"The Gift of Welcoming?"
Scripture Reading: Genesis 18:1-8
Sermon Transcript for August 7, 2005
By Rev. Mike Beck
As we begin this series on “Welcoming”, perhaps I need to remind us that although we are to love and care for those who have become our friends within the body of Christ, my Dad taught me, and it took me over twenty years to fully grasp what he was trying to say, but he taught me, “The church is the only institution that exists primarily for those who are not yet a part of its fellowship.” We are to care, to be a friend, as Michelle and Roger shared so beautifully, to those that are a part of our family; but it is never a closed family. We exist primarily for those people who haven’t yet walked through our doors.
In the coming weeks, you will begin to see on television some extremely well-done thirty-second commercials by the United Methodist Church that end with these words: Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors…the people of the United Methodist Church. So during these first three weekends in August, I want us collectively as the body of Christ to take inventory. How well are we doing in living out that promise? For we say we are people of open minds, with open hearts, with open arms—how are we doing in living out that promise? I especially want to teach on this because there are some opportunities coming up for you to intentionally and very easily invite your un-churched friends and neighbors to join you in worship here at Grace. The last Sunday of August, August 28th, we have finished that marvelous new Children’s’ Ministry Center. One of my favorite movies was the movie, “Field of Dreams”, in which that farmer there in Iowa keeps hearing the words, “If you build it, they will come.” Now we want to fill up that expanded space with children who haven’t come to know that God loves them, to know God’s plan for their life. We want to celebrate our ministries with children on August 28th. We are going to have an Open House in the afternoon for the community to come and see our new building. We are going to have a really neat program for kids and their families at 4:00 p.m. But those of you with children, I especially want you to be praying. Now friends at work or at school, neighbors down the street who have children but don’t have a church home, you need to invite them to come be a part of that special day.
On September 11th, our youth will be leading our worship services. It has just been awesome to see what God has been doing in recent years among our youth here at Grace. Friends, the 50 youth and adults spent a week in St. Louis on a mission trip, that would have been unheard of seven or eight years ago! Now those of you who have teenagers know that it is one of the most challenging jobs in the world. It gives you gray hairs parenting those growing teenagers. If you have un-churched friends or neighbors that have teenagers that don’t know where to turn for some answers, you need to invite them on that Sunday. Say, “Come to Grace; come and worship with me and see the help we can provide for your teens.”
And then for all of you, on September 17-18, you are going to have to park on the grass that Sunday. That will be our Celebration of Friendship. All of you have an assignment. You have to bring on that weekend an un-churched friend or neighbor. So begin to pray and think about whom that will be. But it will be easy for you to do so because you will be able to say to your un-churched friend or neighbor, “My preacher gave me an assignment for this weekend. I get kicked out of the church if I don’t bring a friend with me. So would you come to worship and then we will go out to eat following our time together.”
But if we are going to be intentional about invited newcomers, then it might be good for us to get ready by sharpening our welcoming skills. And I don’t think it is too bold for me to say that every life that has been transformed by Christ began with somebody extending a warm welcome and invitation to them. Trace the steps of Jesus and His disciples. Over and over again you see them extending an unconditional, loving welcome, an invitation—come as you are, come and see, come and learn, come and follow. To kind of set the stage for some of the things I want to share this morning, I want you to watch this video clip. Give your attention now to the screen.
VIDEO CLIP – “Beyond 30 Seconds”
Narrator: Imagine this scene. You’ve just arrived at your family reunion. There are lots of people, food, good conversation and renewed relationships. Everyone knows everyone else’s history. But you’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. It’s time to celebrate the family. Now, rewind the picture. Now try to picture yourself going to the same family reunion except you are not a member of the family. Perhaps you are just attending with a friend. Can you imagine the feeling, the awkwardness? Everyone is way to busy talking and catching up with each other to even notice you.
Guest: Hi, I’m Debbie. It’s good to be here. I came with Steve who I’m sure you know. Good reunion. Well, nice talking to you. (No one responds. Everyone ignores Debbie.)
Narrator: Believe it or not, that’s how a newcomer might feel in your church. If you are a newcomer, it seems like everyone knows everyone else. They are all friendly to each other. They let you inside the building, but not inside the family. Now what’s the difference between a church that allows newcomers into its midst and one that embraces them? That’s what we’ll be discussing.
