Building Blocks: "What doorways do people use to enter a church?"

The first church I served as pastor was in a small town in North Carolina. I called it a Presbyterian Lake Wobegone after Garrison Keillor’s fictional community in Minnesota. It had elements of Mayberry, but with a racial diversity not present in Andy Griffith’s TV show.

By the time I arrived the church membership had shrunk from a high point of some 300 soon after World War II to about 120 in 1990. The topic of attracting new members was in so many conversations. One of the more crusty leaders of the church came to me one day and said, “There have only been two ways that people ever joined this church. They were born into it, or they married into it.”

This got me thinking about the doorways through which people enter a church.

Birth and marriage are important ones. But they are not the only ones. Sometimes people enter because they want to find a place to sing. Other people enter to join in a mission or service project. Others are seeking connection and community.

People come to Fondren Presbyterian Church for these reasons as well. They also come because the doors are open. Some people come with doubts. Others come after having been rejected by other churches. Still others come because they searched and found us online. Or a friend recommended them.

We come to Fondren Presbyterian Church through many doorways. There are times, such as now, that we need to pay attention to those doorways and improve their condition. Which door did you use to enter the Church?

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