guest relations

I was reading an entry on Steve Sjogren's blog about racism and it got me thinking about "first impressions" and about being a church that is good at "guest relations."

he talks about people who "save seats" in church so they will not have to sit by people they don't like (in the case of his blog, people of color). Anyway, I thought it might be a fun challenge our
people to never save seats! Imagine a typical (i.e. white, middle class) couple coming to church for the first time and they are told that they cannot sit somewhere b/c the seat is saved. What message does that send? It tells the guest that we as a church value the comfort of our friends and current church members over our guest.

What about those people who save seats for the people they invited to church? Well they should not be sitting in the church waiting on them. they should be outside by the front door waiting on them so they can walk them into the "worship center."

anyway, just a thought on another way to challenge our people to outward
focused