Our Front Door

The past week or two has seen all of the extremes of weather--very warm to very cold; very wet to very dry; calm to quite windy, but through it all, the front door of COJUMC has remained the same. The slogan goes "Open minds, Open hearts, Open doors" and we sometimes take it too much for granted. Almost every church when asked their strengths will say how friendly they are, yet, when a stranger comes through the door, they are often ignored while we are friendly with each other.

That is especially true just before worship, when everyone is scrambling to get into their seats and the start of the service. That is one of the reasons we have a greeting time early on in the service. It gives everyone an opportunity to deliberately greet someone they don't know. Hugging friends is cool. Shaking hands with a fellow church member is OK, but telling a visitor how glad you are to see them at church is the best of all.

If we mean to open our doors, we ought to expect someone to come in, and that means we need to be great hosts. The Bible says that when we extent hospitality to strangers we just might be entertaining angels without knowing it. And I, for one don't want to take any chances on missing that opportunity.