I am going to suggest something for you to do during the Sunday morning service at church that I believe will be good for you and especially good for the body of Christ and the mission of Christ. Some of you who are antisocial probably won’t do it no matter how much I beg. But, perhaps, many of you social types will consider this request.

Each week, about halfway through the service, we have an intermission. Take advantage of that time. If you are an insider, (ie: You are a Christian who has been attending our church for a while) look for people you don’t know and greet them! And since our intermission is an extended time period, you can even have a small chat with them. Talk about where they work, how they found Good News, or invite them out to lunch afterwards (Ok, maybe don’t do that until you’ve talked with them a few times.) But you get the point. An insider can make an outsider feel welcome, and that’s a big deal for the outsider.

Why am I reminding you of this? Well, it's mostly because I know there is a strong pull for us to walk past and practically step over strangers in order to find our friends and fill up the whole time chatting with them. That’s not immoral, but I figured it would be worth it for you to think about this another way.

I once heard it described kinda’ like this: Imagine you have a grown adult child (or if you are too young for that, imagine your aunt or your best friend). Imagine they move to Seattle or something. And imagine you are concerned about their spiritual life. Imagine you are praying that they find a good church and/or a good group of Christian friends. Maybe you are worried that they could drift from God in their new environment. How would you want the church people in Seattle to treat your child? Ok, you got that picture in your mind? Now, realize that when someone walks in the door on a Sunday morning at Good News, they may very well be somebody’s daughter or son or aunt or best friend. They may have loved ones in some other city praying for their spiritual life — that they would find a good church and/or a good group of Christian friends, or that they wouldn’t fall away from God.

And while it’s true that you can’t be the answer to your own prayer regarding your loved one who went off to Seattle, you could be the answer to someone else’s prayers. You could find someone you’ve never met before on a Sunday morning and take 2—3 minutes and make them feel like they “belong.” Wow. Have you ever considered that THAT could be something that is at stake during intermission? I believe that is significant enough that even some of you antisocial people might want to consider doing it.