Am I welcome here?

I was thinking during church today about a few things. Now before I go on (because I'm about to talk about youth group), know that I'm not complaining. I'm just thinking out loud and trying to make a point that may challenge someone.

Am I welcome here? Are you welcome here? Are any of us welcome here?

These questions came to my mind as I sat in church today. You see, I saw one of the teens sitting alone, so I asked if he wanted to come sit with us, but he said no, so I let it go. It made me wonder though, how welcoming is my youth group towards others?

Sometimes I feel like we're not a very open group. It's like we want to stay small. The problem with staying small is that we're all gonna grow out of youth group at some point and when that happens, the youth group is going to die.

During winter break, we had our old youth pastors, Matt and Lindsay, come and visit us. We had an announcement for that game day visit with them given at church the week before. I kinda feel like that was for the kids that knew Matt and Lindsay and it didn't seem very welcoming to newer kids to youth group.

I remember on a mission trip in 2007, I kept talking about Matt and Lindsay (probably had to do with their upcoming wedding) and one of the newer youth group girls was getting really annoyed with me because I kept talking about them and she didn't know who they were.

Sometimes the teens who have been at the church the longest seem to seclude themselves from the newer kids. How welcoming are we being?

I don't think it's just my youth group though. Sometimes I look at other people's youth groups and think that I could never fit in with them. Actually I wonder if I could fit in.

So many times it feels like we're all in our own little cliques. Each youth group at each different church in my town seems to have this particular bond. It's a good thing, but we have to make sure at the same time that we're welcoming new kids in.

Youth groups aren't the only ones that should be welcoming people in though. Our churches sometimes struggle with welcoming people in too I'm sure. We need to be more welcoming because we never know when Jesus might walk into the building.

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20