Poll: Interacting with visitors at a Plain Anabaptist church

[Ernie]

Voting in this poll is restricted to those who regularly attend a Plain Anabaptist or similar church.

Posting in this thread is restricted to those who regularly attend a Plain Anabaptist or similar church, until I open it up for everyone to comment and ask questions. Thank you for obliging me in this!

[Grace]

We will interact with any visitor, no matter what they believe, how they look or who they are. Thankfully the fellowship we attend does the same, as everyone attempts to make ANY visitors feel welcome. It reminds me of a song that was sung back when I was a teenager, "They Will Know we are Christians by our Love". That doesn't mean we might approve of everything pertaining to them, but if they took the effort to visit our church, they deserve a warm and loving welcome.

[steve-in-kville]

We will interact with any visitor, no matter what they believe, how they look or who they are. Thankfully the fellowship we attend does the same, as everyone attempts to make ANY visitors feel welcome. It reminds me of a song that was sung back when I was a teenager, "They Will Know we are Christians by our Love". That doesn't mean we might approve of everything pertaining to them, but if they took the effort to visit our church, they deserve a warm and loving welcome.

I'm with Grace. Don't make it weird. Talking to people doesn't cost anything.

[Sliceitup]

I suspect that if a church is more homogeneous they are less likely to talk to people who look slightly different. This has been my anecdotal experience.

[Josh]

I suspect that if a church is more homogeneous they are less likely to talk to people who look slightly different. This has been my anecdotal experience.

I have found the opposite to be true. At a church like Hillsong or another megachurch which is very heterogeneous, nobody talks to you.

The most people I’ve ever had want to visit with me was at an Amish church where was extremely homogeneous.

[Soloist]

I have to agree, the Mennonite church I went to that had a mix was less friendly then the one we joined which was mostly 3 family lines but really friendly.
Possibly it would have been easier to integrate in the first, but we never had the hook to begin with.

[Josh]

I have noticed there is a certain type of person that never talks to visitors, or even established members with last names they don’t recognise. (So my wife’s cousin brother has been in the church his entire life, but he can visit a congregation and if a certain type of person asks his name, their eyes glaze over and they move on to talking to someone else.)

[RZehr]

I marked 1, 2, 4, 8.
But I will admit that I have the hardest time with Mennonites who I know used to be conservative, and have become liberal. I’m not exactly sure why. Probably best described in 3, 5. I can and do visit with them, and if I know them well personally, it isn’t a hinderance. And those frequent or infrequent Mennonet posters who have become more liberal, I don’t expect any difficult visiting with on my part at all, should we meet.

[Jeff Altweg]

I Tend to not spend that much time in old-line Anabaptist mennonite services ,as I spent a good part of my life in those settings , which tend to be pretty much the same in format......
.Rather formal ,very old hymns written a hundred years or more before,are sang rather stiffly to suit a man ,who appears to be waving his arms up front ,at something or other....Then listening to a long ,often unbased in fact or scripture ,tirade ,which purports to be God's word to us on that particular day , which is often an uneducated rambling of a sort ....followed by a very formal closing prayer ......
And then the whole crowd gets to the real business of the day, talking about their business of the prior ,or the coming week , each conversation gets louder and louder ,and within a few minutes ,it's truely Mennonite Hour , sounds a lot like an Old fashion Sales barn ......And the poor visitors , who really have not a lot in common with most there ,tend to slink out to their cars ...If they're lucky ,they leave with relatives for some lunch....after the "Mennonite Social Hour".......

[steve-in-kville]

I marked 1, 2, 4, 8.
But I will admit that I have the hardest time with Mennonites who I know used to be conservative, and have become liberal. I’m not exactly sure why. Probably best described in 3, 5. I can and do visit with them, and if I know them well personally, it isn’t a hinderance. And those frequent or infrequent Mennonet posters who have become more liberal, I don’t expect any difficult visiting with on my part at all, should we meet.

That is an interesting observation, and I know what you mean.