1.
Before shopping do I have any predisposed goals and expectations in mind
concerning the store that I’m going to shop at.
Can the same thing be said about visitors in our worship services?
2.
While traveling to the grocery store I'm very mindful of the vehicles and
drivers that are around me enroute to the store.
QUESTION:
As a member of
our Church family, what are my driving habits especially if I have a
"Jesus Saves" or "Jesus is my Co-Pilot" or the
"fish symbol" sticker on my vehicle? As a visiting Pastor
enroute to Churches for Pulpit Supply or -- simply as a visitor, more
times than I care to remember, I’ve noted rude and obnoxious drivers that
are driving near and around me and then – I followed them into the church
parking lot.
3.
When we enter the grocery store parking, lot were we forced to dodge
enthusiastic and rude drivers who seem to have only one thing in mind,
"You're in my way and I'm in a hurry to find the very best parking
place - right next to the building"? As a Church member, what
are my parking lot driving habits like? Please
allow me to share a personal pet-peeve. For anyone other than the "handicap," why are there
reserved parking spaces in our parking lots. Pastor, member, are we not supposed to be servants to all and
not ruler over, all?
4.
As we walked into the grocery store and someone with a smile greeted us with,
"Thank you for coming to our store" and then handed
us a flyer (in our churches it's a church bulletin) -- did they show you
around or introduce you to someone who did? How
do we greet and seat our visitors?
Please
allow me to share one more personal pet-peeve. We've walked into church
after church looking for a seat only to discover that seating is reserved by
Bibles, coats, etc, forcing us to sit at the very rear of the
sanctuary. Choir members and Church leaders, we are servants to and of
the membership and visitors, not rulers and or special people. This
practice makes visitors feel totally unwelcome!! If you're a choir
member and the sanctuary is full, Pastor -- have enough common sense to
instruct the choir to remain in the choir loft or -- have reserved choir
family seating in the rear of the sanctuary.
5. Just as in the grocery store as we find our own way around -- were we met
with crowded aisles of enthusiastic, rushing and smiling people?
Did we even get bumped and thumped? Did some folks smile in our direction and yet, they said nothing to
us? While in the store did we hear the store manager's voice over the P.A. assuring us
that he cares about our shopping
experience and he desires to personally
serve us? In fact, we walked by
him and observed him standing in his manager's cubicle. Isn't it
strange that he {like many Pastors) and Church Family leaders never left his
place behind his desk to come down to meet us or shake our hand? Why
is that?
6. Before
we left the store, we were asked to pay? Pastor and Church family
member, I'm going to make a suggestion based upon my own convictions and
experience. Never ask a visitor
to contribute to our membership love offerings.
When you have visitors in your home,
do you ask them for a financial gift? Our operating expenses are our responsibility and not, our
visitors. Please make this fact very
clear to our visitors. Too often I have been
told by folks who have visited New Testament Church worship services with the condemning statement, "They didn't care about me or my family
what-so-ever! All they wanted
was my money!" Yes, we need
funds to continue our ministries but not our visitor's funds.
7.
As we leave the store, does someone say with a smile, "It was so nice
that you came to shop in our store today?
Did you find everything that you were looking for?
Please hurry back." We know they are really saying "We
need your business $$$$$. It's
our job security.”
What
do the visitors of our worship services think and tell others when they
leave our Church?
8.
After shopping at the local grocery store or visiting a local Church family
we again end up in the parking lot and people are usually all around us. Did anyone show an interest in us or talk to
us?
9. We
located our vehicle and -- after dodging enthusiastic and rude drivers who
seemed to have only one thing in mind "You're in my way and I'm in a
hurry to get out of here"....we found a safe way out of the parking
lot and went home. I truly do not like
admitting the following: As
a general rule my wife and I have found that, as a visitor leaving
worship services, it is wise to for us to "safely sit in our vehicle and wait" for the initial
membership rush to leave, then we leave the church parking lot.
How
is it in your church parking lot?
10.
After arriving home from the grocery store and relaxing, did we think about
our shopping experience? When
given any opportunities -- do we tell others all about our experience, good or
bad?
Do we really believe that
visitors of our worship services will respond any differently when asked questions about our Church family when given the opportunity to talk to others?
