Do First Time Guests Still Excite You?
It was an honest question. A haunting question. One that made me pause, and one that made me think:
Do we still get excited about this? I mean really get excited about it?
Ironically, the question was posed on a Sunday morning. On the sidewalk outside of the auditorium. Close to our first time guest tent where dozens of people had shown up that morning for the first time and dozens more were likely to come.
After you’ve been in the guest services world for a while, it can get all too easy to chalk things up to “just another weekend” and phone it in rather than bringing your best. It can be tempting to treat people as part of a formula rather than honor them as new friends. And after enough new guests have come our way, we may be more prone to yawn over their presence than yearn for them to be with us.
We will know that we’re excited by our guests when the following statements are true:
We pray for them regularly. We realize that nothing happens without the work of the Holy Spirit, and so we remain in a state of desperation for him to act in their hearts…and ours.
We come with our A game. We know that every Sunday is somebody’s first Sunday, and so we don’t have an “ordinary” Sunday. We are polished and prepared.
We make the most of every opportunity. When we see someone we don’t know, we stop to speak. When we have the chance to serve, we take it.
We slow down. We force ourselves to be present with those who are with us. We walk slowly through the crowd. We put touch above task. We look for small ways to make our guests comfortable.
Have you lost that loving feeling with your guests? How can you rekindle the excitement for yourself? Your team? Your congregation?
