A few years ago I visited two churches in Geneva on the same day, and the differences between them were striking. Both were churches planted in recent years, both wanted to reach people for the gospel.
I was very conspicuously a visitor, not least because I was visiting them whilst on my way back to the airport and so had a large suitcase with me.
In the first church, composed of around 30 people, I stood there having a coffee before the meeting started, and again afterwards, and no one said a word to me. In the second church, of several hundred people, as soon as the person at the reception said hello to me and realised I was British she said 'let me find someone who speaks English', and a young woman came over. After chatting for around five minutes, she said 'sorry, my English isn't very good'. I assured here that her English was very good, but I also thought 'how impressive, that someone not very confident in speaking English does so because they want a visitor to the church to feel welcome'.
Unfortunately, that unpredictability of whether anyone will speak to a visitor is the case in too many churches. We are here to reach people for Jesus, to bring them to salvation, and yet it is entirely unpredictable whether anyone will even say Hello to them.
Some might say 'people don't want attention being drawn to them when they visit a church. They just want to slip in and see what they think'. That may be the case with some people, but can I suggest that for every one for whom that is the case, there are four others who leave thinking 'what an unfriendly place. I'm not coming back'.
Jesus' interactions with people were not simply on the basis of him hoping people would overhear what he said. They were through him speaking to them. There are plenty of ways of making people feel welcome through simply saying 'Hello' and showing interest in them without them feeling overwhelmed.
Besides which, dare I suggest that saying that people want to slip into a church without being spoken to can conveniently let us off the hook of having to pluck up courage and speak to them? I remember when my wife and I visited Tim Keller's church in New York what impressed us was not simply the number of people who said hello to us and asked us where we were from, it was in particular two young women whom I saw out of the corner of my eye heading towards us. I could see from their body language that they were nervous, but came and said hello to us anyway. Why? Because they knew it was part of serving Christ. It isn't to do with whether we feel confident. It's to do with wanting to be a disciple of Jesus in seeking to reach others with the gospel.
Does that mean sometimes having to make a sacrifice and, despite our shyness, go over and speak to a visitor? Yes it does.
Does God give us His Holy Spirit to empower us to do what we think we can't? You bet.
Does that mean sometimes we still feel shy and have to step out and trust God to give us the right words to say to the person? Absolutely.
If you are a Christian, you and I are here to build His kingdom, including bringing others to come to know Him. That starts in simple ways, like saying Hello so that there is half a chance of that developing into a longer conversation, that the person visiting might feel sufficiently made welcome to come back again, and then again, and then come to know Jesus, and bring along other friends of their own.
The response of the woman at the well in John 4 from Jesus speaking to her was for her to go and tell all her friends about him.
Welcoming visitors, even if we are naturally shy, is part of our spiritual act of worship. Let's do it!
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