[Sully]

A few people here know (because I've bragged about it numerous times) that my fiance (2.5 weeks to go!!!) is a minister. An intereting thing happened to her a couple of weeks ago.

Her church is in a neighborhood, not on a busy street at all. The church has a huge softball field, a park, a basketball court, a track, and tons of land. At times some of the kids in the neighborhood come and play football or play on the swings, or whatever, but very few in the neighborhood ever come to church, and she's never been able to figure out why. In an effort to bring the neighborhood together, not to proselytize, she has begun having neighborhood watch meeting in her church, to help build a feeling of community. At the first meeting, a hundred people showed up. She didn't say one word to any of them about coming to church, etc, just let the police have the floor and shook some hands. At one point in the evening, she found out that a minister 2 or 3 before she took over was always going door to door trying to goad folks into coming to church, and they ha dalways been afraid that it was what the church was about. The fiance assured them she didn't work that way, and explained to them her idea of ministry (compassion, love, acceptance, etc). Now, since then, more people from the neighborhood have been sprinkled in on Sundays.

Intersting thing I took from that is that more than door to door stuff, just having an open door with no pressure will bring more into the fold than paiing out pamphlets and putting people on the spot in their doorway.