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Record Live is a conversation about life, spirituality and following Jesus in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
How to be more welcoming at church
[00:00:00] Hi there, everyone. I'm Jared. And I'm Zenita. We are your hosts of Record Live, a podcast where we talk about church, faith, and living well. We believe as followers of Jesus, faith is more than just a set of beliefs. It's a way of life, something we put into practice. Let's go live.
Zanita Fletcher: Hello everyone and welcome back to another week of Record Live. I hope you're all having wonderful Wednesdays or Tuesdays or whatever day it is you are listening to this. But yeah, Jarrod and I are excited to be back. We have an exciting topic lined up. Uh, but first, before going into that, Jarrod, welcome, I should say, to the show again.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Thank you, Zanita.
Zanita Fletcher: , before going into the topic, I am I guess I want to preface this by saying sometimes Jared and I [00:01:00] feel lost for what to talk to on this show., it gets kind of lost amongst all of our other work priorities. And so today's topic was actually one. That was suggested to us. , we kind of asked our office what topics they would be interested in us speaking on, and this was one of them.
Zanita Fletcher: , so if you have something that you would like us to cover, or if you have a guest that you would think would be interesting to have on, , we would love to hear from you, just send us a message or write it in the comments. , because. The last thing we want to do is be boring. We really want to talk about things that people care about and that are interested in.
Zanita Fletcher: So today is one of those things. So today, Jared, we are talking about how to be more welcoming at church. , I know that this is something that some people have really great stories about. , but unfortunately a lot of people have negative stories about, and it's something that really affects people coming back to church.
Zanita Fletcher: But I guess to kind of kick things off, I would love to know, Jared, , of a experience that you have had personally, , whether it is a positive experience where you felt really welcomed or a negative experience where [00:02:00] you felt really unwelcome in a church, whether that's a church you go to week by week or a new church that you just rock up, rocked up to, obviously, you don't need to say the specific church, but yeah, just tell us,, , an experience that you have had in a church.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Hmm. It's hard, Zanita to gauge sometimes because a lot of people recognize me from record when I travel to different churches and I do remember one particular time, though I didn't particularly get recognized. I got there early, I think. I'm not sure if I was preaching or doing something for a program or I was just in the area, so I went to the church to check out a church.
Jarrod Stackelroth: But I, I decided to go to Sabbath school,, which not everyone does when they're visiting a new church. Sometimes it's, , Uh, because the conversations are a bit, , deeper, the group is a bit smaller and you can feel, , especially if you're a shy person, it can feel a bit more exposed. And I just remember going there and it wasn't, I think one or two people sort of nodded at me or said [00:03:00] hi.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , but even the. The Sabah School discussion, and I'm sure we've all been in discussions like this, was a little, , what's the word? , There was conflict. There was disagreement. Yeah, there was a bit of heatedness in the conversation, and very dominated by certain individuals who had very strong opinions, and as An outsider, you're already questioning, like, do I wade into this conversation?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Probably not because I don't really know the dynamic here. I'm not necessarily feeling confident to do that., but even many of the, I assume regular members weren't then contributing. It just came down to these. regular contributors who are throwing things in and,, and sort of were very, , almost talking past each other with their contributions.
Zanita Fletcher: [00:04:00] Um,
Jarrod Stackelroth: well, if I was a visitor and I didn't have a vested interest , in church and being part of this group, I don't know if I'd come back not to this church specifically, but perhaps not at all.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , I I'm sure we've all got that experience because many of us might, even if we've grown up in the church, we might be very comfortable in our own home church, but we've reflected on this program before about how. Sometimes you grow up or you move cities or you leave home and you have to find a new church.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And it's quite a difficult transition to make because I think the experience often when you visit a new church is that it can be intimidating, but it's often not necessarily welcoming., whereas you might find feel completely welcomed every Sabbath at your own home church where you're comfortable when you have to visit or where you have to attend somewhere new, it can be quite a confronting experience. [00:05:00] Do you have a story, Zenita?
Zanita Fletcher: yeah, I feel like I could definitely share about negative experiences, but maybe since you did that, I'll take the positive card., I think a really good experience I had at a church that I was visiting, I guess I just liked the intentionality of it. So I went to this church and I actually did know someone there.
