Visitors

At Christmastime, our church holds many special Christmas services—including “The Journey of Christmas” event with live drama and a gospel message.

Most people are somehow under the impression that special days in a church just happen and that the preparation comes together on its own. Having a special day of any kind takes hard work and much preparation if it is to be effective.

We recently had our annual Christmas musical at Lancaster Baptist Church. The amount of work put into these productions is staggering—not just in the thousands of hours given by the choir, orchestra, and drama teams, but also the thousands of invitations given out all across our community in the weeks preceding the musical.

We invite guests to church precisely because we care. We care that they hear the gospel or grow as a Christian. We care that God works in their lives through the preaching of His Word and that they are ministered to through the body of Christ. But knowing we care and showing we care are two different matters.

An unavoidable nail in the road, and a subsequent flat tire, forced me into an unplanned trip to the tire store. With the flat tire in the trunk and the spare tire providing a temporary replacement, Teri and I headed to the newly opened Hibdon Tire Store in my hometown of Owasso, Oklahoma.

Today we are bombarded with information. Our world is filled with advertisements, billboards, TV ads, radio spots, informational flyers, and newspapers all trying to sell us something or persuade us that a product is worthy of our dollar.

Most churches want to reach people; anyone who is actually trying to fulfill the Great Commission gives serious thought to strategies for doing so. Along with an aggressive outreach effort to reach people, many churches employ programs, campaigns, and various other tactics to keep guests once they have come.

When God sends guests to your church, you must see them as a gift from God and treat them as such. Your reaction to them and response to their visit largely determine whether or not they will be your guest again.

There is an old saying that is absolutely true; you never have a second chance to make a first impression. All of us have visited churches where our first impression was less than positive.

The command to go soulwinning includes an action verb—“go.” But soulwinning is more than a weekly activity. A true soulwinner will develop habits of becoming soul-conscious.

Some years ago, I stood in a long line at the pharmacy in a Target store. The young lady behind the counter was exceptionally friendly, cheerful, and helpful, and she kept her customers in a good mood during a long wait.

There are few things that excite a pastor or Sunday school teacher like meeting a first-time visitor. The presence of a guest breathes life into a classroom or church auditorium.