Making the Most of Share Life
Our Share Life Sundays begin this week. At my Growth Group and at our Staff Meeting, we shared names of people we are hoping to invite and prayed that they would come. I suspect many of you will have done the same. So let’s get inviting - there is such joy when someone says they will come.
There can also be some disappointment when the people you invite decide not to come. But, as much as that can be disappointing, your role in Share Life does not end just because your guest stays at home. All of us have a vital contribution to make each Sunday to ensure that our time together is excellent for all the people who do come.
Here are some ways all of us can stay involved - and especially when your guests don’t come:
Pray before you leave home: for Elliot who is preaching and for people who are invited and coming, for all the people serving and for the service to flow well.
Plan to arrive early and stay late. If you are not bringing someone, come prepared to be lovely to someone else’s friend. Create space in your day to stay and love people well.
Think about where to park - the further away you park, the easier it is for an invited guest to find a place close by. Think about suggesting to your guest where they can park and maybe meet them at their car.
Be mindful where you sit in the auditorium. Sit towards the front and don’t leave big gaps between people. We are expecting several of our services to be really full.
If you are bringing a guest, prepare them for what will happen in church. Look out for other guests and help them orient themselves to what is happening too. Observe whether they are needing help; be situationally aware.
For those who bring children, prepare your children well. Talk about what is going to happen and if your routine is changing, make sure the kids are ready for that too.
Prepare well for conversations with people you don’t know. If you have a friend at church who brought a guest, say hi and pursue a good, high level conversation (Who are you? How’s your week? etc.) Guests don’t like to feel they are being interrogated or pigeon holed by people they don’t know. There is an art to all this and we want to help people move forward not drive them backwards. So allow the inviters to go deeper but we can all be friendly and warm. One hot tip: Don’t ask “what did you think of the service?” as your first question!
Don’t come to church hoping to have lots of admin conversations or catch up conversations with your GG members this week. Provide time and space for people to feel cared for and perhaps catch up on things at another time in the day. Look for someone you don’t know and make people feel welcome. Join a friend and meet a friend.
Essentially what I am saying is, let’s be a community in action. We together are seeking to reach people for Jesus. Share Life is not about bringing a guest to hang with an expert. This is a moment where we are all working together to Share Life. This is a moment where our guests can get to know Jesus in a community of people who love him.
And of course, you can do any of those things I mentioned on any other Sunday in the year. Let’s serve together to see people won for Christ because it is absolutely 100% worth bothering with God.
