This is a reposting of a comment made on an earlier post titled, The”Just Say Hi” Church Growth Seminar”  (post by Pam Hogeweide, comment by Pam Newberry).  I thought it was a great example of how simple it is to connect with people inside your church. Since evangelism these days seems to be primarily (at least initially) about inviting your friends to your church, we’re thinking we should get better at making them feel like they belong there if and when they do show up.

Six years ago I visited a local church that was a completely different denomination from the church I had grown up in… grew up Methodist and was visiting a Church of God. My son was involved with their youth program and really encouraged my husband and I to attend. For about five weeks, we sat on the back pew with the closest quickest exit out. We didn’t know what they were about and felt sure that if a basket of snakes was passed around, we would hit the door!

However, we had such the opposite experience. One Sunday, the pastor made an announcement about a Women’s Ministry event and the woman sitting next to me asked if I planned to attend. I looked at her like she had three heads and told her I was “just visiting”. She wrote her phone number down on a piece of paper and handed it to me and said, “If you change your mind, I’d love for you to come with me”. WOW!!! How often does that happen?

Well, I decided that if she was willing to take a stranger, then I would go with her and see what it is all about. It was an awesome experience; one where I witnessed sisterly love and compassion from a room full of women… not likely to happen in many places.

That was almost six years ago and we have never looked back. We joined the church and joined the ministry that reaches out to visitors.

-Pam