When you’re someplace new, doing something new, you notice everything. Your mind is constantly racing. You’re thinking, “Did I say that right? Did I go to the right place? Is it the right time to do this? Did I dress the right way?” You’re running every moment through a frenzied grid of nervous questions. Starting a new job, moving to a new town, going to a new school, or visiting a new church.

       When it comes to church, it can be especially nerve wracking if you haven’t been to church in a long time. Imagine showing up to a church you’ve never been to after not going to any church for 10 years. Imagine the nervous questions that distract you every moment you’re there! For those of us who go to church week in and week out, we don’t even think about it. It’s routine. It’s normal. But if you’re new, you think about it all the time.

       This is why the sermon can be great and the praise team can be great, but those little distracting questions can keep people from hearing the good news about Jesus. During the great praise songs they’re wondering, “Are my kids ok? They only had one worker back there and they seemed overwhelmed.” During the great sermon they can be distracted by, “Why didn’t anyone greet me? I mean sure they said, ‘Hi,’ but nobody introduced themselves and talked to me. Did I do something wrong?” Even during communion, they can be more concerned with questions than Jesus: “Why is that person juggling four trays of communion? Do they not have more helpers? Why is this moment so janky? And why are we out of bread when it came to me!”

       Paul in Romans 10:14-15 says this, “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

       The good news is what matters. It is what changes lives. But it needs delivery. It needs people who will go, people who will be sent. It needs people who will serve and deliver it. That’s what all of our volunteers are doing. Thank you. You are sending the good news. You are the ones delivering it. Jesus changes lives, not us. But people won’t hear that unless people like us do everything we can to enable that message to penetrate their hearts. Thank you for doing that this Sunday! Thank you for volunteering for the Gospel!