post-service mingle time

When I first came to RWC, one of the aspects that stood out to me most about this church was that it was superrr welcoming. People that I had met would remember my name and make sure to say hi to me every Thursday, Sunday, etc. I definitely felt like the church was like a close-knit family.

Then as the years went by, more and more people flooded into the seats of Kimmel 808 and into the aisles of PS111, and soon, I felt like I could barely recognize half the congregation. Honestly, after a while, I think I retreated into the 'safe & shy' mode and just went up to the people I felt comfortable mingling with and avoided eye contact with anyone that I didn't know. The disunity that I feel within our greater church body, especially between young adults and college students, is really disheartening. Not only that, but I think that because we all tend to stick to our own groups, we really don't make an effort to try to welcome and integrate new people into the church.

Post-vaca (after seeing & experiencing the warmth of other churches like Southland & Chicago Tabernacle), I made a commitment to try a lot harder to get to know the new people who come to church. I really don't want people to be turned away from church (and Christianity!) because they feel that we as "Christians" don't show the love of Christ. The two meet and greet times are okay, but honestly, I reaaaallyyy dread the post-service mingle time in the foyer. It's extremely awkward for me because I feel like this is where you can visually see and feel all the different groups. Today, I had made a conscious decision to try to go up to someone I didn't recognize and introduce myself, but 1) I was semi-running around for Lisa's presentation and 2) It's SOOO much harder to go up to someone if they're already in a group!!! It seemed like everyone was already in the middle of a conversation with someone else, and I didn't have the balls to jam myself in and introduce myself.

I failed, and what's worse, I kinda don't know what to do going forward. Before, I had just pretended I kinda didn't see anyone, but today, when I was actually looking at people, I realized that they don't see me either. I really want to get to know people more, but...what if they don't want to get to know me? What if people are all already so comfortable with their own groups that they don't see a need for greater church unity?

Blah.