A handshake, a smile, a kind word, and a bulletin (and perhaps occasionally a hug) -- that's pretty much the job description of a church greeter. So are church greeters in the Bible? And if so what was their job in the first century?
The book ONE: Unfolding God's Eternal Purpose From House To House, talks about greeting. It says: "Paul charged the believers in Rome to go and greet other believers. Greeting in this sense is proactive. Paul commanded the believers to go and greet the people he listed. The word 'greet' is not just saying 'hi' when walking past someone. The word for 'greet' in the Greek means: to embrace, to be joined, a union, to visit or joyfully welcome a person . . . Greetings include intimate dialogues with another person . . . Paul was commanding whoever received his letter to take continual action to go and greet those he listed. Because believers today are to obey the Scriptures just as the first century, they should take similar action and go and greet brothers and sisters in other groups."
ONE goes on to say: "Today, most believers are segregated and isolated in their church or in their home. If believers accept Paul's directive to seek out other believers and greet them, the Lord will have a way to build up the assembly, His body. Although there are so many churches and Christian groups today, believers can still heed Paul's command to go and greet fellow believers in other groups. In God's eyes all of His children are in one family, in the one body of Christ. As such, believers should not acknowledge any division." Get a copy of ONE on Amazon @ http://amzn.to/2hsJ2tf
So biblically, a greeter doesn't just stay in her/his own church and welcome the people who happen to enter on Sunday morning. Biblically, a greater goes out and finds Christians in other groups (what we call denominations or churches), gets to know them on a personal basis, and has ongoing spiritual fellowship with them. A greeter makes friends with and accepts people as brothers and sisters Christ; across doctrinal, racial, socioeconomic, and denominational lines.
Will you be a New Testament greeter? Will you get to know and enjoy Jesus with Christians from different theological persuasions? That's what God used Paul in the book of Romans, to instruct us to do.
