A Word from Dean: First Impressions
One of the many things I like about WPC is the availability of your attractive name tags for members and visitors. All of us need help remembering peoples’ names, and as a newbie having them at coffee hour has been of great assistance.
It’s smart to have the stick-on kind. I cannot tell you how many churches spend hours debating whether to have permanent pin-on types, or those on lanyards, with or without photos, and – finally – where and how to store them. These permanent types tend to stay on the rack unused, or people forget to take them off, wear them home and never bring them back.
Your Session is beginning to explore what other measures, besides name tags, might be taken to welcome visitors and members as they walk in the door for worship. First impressions are important. If newcomers arrive and aren’t greeted with a smile, it is doubtful that they will return. On the other hand, if first-time visitors are pounced upon, asked too many questions, or encouraged to join a committee or the church right there on the spot, they will probably run away in fear. Believe me, I have seen both extremes happen.
Speaking of how to best welcome, I want to encourage you to attend the training that staffers from Miriam’s Kitchen will lead us in after church on August 27. The focus is on “What Does Loving Our Neighbors Mean on Sunday Mornings;” with special reference to guests from MK who arrive at our door.
Ernest Campbell, a former pastor at Riverside Church in New York City, was known for talking about “programming up.” He would challenge every committee, activity, or class to work more excellently. This opportunity on the 27th can help us improve our hospitality.
P.S.
Campbell wrote this “City-Dweller” Prayer/Hymn. The language isn’t inclusive and is a bit dated, but its intention still rings true:
A CITY-DWELLERS PRAYER
O God of every time and place,
prevail among us too;
Within the city that we love
its promise to renew.
Our people move with downcast eyes,
tight, sullen, and afraid;
Surprise us with your joy divine,
for we would be remade.
O God whose will we can resist,
but cannot overcome,
Forgive our harsh and strident ways,
the harm that we have done.
Like Babel’s builders long ago
we raise our lofty towers,
And like them, too, our words divide,
and pride lays waste our powers.
Behind the masks that we maintain
to shut our sadness in,
There lurks the hope, however dim,
to live once more as men.
Let wrong embolden us to fight,
and need excite our care;
If not us, who? If not now, when?
If not here, God then where?
Our forebears stayed their minds on you
in village, farm, and plain;
Help us, their crowed, harried kin,
no less your peace to claim.
Give us to know that you do love
each soul that you have made;
That size does not diminish grace,
nor concrete hide your gaze.
Grant us, O God, who labor here
within this throbbing maze,
A forward-looking, saving hope
to galvanize our days.
Let Christ, who loved Jerusalem,
and wept its sins to mourn,
Make just our laws and pure our hearts;
so shall we be reborn!
Amen.
Dean