Pastor's Corner – Jan 14, 2023
When first-time guests set foot on the campus of Faith Church – when they enter our buildings, what do they see?
They see the church with a fresh perspective and that perspective isn’t always positive.
They view the littered parking lot, they see the outdated bulletin boards and they see the blown light bulbs. Many of our members have become comfortable in these familiar surroundings and miss the opportunity to invest in the infrastructure of our church. Our guests do not. There is a saying, “First impressions are lasting ones.” What our church facilities look like is as vital to first impressions as how guests are greeted when they arrive.
Has Faith Church become so comfortable in the familiar that it misses what guests are experiencing? I’m not talking about those things that are out of our control. I’m talking about simple housekeeping and acts of intentional kindness.
I have heard it said that people should come to church for Jesus, not for what the church looks like on the inside. While I will not disagree with the heart behind the comment, people look at the facility’s façade and judge the church’s effectiveness from that point of view. Right or wrong, it happens every week.
Spend some time walking your facility, observing from the parking lot to the pew and everywhere in between what guests might see. Consider emptying overloaded trash cans, replace a blown light bulb, and rank the issues from easiest to fix to the hardest. Tackle the low-hanging fruit and put together a group of like-minded friends to tackle the hard stuff.
We have a group of dedicated leaders committed to addressing major maintenance needs like the roof, plumbing and HVAC, but we need every member to buy into making Faith Church all it can be for now. Every tool, every costume, every book and every piece of paper has a place; however, we need human help in placing those things in their places.
Blessings
Pastor Aubrey Miller