May 23, 2017

Friendly or Friends

Pastor Dave Strobel from our partner in Toronto just left this morning and he told a story while he was here that keeps haunting me...A lady told of her experience in visiting a church where Dave's bro in law is the pastor.  When he followed up with her, she said that everyone in the church was extremely friendly, but then she made this statement, "When I told people that I was going through a divorce, everyone pointed me to this Bible Study and to the church's GriefShare program but no one invited me to lunch or to coffee.  You have a friendly church but the people don't want to be friends."  

Wow.  That hit me.  Hard.  I'm guilty.  I've done that.  We want to be nice and cordial and make people feel welcomed at our church(which are all great), but I think Jesus wants us to be really concerned about people. He wants us to invite them into our life.  So the next time you meet a guest on Sunday morning, offer to take the person out to lunch.  Set up a time they can visit you in your home.  Offer them a chance to tell you their story.  Be friendly but also be willing to be friends.  There's a HUGE difference between the two.