Can we be friendlier at church?

I had a conversation with another Unitarian the other day about how our church could be friendlier. Some of the topics we discussed could be framed this way as dilemmas or case studies. My framing, not “ours”

1. Two people are talking. A third is lurking nearby. If you’re one of the people engaged, what do you do? If you’re the lurker, what do you do?

2. You overhear a visitor ask 3 different people how they can get more information about the guest speaker that day. Every time you hear the person briefly saying they don’t know.

3. You sometimes feel you’re the go-to person for any question anyone has.

4. You’re responsible for a program and a good friend approaches you to talk about something that you’d normally be interested in pursuing.

5. You’re talking with a visitor or new member and a long-time member joins you with a shift of the conversation topic.

The main conclusion I had from our conversation is that no one can be friendly to everyone simultaneously and that when we choose how to spend our coffee hour time and with whom, others may feel ignored or offended.

This community thing is sometimes quite complex.