How welcoming is your congregation?

If your church intentionally prepares to receive others where they are and help them feel accepted through caring and kindness, then you can say your church is welcoming.
The important ministry of hospitality and welcoming is not the task of a committee or only the pastor. Hospitality is a lifestyle shared by the congregation as a body of Christ.
Welcoming is not a technique to boost the membership or attendance numbers or to improve the offering totals. Welcoming is part of who we are as Christians.
At our Southwest Texas Annual Conference session in 2005, Conference Lay Leader Jay Brim challenged all our churches to complete the welcoming congregation certification program put out by Igniting Ministry.
At the annual conference session in 2006, he restated his challenge and urged us all prayerfully to undertake this effort to welcome all of God’s children into our houses of worship.
Has your church been one of the seven in the Corpus Christi District to complete this program? If so, please accept my congratulations and gratitude.
If your church has not completed this program, let me encourage you to do so. The program is fairly easy to accomplish but takes a committed person to see that the paperwork gets filled out and turned in.
The Welcoming Congregation certification checklist and more information can be found at www. umcswtx.org, www.ignitingministry. org and the District Office.
I ask you to start praying today about how you and your congregations can be more welcoming to all of God’s people, his children. As our Lord said, “Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”