I find it astonishing that one of the most frequent comments I hear from people who are either “unchurched” or “de-churched” is,
“I did not feel very welcome there.”
Or ever heard this one?
“The people there are not very nice at all.”
We hear these types of things in so many various forms, and it pains me to hear people say these words given the fact that ONE of our God’s greatest and most admirable characteristics is His LOVE. We also see this fantastic characteristic all throughout the life of Christ, and the forerunning need for His INTENTIONAL death. I think one of the greatest truths we, the church, can gather from God’s character and Christ’s example is INTENTIONAL LOVE.
First let’s define LOVE. Here are two GREAT definitions of love:
(n.) a great interest in something. (i.e. We share a love for music.)
(n.) affectionate greetings conveyed to someone on one’s behalf.
God’s love is clearly something that is to be shown to people on His behalf. We also see that when we do something as simple as greeting someone and showing the least bit of interested in them, we are showing them love, especially with the intentions of bringing them closer to God. This is crucial to a Sunday morning. It is the sole reason a church needs a volunteer group to take care of one thing; WELCOMING PEOPLE.
For this there are two examples that many churches should take notes from. Disney is the greatest achiever in making people feel welcome in their parks, resorts, and cruises. In fact, as I learned from The Season Of Disney on The Travel Channel, a key value that Disney puts the greatest importance on is making sure their millions of guests are happy. It is a huge undertaking, however, if you’ve ever been to a Disney park, stayed in one of their resorts, or relaxed on one of their cruises, you know exactly what I am talking about.
The question is now posed: With millions of guests every year, how does Disney achieve being the friendliest place on earth?
The answer is simple. Every employee stands by this one value of making sure it stays all about the people. With every employee working together to achieve this common goal, millions of people visit Disney and leave satisfied. Why not the church?
Another example of applying intentional love to serving people is Apple. Everyone knows their devices and computers and almost everyone has an
iPod (exaggeration). But for the many who have encountered the atmosphere of an Apple Retail Store, you can probably agree that Apple does a brilliant job of accommodating their guests. Whenever I have walked into an Apple Store, immediately I am greeted by an Apple Store employee, asking me if I need any help that day. Although you might see this in every other store, the level of greeting I get from an Apple Store employee verses the level of greeting I receive from other electronic retail stores tips the scales to Apple every time. Their team is knowledgeable of the products and are extremely nice to those who might need extra help learning more about their products. Their retail customer service exceeds expectations and churches can learn a lot from observing Apple’s customer service.
Loving people intentionally should be priority 1 when it comes to any worship service at your church. I stress the word intentionally because when we place such importance on something so simple as greeting an individual like they matter, it creates a new environment where everyone who walks through your doors will feel like they’ve been there for years. Building relationships rather than just making sure you have shook every hand that walks through the door is what we are called to do. Intentional love means seeking out those who might be new or need more help, directing them to the place they need to be; whether it is to guest services, your children’s area, or giving them some information about the church. If you are intentional about loving on people, their hearts will already be in a comfortable place, allowing God to move through their lives so much more once in the actual service. Cloverleaf Church‘s aim for a Sunday morning is to provide the Disney experience to everyone who walks through our doors, making sure we have opened their hearts to what God wants them to hear that day.
For more notes about Intentional Love, visit an Apple Retail Store, or go to a Disney park and you’ll see firsthand what that might look like; and it would be more fun than reading another book…
Tags: Apple, Cloverleaf Church, customer service, Disney, intentional, love, serve, unchurched
