Eyes for the Person Standing Alone

One of the things we've really been working on as a young adult ministry is "developing eyes for the person standing alone." We have a big enough ministry that it's difficult to tell who is a guest and who is not. As a result, for a long time we've had several people slip through the cracks because nobody feels comfortable introducing themselves but me. It can feel as though the ministry is unfriendly, cold, and unwelcoming, when in reality that's not the case. People are just worried about introducing themselves to someone who has been a part of the ministry for years.

I've been trying to cast vision pretty hard for people to develop eyes for the person standing alone when we're together, and to engage those people in conversation.

This past Thursday, I think we had a breakthrough. We launched our quarterly four-week worship opportunity for Singles and had an above-average turnout. Throughout the entire night, I looked hard for people standing alone - and couldn't find them. But, we had almost twenty guests/infrequent attenders. Our leaders spotted those people, engaged them in conversation, and began developing relationships with them.

As a result, I got three emails this week from those guests about what a friendly, unthreatening, welcoming group we have.