This past Saturday afternoon my family along with my in-laws went to the open house at Cannon AFB. All of us were excited to get up close and personal with the planes and their crews, as well as take our time going through each of the booths set up talking to each of the military personnel who were working them.Here are a few things that I learned on Saturday that I thought could apply to our church and how we interact with our community.
The first thing I noticed was how efficient the organization was. They had personnel everywhere that were meant to guide and direct us to the places we needed to be. They led us to the parking lot, then to the security checkpoint, through the welcome center to get wristbands, onto the bus that took us onto the base and out to the airstrip where everything was taking place. They handed us a magazine that told us about the day, the history of Cannon, the history of the Special Ops and how each plane is vital to the mission at hand. There wasn’t a thing that I could complain about. I know that is part of the discipline of our armed forces, but how can we take this example and apply it to our church? We need volunteers to sacrifice their Sunday school time, or worship service experience to greet our guests, get them the information that is needed and show them where to go, handing them off to our teachers or staff members. It’s as simple as that. Planning, volunteering, serving and executing the plan.
The second thing that caught my attention was the atmosphere to interact and ask questions. I was fascinated by each of the different aircrafts that were there for us to walk through, explore, put our hands on and ask questions to the pilots. They took their time and answered the questions. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry or appear to be bothered by the line that formed near them. They were excited about their work, they were interested in teaching us about their planes, their specific jobs, and then they let us get a brief glimpse of what that was like. I had two massive men invite me to try on their gear for jumping out of the planes. They strapped the pack on my back explaining it to me and then placed the heavy gun over my shoulder and strapping it into the pack securely. They had me step into the bottom part of the gear and then secured it to the pack on my back. They adjusted straps, put the altimeter on my wrist and explained how to read it and when I would deploy the chute. They put the helmet on my head explaining each piece of it, and asked if I was ready to jump?
Um, no. However, they were enthusiastic about gearing me up and then talking to me about the weight of the gear which they said weighed nearly 180 pounds. Yeah, I totally felt that. I got to play with different rifles, machine guns, scopes, binoculars, etc. and at each table the enthusiasm remained. They love what they do and wanted to share it. And the one thing that never happened at any of the stations or planes was an effort to recruit. They let their product speak for itself. I knew then that I was never cut out for the armed forces, but my respect level went up tremendously for the members of our military.
I think there are some lessons here that we can apply in our church. Let people ask questions and patiently answer them. Let people explore our facilities, meet our staff, teachers and volunteers letting them interact and hopefully show enthusiasm about our ministries. Let’s let people explore our faith without pressuring them to join our church or accept our faith. Let our product speak for itself and I think we will see people wanting to give their lives to Christ and wanting to join our church family.
This was an article I wrote for the Messenger, our church newsletter!
0 comments:
Post a Comment