New Restaurants

I love going to brand-new restaurants. Especially one's that have some personality - like if they yell stuff at you when you walk in the door, or sing silly songs while they prepare your food. It's always best; however, to catch them in their first few weeks because they are doing everything that they do with complete enthusiasm. They always act like they are really glad that you are there, and they absolutely believe in what they do. Almost always, if you go back after a few months, the enthusiasm seems to be gone. You may still get the occasional new employee attempting to yell something unintelligible at you, but mostly they seem to be settled into just being another place to eat.

I thought about that with our church. I remember the excitement that we had that first Sunday. We couldn't wait to see what was going to happen when people started walking in the doors! There was this "We're going to conquer the world for Christ!" attitude that everyone had. We hadn't started just doing "church" yet. It wasn't just another place to come and put in your hour of God-time yet. We were still yelling silly stuff at people as they walked in...ok, that may have just been me...and it was a little weird.

I never want lose that first Sunday excitement. I still believe that we can conquer the world for Christ! I want people to feel genuinely welcomed and loved the second they drive onto our parking lot. What we do every Sunday is more important than anything else we do during the week. We have been called to change people's eternities, and I will never get bored of that.

"Welcome to Heaven!!!"