Zanita Fletcher: However, she was in the worship band. , and so I arrived at this church and the lady at the door, she greeted me and she was really nice and she asked me my name and if I'd ever been there, just those, basic questions. , and she asked me if I knew anyone at that church. And I said, yes, I know my friend Georgia.
Zanita Fletcher: And she was like, Oh, Georgia is on the team. Let me introduce you to someone else. And church had actually started by this point. So I would. late because when you're new you often you're like up late, , but what I really liked was that she didn't just greet me and say enjoy the service. She like took me to someone, , who was already sitting down and she just whispered to them , hi, this is Anita.
Zanita Fletcher: She just knew [00:06:00] here, and then she like sat me with this girl and the girl like made room for me and then after church, she talked to me and she introduced me to other people. So I guess I liked that. It wasn't like, I think the greeters at church is so important and I love that. We have them and we put a priority on them.
Zanita Fletcher: But I think sometimes you can have that experience where you get greeted and that's great, but , you have this awkward,, hour and a half or whatever, where you're like sitting by yourself and you don't talk to anyone afterwards. And so I really liked that. They had people in the audience that were like, open to having someone else come along.
Zanita Fletcher: Like it didn't feel like it was a shock for that other lady to have me sit next to her. It was , Oh yeah, like we're, this is what we do. , so I thought that was really cool. I thought it was really intentional. , and yeah, it just made the rest of the kind of the time less awkward, essentially.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I think there's something in that intentionality, that concept, because I guess what we would love in a romantic sort of world, we would love just it to happen spontaneously. [00:07:00] We would love to be loving and have someone come up and just feel warm fuzzies. But the reality is if you don't have a system in place or a plan or a greeter or someone to greet new people , and what to do after that, , you can actually do yourself as a church a disservice because I guess people think all at someone else's job or I don't know, it gets lost in , the wash.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , I'd be curious to know if this is just an Australia, New Zealand problem, or if some of our Pacific, if anyone from the Pacific is watching the, this at any point, if they could leave some comments as to what, , solutions they, they find there, it's a very different context and community. And I'm wondering , if they find their churches more or less welcoming, then perhaps, , we've been able to share some of our experiences here.
Zanita Fletcher: Jared, I know you've been to churches overseas before. ,
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah.
Zanita Fletcher: I guess, have you noticed anything in other countries that culturally is, has been a little bit different that you thought was really [00:08:00] cool, or that you thought was really effective in making people feel welcome?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Yeah. I don't know if it's cultural or my most recent experience, we went to a church in Scotland and we were greeted by a lady in the foyer who told us about the church and asked it. Yeah. Sort of connection questions. How did you come to be here today? She found out we're from Australia and whatnot.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So then it was like, Oh, why did you choose this church? how did you be here? , yeah. But there was a guest book. She encouraged us to sign the visitor's book. And I think some churches here probably have that too, but I haven't noticed it as a thing. , but we scanned through the guest book and we saw other names of people from Australia.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Some that we knew we, we saw some names of people that we recognized. So we were like, Oh, wow. It's that sense of connection. Like someone from where I'm from has visited this church before. And so that visitor's book, I guess, was a way of. I guess it's about, , [00:09:00] situating you within that community. How do I fit?
Jarrod Stackelroth: And if you come in and you just feel like an outsider the whole time, you're not going to come back. You're not going to find that a warm experience, but if you come in and you see other people in the guest book have been there that, you know, , you're like, Oh, wow, this is part of my family.
Jarrod Stackelroth: My church family. In another part of the world, , they had a church lunch, which I always think is a good way to, build community. And they were very sort of forthcoming in inviting us to stay for that lunch. It was just soup and buns. They had, , regulations from the council. They couldn't do certain things in their kitchen and you know, there were specific rules, so it had to be very simple, but every week or most weeks, I think they try and do soup and buns just so that if someone rocks up.
Jarrod Stackelroth: They have the opportunity to be fed , and have that fellowship time after the service. So I think , those are a couple of recent examples of, again, something that's been done intentionally. The visitor book is an intentional [00:10:00] thing to have there. , you could have a visitor book without getting anyone to fill it out too.
Jarrod Stackelroth: But the fact that she pointed our attention to it was like, Hey, you're here from Australia. , please sign our visitor book. You know, we want you to record your visit here. , and so we left a little note, you know, , thanks to the church, whatever. And I can imagine some Australian tourists down the track might see our names there and feel that, Hey, We know that name.
