Toolbox For Faith

The following was printed in the September 2010 Newsletter from Luther Memorial Lutheran Church in Blacksburg, Virginia. This article is specifically focused on students, but I thought the suggestions offered practical suggestions for how we can be hospitable and welcoming to all worshipers.

Welcoming Faces
We are gifted with many warm and welcoming people at Luther Memorial. We just want to invite you to share those gifts with the Tech students as they join us for worship. If you see a student or anyone new please remember to:

Smile! Many of us are just as shy as they are. But we are in a familiar place, and they are not. A smile can go a long way to welcoming someone to a “foreign land.”

Say “Hello! My name is . . . . . ” For the really bold among us, feel free to shake their hand. And if you’re really crazy, ask their name and challenge yourself to remember it.

Show them around. Once you’ve said hello and helped them follow the worship, maybe you could show them around the church building (especially, pointing out the bathrooms!).

Think of it as your house. What would you show them? What would you want them to know or see about this place?

Of course, these are the basics of the Christian community in which we live. We want to remind you to be alert as the students return for a new semester.

Most congregations want to be better hosts to their new worshipers, but the question is how. Pastor David Derrick (St. Philip Lutheran Church, Roanoke, VA) and I put together a checklist of Hospitality Ideas that could help an individual or team of people who are trying to become more welcoming. These are simple, basic ideas, but hopefully they can help establish new patterns and new behaviors. You don’t need to do all seven at once, but try one or two and then considering adding another. If you have other ideas for simple, welcoming activities that we could add to the list, please let me know.

Hospitality Checklist

1. When the service is over, intentionally go to someone you don’t know well and greet that person before reconnecting with your friends in the congregation.
2. If your congregation “Passes the Peace,” feel free to move out of your section to share God’s peace with someone on the other side of the sanctuary.
3. Call someone whom you haven’t seen in worship recently and just say, “Hello.”
4. Sit somewhere different one Sunday morning and engage the people around you in conversation.
5. Arrive early for worship and walk around the sanctuary to make sure things are neat and straight.
6. Arrive early for worship and walk through the restrooms to make sure they are neat and well stocked with supplies.
7. If your congregation offers activity bags for young children, take a moment to see if they are well stocked and easy to find.

Last Monday, I posted a link to an article from the Columbia Partnership on the Death of the Middle Judicatories. This week, the author, Dick Hamm, has posted a second article suggesting a way for middle judicatories to live and behave that he believes is healthier and more effective. His suggestions make a great deal of since to me and invite us to explore a new way of being God’s people together. You can read the article, the Resurrection of Middle Judicatories here.

Each year, I spend two days at the Price’s Fork Fair. The fair is nice, small community event that provides a wonderful opportunity for outreach to the community. Our booth at the fair offers free activities for kids - a ball toss game and face painting. Everyone who comes by the booth gets a faith-themed coloring book, a small bag of candy and some faith-themed prizes (typically we spend about $200 for prizes and supplies). We also have Bibles, grief resources and information on the congregation available at our table. The booth is staffed by me and at least one volunteer from the congregation. For me, our booth is a ‘ministry of presence.’ We are present as God’s people to show God’s love to others, to proclaim God’s caring through our actions and to share the story of Jesus.

I came across this article today on middle judicatories. It is from the Columbia Partnership and I thought made some interesting points concerning the problems with the “hub and spoke” model, the disconnected nature of congregations and the potentially damaging effects that working for a middle judicatory can have on the physical and spiritual health of the excellent leaders called to work on that level.

The article is entitled: The Death of Middle Judicatories.

My wife and I asked for a table for two. The host invited us to follow him and led us to the middle of the restaurant. As we walked I looked ahead and saw what appeared to be a full section. There was one table open, but it had about two inches between it and the tables on either side which were filled with people. Based on my observation, I assumed our host was taking us to another section. When we reached that empty table, however, the host stopped, grabbed the edge of the table, pulled it out into the middle of the aisle, so my wife could sit down and then pushed it back in so I could sit down. From my perspective as a resident of southwest Virginia, the section was full. To him, as a resident of New York City, the section was only full when every possible seat was occupied.

