Confessions Of A Greeter

I was sitting on my couch yesterday morning thinking about the extra time I had. That cold I had last week was making it’s way around to my kiddos, so they were staying home to remain snuggled in with their boxes of Kleenex. I glanced at the clock and thought that I could actually get to church really early.

I thought:
Wow, I could socialize and be a carefree butterfly mingling among the crowd! (Yeah, right!)
Oooh, oooh, wait! I could just see if anyone needed help…anywhere!
I could greet! Oh, no…greeters are scheduled in advance and it’s not my week. Darn!
Hmmm…

(my cell phone rings…)

“Hey Christine! We’ve got some greeting vacancies this morning. I don’t suppose you could get there early with the kiddos…that would be pushing it, right?”

Oh, boy…I was so excited! But, wow…I mean that was only TWO SECONDS from my thoughts about greeting, to my phone ringing!

“Not a problem. Actually, this just works out fine. I’ll be there in 2o minutes!”

I LOVE BEING A GREETER, and here’s why…

I start by standing at the back door to the church staring at an empty parking lot.

I get to watch all the cars come in with people ready to worship God.

I realized that I need to have an apron on like they wear at the hardware stores for the pockets. Inside needs to be band-aids, bulletins, a pen, and some really COOL stickers and stuff. I watched a kiddo who was so eager to get inside the building, that she fell and did a face-plant in the parking lot. We needed band-aids for her knees and a sticker to make it all better. Plus, the extra pockets and stuff would be nice. Parents coming trough the back door with their kiddos could use some handy wipes for those last minutes dirty faces, kleenex for runny noses and tears from the falls, yeah…we greeters just need our own aprons with “stuff” in them. Ok, so I want one to wear, lol!

I also have some lively kiddos that like to “high-five” and do the secret hand shake kind of thing. So, I’m working on something. I’m not cool like that, but I think I can manage to get my kiddos to teach me a thing or two about cool hand shakes.

Greeting is NOT just about connecting with the adults that walk through the door. It’s about connecting with the FAMILIES that walk through our doors. The young, the old, and the ages in between are who we connect with. And the first person they run into should be the one who can relate to all of God’s children whether or not they have a skinned-knee, a frazzled and bad haired morning (yes, I’ll have hair spray and a mirror in my belt), or know the double secret, high-five, cootie-free handshake.

THAT is what I like about being a Greeter.

It means you get the worst seat in the house (most are gone by the time you get in), but who wants to sit through church services anyways? Being part of the church as it is in action is awesome. I plan on getting more of that as connect with God and His people.