Be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test, la, la, la, la

It's Friday morning and I'm getting ready for Sunday. I have had many of you tell me your are inviting people to come. Great job!! I also invited some people and are hoping they will show. But even if my friends or yours don't come this Sunday some of our fellow CCCers will have their friends there. At Community Christian reaching out to the unconnected in our world is a team sport. So let me remind all of us how to play this game to help each other out. Let's all be as hospitable as possible. 1 Peter 4:9 - Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

It doesn't matter if the person you see Sunday is your guest, my guest, or someone who comes with one of our postcards in their hand - We have invited them to be with us. That makes them our honored guests. And as we would treat any invited guest in our home, we want to treat them with such hospitality in our church. Here are a few “church hospitality rules” :
1. Where you park your car is a hospitality decision. If you take the closest parking space, that means our guests will have to park furthest away.
2. Where you sit is a hospitality decision. The back rows are the premium spots for 1st time guests at church. They don’t know who we are and they want to sit somewhere that feels “safe.” Sitting up front doesn't feel safe to them. Please give up those seats for our guests!! They can be moved to the front later and sit in the "spit zone" with you.
3. Where you sit on the row is a hospitality decision. If you select the end seat with 5 seats next to you available, people won’t crawl over you to get to the middle. This means the guest family of four that comes in late will have to be embarrassed and crawl over you. Do we really want our guest to feel as they are imposing by crawling over you? Please move to the center.
4. Deciding to smile and say "Good morning. I don't think we've met" is a hospitality decision. Recently an atheist sold his soul on Ebay. The guy who bought it was a Christian who for his purchase price asked the atheist to go to church and give his impressions. The most offensive thing the atheist found at church after church was that people sitting next to him would not speak to him. Never hesitate to welcome and say “good morning” to guests. If any of our guests ever look “lost” or “confused” the last thing they want is to feel embarrassed or awkward at "our place.” If you see an opportunity to help, direct, or explain something - feel free to do it.

I encourage you to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you as we receive people together. Everyone is different. Some guests love to be received and don’t mind sharing their life story. Others are here for the first time…and just barely. They need some space and aren’t ready to share their life story. Be sensitive and let the Spirit guide you to know how to respond. But ultimately remember, they are our guests. We invited them. It's important that we act hospitably.