The last line is important. “What’s the difference between a congregation that invites newcomers into their midst and the one which truly embraces them?” One of the members of our Newcomer Committee was following up on a first-time attendee a couple of months ago. She got back this e-mail that no pastor ever wants to see. The newcomer said, “I came in and sat down. I intentionally made eye contact with several individuals seated close by me. As the service concluded, I kind of wanted to go to the Coffee Hour, but even though I had made eye contact with several people, no one had said a word to me. So I didn’t go to Coffee Hour, I just quickly exited.” Now, I don’t think that’s the norm at Grace. But friends, if we aren’t intentional about welcoming newcomers, their experience can be like that of a family reunion depicted in the video you just saw a moment ago. Maybe you have heard this story. It illustrates what I am trying to say. If you have a teenager at home and you are sitting in the family room and you are watching TV and your teenager says to you, “Go get me a coke.” Parent’s, what do you say? If you are like me, you’ll say, “Are your legs broke? Go get your own coke.” But if you are entertaining company, you say to that company, “Can I get you anything to drink?” Now here is the point: Who do you love the most? Well, it’s obvious you love your kid the most. But your kid is family; your guest is special because they are a guest. So as Dan mentioned earlier, it’s always a good habit to get into when you sit down to look around you in a ten to fifteen foot radius to see if there is someone that you haven’t had a chance to meet yet. It may be a regular attendee of Grace, they just haven’t become an acquaintance or friend of you, but they might be a first time attendee. And instead of making your way to your family, you make sure that as honored guests, they are welcome.
In fact, research shows—ushers and greeters, people in the Welcome Center, listen very carefully to this—research says most newcomers within the first five to ten minutes will have already decided whether they are coming back a second time. Before they hear the choir anthem, before they hear the sermon, did someone help them? Did someone greet them? They will have decided within the first five to ten minutes in most cases whether they’ll come back a second time.
Welcoming is not the task of a committee or a single individual but rather it is a lifestyle on the part of every member of the worshiping congregation. Saint Benedict put it this way when he said, “All guests who present themselves are to be received as Christ.” Jesus said, “I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed Me.” And notice that Jesus mentioned no further motivation to welcome others. Welcoming newcomers is not a technique to find more choir members, to increase the budget, or even to grow the church. Welcoming others are simply who we are called to be as Christians. It is a free gift with no strings attached.
I want you to consider these facts from George Barna’s research. One out of three adults in Johnson County is un-churched. Now you may say, “I don’t know anybody that is un-churched.” If that is true of you, you are living too sheltered a life. You need to go out and get involved in some activities with un-churched people because it is the only way to be the salt of the earth. Consider this, between 1990 and 1998, 129 million Americans left their hometown and moved to other counties or states. In fact, let me see a show of hands of all of you who today are living in a different county or state than you were ten years ago. Let me see your hands. Now given those realities, doesn’t each one of us who is part of Grace Church, have a responsibility to respond to those facts and extend the love of Christ to people who aren’t yet a part of our fellowship? Jesus said in Matthew 9:37-38, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers.” Do you know who the workers are? I’m part of the workers, but it’s not just Dan and I and the staff, it is all of you. “Send out workers into God’s harvest field.” And perhaps you say, “Yeah, but I don’t know how to do that?” Well, these sermons, along with a seven-week study that we are going to offer on Sunday evenings starting in September, they can help you grow in understanding how un-churched people think. What it feels like to walk through the doors of a new church for the first time. But this quote by Ken Houts in his book, You Are a Miracle, ought to be an encouragement to all of us. He writes: “When the heart is right …” Friends, almost everything about our faith boils down to the condition of the heart. “When the heart is right,” he said, “we will still manage to meet the needs of others even when we do the wrong things through ignorance or lack of training.” Let me ask you, do you have the heart for the un-churched? Think about all the blessings that you know, that you experience from your personal faith in Christ from being a part of a church family. Now think about others that don’t know those things. Do you have a burden that they come to know that same joy that someone helped you know?
I want to close just looking briefly at our Scripture lesson. A story from almost 3,000 years ago about Abraham is found in Genesis 18. Let me give you a little background. And I’m not talking about terrorist or radical fundamentalist of the Islamic faith. I’m just talking about the average Middle Eastern person. Their reputation depends upon the hospitality they show to strangers and guests. In fact, there was an interesting article in the “Letters to the Editor” in the Daily Journal on Friday of a young man from Johnson County that’s living in Bethlehem with the Palestinians. And if you read that letter, you know he talked about the warm hospitality that he experienced by those people now as in Biblical times. People in Middle Eastern culture treat strangers as honored guests. They offer food and drink to everyone that walks through their doors.
