How are you helping people connect at your church?
Over a period in 2015/16, I ran four newcomers lunches at the church.
A newcomers lunch is an organized lunch to gather new people and build relationships. The core of the luncheon is food, a small intro talk by me (3-5 min.), then plenty of time for conversation. We invited some people from the congregation to join and encouraged all people to ask questions of each other in order to get to know each other’s story. This was not a time to try and sign people up for things but help them build relationships.
How about you, how are you helping people connect at your church? Here are some observations from our newcomers lunch.
- It is about relationship
People stay in a church because of people. As a church and as individual followers of Jesus, we have to place a high value on relationship. It is through relationship both the kingdom and yourself grows.
2. Local churches need to be intentional about connecting with new people.
Each local area has a different culture, but it is important to create a simple system to help build relationships. There needs to be both an organized time and a kind of unorganized time. In another context, I saw this best done by a few people in the church who made it a point to go for coffee or lunch, or connect in some way outside of Sunday morning with new people.
How are you creating a margin to connect with new people at church on Sunday?
There needs to not only be a system/program, there needs to be a culture of hospitality.
3. The need for mid-size groups
We never had this over the past year but did have a conversation about how this could help people move further in faith and relationship. I would love to hear from you on this and your thoughts and experiences.
4. Everyone has a story.
Giving space for people to share their story and for them to hear part of your story creates stronger relationships and opens doors for the gospel to be shared.
What does this mean for you?
I have seen too many people who just show up in the larger church gatherings and make no intention of getting to know new people. Yes, the new person has to take some initiative as well. However, the bigger weight lies on the people already part of the church. It is a scary thing to come into a group you are not part of.
This is where you come in.
If God is bringing people to your church, how are you part of helping them connect with Jesus and people? Not everyone is going to run a newcomers lunch. But everyone needs to be ready to help people connect.
How are you helping people connect at your church?