Jarrod Stackelroth: We've got a connection there and feel connected to that church. So that was a really neat experience. But again, the intentionality of having the visitors lunch, having the visitors book, it just sets your church up to be welcoming. Okay. Okay.
Zanita Fletcher: church members first and it was like, how welcoming do you think your church is? And most of the members replied saying, we love our church. We think it's the best. We think it's super friendly and [00:11:00] welcoming.
Zanita Fletcher: , but then they actually surveyed, guests who came in and guests often, who said, Irrespective of what church it was, because apparently a lot of churches are pretty poor at this. Then the guests would say, we didn't find that unfriendly, which I think is interesting because I think when you're a member of a church over time, you do build those.
Zanita Fletcher: You do build those connections, and so you feel like it's friendly, and you have a lot of really good connections, and people say hello to you, but that's not necessarily the experience that other people have when they come into a church. , so I guess that's,, that's not necessarily a question, but I guess it's like an invitation for churches.
Zanita Fletcher: I think it's a good idea to be asking or be like investigating how people experience your church when you come in, because it can be like a bit of a perception chasm
Jarrod Stackelroth: A natural church development study that's quite often used by churches. It's a tool. It's a survey that the church can take. And unfortunately, the category of loving relationships. And I would term that as what [00:12:00] we're talking about today, being, feeling welcome at church, whether you stay there for a long time, or you're just visiting, you should be able to feel the loving relationships in a church.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And that score. The score for loving relationships is consistently low for Adventist churches., it's a, it's all, it's many churches outside of our denomination as well, I believe, but specifically for Adventist churches as well, we come out at the bottom on that score. And it's been this way for a long time and people are having trouble fixing it, , addressing that as a problem.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So statistically there's a measure that we can say, actually we're struggling in this area. How can we, deal with this. Recently at the general conference at the annual council, , Dr. David Trim gave a presentation. He said there were 1. 4 million new members that joined the church in 2023. I think it was last calendar year, but 800, 000 left. Not, not through death, [00:13:00] not through death. So these were those that left, , and are still alive, potentially. I wonder if it has something to do with how welcoming our churches are. , we often hear that people don't leave because of the, the theology. , and on those NCD scores, our church, you know, the message is often scored highly.
Jarrod Stackelroth: The evangelistic outreach and stuff like that is scored highly. It's the loving relationships that suffer and a lot of exit surveys as much data as we can get find that, yeah, , it's a problem with people. Other people did this and didn't do that. And, you know, now there's some personal responsibility to take there, but I think churches can be very difficult places to find.
Jarrod Stackelroth: a space to belong in, to feel welcome in., it's, it's easy to fall into a clique at church and to become very comfortable and to only talk to the same people each week. , but then new people get [00:14:00] lost. , and so I guess the question we're asking today is how we address that. How do we become more welcoming?
Zanita Fletcher: I guess one of the barriers to this, , I had this conversation with a man from my church a few months ago. So he was young male, maybe mid thirties, had a child, had a wife. , and he was saying , he goes to church. Well, not even church, just his life in general is really busy, which I'm sure a lot of people can relate to.
Zanita Fletcher: Like he worked a full time job. He had kids like yourself, Jared. He had a wife like yourself. , and so church for him was like his social fix, which. You know, isn't a bad thing. Like church is also supposed to be for us. It's not just supposed to be for new people. So he was just saying, , I find it really difficult because I go to church and I sit in this Sabbath school, I sit in this service, and then I really just want to get my social fix and , talk to the people.
Zanita Fletcher: who I haven't seen all week, , and then by the time I'm finished with that, there's no new people around. I don't have that opportunity , and so I feel like that's kind of a valid point,, I feel like that's probably a lot of people's experience at [00:15:00] church is yeah, they first see the people that they know, they go to one or two people, have a conversation with them, and usually the new people If they haven't got someone to talk to, they leave pretty soon.
Zanita Fletcher: , so I don't know if , I'm sure you can probably relate to that, Jared, because you also have a family, you also work full time. Like what do we do in those kinds of situations? Like, how can we be better at welcoming people while still getting like that time to connect with people ourselves? It's a good one.
