I\u2019m writing this the morning after twenty-seven of us went caroling to the Wilson Commons Senior Living Complex. It was a wonderful time and the residents enjoyed our being there almost as much as we enjoyed going! What we did last night, which was each of us giving up whatever else we normally would be doing on a Wednesday night, is just one answer to the question posed above. We came together to offer some Christmas cheer but one of the extra special joys for me was seeing some of our folks who didn\u2019t know one another before last night begin to make some connections.<\/p>\n
We may all worship together on Sunday mornings, although in two different services, but we often don\u2019t have the opportunity to greet one another beyond a quick \u201cHi\u201d or \u201cGoodbye.\u201d Plus, some of us are naturally introverted so it is even harder to \u201cbreak the ice\u201d of an established community. That is why it is so important for those of us who have been around for a while to reach out to new people and introduce ourselves to them.<\/p>\n
One way that people become more comfortable in church and begin to really feel a part of things is to be included in the life of the church beyond Sunday morning. This is why events like Cookie Walk, Secret Angel Gift Shoppe, the monthly men\u2019s breakfasts, the 4th of July parade, the quilting and knitting groups and the Wednesday Bible Study are so important, not to mention all our music ministries. Every one of these outlets provide opportunities for us to get to know one another better. But again, we always have to be asking ourselves, \u201cWho isn\u2019t here who could be? Who might be interested in this? Maybe I should invite them!\u201d<\/p>\n
This is how a community of faith grows, both in numbers and in strength. A lot of churches have special Sundays where they encourage members to invite a friend to worship. My hope is we will simply reach out to the people who are already here but who we don\u2019t really know. Why don\u2019t you make that a New Year\u2019s Resolution? After all, do we ever have too many friends?<\/p>\n
May 2016 be a truly awesome year for you and our church!<\/p>\n
Pastor Andy<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m writing this the morning after twenty-seven of us went caroling to the Wilson Commons Senior Living Complex. It was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[259],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastorandy","tag-pastor-andy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bayviewumc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}