June, 1997

Dear Pastor,

Greetings to all of you.

Here it is, summer already. I should have gotten you a letter a couple weeks ago, but I did not get around to it. Does anyone out there do everything they hope to do once the weather is warm?

Some of you may wonder what we do when we see a different car (our expression for a new face!!) at the Woodland Drive-In Church. What sort of follow-up program do we have?

To put it in very simple terms: We don’t have any type of aggressive follow-up program. When I was full time in the pastorate, any time we had a visitor, we tried to get a name and address and to follow up the visit of that family to our church with a letter of introduction and perhaps a visit from our calling teams. But that is not part of our pattern at the Drive-In Church. I say this for at least two reason.

The first is obvious. If our intent is to be a service church to churches of greater Grand Rapids, as I have been emphasizing in these letters, then you would want to be assured that if you suggested to someone in your church to attend our worship for a particular reason, we would not try our hardest to get them to attend permanently. Instead, we simply welcome new people in
the name of Jesus and pray that the service will be a blessing to them.

Second, many who come to our church are seeking some sort of anonymity. The last thing they want is people bombarding them with questions and phone calls and visits. If they are just getting back into church or are hurting for some reason, they want space—and we give them that. When follow-up was tried early in the Drive-In history, it proved to be counterproductive.

On the other hand, we do hand out a registration card in our program packet. On it are several boxes people may check, one of which is a visit from the pastor or calling team. Occasionally we do get someone who wants a visit; such a person, of course, receives some contact—first by phone or then perhaps by actual visit, depending on their desire.

We covet your prayers on our behalf.

Sincerely,
Verlyn D. Verbrugge