Keep calm and Buc-ee on!

 

“Keep calm and Buc-ee on!”

 
Have you been to Buc-ee’s? If you haven’t, you’ve missed out. There’s a plan to open one in Wisconsin north of Madison in the near future.
  When you’re on a long road trip a stop at a gas station requires an evaluation of some vital questions: Does it look clean? Are the restrooms clean? If they’re not, am I up to date on my vaccinations? Does it look like Norman Bates might be the manager? (Okay, I never really ask that one).
  Buc-ee’s is the new national sensation of gas stations. The Texas-based supersized gas and convenience chain offers much more than a place to fuel up and grab some chips. Devoted fans make regular pilgrimages, sometimes driving hundreds of miles, to stock up on Beaver Nuggets and other merchandise. They hold records for the largest convenience store and longest car wash at 255 feet. Even their restrooms are award-winning.
  Founder Arch “Beaver” Aplin opened his first Buc-ee’s in Clute, Texas in 1982. The name came from combining his childhood nickname; the name of his Labrador Retriever, Buck; and Ipana toothpaste’s animated mascot, Bucky the beaver.
  Buc-ee’s is famous for their food. Each location includes a bakery, brisket and fudge bar, and an Icee station. Walls are lined with candy, beef jerky flavors, including a beef jerky bar. The bakery has about every cookie or pastry imaginable. There are BBQ brisket sandwiches, breakfast tacos/sandwiches, along with various others. Buc-ee’s is famous for its own original snacks – “Beaver Nuggets,” a flavored corn puff snack. It’s a bestseller with people driving hundreds of miles to stock up on them.
  All Buc-ee’s have nearly 100 gas pumps and even Tesla super chargers.  They also offer a wide variety of general and regional-based souvenirs, including apparel and artwork. They carry their own clothing brand, ranging from t-shirts, hats, pants, plushies, swimwear, and blankets. Some locations even sell hunting gear alongside outdoor products such as grills and firepits. In other words, Buc-ee’s has just about everything.
  Do you know the best part of Buc-ee’s? They’re so friendly! On our recent vacation we stopped at a Buc-ee’s in Kentucky around 1 am. Even at those wee hours, employees were friendly and upbeat. They thanked us for coming! Wow! Were we impressed! Not only was it clean and brightly lit, but it was like they actually wanted us there.
  Shouldn’t that be the local church? Shouldn’t that be us at Grace?
  When we’re on vacation we look for a church to worship at. Over the years our family has visited countless ones. Regrettably, some have not been a positive experience. If we lived in the area, we wouldn’t return.  
  In one a few years ago, I had to interrupt a conversation the man passing out bulletins was having to ask if I could have one. One of my unforgettable experiences was being encouraged in the service to pick up a gift for first timers at the Welcome Desk, only to find that they were already shutting it down (I went right away) and again had to interrupt a conversation to ask for the free gift the pastor had urged me to go get.
  My point is that it’s so easy to forget for those of us who have attended Grace for a long time how intimidating it can be to visit a church for the first time. It’s more difficult if you’ve never really attended church. Add to that the complexity if you have young children and are unsure what their experience will be (Where do they go? Will they be safe? Is it clean?)
  Then, with a growing national single population, you can feel like a 5^th wheel if you attend church by yourself. It’s estimated that 51% of Americans are single. They’re either divorced, widowed, or separated, or have always been single (never married).
  Sometimes you must experience something to understand it. It’s why I’d encourage you when you’re on vacation to visit a church. It can be eye-opening, hopefully in a great way, and you’ll come back bubbling with how you were treated as a special guest by another family of believers.
  At Grace, we are all part of the Welcome Team. Remember the “Golden Rule”? “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12). Think about how you’d want to be treated if you were visiting a church for the first time. You’d want to be welcomed. You’d want to know people care. Loneliness is an epidemic today. People need to know that we care…and we care because Jesus cares.
  Did you know where making new people feel welcome and wanted at our church begins? In the parking lot. It sets a whole tone of grace and friendliness. A few years ago, Dave and Jen Bonnar began attending Grace because the parking lot greeter connected with them. (Shameless ministry commercial – we desperately need more parking lot greeters).
  If you have children, you need to know that we have ministries for them. You need to know that they will be safe and cared for, that our ministries are well-staffed, and that we do background checks for the volunteers.  
  You’ll want to know that we have FREE coffee and treats. It’s cool if you take them into the sanctuary or sit in the coffee café to enjoy them. It’s why we want to make sure those first tables are open for our newcomers.
  Then, we want them to have the best seats. They usually want to sit close to the door and toward the back so that they can leave quickly. So, let’s fill up the east section or middle one first. Leave the end chair for them so they don’t have to crawl over you. Be careful about huddling or blocking the entry doors. It’s important to share your name and listen for their name…and more importantly, get their children’s names.  
  If Buc-ee’s can do such a great job of making people feel welcome to make a buck, shouldn’t we as a church family be doing that? What’s at stake for us isn’t the bottom line, it may be the destiny of a soul. It’s our mission and what Jesus called us to! But it can’t be a few. It takes all of us! Can we count on you? Let’s be better than Buc-ee’s!  