Jarrod Stackelroth: it's a good question, and I think, , at different life stages. It's potentially a different answer for me. , right now I'm at a fairly new church. I haven't been going there for, for a very long time. , and so it's different. I'm still not sure who's a new person and who's an old person. Do you know what I mean?
Jarrod Stackelroth: So I'm still just making my way. , and very focused on the kids as well. So taking them to Sabbath school, adventurous programs, making sure they're, in the programs, interacting, helping them with [00:16:00] the craft. So not actually going to Sabbath school for myself to get fed, but doing Sabbath school with the kids.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , and so we've gotten involved there and we're meeting people through that, but it's limited because you're basically doing the activities for the kids and you're not getting a lot of time to interact because it's very hard to have a deep conversation when your son's about to jump off the slide. , And you're like, Oh, got to go.
Jarrod Stackelroth: This kid's about to get stitches in his head. You know, this something's about to happen, you know? , so there is a challenge there, I guess when I was younger and I would look at it this way at the last church I was at as well, I sort of set myself a challenge and this may not work for everyone, but. I realized that it was quite intimidating that I hated going to church and not knowing anyone and feeling scared and shy and, , all of those things.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So I made it a challenge for myself to get to know all the new people. If I saw someone that was different because I was very comfortable, very familiar. I would make sure [00:17:00] they had a good time or at least had a good conversation, , while they were there. And so I would intentionally target having those conversations with them.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And if I found out, found a connection point with myself that we could talk about sport or Literature or, whatever, that'd be great. If they talked about something that I wasn't really up on, but that I knew someone else in the church that was their jam, I could then connect them with that person.
Jarrod Stackelroth: A little bit like what that lady did for you at that church. And so I agree with, , , your mate saying, Oh, I need that social fix. But I'm also like, I see these people every week. I'll see them again. But this person off the street could be someone who's checking out church for the first time.
Jarrod Stackelroth: They could be a new friend that will become part of that social web or will choose this church because I'm really friendly to them. So it [00:18:00] is a ministry. I can do something. I can be a minister to this person. If they don't come back and I never see them again, well, at least they've had a good experience.
Jarrod Stackelroth: If they do, then they can become part of that social web. And I'll see my friends again next week, regardless, because they are coming all the time. So it's a really tight knit. I think one of the other challenges to becoming a welcoming church, , at this point. Is we're seeing more and more people, fluctuate with their church attendance.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So either their church hopping, that was an issue to building solid, welcoming, loving communities, but also. Just getting to church every week. , Before you would come rain, hail, or shine. If you were sick, had the flu, you'd still go to church because you just needed to be at church. But now with the encouragement of like, you don't want to spread your germs, you can watch church online.
Jarrod Stackelroth: You've got a kid with gastro. Well, we're not going to force everyone to go to church. So we're only there on [00:19:00] the Sabbaths. We can be there. And if you've got like myself, other church appointments at other churches, some weeks, you're not there for two or three weeks, , or you're at the adventurers, Campery.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , and so you are at a church event, but you're not at your local church. And so you see people sometimes once a month. And it can become actually quite challenging to build those relationships, , to get your social fixed like your friend was talking about. But yeah, I look at it like if you've got cell groups or if you've got social things going on during the week, if you can have anything like that's great.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And you can see those people every week, but this person, you might be able to impact them for eternity and you might only see them That one time. So you've got to make an effort. That's how I challenged myself to do it. Don't always get it right. But I think, yeah, , if we're more intentional, , about targeting new people in our churches and making them feel warm, making them feel welcome, It'll help them grow because we'll keep people that come visit rather than [00:20:00] losing them out the back door
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, I love that. I love that you, young Jared, made an effort to talk to someone he
Jarrod Stackelroth: I did yeah,
Zanita Fletcher: Yeah, it's good. It's awesome. , I think, I
Jarrod Stackelroth: and it was uncomfortable for me Zenita. I will say that as well I like I wasn't a super extroverted person when I was younger and so it was actually an effort to do that But I felt like it was important and I felt like it was a ministry I could contribute to and so I made myself Do that and I think I still try to be that person.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Although at a new church with new, as I said, I don't know who's new and who's not. So , it's a little harder to have those conversations.
