Are you a Greeter?

What follows is part of an article from Scott Ginsberg(http://www.hellomynameisscott.com). I really like his articles, he has a lot of good ideas that are practical and can make a difference. I think this part talks about an idea that we could all try to do at church, The Ave, anywhere.

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AWESOME ATTITUDE #4: Who Are Your Greeters?

If there’s any group of individuals who extend their organizational front porch by serving new people, it’s the Greeters. During one of my speeches at a Hospitality Conference, I asked my audience of 300 people to stand up if their position was “Greeter.”

About 25 people got up.

I thanked those who stood and asked the remainder of the audience to give them a hearty applause.

When the clapping died down I said, “Without Greeters like these, building front porches in any organization would be tough.”

I then said, “But what if The New Guy – let’s call him Terry – came to your group. He walked in the door, looked around for a minute and felt a bit lost. Then Janet, an existing member, noticed Terry’s behavior and decided to approach him. She struck up a conversation and they connected immediately! And all the while, Janet made Terry feel welcomed, comfortable and part of the group.

A few minutes later, Terry asked, ‘So, Janet…are you one of the Greeters here?’

And Janet said, ‘No – I just wanted to welcome you to our group.’”

I just wanted to welcome you to our group.

I then repeated my original request to the audience:

“Now, let me ask you this one more time: please stand up if you are a Greeter for your organization.”

300 people got up out of their chairs. And I reminded them that everyone is a greeter.

These are the keys to the Attitude of Awesome Hospitality™ – going beyond hello, treating others as you would want to be treated, offering service and taking it upon yourself to be a greeter. They are the starting points for the construction of your organizational front porch. After all, one of the major domains of approachability is: capable of being reached.

Christianity and the Arts

Christianity and the Arts. They don’t always seem to go together. Art always seems to be labeled “liberal” and Christianity isn’t. How can we as Christians use and expand our art skills to glorify God? How can we become relevant, respected members of an established Christian church/community?

Usually when thinking of Christian arts I think of Thomas Kinkade and similar artists, or basket weavers, or knitters, basically anything you’d find in a house that homeschools. And, in my opinion, these examples are a pretty small, very conservative, un-warrior-like (read “pansy”) representation of art.

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Matt 6:27

I've been thinking about a few verses that have struck a chord in me lately. Here they are, comment if you wish.

Acts 18:9-11

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city." So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.(NIV)

Living in a city like this, going to a school with 26,000 other kids, going to classes and hearing professors talk about the failures and problems with religions, it is easy to get discouraged and feel overwhelmed by the secular society. But by living in a Christian community, one that is constantly evolving and changing, we are able to remember that we aren't alone. There are reinforcements just around the bend.

Matthew 6:19-end talks about a radical lifestyle that we, as Christians, should have. We should be completely centered on God, he should be our top priority. Verse 19 is a familiar section talking about earthly treasures and Heavenly treasures. I think that it is too easy for us to lie to ourselves and forget about earthly things that we treasure. For us to really be focused on God, we need to ask ourselves "What is my heart seeking? Has it become more important than God?" And we need to answer these questions honestly, even though it will be tough. It's hard to look at yourself and and say "I treasure my car more than I treasure God" or "I treasure books and studying more than God." Personnally, I find myself being captivated by my laptop more than I should. And it's tough to realize that I treasure my laptop more than God. It seems silly, but when I wake up in the morning, what do I go to first? My Bible? No, my laptop. But it's something I work on everyday, and I'm making progress.

Friendships and Community

This is a conversation I had a while ago with one of my good friends. It's something I still think about a lot today, as I deal with my friends on a daily basis. Please comment with anything that comes to your mind, I don't want to lecture, I want to discuss.


Sam: I've been doing a lot of thinking about the sad state of friendships. We choose people to spend time with, we hang out with them, we eat food with them. But how often do relationships go deeper than that? How often do we allow ourselves to keep a sub-standard status quo with our relationships? Why don't we dig deeper? Why don't we take the time to not only ask "How are you doing?" but also take the time to actually listen and respond to them? I'm fairly tired of having friendships that don't go any deeper than discussing how school is, and if your car is still running. Why is keeping us from connecting on deeper levels?


Daryl: Amen, only one or two really close friends is so much better than an entourage of followers.Freshman year I was like that. I did tons of things with a bunch of people. But now I'm settling down and I'd be fine to mainly have just a few close friends who you care about and who care about you.


Sam: I agree with you, but I also don't think we have to limit ourselves to just a few close friends. Granted, you'll most likely only ever have a few really close friends at a time, but I think we should also try and get closer to all the other friends that are willing (cause not all are). I'm really talking about kicking all the relationships in a community up a notch, an overall increase of unity and connectivity. This would allow for everyone to still keep their few close friends, but it would still be able to be close with a bunch of other people. And I see a lot of benefits from that, once everyone is personally and spiritually close. I think people would really start to become Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and they'd really become invested in each others lives. I think that is the kind of community that the Disciples had after they had been with Jesus for a while. And I think it would be the most ideal situation for personal and spiritual growth individually and corporately.


Daryl: I hear what you're saying and I really like the idea. I just wish that I had the time to do that. Cause unfortunately it does take time to get close to people, I have several friends who I've lost contact with (including most high school friends) because I just don't have the time during the school year to hang out or talk on any regular basis.


Sam: I know what you're saying about time, and I do understand that it can be hard to find time for things like that. But I think that if we all really checked our priorities, we'd probably be able to find more time to meet with people and get to know them. I think that we, as Christians, tend to take the easy way out of things and we justify our lack of weekly "spiritual" events by saying that we have other stuff that takes precedence or is more important. Granted, some things are very important. Work, school, these things can't be neglected. But we can choose the other things we do in life. I'm sure a lot of mothers will complain about having to do tons of stuff like make food and do laundry and clean the house, and frankly, I think sometimes they choose to be martyrs, they make themselves extremely busy and feel the need to do anything and everything under the sun. Taking care of their children is one thing, but once children are of a more independent age, mothers (I guess I should say parents) have the right and opportunity to start up their spiritual habits/events again.

While talking about children, especially small ones, I'd like to say something about new parents. New parents, the ones with their first child, have a lot of things to adjust to. They are a couple one day, and the next they are the full-time caretakers of a little human. What I don't get is why a community doesn't come around these new parents to support and mentor these parents as they begin a new session of their lives. I'm not saying the community of friends should raise the child, but I've seen too many new parents sort of disappear from the social scene because of their child. Yes, babies cry a lot, thus making it hard for them to be in public. So, why don't families and friends go TO these parents so that they can still take part in fellowship? Everyone knows the old adage about villages and children, so why isn't it practiced any more? (I should say, I do see these ideas practiced, but only in certain situations, such as multiple babies, like triples or quads or more. It is this double-standard that I don't get, and I think is a little unfair.)

Back to my original point...I think that if we were really super duper dedicated to our faith, we would be way more involved, and we would jump at the chance to have fellowship with believers. There are a few churches I know of that are set up with multiple events each week that members are a part of. A typical Sunday service and typically two small group times during the week that focus on different topics (one is like a Bible study, and one is a single-gender study). So, I know it's not impossible to find time to really get connected with one another, but we live in a society that has become really good at rationalizing things and being selfish with one's time. The more we get connected with each other, I think the more we will want to spend time with each other. And not that we would just hang out, but we would be doing Bible studies or book studies, constantly learning about our faith and each other. I suppose I'm putting forth an idealist plan, but I think it is a noble goal, and one that is reachable.

Welcome!

This is the start of the online community of The Shepard's House. We'll be discussing a lot of things, and you're welcome to chime in with your comments.