RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP) – Janet Jackson of Kettering Baptist Church Legacy Center could be considered a first-round draft pick at the 2024 Black Church Leadership and Family Conference (BCLFC), first in line among volunteer ushers on conference opening night.
“Ushers, we are drafting anybody who’s ever done an usher’s march that felt as long as the sermon,” was team coach A.J. Watts’ first-round draft pick call-out for volunteer ushers. “So if you have ever done an usher’s march that felt just as long as the sermon, you have just now been drafted. Amen.”
Fellow church members in attendance from the church in Upper Marlboro, Md., encouraged Jackson to volunteer, citing her bubbly personality.
Watts continued his draft. Round Two.
“At this time we are going to call anybody that has a designated pair of shoes for ushering. We don’t care if they are white; we don’t’ care if they are black. If you have a designated pair of shoes for ushering, we want you in the back. You have been drafted.”
Round Three.
“I’m going to call anybody who’s ever opened a door. If you’ve ever used the words ‘good morning’ and ‘welcome,’ I need to see you in the back,” Watts said. “Any door – refrigerator door – if you’ve opened a door.”
Joking aside, ushering is serious business to Watts, assistant servant leader for the security ministry at First Baptist Church of Crestmont in Willow Grove, Pa., who was pleased to rally volunteers to usher during evening worship at the BCLFC July 22-26.
The ministry is about ushering worshipers into the presence of God, setting an atmosphere of worship that is achieved by many ministries at some churches, or by ushers alone at others.
“On Sunday morning (at Crestmont),” Watts said, “from the time that you come into the church, you’re going to be greeted at a number of different levels. You’ve got the greeters at the front door when you come through our church. You have the welcome ambassadors once you come into the sanctuary, that are further welcoming you into the worship experience.
“You have the ushers who are there to seat you, greet you, make sure you have anything that you need, whether it’s a fan, whether it’s tissues or things of that sort.”
Watts successfully drafted 10 ushers for BCLFC, Jackson among them. And Jackson isn’t to be confused with the Janet Jackson Americans first met through the famous musical family.
“I get that a lot,” Jackson told Baptist Press.
She has served as a greeter at Kettering Baptist Church for more than 10 years, but wasn’t aware of everything ushering entails.
“When he said if you’ve even touched a door handle, I said let me go represent my church,” said Jackson, a first-time conference attendee. “I learned a lot. I didn’t know all the signals.”
Stationed in an aisle, she directed worshipers to available seats.
“Everybody was gracious,” she said, “and I think that us being there ushering was a big thing. It was good.”
Peta-Gaye Pennant, an usher at Wake-Eden Community Baptist Church in the Bronx, N.Y., also answered Watts’ draft.
“When he said if you’ve ever opened a door,” Pennant said, “I was like that’s right up my alley – what I do at church – and I would love to experience it at Ridgecrest.”
When Pennant first began ushering at Wake-Eden, she saw the ministry as an opportunity to help guests and members with practical needs, such as seating or handling emergencies, but learned the ministry was much more.
“But then, you’re the first person that the guests or members see,” she said. “And based on your interaction is what’s going to make them feel good when they go into the sanctuary. They got a good welcome, or they know that if they need something you’re there.
“So it’s like really bringing them to Christ,” she said. “Now that I’ve been doing it for many years now, it’s like a deeper meaning.”
At BCLFC, Watts taught a small group session on ushering and its role in church hospitality and worship. He presented ushers as servants on the frontline for the kingdom, using Scripture including Psalm 84:10.
“We have to get in that heart and mindset of truly being servants of God,” Watts said. “When you’re an usher, oftentimes you’re the first person in, you’re the last person out. As I mentioned in my presentation, you’re spending more time in church on Sunday morning than anybody else.
“You want people to feel the presence of God when they come into that place.”
Sandra Pierce, a member of Bread of Life church on the southside of Chicago, told Baptist Press she was happy to volunteer as an usher, driven by Watts’ invitation.
“I haven’t ushered in years and years, but I was like, I can do that,” she said. “It gave me an opportunity just to welcome the people back, and they appreciated it.”
