We Want You Here

by Thom S. Rainer

Overview

The message is basic but profound. We want guests to know they are welcome to the church. This book is a gift to guests to communicate that very message.

Bestselling author Thom S. Rainer (I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church) has created a tool for churches to become more hospitable through a brief, welcoming book that introduces the ministry of the local church to guests. We Want You Here is a clear and instructive message to be given to church guests. Rainer facilitates the follow up conversation that every pastor would have, if they had the opportunity. By giving away the book to guests, they are encouraged, in a non-intrusive manner, to continue to reflect on the decision to visit their church.

Those churches who share We Want You Here will be able to tell their guests:

• We Really Want You Here
• This is Not a Place for Perfect People
• We Would Like to Get to Know You
• This is Where Families Grow Strong
• Getting to Know the One Who Made Us
• Come Make a Difference with Us
• Thank You for Being Here

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781462780907
Publisher:	B&H Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Thom S. Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, one of the largest Christian resource companies in the world. Also a respected pastor and researcher, he has written more than twenty books and coauthored the No. 1 best seller Simple Church. Rainer and his wife, Nellie Jo, have three grown sons, several grandchildren, and live in Nashville, Tennessee.
 
Thom S. Rainer es el presidente y director ejecutivo de LifeWay Christian Resources, una de las mayores editoriales cristianas del mundo. También es reconocido como pastor e investigador, ha escrito más de veinte libros y es coautor del reconocido best seller Iglesia simple. Rainer y su esposa, Nellie Jo, tienen tres hijos adultos, varios nietos y viven en Nashville, Tennessee, EE.UU.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

WE REALLY WANT YOU HERE

Thank you.

We know. Those two words can seem trivial. We say them so often we can take them for granted.

But we really do want to thank you for being a guest at our church. We do not take your visit lightly. You have given of your time and energy to come to our church.

So, thank you again. We really mean it.

You may have some questions about our church. You may have some questions about your experience when you visited.

We get it.

Anytime you go to a new place, there may be uncertainty, and there may be questions. Our staff and church leaders are available to help you. We want to be as transparent as possible. We want to tell you about our church. We want to hear from you. And we want to answer your questions. Please let us know how we can help.

We want you to know something else: We really want you here!

Okay, that may sound absurd on the surface. How can we really want you here unless we know you well? Let us share five key reasons and you may get a better idea of our excitement about your visit.

REASON #1: WE WANT YOU TO EXPERIENCE THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

We believe in Jesus Christ.

We believe he is the Savior of the world.

That is why we gather and worship at this church. Quite frankly, that is why we do what we do.

There are many good organizations out there. And many of them are doing a great job serving others and helping others. We are grateful for those organizations.

But churches are different. We do all we do because we love Christ. We know his love. We have experienced his love. We have given our lives to him.

You may already be a Christian. That is great. We hope that you can continue to experience the love of Christ at this church. Serving and loving Christ was never meant to be a solo effort. It was meant to be shared with fellow believers.

Maybe you aren't a Christian. Or maybe you have questions or doubts about being a Christian. We will explore this matter further in chapters 5 and 7. But please understand you are welcome here regardless. We want you to experience the love of Christ.

It is transforming.

It is forgiving.

It is life-changing.

Perhaps this reason is the greatest reason we are glad you are here. We really hope you experience the love of Christ at our church.

Nothing could be more important.

REASON #2: WE WANT TO SERVE YOU.

Everyone has needs. Everyone has hurts at points in his or her life. Everyone has questions too.

We really love serving people and meeting needs. We would really love to serve you.

What is your need? Do you have questions about marriage, children, and family? Have you experienced the pain of loss in recent months? Do you feel lonely at times?

We want to serve you.

You will find at our church a number of people who find it a great joy to serve others. Many of them may have walked in your shoes. Someone in this church had experiences amazingly close to yours.

You may feel like you don't want to bother us. Hear us clearly. We take great joy in serving others, in serving you. So please, don't hesitate to tell one of us how we can help you. Please let us know. Don't think for a moment you are alone. We are with you and for you.

But you may not be experiencing some tough moments at this point in your life. We know that life has peaks and valleys. You may not be experiencing those lower moments right now. Instead, you came to this church to see if it is a place where you can connect and where you can make a difference.

That is another reason we really want you here.

REASON #3: WE WANT YOU TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Frances Mason was her name. She lived to be almost ninety years old, and she made every day count. She loved her church. And she loved people.

Frances had this never-ending desire to make a difference for God. And she had two primary passions. First, she had the passion to pray. Rarely will you see someone so committed to prayer. Second, she had this crazy notion that God designed everyone to make a difference.

Okay, it's not such a crazy notion.

Frances knew that, in the heart of everyone, there is a desire to make a difference and to be different. That is how God designed us.

Yes, we want to serve you at our church, but we want you to make a difference as well. In chapter 6 we will talk more about this idea of making a difference.

Big adventures for God often begin with small steps. You came to our church for a reason. Perhaps God sent you here so you could make a difference.

You see, we are really glad you are here because you may be here to make a difference beyond any expectations you've ever had.

