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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Welcoming with name tags
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
I still have the nametag I made three years ago for my London Shipmeet -- it has my avatar, my real-life name, and "Pigwidgeon." I didn't have an opportunity to wear it to a church service.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by BabyWombat:
Parishes in this diocese are, for the most part, small. When I am a visitor I find I assess the warmth of the congregation by noting if anyone notices me as a new face and welcomes me, without my standing out in any way. Yes, at times there has been confusion - an old timer, seldom present, welcoming me as a newbie after several months, but the welcome is still warmly meant and warmly taken.
This reminds me of my wife's experience at the church she attended before we started dating. It wll over a thousand members—not uncommon with some mainline or Baptist churches around here—and at least three services every Sunday. She had been attending for over a year, and yet every Sunday someone sitting near her would ask if she was a visitor. While she knew is was kindly meant, she did find it frustrating and off-putting after a while. Perhaps nametags would have helped? (They use them now, I believe.)
Meanwhile, thanks venbede. ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
At a (very large) church I used to attend the Junior Warden had been a regular at the early service since about the time Noah disembarked. For some reason he attended the later service one morning and was very annoyed that a well-meaning parishioner welcomed him and asked if he was new. But then again, he would probably have been very annoyed if no one had greeted him -- he was one of those.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
What I get from this discussion is that there is a need for name tags, and they serve a useful function. It's just that we hate them. I can think of no way to peel out their usefulness from the actual tags. Except, someday, really fierce facial recognition software? Siri would whisper quietly in your ear, "Mrs. Milligan. Was on the Vestry year before last, her corgi died in March. Ask about her daughter Susan in Wales."
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Except, someday, really fierce facial recognition software? Siri would whisper quietly in your ear, "Mrs. Milligan. Was on the Vestry year before last, her corgi died in March. Ask about her daughter Susan in Wales."
I would pay a mint for just such an app.
Legend has it that the lead pastor of a congregation I used to serve at required his administrative assistant to work on Sundays (presumably he gave her time off during the week). She would stand next to him at the door when he was greeting the congregants and whisper just such helpful hints, as well as jot down all those things ("I'm going into hospital a week from Tuesday"...) our parishioners like to say to us on Sundays that will otherwise be forgotten before the coffee (tea) gets cold.
Brilliant.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
Legend has it that the lead pastor of a congregation I used to serve at required his administrative assistant to work on Sundays (presumably he gave her time off during the week). She would stand next to him at the door when he was greeting the congregants and whisper just such helpful hints, as well as jot down all those things ("I'm going into hospital a week from Tuesday"...) our parishioners like to say to us on Sundays that will otherwise be forgotten before the coffee (tea) gets cold.
Brilliant.
We have an elder do that, particularly the jotting-down part, every Sunday.
Meanwhile, Brenda, you better get a patent on that app asap. And if you want to do some crowd-funding, I'm in.
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I am informed that the Queen has ladies-in-waiting for just this purpose, to follow along behind at garden parties and note down people and their concerns that HM might want to follow up on. So there's a downmarket non-tech solution for you.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
I take members' name tags for granted so it must be pretty widespread in New Zealand.
In my home church, we have a vacancy, which means a variety of visiting clergy, and I think there's a feeling that they are more comfortable talking to people who have a name, since we know their name, and they would have info such as 'Mary B will be reading the lessons' and 'Jack X is offering the intercessions', and of corse there's the pianist whom they may have spoken to on the phone and can now address by name. Yes, there are stick-on labels for visitors but I don't think they've bothered anyone.
I often tease people at my other congregation, though, because after the service they return their name tags before they get their cup of tea. I maintain that it's when your chatting afterwards that you need those names. It's after a period away that I may need reminding of someone's name, especially when everyone knows mine as a regular visitor and lay preacher.
GG
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I noticed nametags at the door of the church when I first started attending about 8 years ago, but I have only even seen one person wearing hers. No one suggested I have one - so I don't.
Like GG we are currently between Ministers and the one who is filling in suggested we might like to wear them. One of the Elders is the only person, other than the woman mentioned above, who does though.
I can see that they could be useful, but I hate wearing them.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
I also wonder if it is a MOTR thing – not in C of E terms but ecumenically. Nice Presbyterians [...], TECers. Methodists et al. I can’t imagine it at an RC mass or Orthodox Divine Liturgy (not least it assumes that everyone will be present and in their places at the start, fat chance).
