"I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." - John 10:9 At every parish where I have had the pleasure of attending services, there is always a small group of people who find their way all the way up to the church building but don't actually attend services. At one parish it was a group of male gypsies who talked on cellphones or smoked cigarettes. At another it was a few Protestant husbands who, though they never attended services, opened the parish doors for people as they filed in. At yet another parish the men stood in the narthex and chatted until it was time to receive and then got in line. Latin or Greek Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox I see the same small throng of men standing next to the front door, but not standing, sitting, or kneeling amongst the people. If it were me (and I can only speak for myself here) this option would be an unsavory one. The boredom would be immediate. The anxiety of som...
Internet resources are nice and fill a small niche - but in my estimation there MUST be the following:
ReplyDelete1.) at local parish level, a small group of people who are committed to meeting newcomers and walking them through whatever service is going on, then introducing them around at coffee hour.
2.) perhaps another internet social networking site who has these volunteers available to meet inquirers at a third place before church to help them "warm" up to church or offer a pre-service tour of the church and "pre-game" summary.
3.) churches who are willing to take Vespers or other non DL services OUTSIDE the church. Speaking from experience, while I was very won over through internet sources, there was a long lag time before I worked up the gumption to attend a service. I was AFRAID. If there had been a Vespers in a park or at a private room in a coffee shop, that would have been enough "taste" for me to feel comfortable to enter a church.
hope this helps