Evangelicals Cannot Seem To Talk to Visitors

Well, I visited another church today...ugh! It's in a more blue collar town, two towns away from me. I can see why churches are losing people. I go alone because I am not married and I don't know anyone who wants to church visit at this time. I pulled up to what I thought was where the church met because there was no sign on the rented building the church meets in and no address. I just guessed this might be the place I saw on their website which is a terrible site, obviously meant only for the regular church attenders. It certainly was visitor-unfriendly. Do pastors ever find out how visitors are treated? Do they ever look at their websites? I guess not. There were no greeters at the door or ushers. I was talking with a friend later that afternoon and she agreed with my assessment, as she goes through the same thing. She, like me, thinks it's really a socio-economic-educational level problem. What do I mean? As an example, in the middle of the service this morning the pastor asked us to hug someone. Not one person came over to me. I am not crying about it--I'm just saddened that almost every church I visit is like this. However, one person finally came over. She actually knew how to carry on a conversation with a visitor. And guess what? She grew up in the wealthy part of the town I live in. Isn't that interesting. I find that pattern continually--the more high-middle/upper middle class folks seem to know how to talk to a stranger but those in lower economic classes (in which most evangelicals in this country are) don't. I also notice this among all socio-economic classes of those under 35. They refuse to talk to anyone outside their age group. Why don't pastors help train their people? Or at the very least, find a few who are adept at talking to strangers past "Hi, how are you? I'm Mildred, who are you?"...and then after that, walk away. Here is the sad part. I never encounter this in any secular meeting or organization--or in liberal Protestant churches. I just encounter it in evangelical churches.

I've noticed that churches that I've visited a few years ago that I've visited again really haven't changed. The pastors stand up and declare how much God loves them and how the church is going to help them. But, obviosuly it doesn't. People as a whole seem to be as dysfunctional 5 years later as they were 5 years before and this is really reflected in the greeting-of-visitors problem. I believe when the true gospel AND the true heart of the Pentecostal message of God's power coming from the cross is preached, people change. And when people change they gain more confidence. When they gain more confidence they are able to reach out to strangers. So, until then what to do? Well, as I said above, either train them or select a few to carry on that work. But for heaven's sake--do something. It's cruel to treat visitors this way.