Somewhere along the line, I learned that there was a difference between the maximum seating capacity of a sanctuary and the maximum comfortable seating capacity of a sanctuary. Quite simply, if your sanctuary is 80% full, then you have reached your maximum comfortable seating capacity and the chances of continued growth in that service are significantly reduced. I have also learned that in rural areas, where people are used to having more space, you may reach your comfortable seating capacity when 60% of the sanctuary is full. Once a sanctuary feels full, then regular worshipers are less likely to invite someone else to church and new worshipers are more likely to feel uncomfortable when the arrive.

At St. Michael, I have been operating on the assumption that our sanctuary would be full at 80% of capacity, but based on my experience in New York, I am beginning to wonder if our community might be just rural enough that we are reaching our comfortable seating capacity at our 11 AM service even though the building is only filled to 70% of capacity. I need to look at this more closely over the next few months to see if this theory is true, but my experience in New York has reminded me that just because a seat is unoccupied doesn’t mean there are comfortable seats left in a sanctuary.

Dr. Callahan wrote the following nearly 15 years ago in his book, “Building for Effective Mission,” but I when I came across it again last week, I was struck by how absolutely true it is. We are at our best as a people of God when we live as a mission movement, not as an institution.

The Lately Departed Church Culture
(Building for Effective Mission, Dr. Kennon Callahan, pg. 2-4, 1995)

Welcome to one of the greatest ages of mission the Christian movement has ever seen. Welcome to the first century. Welcome to the twenty-first century. Welcome to a mission time. . . . This is no longer a churched culture. I encourage you not to mourn its passing. Do not long for a return to those days when going to church was the thing to do. The church is never at its best in a churched culture.

The church is at home in an age of mission. . . . When church going was a staple of social conformity, the church was nonetheless ill at ease and out of place. Despite all the cultural status conferred on it, the church was restless and uncomfortable in a churched culture. Yes, it has enjoyed its prominence as a cultural institution and the pedestal on which it was perched. Yet the church has realized, albeit dimly, that it is not called to be admired by the world. Intuitively it has been restless to serve, not to be served.

Whenever the church accepts the perks and the prestige, it becomes a slave of the world. It is no longer a servant in the world. It becomes beholden to the world. The danger is that it will be distracted from its mission and become a pleasant irrelevancy in the culture. Its voice becomes muted, its message muffled. The good news of joy, wonder, grace and hope is stifled.

When the church allows itself to become a pleasant irrelevancy, it becomes simply an amiable activity for those few who may have an occasional interest. The culture can then simply ignore the church.

Fortunately God invites the church to mission direction, not worldly distractions. And, fortunately, the church retains a latent memory of how to share the mission. The church that endures beyond a churched culture is a church that knows best how to live in an age of mission. With God’s help, the church rediscovers its beginning and thus lives out its true identity as servant in the world.

I spent last week on a Mission Trip with a group of junior high students including three from our congregation. This was the first mission trip for our youth and it was a wonderful week. We accomplished some meaningful ministry on the trip, but one of the most powerful moments happened on the way home. When we stopped for lunch, one young lady got her Bible out of her bag and said, “I got this for camp, but I don’t know that I have ever really read it.” She opened to Genesis chapter one and started reading. She spent the drive from Richmond to Blacksburg - reading, asking a few questions, stopping to reflect and then diving back in to the reading. By the time we got home, she had finished the first 30 chapters of Genesis.

Sometimes we learn something and it inspires us to act. Sometimes we act and it inspires us to learn. It seems to me the key is to discover which methodology connects to you and to the people with which God has blessed you. What I discovered this week is that for my youth, having them live a life of compassion and service is a wonderful way to inspire them to learn more about God.