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

Hello is Healthier

 

“A smile is the universal welcome.”  Max Eastman

 
Okay, think about it. Where’s a place that you find that you’re consistently warmly welcomed? And not just a, “I’m doing my job welcome.” About the only business where I find that I am warmly welcomed is at a car dealership. I’m rarely there more than a minute before someone is asking, “Sir, have you been helped?” Of course, a car buyer/customer is potentially worth thousands of dollars in commission, so there are other motivations which is why we have a high index of suspicion at a car dealership.
  Did you know that habitually saying “Hello” to others can make you healthier? It also opens doors for friendships. I know that it did for us.
  Some of our lifelong friends in Burlington are Tim and Rozanne Bird. We’d moved in for just a few days and the only people that we knew in Burlington were those from our church. Shortly after we moved in while I was away at work, Tim came over with a fresh loaf of zucchini bread for our family that Rozanne had made…and we’ve been friends ever since. Their children played and grew up with our children. We’d spend the holidays together. We were there for each other if there was a need or an emergency. There was hardly anything more enjoyable for us than to stop and talk to Tim and Rozanne. And though we moved from that neighborhood years ago, we’re still friends and periodically get together (though not as often as either of us would like).
  Being friendly can help you live longer. Gallup just released a poll that learned that adults in the U.S. who regularly say hello to multiple people in their neighborhood have higher wellbeing than those who greet fewer or no neighbors. Your wellbeing score increases steadily by the number of neighbors greeted, from 51.5 among those saying hello to zero neighbors to 64.1 for those greeting six neighbors.
  Americans report saying hello on a regular basis to five neighbors, on average, with 27% reporting greeting six or more. This varies substantially by age, however. Young adults (those under 30) say hello to an average of 2.9 neighbors, compared with 6.5 among those aged 65 or older. About one in seven among those under 30 (14%) greet six or more neighbors, compared with 41% of those aged 65 and older. Having children under 18 in the household marginally improves the chances of greeting neighbors.
  We are suffering from an epidemic of loneliness in the United States and Western civilization. Lacking connection can increase the risk for premature death to levels comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to an advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General released earlier this year. The physical consequences of poor connection can be devastating, including a 29% increased risk of heart disease; a 32% increased risk of stroke; and a 50% increased risk of developing dementia for older adults. The continued rise in suicide rates is connected to this crisis that as a culture we are so disconnected.
  What we so cherish, our radical individualism, is at the same time destroying us. Individualism has engendered unprecedented social isolation and yielded a depth of loneliness unique to 21^st-century American culture.
  God designed us as relational beings. It’s a reality long affirmed by the Bible but now also supported by neuroscience. We must understand that we are social beings before we can regain social connectedness, friendship, and community in our church and in the world. While we can’t change the world, we can make a difference in our world. What can we do?
  Limit your smart phone use. Personal, local conversations have been replaced by furious tapping on glowing screens separated by hundreds of miles. A smart phone is nearly always within reach. It’s there to wake us up in the morning, play our favorite music, capture our lives in pics and video, an ever-present portal to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, but it carries a price. Our digital interactions with one another, which are often necessarily brief and superficial, begin to pattern all our relationships. As we become shallow in our interactions with people, it becomes our habit.
  The barista at the coffee counter gets a DM-like response. When we hang out with friends, we offer a series of Tweet-like responses in a superficial conversation with little spiritual meaning. The way we interact online becomes the norm for how we interact offline and it’s not the way to have a good conversation with someone. A good conversation involves listening and timing. That’s lost with Internet communications because you’re not there with that person. We must not treat another person the way we would if we interact with social media, but we will if we’re not careful.
  The Lord Jesus models perfect being-in-relationship for us. Jesus was never not in relationship. He didn’t enter this world by splitting the heavens but by gently growing in his mother’s womb. He entered a normal family, spent His childhood and early adulthood in obscurity, and then launched His ministry by inviting others to follow Him. Even on the night of his crucifixion, Jesus gathered for a meal with His disciples, then He led them to pray with Him at Gethsemane. With His final breaths, Jesus instructed his disciples to care for his mother. If relationships were essential to Jesus, shouldn’t they be essential for us, too?
  Like Jesus, we exist for relationships. If Jesus was history’s most “fully alive” human, it shouldn’t surprise us that a person can’t become fully human without a community. Simply put, we were created for community.
  Ours is a social gospel. American Christians tend to read Scripture from an exclusively individualistic framework. We’re surprised to find that the Lord’s Prayer contains only plural pronouns (“Our Father…Give us… Forgive us”) and that the Apostle Paul writes “our Lord” 53 times but “my Lord” just once. So, our salvation isn’t less than personal; it’s more than personal. Responding to the loneliness epidemic creates an ideal opportunity for churches to prioritize fostering authentic community.
  Western individualism has sparked unprecedented social isolation. We must work to recover the biblical need of community. It can begin next door by simply saying “hello” to a neighbor. It starts at work as you take time to interact with co-workers. It’s cultivated at church, as we share and care with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

Whatever happened to "Welcome to Wal-mart"?

