An Unwelcoming Church

Last week while visiting family in Oklahoma City I came across a church marquee that read, "Visitors are Welcome." As I drove by that church shaking my head it dawned on me that this church was probably a very unfriendly church trying too hard to come across as friendly. I mean, if you have to advertise to the outside world that visitors are welcomed in a church, you've missed the mark at some point in time.  Should it not already be known that churches are welcoming of visitors? I pondered these thoughts as I continued driving and it suddenly dawned on me that the church that had that saying on their marquee was probably like a lot of churches located in the midst of the bible belt. We know that we should be accepting of "outsiders" and shoud be in the business of inviting people to church, but when it comes right down to it, we kind of like things the way they are. If new people started coming into the church that may mean our comfort levels might be lowered a little bit. We might have to give up the pew that our family sits in week-in and week-out. In fact, now that we think about it, we're probably better off the way that we currently are. However, we can't let others know that we feel this way, so lets continue to talk about inviting people to church. Lets even throw an "outreach" event and see who shows up. Heck, lets just post on the marquee that visitors are welcome, but lets secretly hope things stay the same.

Now I know that this might seem a little extreme and even critical, but I'm curious how many secretly think this way? What camp are you sitting in today? What type of mentality does your church have? It's one thing to appear friendly and inviting, it's a whole different ball game to actually be that way. Don't be a church that has to advertise that visitors are welcome, be a church that has a reputation for welcoming new people to the fellowship.