REASON #4: WE WANT TO GET TO KNOW YOU.

There is really something special when people get to know one another. They learn about their families, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, and their hurts.

You have been a welcomed guest, and you brought your unique self to our church.

Thank you.

But we know there is so much more to learn about you. We know you have stories and insights that will make our congregation a better place. So we hope to get to know you.

Jim was a recent divorcee when he was a guest at church. He obviously was wounded and hurting. He never planned for his marriage to fall apart.

At first, he was hesitant to get involved in the church. He just wasn't sure he was ready to develop relationships at any level. But he got involved, and he started getting to know people. He developed relationships and friendships he never could have anticipated. He loved the people in the church.

But the love was not a one-way street. The people in the church began to know Jim better. And the more they knew about him, the more they liked him. No, Jim was not perfect. Neither were the others in the church. But the more they got to know each other, the more they appreciated each other. They accepted each other just as they were.

We have no doubt we could experience the same with you. We really do want to get to know you. And the more we know you, the more we know we would come to love and appreciate you.

And we think you might feel the same way about the people in our church.

REASON #5: WE LIKE YOU.

So, how can we like someone we don't know, or someone we don't know well (yet)? That's part of the beauty of this church. As we will explain later, we like you because we know God loves you. And because God loves you and me, we are able to connect and appreciate each other just as we are. None of us are the way we want to be.

We like you because we love people the way God loves them: unconditionally. And while we cannot come close to loving others as much as God loves them, we want to show that love as much as possible.

We heard the story of a guest who came to a church with a lot of questions and pain in her life. She did not know what to expect at the church, but any expectations she might have had were quickly met.

"I could tell from the beginning that the people in this church cared for one another," she said. "But I could also tell they weren't a cliquish group not wanting others. They made me feel so welcome. They acted like they really wanted me here."

Her message is our message. We really do want you here. We really like you.

And we really mean it.

WELCOME TO OUR CHURCH

Many years ago, Linda walked into a church not knowing what to expect. There is much to this story, but we will make it brief.

The good news is that she loved the church. She got involved in the church. In fact, to this day, most of her best friends are in the church. She went from a skeptic to a believer and, ultimately, to a highly committed part of her church.

But it did not start that way.

She came to the church with a great amount of uncertainty. She was not even sure why she was visiting that first day.

She also came with expectations that everyone in the church had it all together. She had this unrealistic view that Christians and church members have solved all their problems and don't make any mistakes.

Well, she was wrong. And it took her a while to finally accept that a church is a place for broken people, a place for people who don't have it all together, and a place where everyone is not always nice and happy all the time.

Linda finally came to the realization that church is not a place for perfect people, but a place where broken people come for healing.

Linda's story is our story. Our church is not perfect, far from it. We in the church are not perfect, far from it.

We want you to know you can come to our church just as you are; the rest of us in the church are no better than anyone else.

But we will talk more about this place of imperfect people in the next chapter.

For now, please hear it again: We want you here.

Thank you for taking time to share your life with us. We are here for you, to answer your questions, to pray with you, and just to let you know we care.

We hope the message is clear.

We really want you here.

CHAPTER 2

NOT A PLACE FOR PERFECT PEOPLE

Do you spend time on Facebook?

There are so many important and positive aspects of this social media tool. I understand why it continues to be a dominant component of our social fabric.

You can connect with family members. You can keep up with old friends from high school or places where you worked together. And, as we are learning more and more, you can get your news at Facebook. Most of the time the news is accurate, but it is not always so. Facebook can't control what every single person posts.

The fastest growing feature on Facebook is video. So now you don't just see words and photos, you can see incredible videos people post. And those videos can be posted live or prerecorded. It is little wonder Facebook is so incredibly popular.

But there is a downside to Facebook as well. We won't talk about every potential negative feature, but think for a moment about how most people present themselves.

For example, you will make sure you put your best photo on Facebook. When you include your family, it will always be a flattering shot. And you will make sure that all your Facebook friends know when you are visiting some cool place, a place that many may long to go. Your posts will typically let your friends know your family is happy. They will see smiles and fun. They will see us living the good life with good times and good memories.

But they won't see us get into arguments.

They won't see us in some very difficult conflict.

They won't see the inner struggles we experience.

They won't read that we are having trouble paying our bills.

And they won't hear about the meal or vacation that was ruined because our family had a big blow-up.

Sure, there are some exceptions. There are a few people on Facebook who show pain and vulnerability. But the great number of posts shows the good, not the bad; the positive, not the negative; the happy, not the sad; and the victories, not the tragedies. The fact remains: we only disclose what we want people to know about ourselves. We control the message.

So many of us live under the delusion that all Facebook users lead compelling lives. We compare our lives to theirs and think we are really messed up. How have we missed the fun so much of the Facebook world portrays?

We just can't compare. We have missed the mark.

FACEBOOK AND CHURCH AND TOTAL DISCOMFORT

Sometimes we carry the Facebook delusions into our perceptions about churches and those who attend. We think the lives of those church members are near perfect. We think they have their collective acts together.

