Welcoming & Hospitality

This past Sunday, January 13th at noon, The Abundant Hospitality Committee (plus a few family members!) organized a Soup Luncheon and Welcoming Workshop.

Approximately 50 eager learners were in attendance for fellowship and a delicious lunch of homemade soups, bread, fruit and sweets.

Sheila Riggs and Dan Craddock talked about the availability of hearing devices and large print resources, and the greeting /ushering duties amalgamating at our Church. Encouragement was given to try the ushering /greeting role out.

Then we enjoyed a workshop on helpful welcoming tips ( beneficial for both our church and personal lives !) led by Esther Thibault.

Esther is a vocalist/actor with training in promoting communication skills within professional organizations. See below for the Workshop Notes from Esther!

Welcoming someone to Leaside United is similar to welcoming someone to our homes! We want to make sure they are comfortable and that they also know there is coffee/treat time after church! Follow up welcoming is important too! We practiced on a few case studies with those around us at our table.

Two points I found invaluable were:

When welcoming someone, get over to his/her agenda and minimize your own.
Others can help you with welcoming also. If your strong point is a smile, another more outgoing person, nearby, can get them talking about a favourite hockey team or a specific church activity they might be interested in.

Thank you to all in attendance and all the volunteers who made this workshop a great success and learning opportunity!

Jane Hawkins
Abundant Hospitality Committee