Making people feel welcome and creating a sense of family…the answer has traditionally been found in the small group  and whereas I am sure that small groups make a significant contribution I think there may be another very important element. In his book “Creating a Prodigal Friendly Church” Jeff Lucas calls it “ the creation of a culture of welcome……….Its about becoming people who decide that risky welcome is not someone else’s responsibility ….its mine!”
What is the key to creating such a culture? I wonder if it is not at the front door of many of our homes when the doorbell rings. When we open the door it is natural to invite the visitor in and extend ourselves to make them welcome (assuming of course the visitor is someone we are pleased to see!). We do not look to someone else to fulfill this responsibility who else can do it in our home? Indeed even if we are at someone elses home for a meeting and are given the role of opening the door our capacity to  “welcome” is limited compared to those who call the house their home.
So here are a couple of questions that may give us some clues to the creation of a culture of welcome….

1. Do we really see the church as our family “home” and so as imperative that visitors are welcomed with the same attention to detail
2. Do each of us see this as our home so our responsibility or is it simply the job of the team appointed for the day so we can just.
3. Do we see everyone who is a guest at our church as someone we are really pleased to see?

What do you think?