course is designed to help every church that aspires to gospel standards of welcome and hospitality to put them into everyday practice. We can be the communities God intends us to be if we put our hearts and minds to the task, obeying and imitating the God of hospitality who welcomes every sinner to sit, eat and rejoice at his table.

Welcome and the big picture

The whole life of the church is bound up with its ministry of welcome and integration. It is central to how the local church fulfils Jesus’ great commission – ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’ (Matthew 28.19). Making contact with people, befriending them, welcoming them into membership of the community of Christ and nurturing them into Christian discipleship can only be achieved when the quality of the life of the whole church measures up to the task in hand. This course is not about a small specialist ministry, it aims to bring new health and vitality to the whole of church life.

So it helps to see where every aspect of the course fits in to the overall picture. Church members go through a life-changing, church-changing process of discovering the life of the church then experiencing its worship then belonging to its community then contributing to its ministry. There are different aspects of each stage in the journey, and they are labelled and summarized in the chart below, which is our equivalent of a table of contents.

So Everybody Welcome is divided into four sessions:

Session 1. Helping people discover the church’s existence and character

People have to at least know about you, and may well need to know you in person, before thinking of becoming part of your group. So how does your church make contact with the local community and how can you become more visible in it?

Session 2. Giving people a good experience of the church premises

The church grounds, building and hall can attract or deter people. So how daunting is the physical business of entering your building for the first time? Can you develop your facilities to provide a positive and anxiety-free experience?

Session 3. Giving people a good experience of the church people

A newcomer’s first experience of the church community usually determines whether they wish to join it. So how can your church offer a friendly, stress-free welcome to the local community? But people need to experience divine welcome as well as human. So how can you best give newcomers the chance to meet with God in your worship and other community events?

Session 4. Helping newcomers belong to the church community and start contributing to it

Church attendance should be a step along the way to Christian discipleship. Most people aspire to belong, not just to attend. The main factor in deciding whether someone stays is whether they make friends quickly. So how can your church be motivated, trained and organized to offer attractive friendship and belonging to newcomers? How can newcomers turn into members who exercise their own Christian ministry through the church?

There is a fifth session, but this is for the setting up of a church ‘Welcome Team’ and so only the team members are needed to attend.

How Everybody Welcome works

You will find the outline for each 90-minute session later in this manual. As an example, Session 1 ‘Discover’ is divided into four sections that reflect the four main ways in which people discover about the life and existence of a church – personal contacts, the church’s regular programme, special services and events, and its premises and publicity. Each section has some introductory input to it, in this manual and in the session itself, some of it on DVD. Course members are then asked to respond by filling in a personal tick-box checklist and talking through one or two discussion questions in pairs or small groups. The personal checklists will be issued at the start of each session.

At the end of the session the group will know the average score for each section. This will reveal where you think your strengths and weaknesses lie. At the end of the whole course it should therefore be possible to work out priorities for change. How can the strengths be reinforced and the weaknesses tackled?

During the week before each session please read through the relevant part in the manual and spend some time praying and thinking about the theme and its implications for yourself and your church.

As you read the Members’ Manual do note down your own ideas plus any sense of what God is saying to the church. These can be shared with others when you meet.

As with all things to do with the Christian life and church, our human efforts will be useless without prayer and without the work and power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that God the Holy Spirit has already been directing the Church towards improving its welcome and hospitality – we can see this through the progress of ‘Back to Church Sunday’, through our research into how churches are growing and shrinking and in the reactions to the drafts and trials of this course. We are catching God’s agenda for the Church. So do please make praying for the success and impact of this course a personal priority! You may wish to use the Course Prayer inside the front cover of this manual on a regular basis.