Zanita Fletcher: I think, that's the reality is that it's, , likely always going to be uncomfortable to go up to someone new and to start a conversation. Like, unless you're an extreme extrovert who just like froths on it. But. Even I'm an extrovert and I still have to force myself to do it because it's more uncomfortable than just talking to someone you know.
Zanita Fletcher: Like you never know how people are going to respond or if they're going to be [00:21:00] like, I've been here for 10 years. Like, you just don't know what you're going to get. But I think it's, chances are it's going to be less awkward for you to go and introduce yourself than it is for someone to just sit in a chair and.
Zanita Fletcher: Not have anyone talk to them and to be looking around like pretending they're doing something on their phone. Like it's always going to be less awkward for you. So I think it's , yeah, just like take the initiative. ,, if you come across it.
Jarrod Stackelroth: it's also fun to be that person at a church you're visiting for the first time. So sometimes you can tell new people that look uncomfortable because they've never been there before. And so you make them feel welcome, have a great conversation and you actually do find that you gravitate to other visitors sometimes. They're new, you're new, and you can have some really good relationships, and that's not actually a bad thing. Because when you travel, we've had this And not necessarily at church straight, but at events or church related things where we've met people. And then we [00:22:00] happen to be there. They're part of the world.
Jarrod Stackelroth: , we've got a friend, we've got a contact, a connection on social media that we can drop in on and they can make us feel welcome or they can connect with us , in that sense. So sometimes it's fun actually to welcome people to other churches that aren't your churches. But just to have good conversations.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And if they're a regular, you take sitting in the corner, sometimes will make you have a bad experience. But if you try to build a connection with someone, you might actually enjoy visiting that church because you get to know some people on a bit of a deeper level. Silence.
Zanita Fletcher: has been really helpful in my experience is I was part of a church plan a few years ago. , and something that they did was they actually got like a counselor come in and he did like a few workshops with like our team. , and it was specifically on how to be welcoming and how to be loving to people who come to your church, who, , may have just walked [00:23:00] off from the street or might look a little bit like funny or, , might be on drugs or might've just come and have like really big problems and just load them onto you.
Zanita Fletcher: , because that is something that I guess we see in churches is you do get those people come in who are really struggling, who are on drugs, who are on the streets, . And I think it's, it's not always that difficult. Well, it is, but it's not as difficult to talk to someone who, , it's from another church and he's visiting. , but I feel like it's another level of difficulty. , walking to someone who doesn't have that experience in a church who isn't part of another church, who maybe has come to church for the first time. Because we don't know how to have those conversations. Like if someone openly just says , I'm really struggling or , whatever.
Zanita Fletcher: I feel like a lot of the times we just divert the conversation or we just bail because it's we don't know what to do in those situations. Like we're not used to having those kinds of conversations. And so, , I don't know if that's an option for people to like, get someone in to talk about that or to help them with that.
Zanita Fletcher: But I think [00:24:00] like it's a, it was a really good idea for our church and it made us a lot more comfortable with people who did come in with like other issues. ,
Jarrod Stackelroth: It comes back to , that word intentionality, I think. And , I know, , the church I'm currently attending, they have greeters that stand in the car park wave signs, welcome to church. , they, they wave at you and they talk to you. Some people might think that's corny, right? But it does show some intentionality and you'll hear the stats about people who drive to a church car park and don't ever get out of their car because they're like, Or anecdotes, you hear about people, they're like, Oh, I couldn't get out of the car,, I drove to the church or I drove past it and I sat there and I just couldn't come in.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And that having someone in the car park waving a sign welcoming you to church is sort of One churches or some churches I know do that as a solution, maybe to that, but also just to , show that love from the very first time you step towards the church. [00:25:00] Like you're still making your way there and you've been greeted already.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And then another person at the door greeting you or showing you where the seats are , or that sort of thing. , So I think. Again, that's , if people have been trained, if they're on a team or if their spiritual gift is hospitality or extrovertedness, that should be channeled positively, like the people that are greeting you should want to be doing that, not.
Jarrod Stackelroth: They're doing it because no one else has been assigned to it. , and they've got a scowl on their face and they're the only person to do that. Like intentionally getting more people involved and seeing it as a ministry, not just as something that will happen spontaneously. I think is a really positive thing.
Jarrod Stackelroth: And what you've said is a great idea. Get someone in to talk about it, to train people on it, to give them tips and tricks, because then they'll feel more confident. They'll feel empowered. Like I can handle this conversation no matter how it turns out, because someone gave me, some training, , some thoughts on [00:26:00] this.
