{"id":3056,"date":"2014-11-03T06:33:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T12:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomrainer.wpengine.com?p=3056"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:17:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:17:19","slug":"church-stop-stand-greet-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/church-stop-stand-greet-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Your Church Stop Having a Stand and Greet Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You never know what will strike a nerve in the blogosphere. A blog post I wrote Saturday went viral<\/a>, and the comments, discussion, and debate are still taking place at that post.<\/p>\n

It was really a simple article. I did a Twitter poll (not scientific, I assure you) asking first-time church guests what factors made them decide not to return. I listed the top ten in order of frequency.<\/p>\n

The surprise factor was the number one issue. Many first-time guests really don\u2019t like the time of stand and greet one another that some churches have. According to the Twitter responses and comments on the post, many guests really<\/em> don\u2019t like it, so much so that they will not return.<\/p>\n

So what is it about this stand and greet time that many guests don\u2019t like? Here are the seven most common responses, again listed in order of frequency.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Many guests are introverts. <\/strong>\u201cI would rather have a root canal than be subjected to a stand and greet time.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Some guests perceive that the members are not sincere during the time of greeting. <\/strong>\u201cIn most of the churches it should be called a stand and fake it time. The members weren\u2019t friendly at all except for ninety seconds.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Many guests don\u2019t like the lack of hygiene that takes place during this time. <\/strong>\u201cLook, I\u2019m not a germaphobe, but that guy wiped his nose right before he shook my hand.\u201d<\/li>\n
  4. Many times the members only greet other members. <\/strong>\u201cI went to one church where no one spoke to me the entire time of greeting. I could tell they were speaking to people they already knew.\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. Both members and guests at some churches perceive the entire exercise is awkward. <\/strong>\u201cNowhere except churches do we have times that are so awkward and artificial. If members are going to be friendly, they would be friendly at other times as well. They\u2019re not.\u201d<\/li>\n
  6. In some churches, the people in the congregation are told to say something silly to one another. <\/strong>\u201cSo the pastor told us to tell someone near us that they are good looking. I couldn\u2019t find anyone who fit that description, so I left and didn\u2019t go back.\u201d<\/li>\n
  7. Not only do some guests dread the stand and greet time, so do some members. <\/strong>\u201cI visited the church and went through the ritual of standing and greeting, but many of the members looked just as uncomfortable as I was. We were all doing a required activity that none of us liked.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are some pretty strong comments at the other post, and not all of them are negative about a stand and greet time. But apparently many guests really don\u2019t like the exercise.<\/p>\n

    Should churches that have a stand and greet time continue to do so? Is it more negative than positive, or vice versa? Does your church have this activity? How do you feel about it? I look forward to your responses.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many first-time guests really don\u2019t like the time of stand and greet one another that some churches have. ","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,179,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-first-impressions","category-grow"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShould Your Church Stop Having a Stand and Greet Time?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many first-time guests really don\u2019t like the time of stand and greet one another that some churches have.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/church-stop-stand-greet-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should Your Church Stop Having a Stand and Greet Time?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many first-time guests really don\u2019t like the time of stand and greet one another that some churches have.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/church-stop-stand-greet-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-03T12:33:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-07T21:17:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/black-and-white-shake-hands.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"348\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thom S. 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