Follow-up to - Things that I learned on vacation - Part 1 . . .

First impressions are important. You will never get a second chance to make a first impression. The way that I learned this on vacation was dealing with hotels. What I noticed at one hotel that we dealt with on vacation – and had a bad experience with was the following:
No one smiled – they did not act as if they were happy to be where they were. If they are not happy where they are, what are the chances that I will be happy where they are?
No one smiled – they did not act excited that we had chosen their hotel from all of the other choices that were available.
They acted inconvenienced - they acted put out that they had to pay us attention, to register us, to give us keys to our rooms.
They acted inconvenienced – they had to deal with us and others who were not happy with what we had received for our money.
In our churches today, we can not afford to make bad first impressions. A bad first impression on our part may mean someone walks away without hearing the gospel because they have already formed an opinion before the message comes. When people arrive at our churches – we should be smiling when we greet them to show that we are excited about where we are and that they have chosen our group to join for part of the day. We need to go out of our way to make visitors feel that we are happy to be of service to them and their family.
First impressions are important to the person that you are meeting and to the kingdom that we are supposed to be growing.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and greet people the same way that you would greet an angel. Who knows – maybe they are.

Things that I learned on vacation . . .

Well, here we are at the end of the week and I have to come home tomorrow to the real world. Actually, at this point, I am looking forward to coming home. I can only stand to have my mind in neutral so long. So the following is what God has taught me on vacation this year:

Customer service is ultimately important. Some of you may have read about our problems in the early part of our vacation. The hotel that we left last weekend was a huge lesson in customer service – very bad customer service. The people who worked for the hotel never – smiled, acted like they were happy that we had come to their hotel, or appreciated our business. They did act inconvenienced, inconsiderate, and basically put out to have to help us. My prayer is that our churches never act like this. Any time we have people come to our church, everything we do should be to make them feel that we are happy that they have come to visit us. I’ll Blog again about this in the future.

This evening Irene and I went to see the new show at the Black Bear Jamboree. The meal and show were both good. What I saw was a group of people who had prepared at length to give their very best to the people who had come to their show. In the past we have gone to the Fiddler’s Feast Dinner Show. The difference that you will experience between the Fiddler’s Feast and Black Bear is this – those who perform at the Fiddler’s Feast also serve the tables. If their service is off when they are serving your meal, your opinion of the show will be settled before the show starts. How many people have already formed that kind of opinion of our churches before they ever get to a worship service? Are we meeting people with a smile? Are we working hard to make sure that they are taken care of or are we to busy doing church to make them feel comfortable?

The biggest lesson that I learned was a shock. It took me almost a full week to calm my mind down and calm my life down. I have been way to busy doing stuff and that is not healthy – physically or spiritually. In order for God to make changes in my life, I have to be still enough to understand Him when He speaks. I am also less effective for God doing a lot of stuff than when I am doing only one or two things that God wants me to be doing.

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and slow down and watch the parade or you will miss the bands.

Hello from the land of vacations . . .

Well, Irene and I are back in the room on Monday afternoon doing what all people with good sense do on vacation – taking a nap – at least Irene is. Just thought that I would do a short post and let everyone know how things are going.
We had to change hotels on Sunday. The long and short of it – no one should use The Grand Hotel in Pigeon Forge. The situation was bad and is not finished yet – we still don’t have our money back yet. The James Manor is incredible. The rooms are great and the people are wonderful to work with. It is easy to get in and out of also.
We had a great time the first two evenings with our friends from here in Tennessee. It is always fun to catch up with friends. They introduced us to a great resturante at the Tanger Outlet Mall called the Chop House. The food was over the top.
Yes- we have eaten at the Apple Barn every morning so far.
Today, we went to the craft show in Gatlinburg. This is always fun and filled with great ideas. For those that don’t know – my wife is not the only crafty person in our family.
As for my study time – I have started over in the book of Acts. As I read in this book in God’s word – I also brought along one of my books by Warren Wiersbe. I was reading last night a stumbled upon something that Wiersbe said that started me thinking – Christian faith was a day to day reality, not a once a week routine. Christ and His resurrection power was a reality to the early believer. I wonder – with each of us – is faith a day to day reality or a once a week routine? May God make it a day to day reality for each of us.
Well, I’m going to stop now and see if Irene wants to go get something to eat. Maybe the Old Mill tonight – one of my favorite spots here.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and don’t sit down in a bucket of paint.