The VCBC Welcome Team
Written by Brian Lee
If you have ever set foot into our church building on Sundays, you would have noticed a few friendly brothers and sisters standing at the entrance greeting you with a smile and a pre-pandemic sanitary handshake, or ushers outside the sanctuary door who handed you a copy of the printed church bulletin (though now we have moved onto electronic versions since the pandemic!) Have you ever wondered what is the purpose of what these brothers and sisters, or the ministry as a whole? Why is it even important that we have people greeting at the entrance every week?
The VCBC Welcome Team is not just about having warm bodies to greet our friends, family, or even newcomers who joins us for worship service and give them a handshake. Operating under the Congregational Life Team, members from the team helps make our new guests get to know our community and help them feel included and appreciated as they integrate into the VCBC body. The first encounter may imprint a first impression between the guests and the church, but we don’t simply end our interactions with them right there. Instead, the team partners with other ministries in the English Congregation Leadership Team to help our new friends find peers and micro communities to grow in their walk of faith with us. Each guest is different and may have their unique needs and reasons to be here. We may not always succeed in making our guests feel at home, but we seek to do our best to ensure that we model Christ’s love in engaging and welcoming them.
THE ONLINE MIGRATION
With the online migration of our Sunday Services, we experience challenges and new opportunities to reach our own members and new guests. While we cannot physically extend our welcomes and love to anyone joining us in worship, our Welcome Team did not stop making use of the opportunity to chat and get to know our new guests with the help of the Zoom platform. In fact, despite being a small team (and yes, we always hope to have more joining our ranks), we are blessed to have a new sister in our community joining us in extending love and care during our services. Shout out to Samantha, Deacon Henry, and our newest addition Mandy for continually serving in this ministry during the pandemic!
If you are available and interested in serving in the welcome team, please contact us and we would love to have you join us in making VCBC a welcoming place for both members and guests alike!