I love this photo that Garrett snapped this Sunday (You can check out his 10,000+ photos of actionchurch over the years here on Flickr).  This picture caught my attention for two reasons.

1.  I’m really grateful for Bill and his entire greeting/hospitality crew.  They’re friendly, helpful, they know and can explain what actionchurch is all about, and I’m pretty sure our greeting crew can take on any other church in town’s  greeting team in a cage match…not sure why that would be necessary…but if it is, my money is on the actionchurch crew. Just Sayin’ :-)

2.  It reminds me how far we’ve come from our original “the-smokers-are-the-greeters” plan for welcoming people.  When we started actionchurch there were BARELY enough crew members to get everything set up so the service could begin on time.  There was absolutely NO margin for crew members to stop and welcome folks who came in the front door.  We soon discovered that the people who stepped outside to smoke before the service were greeting and assisting people…so we utilized that “plan” for over 2 years.

The truth is that YOU are the front door to actionchurch.  Almost every week I hear stories and receive cards from people attending actionchurch for the first time.  Their most common reason?  SOMEONE at work…someone at school…someone on their block…someone in their family showed them kindness and invited them to actionchurch. Nothing makes me happier than hearing these stories.  They are truly stories of people who “Love God, Love People, and Take action” in amazing ways.  People often learn about us by seeing a sign, the truck, or even a t-shirt, but somewhere in their story there is also someone who already attends actionchurch whose actions made them curious enough to show up on a Sunday morning.

I am 100% certain that if you invite your friends and family members to actionchurch, our greeting crew will welcome them and make them feel comfortable.  I am also 100% certain that the best chance they have to GET TO that front door, will be because you show kindness and love to them in simple, sincere, and impossible-to-resist ways.

Thank you ALL for inviting, investing, and getting involved.  YOU are the front door of actionchurch.