Many churches have friendly members, but are they friendly to visitors? In a recent post on his blog, LifeWay president Thom Rainer offers “Six Reasons Why Your Church Members May Not Be Friendly To Guests” (click here to read the post)—it offers some good food for discussion on the importance of extending hospitality to visitors.
I am grateful for this link to Tom Rainer’s blog. Moving interstate and meeting different congregations of all flavours does indeed endorse this friendly/unfriendly evaluation as a symptom of something deeper. It begs questions about the reasons for the existence of Christian meetings, of people who struggle with life’s scars and challenges whilst maintaining an allegiance to Jesus the living Saviour. Thanks for supplying this link, because I found it both sobering and helpful, and if one does read it focus on “the substance and not the form”.