Several months ago while attending a Lenten lunch series at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, I found this information sheet in the church office. I asked Kimberly, the communication director about it and she informed me that one of the congregation’s growing edges was how to assimilate young adults who were visiting the church into the community. The following “do’s” and “don’ts” were an attempt to help the more seasoned members know what to do when someone under 35 walked into a Sunday service.
As Washington Plaza continues to grow in terms of our young professional population, I thought I’d share St. Paul’s list here to see if it spurred on any conversation for our community. Feel free to comment with “I think that’s true” or “No, that’s totally off.”
DO
- Smile and say “Hello!”
-Iintroduce this person to one of our staff
-Tell this person about our wonderful website
-Be the first person to say: “Welcome to St. Paul’s”
-Ask this person if there are any questions that you can answer
-Invite this person to join in on a fun congregational wide event that is on the horizon
DON’T
-Smile and say: “You are the future of the church.”
-Introduce this person as the ONLY young person we’ve seen in the church in LONG time
-Ask this person to teach you how to use Facebook
-Be the 15th person in 5 minutes to ask this person to join St. Paul’s
-Ask this person to tell you why most 20-35 somethings don’t frequently attend church
-Begin a sentence with “Would you like to join a committee?”
