Ideas For Evangelism - Way of Life Literature

There needs to be a plan to greet visitors as they comeinto the parking lot or approach the church building towelcome them and show them where to go and suchthings. Friendly, personable church members need to beassigned to this task and they need to learn how to do iteffectively.I recall visiting a church with my wife and children onSunday morning. We didn’t know where to go for theSunday School. Everyone was scurrying around ortalking to their friends but no one paid any attention tous. We had to walk down halls and ask around andliterally find our own way to the classes. No one invitedus over for Sunday lunch or for a snack after the eveningservice. No one visited us. This has happened on manyoccasions when we have visited churches. It fact, I wouldsay it is typical.Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, has agood policy in this regard. Every visitor is invited out forlunch at the home of one of the staff members. And theydo many other things along this line, because they have aplan to make every visitor feel truly welcome and tobring them into the warmth of the church family. Thisshould be the objective of every congregation no matterhow large.“There’s a Welcome Here” ought to be much more than alittle chorus we sing as a tradition.We brought my wife’s unsaved stepfather to church withus several times one winter, and as a rule, the membersmade no effort to befriend him beyond a few cursoryhandshakes and “thank you for coming’s.” In one church,we even asked if there were men who would be willingto take him fishing (he was spending the winter with us