Pastors, Christians, Church members and Church
leaders:
Our
worship services are Spiritual ministries for the Spiritually ill which
includes you, me
and all visitors. We are Spiritual Hospitals not entertainment
centers. All who enter need the Word of God ministered with clarity,
and Pastors, that's our responsibility Nehemiah chapter 8
and 2 Timothy chapter 4. They need meat and potato
"sermons" for the lost onto salvation and for Christians
(upper case "C") onto correction, direction, perfection,
encouragement and growth and not -- "sermon-etts" for "christian-etts"
(lower case "c") -- 10 minute feel-good-warm-fuzzy
sermon-etts. {Truly Born Again Christians, upper case "C"
possessors, vs. christians, lower case "c" professors}
Our
music should educate, inspire, encourage, fortify and lift our God, His
power and His divine presence in our life and ministry Ephesians. 5:19,
Colossians. 3:16 James 5:13. Today's 7-11 ditties (7 words sung
11 times over) may be fun and have a place; they should never replace our age
old Psalms and Hymns that are based upon the Word of God for worship and praise!
Each
visitor needs personal attention and deserves -- personal attention,
how
else will we ever discover their spiritual and physical needs? This is every member's responsibility not just
the Pastor's.
I'm
going to make a suggestion from my own personal experience and practice, no visitor should ever leave our Sunday morning or evening ministry
without an invitation for a meal or at very least, coffee. Pastor,
Church Family member, each of you leaves and goes
somewhere, home or otherwise, to eat after the worship services. Invite
a visitor (or visiting family) to join you, and, you pay for it. If you cannot
afford to pay for the meal, ask the Church to help. Not long ago my wife
and I visited a local Church family and there was a man on a business trip who
was also visiting (married man with children, 2,200 miles from home).
Mary and I observed that not a single member or even the Pastor greeted him
(or us) in any way so we invited him to eat with us at the "Old Country Buffet
Restaurant" about 2 miles from the church.
We had a wonderful time of fellowship and were able to be an encouragement to
him.
Pastors
and Board members, sending informative ministry information to a visitor's home
may be a good thing but it'll never replace or be as effective
as a personal home visit. Others have said to us and - we have
personally experienced -- visiting local Church Family ministries for several
weeks without having anyone even invite us to a Sunday School class, a Prayer
meeting or receiving so much as a phone call from the Pastor, church leader
or members. Pastors, leaders and members:
A. There is never a second
opportunity for a first impression.
B.
We may never have another
opportunity to:
**lead that visitor to Christ,
(our Lord brought them to us)
**resolve a problem that may:
**destroy
**their
marriage
**their
future or
**cost that visitor or others,
because of them, their lives creating
a life time of
pain because we didn't minister to THEIR NEEDS
WHEN WE HAD OUR
"GOD GIVEN" and "GOD ORDAINED"
OPPORTUNITY.
As Senior Pastor, Pulpit
Supply and Interim Pastor of local Church families, by simply meeting,
greeting and talking with visitors as they were coming in and going out of our worship services, I have been privileged, with the Lord's
leadership and direction, to restore marriages, families and be used of the
Spirit to save lives. Our LOCAL worship services are Spiritual
hospitals. There isn't a person in attendance (including the
Pastor) that hasn't been
under Satan's attack during the week and hasn't been wounded or discouraged. We do not
attend worship services simply out of desire or habit. It is our Lord
and Saviour, through the drawing of the Holy Spirit, Who directs each and
every person into our worship services. Each and every person is
in need of encouragement and spiritual healing through the hearing of the
Word of God, the singing of Hymns and songs and through personal fellowship.
PS,
PASTOR:
Pastor,
if your a hollerer, screamer, shouter, foot stomping and pulpit pounding
preacher, shame on you. The world hollers, screams, shouts blows
their horns and abuses God's kids seven days a week, you don't need
to join that crowd.
Take
a lesson from Elijah. Elijah was having a physical, emotional and
spiritual breakdown.
1 Kings 19:4
"But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"
He
was physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted, just like many of
your congregation:
1 Kings 19:11-12
Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but
the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but
the Lord was not in the earthquake; [12] and after the earthquake a fire, but
the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire
a still small voice. [13] And it came about
when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
You're
a spiritual physician working and operating in a spiritual hospital -- a
quiet zone. Has your Lord and Saviour ever hollered, screamed,
shouted, stomped His feet or pounded His pulpit with you?
|
How
and what are you and your Church family doing?
|
The
purpose of this page is to give you some ideas with which
to approach your Pastor, Church board and Church family
for Godly encouragement and change.
How can I encourage you?

This
is my personal mailbox.
How
are you doing? How can I encourage you?
Sincerely,
Rev. Robert J. Kuiphoff (Pastor K)
Please be advised, Rev. Robert J. Kuiphoff is an Ordained Minister of the Word of God and is not a licensed Psychologist, Psychiatrist or Medical Physician. Any and all counsel, suggestions and / or advice derived from www.goldenfaithbiblechurch.org, via email or telephone is based solely upon Rev. Robert J. Kuiphoff's personal convictions concerning the Word of God; his personal interpretation of the Word of God and his lengthy experience counseling and advising men, women and children concerning the Christian Life and daily walk in the world that we all live in.