So how do we feel when we visit a local church? Well, we could feel very uncomfortable, especially if we perceive that our lives cannot compare to the lives of those who attend church.

The story of Frank is a good example of this discomfort. Allow me to go back a few years.

I first met Frank when we he hired me at a bank. I was a student in seminary and needed a way to support my family. He was extremely kind to offer me the job and give me the flexibility I needed to attend classes and spend time with my family.

Frank allowed me to tell him about my beliefs. He was kind when I invited him to church, but he never came. Eventually I graduated from seminary and left the bank. Much to my discredit, I failed to keep up with him over the years.

Fast forward thirty years later. Out of the blue, at least seemingly so, Frank calls me. He wants to get together. He wants to talk about Jesus. And he mentions he is thinking about attending a church.

He also tells me he has a terminal illness.

In one of our times together, I asked Frank why he was so hesitant to attend church. His response was clear and cogent: "Those folks have their acts together. I need to improve some things before I get around them."

Frank was totally honest. He was also totally wrong. I explained to him that those church members have many of the problems, struggles, and bad choices he has. I let them know that none of us are perfect. Frank saw the church from the Facebook perspective.

But soon Frank got it. He started attending church. He soon became a Christian. He saw that the people in the church were normal folks with the same struggles he had. Indeed, he commented often to me how surprised he was to find so many "regular people with regular problems" in the church. In fact, I think he was pretty happy about that reality in a weird kind of way.

When Frank died seventeen months after our reunion, he was a man well loved in the church. He was also a man who finally became comfortable that church was not a place for perfect people.

THE IMPERFECT CHURCH

Local churches got their start in Jerusalem. That was the location of the very first followers of Christ.

Now, we want you to get this picture. Many of these early followers of Jesus saw him die on a cross. Some also saw Jesus alive after he spent three days dead in a tomb. At the very least, they believed some highly credible witnesses who saw his death and resurrection firsthand.

So when the first church began to form, there was great excitement. Many of the early believers sold all their possessions to help others. There was joy. There was unity. There was a commitment to prayer, to fellowship, to meeting together, and to praise. They were so committed that the outsiders looking in were amazed and gave them great favor.

You can read about the beginnings of the first church in Acts 2:42–47. It's a really incredible story. At the very start, it looks like a church that is about as perfect as any group can be.

So how long does this unflawed unity last? Many years? A few years? At least a few months?

How about a few days?

It did not take long before this group of people, many of whom actually saw the resurrected Jesus, began to fuss, feud, and complain. In fact, the Bible records their complaints vividly in Acts 6:1: "In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint ..."

Did you get that?

It only took a few days before this group of dedicated, committed, and life-sacrificing people began to fuss, feud, and complain.

Yep, they started acting like normal people, just like the rest of us.

In fact, the Bible is clear about problems in the early churches. Here are a few examples:

• Immorality among church members (1 Corinthians 5)

• Lawsuits among church members (1 Corinthians 6:1–11)

• Idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14–22)

• Chaos in church meetings (1 Corinthians 14:26–40)

• Abandonment of the doctrine (Galatians 1:6–10)

• Fights and disagreements among church members (Philippians 4:2–3)

• Temptations toward heresy (Colossians 2:4–23)

• Laziness and slothfulness (2 Thessalonians 3:6–15)

• Divisive behavior (Titus 3:9–11)

• Unforgiving spirit (Philemon 8–22)

Do you get the picture• And remember, these examples came from the first churches in times where there were still witnesses to the resurrection.

Even those churches were not perfect.

And neither is ours.

We have imperfect people in our church. Let me be clear, we are all imperfect in our church.

So if you feel like you have baggage and issues and struggles, welcome to the club! Our church is not a perfect place. Our members are not perfect people. If you think in any way, shape, or form you have to "measure up" to be a part of us, throw that illusion away.

We are not a Facebook church with perfect people with no problems and no struggles.

We want you here so you can be a part of a family that has experienced grace and seeks to give grace.

THE IMPERFECT CHURCH AND GRACE

You've probably read or heard this verse in the Bible before. But it never gets old: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

If there is any doubt about our imperfections, the Bible addresses it directly. We are all sinners. We are all imperfect. We all have baggage.

But it's the verse that follows that does not get quoted enough. Look at Romans 3:24: "They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

Christians were made right with God (the biblical word is justified) because Jesus took the punishment for us by dying on a cross.

We will expand on those thoughts more in chapters 5 and 7. For now, let's look at that word grace.

To be clear, we don't take sin lightly. It is an affront to a holy God. Indeed, it separates us from God ... until we experience grace that reconciles us back to God.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "We Want You Here"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Thom S. Rainer.
Excerpted by permission of B&H Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 We Really Want You Here,
Chapter 2 Not a Place for Perfect People,
Chapter 3 We Would Like to Get to Know You,
Chapter 4 Where Families Grow Strong,
Chapter 5 Getting to Know the One Who Made Us,
Chapter 6 Come Make a Difference with Us,
Chapter 7 Thank You for Being Here,