Some would classify our church as a small church, but when you're looking at rural America, I think our church would be classified as a medium attended church. We run around 75-100 people any given Sunday. So I read it from the perspective of a church of our size.
I thought I'd talk about each one and give an answer to each as if it were our church here in rural Colorado.
1. Having a stand up and greet one another time in the worship service. Rarely do we ask people to stand up and greet each other. Juan, our Worship Leader, may ask people to do this but like I said it is not our norm. I fully understand how this could make people very uncomfortable. I too, have been in churches where this is practiced and it makes me very nervous, but the Preacher, he doesn't mind at all. We have a HeBrews station where we offer coffee, water and pastries and at "half time", the time between the worship service and the message, we break for 5-10 minutes and everyone is invited to go back get some drinks and food and in the process people stop and greet one another. It is such a beautiful time for the people that sometimes it is hard for the Preacher to get everyone back in their seats for his message, but he sees it as a sacred time as well.
2. Unfriendly church members. I have to tell you, in my opinion, our church is the friendliest church I know. This is one of the things that we have been complimented on, that we are a very friendly church. I feel like our people really do want to get to know our guest. When they greet them there is more conversation going on than just a "Hi, how are you." They ask questions and really try to make them feel welcome.
3. Unsafe and unclean children's area. This is something that we are always working on. We do want to have a place for the parent's to take their children that is safe and clean. Our Nursery and Children's Church Ministry Leaders make every effort to have the best facilities that we can possibly have.
4. No place to get information. In the back of our worship area, back by the HeBrews station, is where we keep our brochures. Every week we have a bulletin that is handed out to each person by our greeters and it list all of the week's activities and the information that someone would need to know about each one. I believe we could possibly do better, but I'm not sure how at this point. We are constantly trying to get the most up to date information out there.
5. Bad church website. I think our website, yumachristianchurch.com, is a good website. Being that we have a low budget, we did not opt to have a 'professional' web builder. Someone in our church volunteered to build it for us. I think it is bright and colorful, it list our Ministry Leaders, our Ministers, the times of our services and the address. About once a month we try to visit it and make sure it is being updated. If you haven't visited our website, please do.
Well I guess I will stop here and I'll list the next five in my next post. If you have been a guest in our church, please let me know what you think.
Love from the Preacher and I
This is the church God used to start a change in me and our family that we are so greatful for. Pastor Don wears around an authenticity that I was drawn to and through time spent together we connected in a way that I felt God's grace and felt comfortable being transparent. The worship time for me was unique in the intimate feel of this church size and I often found myself with silent tears as the words and songs seemed to give me a sense of the magnitude of God's mercy for us. We love and miss YCC!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chad, we loved having you and your beautiful family with us. We miss you guys too. Although it is probably a good thing that you are not here to give Don a caffeine buzz every Sunday. ;)
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