I can't imagine British Methodists going routinely for name tags, but some churches might try it out. IME Methodists here tend to be fairly interested in visitors. (I should admit that as a former church steward I used to ask visitors to introduce themselves to the congregation....)
Americans and Australians seem to be more extroverted on the whole, so perhaps the MOTR element there wouldn't object to name tags out of hand.
[ 10. June 2016, 13:37: Message edited by: SvitlanaV2 ]
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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Oblatus
Shipmate
# 6278
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
Americans and Australians seem to be more extroverted on the whole, so perhaps the MOTR element there wouldn't object to name tags out of hand.
Tell me about it...as a very introverted American, let me say it isn't easy sometimes. I think my temperament is more suited to Finland or Japan.
So pointing me out in a service as being a visitor, you might as well be aiming a phaser at me, but if you then offer all visitors a free coffee mug (as a Lutheran church here in Chicago did), I'll get up and do a stand-up comedy routine if required. Anything for a good freebie. ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
Posts: 3823 | Registered: May 2004
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Philip Charles
Ship's cutler
# 618
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Posted
I used to label myself Karl Marx, but this was self-defeating as people would come up and ask my real name.
While I was a locum at a parish I was encouraging people to wear their name tags for my benefit as well as for the incoming vicar. One parishioner of some twenty years claimed that everyone knew each other. I asked him if he knew the name of a low key elderly woman, and he did not. She was a parishioner of some forty years standing.
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There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
Posts: 89 | From: Dunedin, NZ | Registered: Jun 2001
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Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
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Posted
Oblatus posts:
quote:
So pointing me out in a service as being a visitor, you might as well be aiming a phaser at me, but if you then offer all visitors a free coffee mug (as a Lutheran church here in Chicago did), I'll get up and do a stand-up comedy routine if required. Anything for a good freebie. [Yipee]
and he may have been jesting, but I think he has a really good idea. The coffee mug strategem would work on a number of people and the branded bit of ceramic would be a reminder to people of that parish' existence.
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
I've received coffee mgs from two Episcopal churches -- one not far from Oblatus, and one in Colorado. I think both of them wound up in our parish coffee room, but the thought was nice.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
I've never encountered this, but if I did, I'm fairly sure that in the culture here, it would strike not just me, but a lot of other people, as a confusion of contexts.
Name tags belong to meetings where people who probably don't know each other are collected together to confer, network, chat etc. That may be a collateral consequence of a Sunday service but it isn't, or should not be, its primary purpose.
I can see the benefits of the people giving out books etc wearing them, but expecting everyone to wear one just feels wrong.
Perhaps it would also convey the message that God doesn't know who we are unless we have a label on us to tell him. That would be really bad theology.
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Oblatus:
as a very introverted American, let me say it isn't easy sometimes. I think my temperament is more suited to Finland or Japan.
So pointing me out in a service as being a visitor, you might as well be aiming a phaser at me
The usual practice at my church in Japan is for visitors to stand up and introduce themselves during the notices at the end of the service. Although I have noticed it doesn't appear to be universally the case, with sometimes the introductions made over tea afterwards. It seems to be a judgement made by the pastor, who (unless the visitor slips in after the service starts) makes a point of talking to everyone as they enter and so has already met the visitor and assessed a bit how comfortable they would be standing up and introducing themselves. He also, apparently without making any notes, remembers their name to start the introduction some 90 minutes after first meeting them.
But, the dynamics of doing that in a typical small-town Japanese church of 20 or so people would be different from the dynamics in a larger congregation.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Easy to be labelled as 'Chorister', the uniform rather gives it away. Not so many people know our individual names, but most of the visitors have scarpered by the time I've got changed anyway.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
Not so many people know our individual names.
Besides, it's more fun to make up pet names for people you see every week.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
Name tags belong to meetings where people who probably don't know each other are collected together to confer, network, chat etc. That may be a collateral consequence of a Sunday service but it isn't, or should not be, its primary purpose.
Thank you for articulating that, enoch. It makes me feel that my doubts are not mere prejudice.
I know a number of churches with a board at the back of church with photos of all the regular members of the congregation with their names. That way you can find out who people are if they don't introduce themselves.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
I know a number of churches with a board at the back of church with photos of all the regular members of the congregation with their names. That way you can find out who people are if they don't introduce themselves.
I used to go to a church which wanted to do that but people objected on the grounds that a burglar could simply make a note of them and then burgle their houses during the time of the Parish Communion.
