Northwest News!

I was reading Proverbs 18:24 today that says, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”

As we prepare for Celebration Sunday, I want to encourage all of use to be friendly.  Here are some things to keep in mind about friendliness:

• We have to initiation friendliness. We cannot expect people to come up and be friendly to us, we must go to them.
• We must be sincere.  We should really care about the person we are meeting and greeting.  To often we see people as numbers and not as real people with real problems, concerns, and feelings.
• We should be careful to not be overly friendly.  Sometimes we can be too pushy, ask too many questions, and take away any anonymity that people might want to have.  We should greet people, try to get their name and remember their name, make sure they know where the bathrooms, creche (if they have children), and meeting room are, let them know our name, tell them we are glad they are there, and then let the conversation develope naturally.  If we can tell they don’t want to talk any more, then we should give them space to just sit back and watch.  I am sure that many will come just to “see what is going on” and we need to give them the opportunity to do so in a safe environment.
• We should try to remember their names and pray for them during the service and after they leave.
• We should also encourage them to fill out their welcome card.  Nothing works better to get people to fill out their welcome card than a personal reminder to do so.  This really helps us to follow up with them and know how we can better serve the visitors that come through our doors.

Thank you for how friendly you all have been in the past.  I just want to encourage you to continue on and to step things up this Sunday!  Thank you for all your help.  You are a wonderful group of people, and I praise God for what He is doing already in our midst.