Leadership: A word from Mennonite Church USA leaders

Recently I received a phone call from a person who had discovered Mennonites via the Mennonite Church USA website (www.mennoniteusa.org). She said she was a Christian and found our beliefs to be consistent with hers.

She had used the website to find a congregation in her community, and she began attending. After several weeks, she was discouraged by a particular Sunday school conversation in which there was significant theological questioning. As a result, she stopped attending.

No one from the congregation contacted her when she no longer showed up on Sundays. She told me no one had asked for her contact information. She was disappointed that there were no other Mennonite congregations in her area, since she really wanted to go to a Mennonite church.

I was sad to hear that this congregation had not taken the time to get contact information from a visitor who had attended several weeks. Since she stopped attending, they had no way of contacting her and inviting her back. What a missed opportunity!

Several years ago, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law visited churches in their community. I encouraged them to visit a particular congregation that I thought would be “their kind of church.” Unfortunately, not one person talked to them during their visit.

Hospitality is a significant part of every congregation’s outreach program; how we welcome people into our congregations is a significant part of church growth.

Unfortunately, we often don’t think of it in this way. Lyle Schaller once said that regular churchgoers imagine that for newcomers to become part of a church is as simple as stepping across a line on the floor—whereas to the visitor, it actually feels like having to scale a 30-foot-high wall.

I am aware of a story from my own congregation—of a family who visited but arrived a little late. As they were going into the sanctuary, the usher “yelled” at them for entering the sanctuary at the wrong time. (The ushers had been instructed to allow people to enter only at certain times so as not to disturb the worshipers.)

The visitors were embarrassed about the incident and never returned. (I should also say that my congregation no longer has these “rules” about when you can and can’t enter the sanctuary.)

I think many Anglo Mennonite congregations in particular tend to plan worship for their current members. We don’t tend to think about the visitors we might have. We assume that everyone knows everyone. When we have visitors, they may quickly feel left out.

With a bit of planning, we can find opportunities to be invitational and show hospitality. A few years ago, I attended a Christmas Eve service. It was a wonderful, meaningful service. In attendance were many members as well as a number of community people.

However, I noticed that there was no invitation to join the congregation on Sunday morning for worship. Neither was there information about what time they worshiped on Sundays. There was no offer of pastoral care, should someone have wanted to contact a pastor at a later date. Simply including this information in the service or bulletin could have made a difference for a visitor.

When I worked for Goshen (Ind.) College as the director of admissions, one of the things we frequently talked about was our one opportunity to make a good first impression. The same principles apply in congregational settings. We may have only one opportunity to share a warm, welcoming, Jesus-like experience with visitors who join us for worship. If we fail to do this, likely they will not return.

I leave you with a challenge: Become a visitor in 2013. I invite you to make one of your New Year’s resolutions to visit several congregations in your community. Be aware of your visitor status and how the congregation welcomes you—or not. Allow this experience to help shape the way you treat visitors who visit your congregation in 2013 and beyond.

Marty Lehman of Goshen, Ind., is director of churchwide operations for Mennonite Church USA.