Earlier this week, I mentioned we had a gentleman visit our services this past weekend who had not attended church in over 30 years. Turns out there’s more to the story.
One of our volunteers, let’s call him Dan, greeted him and welcomed him to NewSpring. When Dan learned it had been some time since the man had been in church, he offered to sit through the service with him.
The experience on Sunday turned out to be a great reminder for Dan that every interaction means something. He shared how you never know when a simple greeting may lead to “a life changing decision.”
That’s exactly what happened. As it turns out, the man who hadn’t visited a church in 30 years heard the Gospel on Sunday in the middle of a message about sex. He accepted Christ. He got a new start.
At NewSpring, we expect people like this man to show up every week. When you have that perspective, it changes how you greet visitors at the front door and a whole lot more.
What an awesome testimony
Great story about “Dan”! Reminds me of a “slogan” we used a few years back at our church to help motivate our people to invite: A Personal Invitation Can Be Such a Simple Thing, But Have Life-Changing Results!
[...] Tony Morgan also serves at NewSpring Church with Perry Noble (see a few posts below), as “a pastor and Chief Strategic Officer.” He’s an outreach and church leadership genius and the author of several books on those subjects. He wrote a great blog post on the importance of welcoming, REALLY welcoming, people to a church service. Check it out: Every Moment Counts. [...]
I can attest to the fact that you guys get that right!!! I am still talking about how awesome it was to attend!
That was a great story, but true in our everyday lives everytime we’re out and about with people. We need to take Dan’s advice and pay closer attention to those around us because someone around us every day is looking for a way to meet Christ. Dan is great in showing how to care for others in need of direction. God works in awsome ways, we just need to pay a lot more attention to what he’s telling us.