{"id":11506,"date":"2018-05-19T19:52:17","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T00:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=11506"},"modified":"2018-05-19T19:52:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T00:52:17","slug":"book-review-becoming-a-welcoming-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=11506","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Becoming a Welcoming Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Becoming-Welcoming-Church-Thom-Rainer\/dp\/1462765459\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1526776678&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Thom+Rainer\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11507\" alt=\"BecomingAWelcomingChurch\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/BecomingAWelcomingChurch-214x300.jpg\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/BecomingAWelcomingChurch-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/BecomingAWelcomingChurch-731x1024.jpg 731w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/BecomingAWelcomingChurch.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Becoming-Welcoming-Church-Thom-Rainer\/dp\/1462765459\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1526776678&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Thom+Rainer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Becoming a Welcoming Church<\/em><\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thom Rainer<\/a> showed up in my mailbox a few weeks ago totally out of the blue.\u00a0 The timing was great!\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cedarcrestchurch.com\" target=\"_blank\">Our church<\/a> recently added a new ministry called Host Team.\u00a0 Emma and I have been on the Greeter Team for a while, but now we will do 2 Sundays a month with greeting and 2 Sundays a month with Hosting.\u00a0 On the host team, our role is to do everything we can to help people feel welcome and a part of our worship service at Cedarcrest.\u00a0 Honestly&#8230;some of it is a little outside my comfort zone.\u00a0 I&#8217;m perfectly fine standing on a stage speaking in front of a large auditorium&#8230;but it takes a good bit of courage for me to walk up to people I don&#8217;t know and just start up a conversation.\u00a0 However, that is an area I believe the Lord is challenging me to grow in&#8230;so I signed up for Host Team.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve read several of Thom Rainer&#8217;s books over the years about ministry&#8230;I&#8217;ve linked to several of my Rainer reviews <a href=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?s=Rainer\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 Becoming a Welcoming Church is very timely because it challenges me to walk into our church tomorrow morning with a fresh set of eyes to see how a guest would feel on our campus.\u00a0 In a culture that has totally gone off the rails, people are looking for answers to their questions.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s do everything we can to clear away the barriers for guests who are visiting our churches.\u00a0 A gospel focused philosophy of hosting can make all the difference in the world!<\/p>\n<p>I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Romans 12:13 \u201cpursue hospitality\u201d p. 3<\/li>\n<li>1 Timothy 3:2\u20133 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. (ESV) p. 3<\/li>\n<li>Titus 1:7\u20138 For an overseer, as God&#8217;s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. (ESV) p. 4<\/li>\n<li>Most church members have forgotten what it\u2019s like to be a first-time guest. p. 8<\/li>\n<li>Guests are most overlooked in the few minutes right before the worship services. \u00a0No one speaks to them or sits with them. p. 20<\/li>\n<li>Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (ESV) p. 33<\/li>\n<li>1 Peter 4:9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. (ESV) p. 33<\/li>\n<li>What can you do personally to make guests feel more welcomed just prior to the beginning of the worship services? p. 33<\/li>\n<li>Good church signage is a statement of your church\u2019s hospitality. \u00a0It means you are expecting guests; and it means you desire for guests to come to your church. p. 39<\/li>\n<li>What led you to visit your church? p. 42<\/li>\n<li>You may be too familiar with your church. \u00a0You may have lost the ability to see things from an outsider\u2019s perspective. \u00a0Or you may love your church so deeply that you are willing to overlook issues such as clutter or dirt or unsafe areas. p. 54<\/li>\n<li>Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, (ESV) p. 66<\/li>\n<li>You must understand and believe in the importance of becoming a welcoming church. \u00a0If you don\u2019t buy in, you won\u2019t emphasize it. \u00a0You won\u2019t lead it. \u00a0You won\u2019t work it. p. 88<\/li>\n<li>Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (ESV) p. 91<\/li>\n<li>The welcoming church is more of an attitude or disposition. \u00a0It represents the mind-set of an outward focus rather than an inward focus. \u00a0It is about serving rather than being served. p. 98<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i>Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s 16 CFR, Part 255 &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.access.gpo.gov\/nara\/cfr\/waisidx_03\/16cfr255_03.html\">http:\/\/www.access.gpo.gov\/nara\/cfr\/waisidx_03\/16cfr255_03.html<\/a>&gt; : \u201cGuides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Becoming a Welcoming Church by Thom Rainer showed up in my mailbox a few weeks ago totally out of the blue.\u00a0 The timing was great!\u00a0 Our church recently added a new ministry called Host Team.\u00a0 Emma and I have been on the Greeter Team for a while, but now we will do 2 Sundays [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14,22,16,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","category-book-review","category-cedarcrest-church","category-family","category-generosity","category-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}