2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (nlt) --- Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
Greetings, prayers and other thoughts like the verse above can be found all through the New Testament, but I ask you to stop and think with me for a moment. Why would we need hope and comfort and strength? Lots of reasons, I'd say.
Last week I quoted an article about how to keep people away from you church, but here is an article that I read this morning that will give us some ideas to help people find a real home at the church we attend. By the way, it is our job, yours and mine, to make people feel welcome and to know the love of God. Don't take that lightly. God didn't. Jesus died for this to happen.
Here are notes from that article (I have cut out much of the article BUT I encourage you to click on it and read it fully when you get a chance. My thoughts at the end):
10 Ways to Avoid Building Community Within the Church
I read this post a few days ago and have been inspired to create a similar list about community.
Begin sarcasm…
Keep conversations short.
Always sit in your "assigned" seat.
Avoid new people.
Come in late.
Leave immediately after the service (or early).
Be physically present but mentally absent.
Don't share a meal.
Stay very, very busy.
Make your default response "everything is great".
Don't show up.
You have to read the article for yourself to really get the sarcasm, yet too many Christians, some times even me, find ourselves not building other people up, not helping people find their place. Forgive me, but HELLO, that's why we are here. That is why The Community Fellowship and your church exist.
Colossians 3:17 (nlt) --- And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Greetings, prayers and other thoughts like the verse above can be found all through the New Testament, but I ask you to stop and think with me for a moment. Why would we need hope and comfort and strength? Lots of reasons, I'd say.
Last week I quoted an article about how to keep people away from you church, but here is an article that I read this morning that will give us some ideas to help people find a real home at the church we attend. By the way, it is our job, yours and mine, to make people feel welcome and to know the love of God. Don't take that lightly. God didn't. Jesus died for this to happen.
Here are notes from that article (I have cut out much of the article BUT I encourage you to click on it and read it fully when you get a chance. My thoughts at the end):
10 Ways to Avoid Building Community Within the Church
I read this post a few days ago and have been inspired to create a similar list about community.
Begin sarcasm…
Keep conversations short.
Always sit in your "assigned" seat.
Avoid new people.
Come in late.
Leave immediately after the service (or early).
Be physically present but mentally absent.
Don't share a meal.
Stay very, very busy.
Make your default response "everything is great".
Don't show up.
You have to read the article for yourself to really get the sarcasm, yet too many Christians, some times even me, find ourselves not building other people up, not helping people find their place. Forgive me, but HELLO, that's why we are here. That is why The Community Fellowship and your church exist.
Colossians 3:17 (nlt) --- And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
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