Thinking about who to speak to at a Sunday gathering

In his excellent book Side by Side – Walking with others in wisdom and love,  in a chapter entitled Move toward and greet one another, Ed Welch talks at one point about how we might work at, and work out, who to speak to at a Sunday gathering. He suggests this :

…because we have a finite amount of time when the church is gathered…we cannot greet everyone. So, here is how we prioritise:

• ·        The visitor (what Scripture calls the ‘foreigner’ or ‘alien’) comes first
• ·        The visitor who returns comes next
• ·        The less popular, the introverts, the marginalised, or those sitting alone come next
• ·        Then come the children. Jesus singles them out as examples of the marginalised
• ·        ‘Hi________’ is offered to as many people as possible, which doesn’t have to be accompanied by a hug or a handshake

Good friends are interspersed through these greetings, but they are left for later if time is short.

A reasonable application of Scripture is to greet one person we don’t know or don’t know well every time we gather with others in the body of Christ.

And if we feel a little awkward? All the better. Some people are naturals at moving towards others, greeting them and striking up a conversation. Most of us are not. So, we pray that we will share this feature of God’s character. We move towards others, not because we can do these things with ease but because of Jesus.

(Edward T Welch Side by Side, Crossway, 2015 p76)

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Clearly, all the above are not hard and fast rules but something to think about  for every Christian believer. All that precedes these suggestions in the book and the particular chapter indicate that what Ed Welch is seeking to do is to help us reflect God's character and grace in our relationships with others when we gather on a Sunday. We worship a God who always takes the initiative with us. He has moved and continues to move towards us in grace and mercy in Jesus and so we seek to move towards others in His name.