Following on from our front door, I just came across this video. It’s a bit cheesy, but the advice is well worth a view (especially for our welcoming team, but not exclusively so – it’s helpful for all of us at 5:17 to watch, think through, and put into action):

HT: Communicate Jesus

One of the great new ministries of 5:17 church has been our Welcoming Team. I thank God for Eleasa and the team, who are doing such a great job at welcoming newcomers to our church family. To see the team faithfully manning the front door, handing out newsheets and Bibles, making people feel comfortable and welcome, collecting people’s information to follow-them up and share more about our church… it’s gold!

It’s an immense privilege to welcome people to church. Jesus said, “come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). We want people to come to Jesus, but part of people coming to Jesus means coming into His family – the church. We often have newcomers in our congregations – people who have never been to 5:17 church before (and praise God for that!).

The exciting yet challenging fact is that we have only one chance to make a first impression! First impressions count, so the initial impact we in 5:17 have on newcomers is crucial.

And let’s not leave this priceless ministry to the official welcomers team. As I said, I think we’re going well at welcoming people, but hopefully more and more people will visit us. And that means more and more regulars will need to wear a ‘welcomers hat’ too.

Have you ever been to an event where you were a bit nervous, and you entered the room and someone came up to you and said welcome, introduced you to a few people and made you feel like you were valuable? It’s a great feeling – you feel like you are part of the group. But on the other hand, have you been to an event, walked into the room and been totally ignored – everyone else seems to be having a great time getting to know one another and you are standing in the corner waiting for the event to finish so you can go home? It’s a horrible experience! I’ve experienced that in churches and never went back.

Well, the warmth and friendliness of our welcome – or our lack of welcome – will be one of the main factors influencing whether visitors return to our church or not. We at 5:17 should be a church where people feel at home. Do you think people feel at home in our church? If you see someone sitting by themselves, do you go and say hi, or do you walk over to your friends? Are we a church family that is closed to outsiders, or open to anyone? What is your contribution to people feeling welcomed?

Have a read of what God says we should be: Ephesians 4:1-6; 1 John 3:14-18; Galatians 6:10; Romans 12:9-17. Remember, all of these passages were originally written to churches, not just individuals.

Hebrews 13:2 says, “do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”.  Are you helping newcomers come back through the front door, or do your actions show them the back door? First impressions count – so let’s (all of us) make them good ones!

Last Friday night Steve and I enjoyed a special birthday present – tickets to the Australian Outback Spectacular, given to us by friends from our parent church, SLE. We had a great time but no, I’m not going to put up a photo of us in our new cowboy hats – you can close your eyes and picture it yourselves.

Anyway, I was mulling about how significant it is for us (and maybe me especially) when church friends give us gifts – this one in particular made me feel very loved and affirmed and ‘thought of’ and we were really touched when we first got the email about it. It made me remember my birthday last year when S gave me a basil plant, and the year before that when the C’s gave us both Crocs (shoes, not animals).

Now I don’t actually think that ‘Giving Gifts’ is one of my top Love Languages and yet, receiving these gifts from church friends has been very significant and memorable for me. I guess gifts are a great way to bless people in ministry given how gifts can so tangibly convey thoughtfulness or thankfulness.

So being on the receiving end of gifts as well as having conversations about this with 5:17ers has made me consider how well we actually know and love each other in our church in specific, thoughtFUL ways – such as knowing each other’s Love Languages and considering carefully how we can ‘speak’ these languages to each other.

In my experience it takes a good deal of time and careful attention to get to know someone’s love language(s) – unless you directly ask which is perfectly fine too. I know that I haven’t gone around and done a survey of fellow 5:17ers though, even while it is our aim and hope that 5:17ers know we love them! (though the primary ways we are able to express this across the board are through prayer and pastoral care and conversation – which I think are forms of acts of service, quality time, and giving gifts)

It’s all made me wonder ultimately, how well we are all going at loving and showing love to our brothers and sisters. I’m encouraged that it has been happening recently as we’ve prayed together over various trials 5:17ers have experienced. But are we leaving some people and some needs and some love languages out? Can we be more careful and considerate about this as individuals and as a church family? Do we have a disposition to love without putting ‘legs’ on that love? Would outsiders look in and see by our love that we are Jesus’ disciples?

