Welcome One Another

A Handbook for Hospitality Ministers

Paul E. Hoffman

• Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781506415970
• eBook ISBN: 9781506416083
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

We once believed that as a majority culture in North America everyone knew all there was to know about a church and its surroundings. This certainly is no longer true in a post-Christian North American culture. Most people in our towns and cities, in the neighborhoods and surrounding countryside of our church properties are completely mystified about who we are, what we do, and who is welcome—or not.

Hoffman's inviting prose, which includes many practical proposals, will expand your notions of who hospitality ministers are and why they matter. His own compelling experience suggests that the rewards of our efforts to welcome the stranger will deeply enrich our congregational ministry and our relationships with one another and with God.

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Greeters in the gathering space

The hub of hospitality

Once inside the door, the first impressions from external surroundings are about to be replaced with the best gift of all—genuine human contact. If we believe the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, then what is about to happen is not just a handshake and a pat on the back. It is the connection between Christ and Christ’s people that is offered by ushers and greeters. Imagine it! You who have chosen to serve in these roles are ambassadors for Christ.

More than the door:
making connections

I’m going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that there may be a more effective and genuine way of offering such a profound greeting than by being positioned directly in front of the entrance door and regimented by worn words of repeated welcome, “Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.”

What if assigned greeters were more in the role of minglers? Jessicah Krey Duckworth, in Wide Welcome, draws on the work of Penelope Eckert and Etienne Wenger. She elaborates on their coined term brokers for parish leaders who spend much of their ministry making connections from person to person.^[1] I’d like to expand that vision to imagine it as the work of every welcoming coworker of Christ. Certainly it can be the important work of a Sunday hospitality team.

With a well-trained eye toward making connections, the assigned greeters for the day might find themselves, instead of firmly positioned directly inside the main entrance doors, as persons who move about the gathering space and help people to make connections that welcome and invite:

“Welcome to our worship this morning. I don’t think we’ve met before . . .”

“I see you have two small children. Mary and John should be here any minute. They have kids just about this age. Maybe you know them from Freedom Elementary School.”

“Hi, I’m Mirin Kishina. I’ve been worshiping here at Gift of Grace for a little over a year now. I’m glad you’re here. It can be challenging to step into a brand new place.”

“Wow. You moved here to work for John Deere just north of town? Let me introduce you to Evan Davis. He’s worked there for years.”

“This is your first time at a Lutheran service? Would you like someone to help you navigate? Imran just began worshiping with us last summer. I think he’d be a wonderful worship partner for you your first time through.”

These sorts of greetings offer much broader opportunity to making human connection than the easily repeated, “Good morning.” More, they appear to be deeper and more genuine, making the kind of human connection that characterizes a community in Christ. Many who walk through our doors these days are disturbed and sometimes even angered by the institutionalization of church. Some are deeply hurt. Those “trying out” congregational life again or for the first time will find these deeper greetings more authentic and therefore more welcoming.

With such encouragement for connecting folks one to another also comes a warning. Many people who come to explore the possibility of Christian worship, or even the deeper possibility of discipleship, prefer an anonymous entrance into the worship experience. Such folks will often come five to ten minutes after the announced starting time of worship and will often leave prior to the service’s ending, sometimes even shortly after the sermon.

The sensitive hospitality team will be attuned to such visitors, finding that fine line between offering a genuine welcome and offering so much information and connection as to overwhelm. Be kind to yourselves. You will not always get it exactly right. Count on the power of the gospel to take up the slack.

Where possible, it is an added bonus to have the vested presider among those offering greeting and welcome to the liturgy of the baptized. Her or his role is not to replace that of the ushers and greeters, but to enhance and amplify it. More, the presence of the vested presider as the congregation gathers helps longtime worshiper and newcomer alike to make the connection between the conversation of the world and the proclamation of the word at the font, ambo, and table. Few gifts of ministry can be as compelling to newcomers as to be greeted by name by the presider as they arrive for worship and then welcomed again by name to the table in ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• It starts in the parking lot
• Greeters in the gathering space
• Orchestrating order
• There’s more
• Coffee hour
• A final word
• Appendix
• For further reading