At church last night, we celebrated our Min. of Youth's 15th Anniversary! I think this must be some kind of record for a Youth Minister. He does a great job and we are truly blessed to have him and his family. We were in several churches for 2 yrs. or 3 yrs and then were fortunate enough to serve our last church for almost 13 years. For a staff member, that's a long time. I'm sure many of you have experienced all those moves to other churches. It's not an easy thing to do, especially for those of you with children or teenagers. Change is hard.
Leaving friends or family is hard,too. There's so much stress involved in the process of moving. We've been blessed to have been welcomed very warmly by all of the churches we've served. However, I do remember the first day we arrived in one city to look for a place to live and there was nobody there to meet us or help us.
Someone had miscommunicated. It was a very lonely and empty feeling. It did not give us a good first impression of that church! Fortunately, this was a town near where I grew up and we were familiar with how to get around and I even had an Aunt who lived there. I can't imagine what it would have felt like if this was a totally strange place to us, like other towns we've moved to. I can recall moving to a new town,to a new church and wanting to pick up the phone and call someone and suddenly realizing-I didn't know anyone there to call! Remember what it feels like to be "the new kid on the block"? When a new minister (Baptist or otherwise) moves into your town, make that extra effort to make them feel welcome.
Take them a a little welcome gift or invite them out for lunch. Tell them the best place to buy groceries and recommend a doctor. Give them your phone number and e-mail. Do whatever you can to help their move be a little easier. When we moved to Roanoke, our pastor and his wife gave us a little basket full of muffins. In it was a note that said "Welcome Home". That truly touched my heart and made me feel welcome. Help make someone else feel welcome to your church or town!
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