On one recent Sunday morning before our first service started, I noticed a couple and their son sitting by themselves off to the side of our worship center. I had seen them before, and I thought that this would be a great opportunity to introduce myself and get to know them a little bit. After walking over and having a short conversation with them, the dad said to me, “It’s really cool that y’all would come talk to people before the services!”
Making them feel at home was certainly a fruitful outcome of the conversation, but his reaction communicated something a little more serious to me: it was uncommon for our worship team to engage in conversations with the people that we lead! The problem did not stem from a lack of opportunity; being in a college town, there are a ton of new faces that shuffle in and out of our doors every semester, so moments like these present themselves frequently. What was problematic was the perceived divide between themselves and our team.
There are certainly operational pros for having stages in our church sanctuaries, but for some reason, they deceive people into thinking that those who stand on them have everything together. If this idea is allowed to go unchecked, the divide between our congregations and our worship teams will only grow larger and larger. We have an incredible opportunity to help rid our church of this perception, but we often value our personal comfort over the hearts of the people that we lead in worship. Are you uncomfortable with engaging in conversations because you are introverted? Do you fear that you have nothing to say of value? Are you cranky on Sundays because you don’t go to sleep at a decent hour on Saturday nights? A lot of us have probably convinced ourselves that these things are legitimate enough to absolve us from talking to our people on Sundays, but we have a perfect example of servanthood that rejects self-seeking behavior. The Apostle Paul urges the church in Philippi to imitate Christ in this way:
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:3-8 [NASB]).
If Jesus stepped down from His rightful throne to die for us, then we can certainly step down from the stage and make our people feel at home by engaging in conversation with them. Challenge yourself to meet one new person before every service, and write down what you talked about and follow up with them the next time that you see them. It will make such a great impact!