"Open Hearts: Practicing Hospitality
" Sermon Transcript for August 26, 2001 By Rev. Mike BeckScripture Reading: Hebrews 13:1-2
My message today and the messages during the next two weeks will coincide with a major initiative of our United Methodist Church especially during the month of September. A great deal of resources and energy have been put in around the theme "Igniting Ministry Within the Local Church" with the secondary theme, "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors." If you watch TV during the coming weeks, you’ll see some excellent commercials for our church on television. We begin today, and will also the next two weeks, begin our worship with one of those 30-second spots. But the campaign is far more than about television commercials. We’re being asked as churches to examine ourselves in three important areas. That will be the focus of my message today and next week and for Reverend Dan’s message on September 9th. Today looking at "Open Hearts", how welcoming are we in our outreach to newcomers? Next week we’ll look at the central part, "Open Minds". And we’re going to ask ourselves the question, "Are we willing to consider new forms of ministry that can connect more effectively to a changing world around us?" And then the third week, "Open Doors". Are we willing to embrace with greater intentionality to related areas of evangelism and discipleship?
Today we’re going to look at how are we doing in terms of making newcomers feel welcome in our midst. I think it was about 8 or 10 years ago, Mickey and I went down to Alabama to visit our dear friends from seminary who were pastoring a church in Gadsden. A church with about 100 in attendance. And we got there early and went down toward the front and sat down. And throughout the entire worship service we felt a little bit uncomfortable almost as if we were getting glaring looks from many people in the congregation throughout the whole worship service. And at lunch I asked Alan, I said, "Alan, I’m not saying your people aren’t friendly, but we really didn’t feel very comfortable where we were sitting. Can you give me any indication why?" And he said, "Well, unfortunately you were sitting in Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s seat." But that’s not the whole story. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had been dead for five years! But we were still seated in Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s seat.
I want you to do this mental excercise. It’s really important. I want you to visualize and bring to your mind a time in which you went someplace where you were the newcomer. Where the environment was strange. Where you didn’t know all the procedures. Try to put that visual image in your mind. And now, recall what made you feel comfortable or accepted or cared for or unfortunately maybe you’re having come to mind the things that made you feel the opposite way. You see, if we’ve been in a church, especially for a long time, we normally forget how threatening it is for a person who is new to walk through those doors the first time. Where do I go? What do I do? When do I stand? Where is the nursery? Am I sitting in somebody else’s seat?
The pitfall in many churches is that we think we are friendly because we are friendly to each other. Now I do want to stop here though. Grace Church gets pretty high marks on what I’m preaching on today. For invariably when I work with the new member class I hear people talk about the way they were greeted when they came here for the first few times. But again we can think we’re friendly because we’re friendly to each other, but what about the newcomer? In the United Ministry campaign we’ve been provided with some wonderful media resources to help us communicate these themes. So the sermons during this three-week period will take a little different format than normal. We were provided for this with a wonderful video segment entitled, "A Tale of Two Churches". Now, bear with us. We’re continuing to have a little bit of tracking problem when we play the VCR so you’ll see some fuzzyness on the bottom. Ignore it. The sound and most of the picture are clear. But it communicates well what we’re talking about today. So let’s watch together, "A Tale of Two Churches".
A TALE OF TWO CHURCHES
"There were two churches. They both received the same message on the same day. The message said, "You are going to receive an honored guest very soon. Be prepared." Well, both did what churches do when they receive this sort of message or have this sort of situation come up, they formed a committee.
Church number one had their committee meet around the table and started talking about how they would recognize that honored guest. What would he look like? And they were quite sure it would be a "he". Maybe a "he" with a family attached. One who would be well dressed. Perhaps in a very nice new car or perhaps even driven to church in a limousene. As they started thinking, "What would an honored guest look like and act like?" they thought, "Well, his English would be perfect and his grammar would be just right and everything about him, there would be an aire about him that we would recognise immediately. Surely we would know when this honored guest comes." So as they prepared their greeters, they taught them to look for this one honored guest. They would welcome that person with a warm and honest and friendly welcome, escort them to the sanctuary, introduce them to some people who would be sitting around them, make sure they got invitations to Wednesday evening dinner, and Bible Study, and Sunday School. Make sure they felt right at home in that service. That way the honored guest would know how much that church appreciated their visit. They trained all of their greeters and they were prepared.
Church number two called their committee meeting and as they sat around the table they began to read passages from the Bible about how you welcome someone. They read, "You want to welcome the stranger and the sojourner because you remember what it was like to be strangers and sojourners in Egypt." They read, "Whenever you welcome one of the least of these my brothers or sisters, you welcome me." Jesus had actually said that. As they talked about how they would recognize the honored guest they thought, "Surely that person would be a stranger, someone they didn’t know. A sojourner, someone who was traveling about looking for a spiritual home. Perhaps it would be one of the least of Jesus’ brothers or sisters. Somebody who would suprise them. Somebody they might not immediately notice. How would they recognize that person?" Then one of the committee members said, "You know, I’ve been reading a series of mystery novels set in a monestary. One of the monks is the detective. And in that monestary they’re taught that whenever a stranger arrives, they are to treat that visitor as if that person were Christ. Each and every one of them. Maybe we should greet every visitor who comes here as if that person were Jesus come to visit us?" Well, they all thought that was the safest and the best idea. Since they couldn’t figure out how to identify this honest guest, they would simply greet everyone as if they were the honored guest, as if they were Jesus. So they began to train their greeters that were stationed at every door. They were taught to give an honest, open, loving welcome, a handshake. To escort everyone who came to the sanctuary. To introduce them to people sitting around them. To make sure they were comfortable and at home in the service. And if possible perhaps invite them out to lunch somewhere. They trained their greeters and they were prepared.
