Welcome to the Neighborhood

by Nick Braito

When my wife and I first attended Neighborhood Church almost sixteen years ago, we were warmly welcomed.

For the next several weeks, not a Sunday went by without someone inviting us over to their home or out to lunch somewhere. We were immediately invited to a couple of different home groups, and we were encouraged by church leaders to get involved in ministry right away.

Although we still hear from visitors that they find the people of Neighborhood Church to be friendly and welcoming, it seems that we may have lost some of this old passion for taking the initiative to reach out to newcomers and to help them get involved in our church.

The reasons for this may be multiple:

Our church has grown, which makes it harder to know who is new and who is not.

Life today feels busier, so we don’t seem to have time to spontaneously invite someone out to lunch.

With more structures in place at church, maybe more people feel that it’s someone else’s job to welcome visitors.

We’d like to encourage you to fight against these tendencies!

First, during the greeting time, if you’re not sure if someone is new or not, rather than ask “Are you new?” (which can be awkward if they’re not new!), ask “How long have you been coming to Neighborhood Church?” If you then find out they are new, welcome them graciously and lavishly.

Second, try to at least occasionally be prepared to invite someone you meet at church to go out to eat or come over to your home either that day or another day during the week. Even if they cannot join you, they will surely appreciate the invitation!

Third, resist the urge to let someone else take care of welcoming visitors. If Neighborhood Church is your church family, then you have every right and responsibility to be just as welcoming to new people as anyone else in our church does.

You might have noticed that we recently added a new ministry to our church called “Welcome to the Neighborhood” (which is often affectionately called “Neighborhood in Nine”). We offer this in the kitchen after every worship service to give visitors an introduction to and overview of our church in just nine minutes.

We hope that these brief meetings will help us to get to know new people to our church and help them know how to get plugged in. But we still need your help:

Please pray for these meetings as we seek to welcome visitors well.

When you meet someone new, encourage them to attend “Welcome to the Neighborhood.”

Better yet—if you invite someone to “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” take the nine minutes and join them in kitchen!

“Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (Romans 15:7)