Pastors, Please Don’t Do This!
Have you ever been on vacation and have visited a church in another town? The people in the congregation are excited to see a visitor. The pastor comes up to you to greet you.
And then they find out that you are not a potential new member.
You can see the disappointment in their face. I have had them walk away from me. And not because there were other visitors to greet. The friendliness was only for the purpose of convincing a visitor to stay.
I have had this happen to me numerous times. It always leaves me with a bad taste.
Because of this, I try to make it a goal to avoid this attitude in my role as a pastor. We get quite a few visitors at our church and often they are visitors from out of town and won’t be back or at least not for a long time. I try to make it a point to be happy to see them, even if they are not a potential new member.
Not only is this good for me to do, it is good for the congregation to see as well. Friendliness should not be used as a sales pitch. If we are happy to see visitors, we are happy to see them. It doesn’t matter if they are looking for a church or are just in town for the weekend.