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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com
Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
How sweet of the burglar to assume that everyone who claims to be a member of a church is at church every Sunday for all services.
Incidentally, although the C of E doesn't have "members" in the congregational sense, it does have members of the electoral role and there will be regular members of the congregation.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
I've never encountered this, but if I did, I'm fairly sure that in the culture here, it would strike not just me, but a lot of other people, as a confusion of contexts.
Name tags belong to meetings where people who probably don't know each other are collected together to confer, network, chat etc. That may be a collateral consequence of a Sunday service but it isn't, or should not be, its primary purpose.
I can see the benefits of the people giving out books etc wearing them, but expecting everyone to wear one just feels wrong.
Perhaps it would also convey the message that God doesn't know who we are unless we have a label on us to tell him. That would be really bad theology.
It might be more appropriate to have them available for the Coffee Hour and other social activities. It's an aid to newcomers (and old-timers with poor memory), not to God. (He's known us since we were in our mothers' wombs.)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
I would pay a mint for just such an app.
IIRC, this was one of the things used to promote Google Glass. You wore the glasses, they would recognize someone's face, and a bubble would appear by them containing whatever details you have recorded about them.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
Name tags belong to meetings where people who probably don't know each other are collected together to confer, network, chat etc. That may be a collateral consequence of a Sunday service but it isn't, or should not be, its primary purpose.
. . .
Perhaps it would also convey the message that God doesn't know who we are unless we have a label on us to tell him. That would be really bad theology.
This pretty much sums up where I always came at the name tag question from.
But again, cultural expectation and norms (including denominational cultures) come into play. In my cultural context, worship is never seen as being about God and me. It's seen as God and us, and connection with the others sitting around us is seen as necessary. In that sense, God knowing our names is never a question. Knowing names of other worshippers is about hospitality (something else heavily influenced by culture) and about forming the worshipping community.
Of course, there are lots of ways to do that, many of which involve no name tags.
I will make one other observation, too. I sing in the choir, and from the choir stalls I can see the whole congregation from the front. When we started using name tags, I looked out and all I could see were name tags. After a month or so, I didn't notice them at all; I saw faces again.
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
It might be more appropriate to have them available for the Coffee Hour and other social activities. It's an aid to newcomers (and old-timers with poor memory), not to God. (He's known us since we were in our mothers' wombs.)
Assuming your church has coffee hour—another way of forming community. Many in these parts don't; it just never seems to have become part of our culture. (In my 50+ years, I've attended only two churches (both as a visitor) that had a true coffee hour, where the congregation moved from the sanctuary to a separate place with coffee, food and visiting.
Some multi-service churches may have some kind of social hour between services, but as often as not that is the Sunday school time. If yours is a one-service church, then after church is lunch.
We fall into that latter group. Coffee is on offer in the narthex (the way most people enter the building for any purpose—worship or Sunday school) starting before Sunday school, and it's still there after worship, along with lemonade for kids and often a little bit of food. But the after-church conversation happens in the sanctuary, in the narthex and in the parlor adjacent to the narthex. In many churches I know of, the after-church conversation happens outside, around the steps of the church. Refreshments may be available, but there's no coffee hour as such, nor is there any demarcation either in time or location when name tags could be put on. The conversation starts the minute worship is over and spills out from the pews.
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Nick Tamen:
Assuming your church has coffee hour—another way of forming community.
Around here we consider Coffee Hour to be the Eighth Sacrament.
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:
Originally posted by Nick Tamen:
Assuming your church has coffee hour—another way of forming community.
Around here we consider Coffee Hour to be the Eighth Sacrament.
I have heard rumor of such places.
In our tribe, the third sacrament is the covered dish.
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Ascension-ite
Shipmate
# 1985
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Posted
My parish uses name tags, but in a rather low key way. There is a table at the parish house entrance where one can pick up a temporary name tag, it's not manned so no one is coerced to use one. There are boards nearby with the tags, for members who have requested them, hanging where they can be easily retrieved. My parish is so large, 3,000 or so members, TEC, that I find it rather helpful as I'm terrible with names, and there are so many people I couldn't remember them all even if I weren't brain damaged about names. I've seen them used in a good many other large parishes as well.
Posts: 318 | From: Old Dominion | Registered: Dec 2001
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
When our current rector arrived, some years ago, he made a special plea for us to use name tags, simply to help him hitch names to faces.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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