 

“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.” Ed Cunningham

  Do you have a favorite restaurant or store? I do. Most of us do. There are places that I go faithfully…though there may be other option, even less expensive options…just because those businesses go out of their way to make me feel welcome.

  Okay, confession is good for the soul, so I’ll fess up – I HATE EXERCISING…I HATE GOING TO THE WELLNESS CENTER. It’s not that I hate exercising, it’s that I hate all of the time that it takes. There are two individuals though who work at the Wellness Center though that help me ti keep going back: Nathan and Veronica. When I walk in the door, they greet me. They know my name. They ask how I’m doing. When I leave, they tell me to have a nice day. They know a little about me and go out of their way to make me feel welcome. I’ll be honest, they’re a major part of why I keep going.

  Have you noticed that Wal-mart no longer has greeters? Personally, I think that’s a marketing blunder. It’s hard to find someone to help you in Wal-mart and they’re workers often aren’t exactly known for their winning personalities. The main reasons people shop at Wal-mart are price and selection. There’s no relationship and no customer loyalty.

  I’m old enough to remember Woolworth, Montgomery Wards, Zayre and even S.S. Kreesge. Do you know what all those stores have in common? They’re gone, extinct. Obviously, there are a variety of reasons for their demise, but someday Wal-mart will probably be among them. Some day someone will out Wal-mart Wal-mart. And it’s the seemingly little things missing like friendliness that contribute to a company’s eventual demise.

  That’s why one of the most important ministries at Grace Church is our Greeting Ministry. Researchers say that church guests decide whether or not to return to a church they’re visiting in the first 10 to 12 minutes upon entering the church. Our greeters help us communicate our message – God cares about you and we care because God cares.

  For several years now, Tammy and Scott Elblein, have led our greeting ministry. They’ve done a great job! Recently, they’ve asked for a break and felt the need to step down (though they’ll still be substitutes J). We’re so thankful for the job they’ve done. Please go out of your way and thank them for their faithfulness. And a big thank you to Rich and Jayne Benson who faithfully greet folk as they come in to church and leave at the end of the service week after week.

  One of our newest members, Steve Fifer, has graciously consented though to take over this vital ministry. Please be praying for Steve as he steps into this role.

  The fact is that you only have one chance to make a first impression. Our Heavenly Father in His providence continually brings newcomers through our doors. I doubt you’d ever find a church that didn’t think that they were a friendly church. Yet, I’ve visited and you no doubt have too, visited churches that think that they’re friendly…and they are…to each other. Because they have friends there, they greet each other and engage each other. What they don’t realize is that there are often new people that are walking right by them and while they’re so caught up in their conversations and greeting their friends, they miss those coming in their doors who are new and don’t have any friends yet in that church. As someone pointedly asked, “What is the difference between a guest and a visitor at church?” It is the difference between never missing another Sunday or just never coming back.

  That’s why it’s so important that all of us are conscious and sensitive to newcomers the Lord might bring into our church. Some of them have never heard the Gospel and are looking for answers, for something to fill that God-shaped hole in their soul. People visit a church for countless reasons. One thing that nearly all of them are looking for – is someone to simply care, someone to notice them, someone to befriend them. Can they count on us?

  That’s why every ministry from our greeters, to our ushers, to our nursery, Sunday Morning LIVE, Children’s Church and even our coffee ministry are so important every weekend every service. Each one of them is communicating that God cares and because He cares, we care, too.

  The most vital part of our weekly welcome committee though is YOU. Let’s be honest, everyone expects the greeters and ushers to be friendly…and hopefully, the Pastor. After all, that’s their ministry. But when you sit next to someone or behind or in front of them…and they’re friendly to you, when they care about you – that really gets your attention. 

  Holiday Inn interviewed 5,000 people to fill 500 positions that were needed to open a new facility.  When the hotel managers interviewed these candidates, they excluded anybody who smiled fewer than four times during the course of their interview. This standard was applied to every available job and to every prospective employee.

  So how many of us would qualify for a job at Holiday Inn? As believers, though we have a lot to smile about, really to rejoice about? We know that we’re loved, forgiven, have God’s grace moment by moment and then have a retirement program and Home waiting for us that’s literally out of this world. No wonder the Apostle Paul commanded us, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).

  I’m so thankful for the Elbleins, the Bensons and Steve Fifer. Yet, it’s not just their job. God has called each of us to be a vital part of the Welcome Committee! I’m all in…how about you?