Kindness, gentleness and compassion are Christ-like qualities – not signs of weakness. People WILL take advantage of you if you are nice – but that’s part of what it means to be in the world, but not of it, as the saying goes. We DO welcome people in our services. We have a “turn and greet” section. We have greeters. Our Lead Pastor goes through the crowd/congregation as they enter, and greets them. The world often considers niceness weak – but I’ve heard criticisms from the church, as well…
If I seem a little touchy, it’s because I recently read an article by someone who said that they stopped doing a turn and greet in their service because it wasn’t deep enough. I admire the desire for deep relationships behind that thinking, but not the action. You don’t hold back friendliness because it’s not deep love (yet). You don’t hold back compassion because it’s not a 100% surrender of everything you have. You don’t refuse to interact with someone if the relationship is not perfect.
You meet them where they are, flaws and all, and enter into relationship at the level that they’re comfortable with. And then it has the potential, with God’s help, to grow from there. Sometimes, just saying “Hi” is the beginning of something good…
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I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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creativeworshipideas 
Thank you. Thank you for saying what so many are afraid to.