The Person Standing Alone

There are pluses and minuses for being a part of a larger church. One of the minuses is that it is really hard to spot guests. McKinney is a very friendly church, but every once in a while we have people who slip in and out without being greeted by anyone.

Believe it or not, I have one or two introverted tendencies. One is that I don't really love meeting strangers. I'm usually pretty uncomfortable unless someone introduces them to me who I'm confident can keep the conversation going. Part of it is that my short-term memory stinks and I'm afraid I'm going to re-introduce myself to someone I should know (that happens at least once a Sunday).

For a long time I've talked to the ministries I lead about developing eyes for the person standing alone.

In a healthy church, most people gravitate to their groups of friends. So, when you see a person (or couple) standing by themselves, there is a good chance they're guests trying to scope out the nearest exits just in case the church starts handling snakes. One of my regular Sunday morning prayers is that God would give me eyes to see those people standing alone, and the courage to reach out to them. You should pray that too. Visiting churches is hard work, and people with trained eyes can make it a lot easier.