"Welcome to Online Church"
A pastor shared a story of a young man who became a member of a local church in Las Vegas, NV. Before the young man joined the local church, he had been sleeping in an open field next to the church. At one point in his life, Cody had a lot of money as a famous bass pro fisherman featured on ESPN. Cody’s drug addiction led to the loss of $600,000 worth of savings, his house, his Harley Davidson motorcycle, and his new boat. He smoked away everything he had and ended up homeless. A man who had eaten at fine restaurants and interacted with celebrities had bottomed out and was now homeless.
One day, some people from a church’s homeless ministry happened to be passing out food in the park where Cody slept. They offered him a shower at the church. The last place Cody wanted to go was a church, but he had not bathed in so long that even other homeless men could not stand his smell anymore. Cody explained what happened next:
I walked into the church, and this lady named Michelle, who knew me from the homeless ministry, said, “Good morning, Cody. How are you?” Then she looked at me, and she said, “Cody, you need a hug.” And I said, “Honey, you don’t want to touch me because I haven’t had a shower in 3 months.” If Michelle heard me, she didn’t seem to care. She walked up, and she looked in my eyes, and she gave me a big hug and told me that Jesus loved me. In that split second, I was somebody. She even remembered my name. That was the point where I knew that God was alive in this world.
In the following weeks, God began to restore Cody’s life. Eventually, he gave his life to Christ. He became involved in the church, started serving through a teaching ministry, and even leading Bible studies in the park for homeless people. In three years’ time, Cody got married, started his own business, and served in the homeless ministry every weekend. Cody’s transition from the ashes of a ruined life started with people from a local church being a welcoming community of love, compassion, grace, and generosity. The lady at the door made Cody feel like a person of worth and value as she greeted him with a smile and a hug (adapted from Jude White, Uncensored Grace, Mulnomah, 2008).
As I pondered Cody’s story, I considered several realities. First, I thought about the power of a welcoming church and how a local church’s attention to hospitality and acceptance became instrumental in helping to change a person’s life. Second, I pondered over the difficulty of being a welcoming church in an online/virtual space. A key component to Cody’s transformation was his encounter with the church greeter as the church gathered in a physical church building. Since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the closing of church buildings for in-person gatherings, many churches have been confronted with the challenge of not only being an online church but how to be a welcoming church online. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, some churches were already successfully streaming church service online while others had to move quickly and catch up. Trinity was one of those churches that had to catch up to doing church online and do it quickly. Thankfully, by the grace of God, a successful capital campaign (generous giving), and the consistent and tireless effort of our Media and Church Marketing Ministries, we have made some great progress.
Trinity’s Welcome Team does an excellent job of greeting people during in-person gatherings. Their mission is to (1) be hospitable and gracious, (2) be knowledgeable of the church’s facilities and be able to answer questions regarding those facilities, (3) be Christ-like in serving others, (4) give good directions, (5) guide visitors through the church’s facilities, (6) fulfill the divine mandate communicated in Hebrews 13:2, and (7) treat people with grace and a friendly attitude as they are being welcomed. However, as I thought about Cody’s testimony, I was confronted with the reality that we now need to become effective at being an online welcoming community of believers.
As I thought about their seven points of emphasis, I asked the following questions: How do you give someone good directions in a livestream? How do you give someone a welcome packet virtually? How do you greet people with a smile or a hug during online service? How do you accommodate people’s needs and make them feel accepted in online church?
Presently, our Church Marketing Ministry leader (Sis. Monica Coman), does an excellent job of representing Trinity during our Sunday Morning Livestream. She begins by welcoming attendees to Trinity. During the service she provides links for additional information, for online giving, and for belonging (church membership). She also monitors the livestream and provides feedback to the Media Ministry regarding video and sound quality. As I discussed these points of emphasis with Sister Coman, we both agreed that Trinity could still do more in welcoming others as we look to enhance our online presence. Moving forward, we will work with our Welcome Team leader, Sis. Dianne Graham, and others in an effort to identify individuals who are willing to display Christ-like service (Mark 10:45), maintain a Christ-like attitude (Phil. 2:5), be outward focused (Phil. 2:3-4), and create lasting relationships (Prov. 18:24; John 15:15; 1 Cor. 3:9; Col. 3:14; Phil. 2:2) in the service of welcoming the people. I am excited about the new possibilities that come with being a welcoming community as we engage in online church and endeavor to adapt our welcome approach to our new reality.
The monthly theme and sermon series that God has blessed us with that helps us to focus on being a welcoming community is “A Biblical Perspective of a Welcoming Community.” Our sermon series is “Be A Welcoming Community” from Romans 15:7; Luke 10:38-42; Luke 2:36-38; and Luke 15:1-7. Expect God to bless us through preaching His Word!