Visitors Welcome! If You Know the Secret Handshake?

So you come to OSLCS to visit on a Sunday morning. You are driving down 141. You see the cool sign with red letters. You turn into our campus. The curved road takes you into our parking lot. Then what?

You need the secret handshake?

How do we get into church? Where is the door? Are there any signs that help?

The moment you drive into our parking lot you see a possibility of three doors to enter so that you can hear God's Word.

"Hey, there's the circle drive. That must be how you get in. Right?" No. Wrong handshake.

Hm. "Where is the church? I see a sign that tells me how to get to the school but not how to get into church."

Finally, you see people going into a small door with a numerical key pad to get in. Sure, it is eventually unlocked. But for a visitor, does it look like our "main entrance" to a church service?  Does this picture say, "Welcome to Our Savior? Come on in!"

To a visitor, it
kind of looks like a secret door with a secret code. Then, once you
walk in it, it is a dark hallway. Don't stop and talk to someone or you'll be in the way of traffic. Once you get into the narthex... keep moving, or you'll block traffic again and since people are moving through, how do I get a bulletin and get into church to sit down?

Then, it is even tighter if there is a table in the narthex to sign up for something...

Getting People Back in the Pews

I'm learning that getting into church and understanding where to go is quite an obstacle course. I know that this is stirring the pot a bit. Please forgive me if I'm ruffling feathers.

The one thing that has been consistently stated to me by all boards, members, etc., is that we need to get our people back into the pews. We need to get more visitors. We need to get out to the community and invite people to Our Savior. Amen!

Wouldn't it be nice if, when a visitor comes into church, they meet our gracious and loving members   in something like this? I wonder how much it would cost to build a reception area like this?

We have great facilities. We have a great congregation. People are so nice. I just hope we'll make it easier for visitors - not people who already know the secret entrance - to get into our church and see what we have to offer. Give them a chance to meet all of our warm and friendly believers and chat.

Over the next couple of months we will be talking about this at our various meetings. It seems that we have such an obvious entrance - by the activity center - with an elevator and a beautiful lobby to welcome people - and easy access to the church, our bible studies and our church/school office. Let's hope we can come up with a solution.

We want to welcome visitors in an obvious manner. Hopefully we really don't need a secret handshake to get into church and hear God's Word.