Here is a short video from one of our pastors, Stew, as he talks about life at SCPC this week.
Welcome to The Pastors’ Post, an update for life at Southern Cross. This time of year at Southern Cross, we have new families or the occasional student arriving or recently arrived that we are looking to integrate into the life of our church family. So this Sunday night, Tim and the Young Adults Leadership Group are having a Young Adults welcome dinner for any new students or young workers that are new to town who we can welcome into our church family. A big thank you to some of the men who have already agreed to come in on Sunday night to assist with pack up to enable our young adults to head straight to the dinner following our 6pm gathering at Lismore High School.
Then on the following Sunday, Sunday 21st March, we have our second newcomers lunch for the year that will be happening from 12 midday.
Here are two ways we are aiming to welcome people into our church family. At Southern Cross we call this our ‘front door’ strategy for welcoming. By ‘front door’ we mean a person comes along to our Sunday gathering we welcome them and then integrate them into a Gospel Community in consultation with Vision Coordinators, Pastors, Elders and staff.
But a lot of literature and the experience of Christian leaders, particularly across western countries, are saying more and more that more traditional ‘come on a Sunday’ approach is becoming less and less common. Very rarely would someone come off the street into a Sunday Gathering. That is why our Gospel Communities are so vital. We call this ‘side door’ welcoming. Where a person may slowly become acquainted with a person and a Gospel Community and then that natural point of connection leads to their welcome into our church family. Over time, which may end up being years, we would anticipate and pray that they would also join in our Sunday gatherings through that ‘side door’ of community.
Please pray for Southern Cross, that we would be a welcoming church family. That we would welcome people well through the ‘front door’ of our Sunday gatherings, and equally welcome people well through the ‘side door’ of Gospel Communities, that we might mirror the welcome and the generosity of our King and Saviour.
Have a listen to 2 Corinthians 8:9:
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich,
yet for your sake he became poor,
so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Thanks for tuning in to The Pastors’ Post.
