I can honestly say that I don’t remember the last Sunday
that we didn’t have visitors with us. I
am greatly encouraged to be able to say that and I want to tell all of you that
you do a great job of welcoming our visitors.
Of all the feedback I receive from our first-time visitors, I constantly
hear that we are a very friendly and welcoming church. Keep up the good job!
If you were ever a first or second time visitor with us here
at West K in the past 2-3 years, then most likely I asked how you found your
way to West K. I do this for a couple of
reasons. First, I don’t think it’s a coincidence or an accident when someone
attends West K. I believe that God in
his sovereign will has worked circumstances and situations to bring that person
or family here so they can experience Jesus and come to know him and our church
family. But the second reason I ask is
because I am curious if they are a non-believer, someone who is de-churched
(for whatever reason hasn’t been to a church in years), or if they left their
local church and are seeking a new one. If
they are non-churched or de-churched, we move on in the conversation. If I discover they are looking for a
different church, in all honesty, red flags start going up. Not because they are bad people or disgruntled
people that we should avoid, but because they are seeking a different church potentially
means they have been wounded in some way and need a specific type of
healing. This is not always the case
though. People do leave their local
church for a variety of reasons, some good and some not so good. Over the past 3 years we have had people
attend WestK that had recently left their church because: they disagreed with
their church doctrine, had friends or family members involved in the service,
looking for a church that offers programs for their students, just moved into
the area, they wanted to see the new guy preaching (apparently word got out
he’s good looking), etc.
If you have ever left a church to attend another, you know
it is not an easy decision. Like my
friend, I am always curious as to why someone has left their previous church to
attend here. I remember one instance
back when I was an intern youth minister at my home church. We had a new family begin to attend our
services. The sr. minister knew this
family, as they had previously attended a sister church 10 minutes away. What stood out to me was that the sr.
minister made it a point of practice to call the church that the person or
family was leaving from. He did this for
2 reasons: 1) He wanted the leadership from that church to know the family who
had left was still going to a church instead of ceasing all attendance, and 2)
on a few occasions he was able to be a mediator to reconciling any issues
between that family and the church they left.
Sometimes, that family would return to their home church. This particular instance, the family left on
good terms and to my knowledge, still remains at my home church to this day.
I mention this because recently a close friend, who is a
minister at a church, has been dealing with an increase of people visiting his
church and an increase of people leaving.
In our conversation he informed me of many of the reasons people have
started to attend his church and the many reasons he was given as to why people
were also leaving his church.
Interestingly, it was only a few hours earlier that a pastor I highly
respect re-posted one of his older blogs about good and bad reasons to leave a
church. It’s pretty straight forward,
and I think helpful to make us aware that as we continue to have new people
visiting, they don’t all have the same reason.
Let’s continue to be both welcoming and sensitive to our visitors!!!
you can view that blog post at: http://ht.ly/mbb0w
