A friend of mine, a business owner in the area, asked me recently about my thoughts on his enterprise. I don’t get asked for my thoughts on businesses all that often. This is, of course, an area for which I have very limited expertise (seeing as how I’ve worked in the church for most of my adult life). His concern was over the potential threats to a great culture of community and relationships he’d built with his clients (of which I’m one) in his future plans for expansion. He asked me about how I deal with it in the “church world”: “Aren’t you worried you might lose something in the church — that intangible connectedness — as it keeps adding people?”
I said, “I never really thought about our church like that. We work really hard to create a community of people who are warm and welcoming. We want people who call Mariners their home to constantly include people who are longing for a kind of transformation in their lives that they cannot give themselves. We want people who come to visit us to feel, whether or not they agree with us, that they were treated with respect and dignity and that we did our best to communicate Jesus in way that was both unpretentious and as free from ‘Christian-ese’ as possible. I want people to know that while we’re serious about following Jesus, we don’t take ourselves all that seriously. No matter what size we become, we’ll always work toward that end.”
I continued, “It sounds like you believe that what makes your business good, is that it is appropriately-sized. But, what makes your business good, is that it is good. You serve your people well. Your staff is amazing. The other people who make up the client-community here make me feel like I belong. I think it’s because of your DNA — that stuff that makes your company uniquely great — that people choose you guys over others… That’s what you’ll want to preserve with the greatest intensity as you grow. Who are the people who bear your DNA best? How do you celebrate and empower them? Because, no matter how big or small you become, people will continue to come back because of the culture you’ve crafted.”
In the interest of celebrating and empowering, I want to let you know how grateful I am to you who call Mariners Mission Viejo your home. You embody the best of the church. While we’re far from perfect, the people who come for the first time can’t help telling me, as I stand at the door, that they felt like Mariners’ people “went out of their way to make [them] feel welcome.” Over the past few weeks, as people had come to visit us from out of town, they said the same thing: “I wish my church back home felt like this. I love my church, but the people here are great — this is the most welcoming church I’ve ever been to.”
That’s what people remember — how they felt. Occasionally, people remember what they learn. But, that thing they can’t explain that feels somehow right and good, that’s what they remember. That’s the thing people who are new to Mariners say to me about their experience here. If Mariners MV is your home, you make it a great place for people to find their way to Jesus.
See you soon,
Jeff