There was a young mother who lived with her daughter in that city who worked very hard to make a life for herself and her daughter just to keep body and soul together sometimes. She decided that she needed to find a spiritual home for them--a family, since they lived so far from their own family. A place that would welcome them. So she began to visit churches. One Sunday morning she got up and got dressed and got her daughter dressed and they went to church number one. When they arrived at the door the greeter shook their hand but it almost seemed as if that person were looking passed her. Looking for someone else. The mother thought, "Why don’t they talk to me? I’m the one who’s standing here." She was shown the way to the sanctuary and when she got up there nobody much introduced themselves. They were looking at the hymnal or looking at the service or talking to each other. After a while, in the middle of the service, her daughter got a little squirmy and noisy. And several people sitting around them turned and gave them hard, even harsh looks as if to say, "What are you doing disturbing my worship service?" At the end of the service they stayed for just a few minutes but since no one really stopped to talk with them they slipped quietly out.
On the next Sunday morning the young mother almost didn’t make the effort to get up and go to church. But she thought to herself, "If my daughter and I are going to find a spiritual home, we’re going to have to seek it out." So she got dressed, and dressed her daughter and went to church number two. Now at church number two the greeter shook her hand and looked her in the eye, gave her a warm and honest and friendly welcome, escorted her to the sanctuary and introduced her to several people who would be sitting around her in the service. Those people who were sitting around her made sure she knew about Sunday School classes for herself and her daughter and invited them to come to any and all of those. In the middle of the service when her daughter began to get a little squirmy and noisy again, several people turned and looked. But these were not hostile looks. No, they turned and smiled as if to say, "I remember what it was like to have a small child in church." One of those persons who turned and smiled got up and came back with a packet of crayons and a picture to color and other activities for the little girl which helped everything go a lot smoother for the rest of the service. At the end of the service one of the families invited them to come to lunch with them. Oh, it wasn’t a fancy place, but it was her daughter’s favorite fast food restaurant which meant that everybody went home much, much happier.
Now, which of the two churches do you think that mother and her daughter returned to? Well, which would you return to?"
There’s some very good food for thought in what we’ve just seen. Let me close today by bringing this matter of hospitality down to a very practical level by listing five ways in which we could be a more welcoming congregation. And again, I think at Grace we get pretty high marks; but we can always do better!
1. Our parking place and our pew. You know what I’m waiting for? I’ll say a big, "Praise the Lord" when I see it happen. Because often times newcomers come a little late and the only seats that are still remaining are the ones in front or over there on the side where you don’t have a good view. I’m waiting for the time in which I see a regular member of Grace, when they become aware of that, get up out of their pew and say, "You take this seat, we’ll move down front." Because you see, when you’re a newcomer you kind of want to blend in to the wordwork. You don’t want to be down on the front row! What an act of welcoming for a person to give up their pew for the newcomer. Or on those Sundays in which we’re really crowded, those who are able and in good health, when they drive in instead of taking the closest parking space to the church, they take the worst parking place they can find. The one for which they’ll have to walk the farthest so that somebody who comes later has got a better place.
2. Nametags. These nametags, I know some of you hate them, but they aren’t for you! They’re for the benefit of other folks. Do you have yours on this morning? Because you see by and large other people will not ask a person their name more than once. But you see if you have your nametag on they see your name and they connect it with a face. These are for the benefit of other people.
3. Adopt non-judgmental attitudes. We need to adopt non-judgmental attitudes to avoid the stereotypes. To see beyond the age and the skin color, the appearance or dress and start to view every individual as a person God loves so much that He’s willing to have sent His only Son to die for that person. Irregardless of whether they’re pierced or tattooed or whether they’ve got what we consider strange-looking hair. Friends, God doesn’t look on the outside, God looks on the inside. That every person is a person for whom Christ died.
4. Our words of greeting. I would urge every single one of you to make a weekly habit of when you take your place in worship do a mental exercise of looking around you about ten feet. Now we don’t want you looking forty feet over and running down somebody trying to get to that person at the end of the service, but is there someone seated reasonably close to you that you don’t know who might be visiting for the first time, to extend a word of greeting to that individual. The saddest thing that could happen and yet the story has been told thousands of times over, the person or couple who visits a new church and no one says a word to them either coming or going.
5. Let us learn the value of personal invitations. For you see, we can put it in the newsletter and put it in the bulletins, and we do that. But the vast majority of people to take that step in faith to be a part of a small group or to come to the church fellowship event, they are so much more likely to do that if they receive a personal invitation. Make it low pressure, but make it specific.
In closing, let us hear again these familiar words of Jesus in the parable of the sheep and the goats. "Then the King will say to those on His right, "Come, you are blessed by my father. Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me." Then the righteous will answer, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in? When did we see you needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" And the King will reply, "I tell you the truth. Whenever you did it to one of the least of these, you did it unto me."
May we strive to be a welcoming congregation so that those who do not enjoy the benefits of the family of faith can discover that here. So that those who have not yet come to know Christ as their Savior that we might be a bridge for that to happen. And all of God’s people said, "Amen".
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn