What's Going On?!?

I had the pleasure of taking Ethan to school this morning. His love language is quality time, so I love to spend time with him like this - just the two of us with uninterrupted time to talk.

At his school, all of the kids play outside and then line up when the first bell rings. The school sent home a note recently to make sure that the kids are dressed to play in the snow - snowpants, boots, gloves, hat, etc. (Anytime I get the kids ready to play in the snow, I can't help thinking about the little kid in A Christmas Story!)

So we pull up to the school, and I see kids going in the front door of the school rather than around back to play on the playground. I begin to wonder if the kids are supposed to go straight inside because it is so cold. Since there aren't any teachers/administrators outside giving instructions, I decide to walk around back with Ethan to double-check. Sure enough...no kids on the playground, so I take him back around front and send him into the school. I even directed a few other kids back to the front because they were heading back to play.

Wouldn't it make sense to put somebody outside to greet parents & kids to let them know of the change in plans? What if I had just dropped Ethan off? He probably would have figured things out after a little while, but how long would that have taken?

It made me think about how first-time guests who come into our churches feel. Do we have adequate signage to explain where to go? Do we have enough volunteers waiting to greet guests and guide them where they need to go? Do our volunteers focus on new people or are they distracted talking to their friends and small group members?

I'm proud to say that at Great Oaks, we do a pretty good job of this. There will always be room for improvement; we just need to make sure we are constantly evaluating our First Impressions for new people. The longer we are involved in a church, the more we forget what it was like to be a first-time guest. Perhaps we should occasionally visit another local church to remember what it feels like...