Hospitality Culture Within our Church 

Hospitality extends far beyond those wearing a Guest Services lanyard or badge on a Sunday morning. We cannot allow our thinking to be that hospitality is only the job of a few, and not the job of all. As followers of Christ, we are called to be hospitable to those we encounter, taking every opportunity to extend love, compassion, and generosity to those we meet that Christ may be made known and be glorified. Every time we gather as a church, we have the opportunity to show others the love of Christ. That should both excite us and fuel us for the task at hand. 

Making sure that those who are on our campus feel welcomed, seen, and valued must be a priority for us. A phrase I strive to have our team remember is “how we feel about a guest when they walk in, is how they will feel about our church when they walk out.” What does this mean? This statement means that we must do our best to represent Christ and our church well to every single person who walks through our doors because above most things, they will remember how we made them feel as they leave. How do we do this? We must be initiators, seeking out those unfamiliar faces, extending kindness and a helping hand to  them. We must be proactive, not reactive; let us not wait for someone to come to us and begin a conversation or ask for help but let us move towards people and conversations with joy. We must make it personal and always be genuine, a generic “good morning” or “how are you?” when you don’t truly care about the response is easy to detect. 

In a church our size, it can be easy to jump from conversation to conversation, from person to person, but we must fight the urge to speed ahead and choose to be present where our feet are. Each interaction we have on a Sunday morning is an opportunity to encourage one another and spur one another on. You never know what impact your words may have. 

We must be knowledgeable; it’s harder to help someone when we don’t know the answers ourselves. Understanding who we are at Taylors FBC and what we believe so that we can answer questions and share about our church with others stands out to those visiting with us and makes a difference. It shows them, you can care about this place, too, and are bought in. We must be imitators; our hospitality should imitate Christ as much as possible. He, Himself, came not be served, but to serve. Let that be our goal – not giving up, not growing weary, not seeing Sunday mornings as a time for ourselves, but as a time to serve as Christ served… that He may be known, that He may be glorified, and that many would be saved. Membership is meaningful. Let us as members of Taylors First Baptist, showcase that to those around us. 

— Shianne Bujtor, Director of Connections