What do you think? Please do comment… but I hope you’ll also catch the ‘mulling bug’ and consider with me who you can show love to, by putting your love for them (and God) on legs.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he (or she) is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). That’s our church’s theme verse. But what does it mean? It means:

• anyone: our church exists for everyone everywhere
• in Christ: we live and promote the life and hope found in a living relationship with Jesus Christ through trusting in His life, death, resurrection and present rule.
• new creation: Jesus changes us from the inside out – He took our guilt, shame and sin on the cross, and in its place has given us a new life and purpose.

I love these great truths and what they mean for us as individuals and together as a church. I was chatting with a few of the guys from church the other day, and we agreed that 5:17 church is going pretty well so far. There’s a real closeness to our relationships, and there’s a real committment to connecting with people around us and seeking to connect them with Christ’s love.

But we also see that it’s easy to find small faults in other people and the church as a whole. ‘Church bashing’ is a popular game in some circles (I’m really thankful that it hasn’t existed in 5:17 church yet) – and it’s an easy game because there are lots of faults in us and the church. But how often do we look for and see positive changes in people and the church? It’s easy to point out other’s faults, but how long is it since you pointed out someone’s positive growth? If we as a church are all about seeing lives transformed by Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), then we should be on the lookout for this transformation in each other – and encourage each other as we see positive signs of growth.

So, here’s an exercise for us all to do. Let’s acknowledge and work on the faults in our church. But let’s also be on the lookout for ‘signs of grace’. God graciously changes us from hopelessness to hope, despair to joy etc. God graciously gifts us with talents to serve and love other people. Look out for how God has been and is bringing positive change in your own thinking and actions. Be on the lookout for the way God is changing people around you. Be on the lookout for the way God is changing the church. And then share what you see with others – for each other’s good and God’s glory!

Last night in our Central Community Group (CG), apart from eating cake, chips and weird lavendar biscuits, we had a look at Philippians 1:1-11. We covered heaps of stuff, but what stood out for me was our discussion on “partnership in the gospel” (v.5). This was really thought provoking.

Why? Because the English word partnership is a translation of the Greek (the original language of the New Testament) word koinonia. What we found interesting is that the word koinonia is more commonly translated in the New Testament as fellowship.

Koinonia can mean partnership, sharing or fellowship. It was a word that was taken from the first century business world. It conjured up the image of two or more people who are bound together to bring about a shared vision – e.g. stakeholders in a company.

What does this tell us about true (biblical) Christian fellowship? Often we think of fellowship as two or more Christians hanging out together. Often after church, we stay and chat about sport or Master Chef etc.  But is this true biblical fellowship? Is this partnership in the gospel? Is this commitment to a shared vision? Hanging out as Christians, growing as friends can come under the banner of fellowship, but hanging out as Christians must be part of a bigger picture than just hanging out.

Partnership or fellowship is to partner or fellowship over something. And for Christians, the shared vision that we are stakeholders of is the gospel – the good news of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and rule (and everything this means for us and the world).

What does this mean practically for us? Last night we discussed the following: as well as hanging out and chatting about everything and anything, our conversations should be saturated with the gospel, delighting in God, sharing with one another what we’ve been learning from His Word, joining in prayer for the advance of the gospel (not least in the lives of those to whom we’ve been bearing witness), encouraging one another in obedience and maturing discipleship, bearing one another’s burdens and growing in sacrificial love for one another for Christ’s sake.

Partnership in the gospel means spending time together to bring about the same shared vision. Our fortnightly sport is an enterprise in spending time together for the purpose of growing as a group and connecting with others. So too is our Roma St BBQ’s. How else can we grow in fellowship? Let’s keep asking this question, and enjoy the results.

May we at 5:17 flourish in our fellowship as we connect with each other, and connect with others to connect them with Jesus!