Zanita Fletcher: Awesome. Well, Jared. Oh,
Jarrod Stackelroth: We've got a,
Zanita Fletcher: Comment.
Jarrod Stackelroth: got a great comment from David , on YouTube here. , hello there. Such a nice topic. Addressing the newcomers to the church is a good idea, but I had a few incidents where the visitors wanted to be inconspicuous. They just want to feel the experience. I know that, , people can become uncomfortable in icebreakers sometimes.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Or if they make you stand up because the welcome person is like, who's a visitor here today, please stand up or put your hand up. And it helps other church members to know who's there for the first time, but it can be quite scary or quite intimidating if you knew, and you just want to suss out the experience.
Zanita Fletcher: ,
Zanita Fletcher: He also added, it's better awesome whether they want to be addressed and what. Yeah. I think sometimes you can, it's a good point. I think sometimes you can gauge whether someone wants to keep talking or not, but use your human emotional intelligence skills for that. I guess.
Jarrod Stackelroth: and if you've got a gre, a greeter at the door, that's part of their role. Like, [00:27:00] find out if this person wants to be acknowledged in any way, or if they're comfortable, , or they just wanna sneak in and just suss it out. , you can gauge that with a quick conversation, but not if you haven't been primed as a greeter,, if you haven't been told about that, primed for that, , it's unlikely that you're gonna ask those sort of questions.
Jarrod Stackelroth: So I guess, yeah. I don't know about you, Anita, but I'm feeling the. That we could do more work in our churches to be intentional about this, , that we could potentially put in place some structures and some churches are doing it. And, some churches aren't. Another good thing to do is if you've got a church bulletin or an Adventist record to give them as a visitor or someone coming in the door, , giving them something to look through during the service helps those quiet moments where nobody might be talking to them.
Jarrod Stackelroth: They've got something to do with their hands, their eyes. , And we would always recommend giving out Adventist record because it's great reading material. So there's another intentional thing you could do. [00:28:00] We've been fairly practical in this conversation. Zanita, where do we want to land this plane?
Jarrod Stackelroth: Do you have any final thoughts as we wrap up?
Zanita Fletcher: Hmm, do I have any final thoughts? I don't know, I guess I just like reiterate what I said before , yeah, it might be awkward for you to go and approach someone and speak to them, but it's definitely going to be more awkward for them to not have anyone go to them. , and even if like, or , if you're from a big church, you might have a handful of new people come each week.
Zanita Fletcher: You don't have to talk to all of them, but , I guess at least making the, effort to talk to one new person, maybe not every week, but like every fortnight or every now and then. I think it would make a big difference if each of us went into our churches and, tried that a little bit more.
Zanita Fletcher: What about you, Jared? Any final words of advice?
Jarrod Stackelroth: guess we reflect on the idea of a consumer. Have fun. versus a contributor or a, , active church member. And I guess many of [00:29:00] us can fall into the trap myself included of just consuming the service. I'm there to get something out of it. Spiritually, I'm there to get a social fix.
Jarrod Stackelroth: I'm there as a break from my week to do something different. And I don't really want to talk to anyone, et cetera. , but that's very much a consumerist mindset. Like I'm there as an individual just doing my thing. I think if we saw church more as communal, And it's something that we should be contributing to.
Jarrod Stackelroth: We may not have a, an official role. We may not even be a member at the church that we regularly attend, but we can contribute to the atmosphere and the welcomingness of that church. So I'd encourage us, this Sabbath coming, to look for someone to have a conversation with that maybe you haven't had a conversation with before and to try and up that temperature of your church to be a bit warmer and a bit more welcoming.
Jarrod Stackelroth: That's a challenge we can set all of us, even if your church is super warm and super welcoming. It could always be more so , we could always make an effort,, to [00:30:00] connect with other people and to love on other people. So thanks for joining us. , for another episode of Record Live, I'm glad this topic came up , suggested by one of our team members because I think it's a really important one. , but we'll be back again next week. God bless you all and have a happy Sabbath when you get there.
Jarrod Stackelroth: Remember to greet someone and to be welcoming at your church this week. God bless.
Zanita Fletcher: See you everyone.