Personal Touches Still Matter

P.J. Hairston is a great high school basketball player. As he neared his final decision on a college to attend, the Virginia native got down to two schools: Duke and North Carolina. Most basketball players east of the Mississippi would love to have that choice. Both schools wanted this player (and, as a Duke fan, I hate having to tell this story), but he chose North Carolina.

Why? Among other reasons, in some of the correspondence from Duke, they misspelled his name!

He admitted there were other reasons, including the offensive system that Duke uses, but he also stated that the misspelling of his name helped him make up his mind. In an interview with the Greensboro News-Record, he said,

The thing about Duke was, every time they sent me a letter, they wouldn’t spell my name right. They would have ‘T.J. Harrison’ or something like that. And I’m like, ‘OK. How can I go here? You can’t even spell my name right.’ It’s only two letters and HAIR and STON. I’m trying to figure out how that’s so hard.

Amazing. There is no telling how much money was spent by Duke in trying to recruit this player, but they didn’t check to make sure they had his name correct on several (not just one) pieces of mail.

When I read that story, I couldn’t help but think of an application for our congregations. It is simply this: personal touches still matter!

Many congregations just open their doors and think that people will flood in because the doors are open. When people do come, though, they are given the “cold shoulder” and people act like it’s no big deal that visitors are present. People like to feel welcomed, and they can tell when you are genuine in your kindness and concern.

Also, we need to think of our own members. We will make mistakes at times, but we need to do our best to get names right, as well as other “simple” pieces of information. If you are making announcements, get the names right! If you are leading prayer, get names right! If you are going visiting, make sure you say the right name!

Yes, we will mess up at times, but there are some who never seem to take just a minute to make sure they know how to pronounce a name. (And, at Lebanon Road, we spelled one wrong in last week’s bulletin, so this is a post for me, too!!!)

People still like to feel personally connected. And to help someone fell connected in the church is far more important than making sure a basketball player chooses a specific school.