{"id":6531,"date":"2018-12-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saintj.com\/wp\/?p=6531"},"modified":"2018-12-18T12:47:11","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T20:47:11","slug":"the-importance-of-being-a-welcoming-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saintj.com\/wp\/the-importance-of-being-a-welcoming-church\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Being a Welcoming Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Twenty years ago I started attending St. James’ and I knew nobody.\u00a0 During coffee hour after the 9am service I did strike up a conversation with 2 nice guys and they were easy to talk with.\u00a0 The gentlemen were George Vlastelica and Hank Wessel.\u00a0 In fact, George told me there are a lot of former RC’s (Roman Catholics) at St. James’ just like me.\u00a0 Hank, I remember, was about 70 years old and he told me he needed to polish up his resume’ after coffee hour.\u00a0 St. James’ did have a new family committee and Jan & Gary Hicks took us under their wings and got us introduced to St. James’ and it’s been a great place to worship ever since.<\/p>\n

A group formed a Welcoming Committee around the time Lori became our rector.\u00a0 With time, it turned into a Greeting Team and it really has helped St. James’ become the welcoming church as you know it today.\u00a0 Take a look around\u00a0during the 10:30 service and you will see many new families and faces. The annual Epiphany Party at Lori and Ron’s house helps the new members learn more about St. James’ and meet members of our congregation.\u00a0 Being a greeter helps visitors get acquainted with our service and many of our members will introduce themselves to the visitors during the passing of the peace.\u00a0 Our members help with guiding the visitors to the correct song book or help them find the page in our service bulletins.\u00a0 We also wear our name badges!<\/p>\n

When you are out of town and have the time to attend another church, observe\u00a0how friendly they are compared to St. James’.\u00a0 Did they leave you alone, guide you to their reception hall for coffee, ask you to sign their guest book?\u00a0 \u00a0How many families were there?<\/p>\n

I alternate between the 8am and 10:30 services so I can see who is new at both services.\u00a0 Also, being an usher helps me with faces and names.\u00a0 Continuity and good follow up with visitors is what we do well.\u00a0 I want to thank Lori and Anna for their hard work to remember names and faces and their follow up.\u00a0 I also want to thank my current fellow greeters, Dave Nelsen, Craig Genter and Jan Pearson along with former greeters in making St. James’ a great, welcoming church.<\/p>\n

Happy New Year to all,<\/p>\n

Gregg Feeney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty years ago I started attending St. James’ and I knew nobody.\u00a0 During coffee hour after the 9am service I did strike up a conversation with 2 nice guys and they were easy to talk with.\u00a0 The gentlemen were George Vlastelica and Hank Wessel.\u00a0 In fact, George told me there are a lot of former…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","ctfw-no-image"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Importance of Being a Welcoming Church - St. James' Episcopal Church Fremont California<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/saintj.com\/wp\/the-importance-of-being-a-welcoming-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Importance of Being a Welcoming Church - 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