It was easy to choose the first word from the word wall to begin the series. I think it is entirely appropriate to focus on the word,
Welcoming
In fact, one of the first things that you cannot fail to notice as you enter the building is the word welcome.
These seven letters emblazoned across the wall are my favourite feature in our whole church building. They greet you on a Sunday morning to the welcome area where you will most likely be greeted by a member of the welcome team.
We use the word welcome a lot!
It’s a word that signifies greeting, communicating gladness on a person’s arrival. A door is held open for you, you are greeted with a warm smile and heartfelt handshake.
I love that a huge visible welcome is quite literally extended to one and all. No matter who walks through the doors, there is always an outsized welcome, filling the potential gaps of missed handshakes or overlooked introductions that can easily happen.
This is surely the very core of the gospel. The good news is that we are welcomed! We are invited in! We are graciously and joyously received in love into God’s family through belief in Jesus.
There is no story in the Bible that I can think of this moment that shows more how God welcomes us, than the prodigal son. The Father doesn’t just stand in the porch, holding the door open, waiting with reserve. No, he opens the door wide and runs towards his beloved child. He welcomes him home with so much more than a handshake. I imagine him embracing his son with tears in his eyes. He puts his arm around his child’s shoulders and walks him back through the door and into the place where he belongs.
‘We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.’ Luke 15:24
If this is how we personally experience welcome then this is what we will want others to experience too - a welcome that ushers them home with feasting and celebration.
If you are part of your church welcome team, then be encouraged because I think that what you do is hugely symbolic, speaking volumes. To welcome people into a church on a Sunday morning is to welcome them into the presence of God to worship him, thank him, celebrate him in vibrant community with those who know what it is to live welcomed. What a wonderful job!
Please do note, I can appreciate all this while not actually being on the welcome team myself. My social anxiety levels are far too high in a large busy foyer to be of much use in that area of service but I think all you official greeters and welcomers are marvellous.
This does not, however, mean that us introverts are either exempt or incapable of extending a welcoming hand to others. Jesus extends his welcome not just from the doors of our churches but from the doors of our lives, the places where his Spirit lives. In every act of love, there is an invitation, with every word of truth, the door is held open, every morsel of kindness, grace and forgiveness is a taste of the banquet that is offered.
To be welcoming encompasses who we are and everything we aspire to be - to have the open, expansive heart of God who welcomes radically and counter-culturally.
To embrace the meaning of the word welcome is to embrace everyone Jesus is ushering over the threshold of his Kingdom open house.