Listen to these words from Genesis 18:1-8, “The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.” Then I want you to note these next three words, “Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.” Now, please if you see a newcomer at Grace or in America don’t go over and bow down to them. I don’t think they’d find that real appropriate. But Abraham is taking his afternoon siesta and he looks up; and he sees three honored guest. And he rises to greet them. Are you looking up and around on Sunday morning for that person that may have bravely walked through our doors for the first time? In my previous church, Blaine Wiseman has gone home to be with the Lord now. Blaine is one of the wealthiest, most powerful individuals in southern Indiana during his lifetime. But Blaine would sit; I can still see him, over in the section on the right--row number seven. Blaine was scanning every Sunday morning the entire congregation. And the minute the Benediction had been pronounced, he made a beeline to anybody he didn’t know. It didn’t make any difference what side of the tracks they lived on, how educated or uneducated they were. Blaine was on the lookout like Abraham was this day.
“He said, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.’” I want you, as you look at that passage, to note the practicality of genuine welcoming. If you don’t realize this, I want to teach it to you this morning. I want you to think about this as you start praying about who you are going to invite. Your tendency will be to think the person that is most open to come to church is the person that everything in their life is going smoothly. Wrong! The person most likely to respond to your invitation has something significant going on in their life at that time. If fact, it may be something extremely stressful. They may be going through a divorce. They may have moved to a new town. They may have just lost a spouse or a loved one. The last child may have left the nest. Take it to the bank, that in nine cases out of ten when a newcomer walks through our doors, something of significance is going on in their life. And as time goes on, we keep this in mind as we try to think how we can provide help, hope, and home to meet that person’s need in the name of Christ.
Abraham says, “Let me get you something to eat, so you may be refreshed and then go on your way – now that you have come to Your servant.” Notice he refers to himself as his servant of those guests. As I think about Abraham saying, “I need to get you something to eat,” I remember the story of Jesus there in John 4. Do you remember, he did something unbelievable? He talked to a woman at the well. And not just any woman—a Samaritan woman! And do you remember what he said to her? He said, “I have bread to offer you that will satisfy you eternally.” Friends, as we welcome and invite, we have the privilege of making a difference in someone’s life a billion years from now.
“Very well, they answered, do as you say. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. Quick, he said, get three seahs of flower and knead it and bake some bread.” Sounds like a typical man to me. But here’s part two—“Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.” I want you to notice a couple of words. It says Abraham ran. If you know something about Middle East culture in the time of Abraham, one of the most undignified things a man could do was run. And it says Abraham ran to get some meat. The servant hurried to prepare it. Note the sense of importance, the urgency. Oh, friends, why is our invitation, why is our welcome so critically important? Because the last I checked, people need the Lord! People are lost eternally unless they come to know Christ the Savior.
And then it says, “He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them.” And then, those of you, the number on our Newcomer Committee is about quintuple as we get ready to start that ministry in earnest in September. This is for you. Notice the last line. “While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.” See, it’s not enough just the first welcome. We need to get to know them. We need to find out what is going on in their life. How can we minister the love of Christ to their point of being? That doesn’t happen unless, like Abraham, we stand near them under a tree.
May the Holy Spirit through this story of long ago, bring application to our hearts and minds that we might truly be a church with “open hearts, open minds, and open doors”. Let’s pray. “Rather than a closing hymn, I want to give you some moments just to meditate. I want you to spend the moment simply dreaming God’s dreams for Grace Church. What is it that God is ready to do right around the corner? But friends, then be reminded it begins with me. What is my part in God’s dreams? What about this critical hour of worship? Have we become careless in our commitment to spend that hour a week worshiping and praising Him? And begin to think and pray who will you invite on these special Sundays that will soon be upon us. If we are going to be faithful and be a part of what God wants to do, we need to grow in our personal discipleship, in fellowship with one another. Take a moment to pray about how you are going to do that as opportunities present themselves in the coming weeks. And think finally, God’s church gets built when we all do our part in ministry. For those of you who haven’t yet got hooked in to a place of ministry, pray that God will lead you to that place of service to others in these important days ahead. Hear our prayer, oh Lord, Amen.”
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn