I’ve been the pastor of Green Hill Church for just over 8 weeks, but I did not bring God with me.  Despite a series of setbacks over the last 10 years, God has been at work here for a long time.  In His grace, God has preserved an incredible faith family that prayerfully depends on the Holy Spirit to empower us to make fully devoted Jesus followers for the global glory of God.

With that said, we received 13 new members into our fellowship on Sunday.  To some churches that may seem like a lot.  For others, that may not appear too impressive.  But whenever a local church receives new members, it’s a big deal.

My wife and I have three kids.  And the moment each child arrived, our family changed.  The change was expected, but we had no idea how much the arrival of just one more person would affect our family.  Some of the changes were immediate, but other changes took time to realize.

Recently, some family friends announced the expectant arrival of a new baby to their other four children.  They captured the moment on video.  Besides being hilarious, it provides a good reminder to all of us.

So how should we receive new members into the church?

Be Glad.

As we see, people are not always happy about new comers.  Maybe we are threatened.  Maybe we are suspicious.  Maybe we are jealous.  Maybe we just don’t like people we don’t know.  But the early church received new people with glad hearts (Acts 2:46).

Be Gracious.

Perfect people do not join churches.  Only problem-people, troubled people, twisted, messed up people join churches.  And remember, that’s all of us.  So rather than asking how these new people will “pull their own weight” we may want to cut them some slack and carry it for them.

Be Generous.

Leaders salivate over new members like Bud Adams swooned over Peyton Manning.  Of course, we can’t let them be in charge until they prove themselves.  But we don’t mind putting them to work early on. The early church, however, had a different approach.  They jumped in and served the people God brought to them (Acts 2:46). Maybe we should try that.

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