What not to say to newcomers

[Sunday21]

I have to travel to other wards sometimes for church responsibilities. It is just like this! People often warn me about other people's behaviour! If the choirist or the pianist does like the singing, they will make us sing the song again! Lots of small wards are like their own religion! Every ward has their own rules.

Funny my name is similar to that of a woman with a bad reputation. I have no idea what she did, but whatever it was, she did hard and she did it often! In other wards, if I meet an older leader, I have to start by saying 'I have a name similar to a woman with a bad reputation. I am not her'. They visibly relax. No one will tell me what she did! 

Edited April 1, 2017 by Sunday21

[NeedleinA]

29 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Lots of small wards are like their own religion! Every ward has their own rules.

This happens sometimes. Imagine wards that don't have a lot of rotating members and simply are comprised of many generations of the same 10 families only. Without rotating new blood into the mix, it is easy to see how this can happen. Stake visitors, Stake conference, General Conference and other external leaders/examples are critical in helping a branch or ward not become an wild island to itself. 

As far as you having a similar name as sister so and so... what can you say, hah

I thought it was interesting that in the video they had a Starbucks type setup inside their church (maybe a mega church?). If we had a kool-aid and cheerios stand at ours, they could make a killing

 

Edited April 1, 2017 by NeedleinA

[Sunday21]

Let's set up a koolaid & cheerios hut!

[Backroads]

Everyone would literally drink the Kool-aid as they entered our churches!

[person0]

This actually reminds me about a different sad fact of life:  Too many people are invested in the social aspect of a church as opposed to truly being converted or dedicated to seeking the actual truth and conversion to it.

A dedicated individual may get a job with a company and soon after find that they dislike the job itself and all of their co-workers, but are motivated to achieve a long term goal where the experience they are gaining is necessary.  As a result they will stay with the company and work hard to achieve it, often regardless of social factors at work.  Sadly the same is not true with religion, people often become disenfranchised and become 'inactive' or go somewhere else, not to search for truth, but seeking a social fit, or to be taught what makes them feel comfortable.  Obviously we should socialize and be warm with our brothers and sisters at church, but we each also have a responsibility to choose truth over being offended.

[SilentOne]

Maybe I'll make note of some things from this video to say to people in the introductions thread.

[Sunday21]

14 hours ago, SilentOne said:

Maybe I'll make note of some things from this video to say to people in the introductions thread.

? I am not trying to provide training on bad behaviour here!

Edited April 2, 2017 by Sunday21

[JohnsonJones]

The thing that struck me oddest had nothing to do with greeting people.  Many Non-LDS churches have a social hour or other such thing and they have small snacks or coffee and other such sundries.  They normally have a fund which they collect money in to pay for the supplies of such social mixing.

However, it sure appeared they actually were selling stuff in one of those churches in something that appeared to be an actual coffee shop in a church.  That's a new one.  I know some Christian churches would be scandalized (too close to the Sellers in the Temple type idea to them) so was surprised to see that represented in the video.

I wonder if this is something new in some churches.  Having a coffee shop that actually sells things in the church itself.

[Guest]

I know of at least 2 big protestant churches here with (retail) coffee bars near the foyer. 

[NeuroTypical]

Big Mega-Church here in North Colorado springs has a small deli/coffee shop, plus a bookstore. Not General Conference big auditorium, but maybe 3-5X the size of the biggest Stake Center I've seen.   To be fair, it's not a single-use building - there are more things going on inside it than just church.  They also do non-worship-oriented productions.  

[NeuroTypical]

By the way, when we hooked up with the homeschooling co-op in said mega-church, we had a crapton of "are you new here" experiences.  95% were overwhelmingly positive, perhaps a tad awkward as they tried to find something to say upon learning we were Mormon.  

 

[An Investigator]

When I had just joined the church the lady who was my visiting teacher at the time said to me:

"New converts leave all the time, but don't worry we wont let you leave, we love you too much"
 

Hahaha.. I thought it was a tad sinister at the time

[Guest]

3 hours ago, An Investigator said:

When I had just joined the church the lady who was my visiting teacher at the time said to me:

"New converts leave all the time, but don't worry we wont let you leave, we love you too much"
 

Hahaha.. I thought it was a tad sinister at the time

Yeah, that does sound spooky.  But I guess everyone is bad at beginning conversations with new people.

[zil]

3 hours ago, An Investigator said:

"New converts leave all the time, but don't worry we wont let you leave...

Yep, we had this motto before the Hotel California was ever built.

[An Investigator]

5 hours ago, zil said:

Yep, we had this motto before the Hotel California was ever built.

You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave  

 

My hubby and I, also stayed in a hotel once that reminded  is of that song, we even hummed it at breakfast haha 

Edited April 15, 2017 by An Investigator

[Guest]

On 4/15/2017 at 9:07 AM, zil said:

Yep, we had this motto before the Hotel California was ever built.

On 4/15/2017 at 2:25 PM, An Investigator said:

My hubby and I, also stayed in a hotel once that reminded  is of that song, we even hummed it at breakfast haha 

Side trivium.  I once wrote an article about this song.  The long and short of it was two things:

1) About the second or third line uses the word "colitas".  This is a Mexican slang word (literally "little buds") referring to marijuana.

2) The meaning of the song was actually split since it had two authors for the lyrics.  One of them said it was about drug addiction.  The other referred to the trappings of the entertainment industry, especially the music industry (namely babes, booze, and materialism).  Later, they referred to the song saying it was about "lost innocence."  But they flat out denied that it had anything to do with devil worship -- which many people believe because of its eerie music which was supposed to feel like going on a marijuana high.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Guest

[Jamie123]

On 4/2/2017 at 7:53 PM, Eowyn said:

I know of at least 2 big protestant churches here with (retail) coffee bars near the foyer. 

I remember many years ago when I was a student (and rather rebellious about the Church of England) I used to go to an Evangelical Methodist church every Sunday. The pastor there was a funny guy: while having a lot of admiration for other churches (like Catholics) and how they "loved the Lord", he was also a Methodist of the old school, and nothing annoyed him more than the way (or so he claimed) Catholic churches had licensed bars in them. (I never actually saw one that did myself: I think he was referring to the university Catholic chaplaincy, which served Guinness.)

Edited April 20, 2017 by Jamie123