GREETERS / Through them, we're making a deliberate attempt to care for newcomers.

‘How Can I Serve You?’

By DEBBIE CALKINS, Welcoming Chair

he April issue of The Net contained a wonderful article written by our People’s Warden, Phil Schwartz. In his article, Phil discussed two of the goals that the Bishop’s Committee adopted at its annual retreat. One of those goals is to clean up our buildings and grounds—to make Saint Andrew’s a special place that is peaceful and inviting to newcomers. The second goal that he discussed was our desire to, in Phil’s words, "welcome the newcomer and nurture the existing congregation."

At Saint Andrew’s, "greeters" welcome visitors to Sunday worship services, and our ushers assist them. SMILErs ["SMILE" stands for Special Ministry In Lay Evangelism] call on visitors after the Sunday service. Each visitor receives a letter signed by the vicar, thanking them for attending services at Saint Andrew’s. Debbie Foret and our vicar coordinate Breadbreaker dinners, to which newcomers are invited. We have a welcoming crew that works hard to reach out to visitors and newcomers.

This is my third and final year as a member of the Bishop’s Committee. During that time, my leadership area has been Welcoming/New Member Ministry. Six or seven years ago, when I first began greeting, I was so new to Saint Andrew’s that established members stopped at the door to welcome me!

I must have looked lost. I was very nervous at first, but I gradually learned to reach out to others. The process of welcoming has changed me. I’ve learned that greeting others is not just saying "hello" and flashing a friendly smile. Greeting means taking responsibility for others. In Welcome, a 1992 publication of the Alban Institute, Andrew Weeks writes that greeting requires us to ask "How can I serve you?"

Weeks tells us that "this is not easy; it requires courage to ask someone what they want or need . . . But serving visitors means receiving them into our hearts; it is a deliberate decision to care for these persons, for whatever time and at whatever depth they require at the moment we encounter them."

Wow!

Isn’t that what God calls us to do, to make "a deliberate decision to care for these persons"? I remember a sermon I once heard about the Good Samaritan. The message I heard in that sermon is that we need not worry about how to determine who our "neighbor" is. Our neighbor is that person who needs us at the moment we encounter him or her.

We have a dedicated group of volunteers who greet and welcome visitors, but that’s not enough. New Member Ministry is not the job of a select few—it is the work that we are all called to do. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul sums it up: "Christ has accepted you. So accept one another in order to bring praise to God." [15:7]

I urge you to make a deliberate decision to welcome others as Christ has welcomed you!