SPARTANBURG, SC — Volunteer greeter Dale Hutchins, 46, a former high school wrestling coach and newly baptized member of Cornerstone Community Church, has been placed on a “temporary greeting sabbatical” after three first-time visitors filed informal complaints about what one described as “the most physically aggressive welcome I have ever received in a house of worship.”

The incidents, which occurred over two consecutive Sundays, involved Hutchins greeting visitors at the main entrance with a handshake that witnesses estimated at between 90 and 120 pounds of grip pressure. One visitor, Mark Ellison, 38, told reporters he “heard a pop” and spent the remainder of the service holding a complimentary coffee cup with his left hand.

“He looked me dead in the eyes, said ‘Welcome to the family,’ and then just crushed my hand like he was juicing a grapefruit,” said Ellison. “I saw the Lord, but not in the way he intended.”

“Dale means well. He just doesn’t have a setting between ‘off’ and ‘competitive deadlift.’ We’re working with him.”

Head deacon Larry Sweeney, 61, offered the above comment, adding that the board had considered reassigning Hutchins to the parking lot team but worried he might “direct traffic with the same intensity and cause an accident.”

Hutchins told reporters he was “just trying to make people feel seen” and that his handshake is “a ministry of presence.” He added that he has been watching YouTube tutorials on “appropriate church-context grip calibration” and is confident he can return to the role by Easter.

At press time, the church had quietly installed a hand sanitizer station at the entrance that also functions as a “buffer zone” between Hutchins and arriving guests.