I wanted to start with very simple, ordinary things about radical welcome in the post below because we have a tendency to over-complicate matters right off the bat mostly, I think, as a way of avoiding doing anything but talk. For a number of years I taught a course in an MBA program called Management and Society that introduced budding executives to some principles of ethics. I’ve written elsewhere on some of my experiences with them, and one consistent experience was their desire to leap into questions of the morality of atomic warfare or how to achieve peace in the Middle East. What we really needed to to was begin with examining the moral habits of our ordinary daily lives and the relatively simple choices we make in them. It turns out that that is a very hard thing to do because it forces us to deal with the reality of our own lives as we confront our own responsibility for choices and their consequences.
Radical Welcome Continued
The same thing goes for the discipline of radical welcome as followers of Jesus Christ gathered in congregations and denominations. We are too easily tempted to go off into flights of theological fancy while deliberately avoiding the simple, plain and ordinary things of a daily discipline of radical welcome in the name of Jesus Christ. I’m leaving this thought unfinished because it is up to you to do that for yourself, and I’d be delighted to read what you have to say.
We have the benefit of being in a small town so I think that makes the ability to be welcoming all that much more easy.In Sheridan, we are on the main drag. We put up a new sign giving office hours, service times and phone numbers shortly after I arrived. We\’ve put up a new \”TEC Welcomes You\” sign. We put on a new roof and are working on painting the building (not welcoming per se, but definitely giving the place a friendlier face). The church is always open. I stand out front on Sunday mornings and I hang out in the bars once a month.Those are some of the \”simple, ordinary things\” we\’ve done/are doing. And, to be honest, I\’m not sure if any of them have contributed to people coming to the church.We still have much work to do.
Well Rev, these things are just the basics, but they count. What your congregation has done is to provide the physical signs of welcome. The real evangelism takes place when the current members understand their responsibility to take personal responsibility for that radical welcome in the ordinary events of their daily lives.
Waiting for them to come…it\’s so much easier than inviting them to come. We\’re very comfortable – why must you be so insistent? I mean radical – what kind of word is radical?
Anon,Ain\’t it the truth. If we build it they will come. I think that was the motto of our local mall on the edge of town. It was supposed to replace downtown. Now its being torn down with not real future in site. Why do all the people go to Bright\’s Candy Shop? Because all the people who do go there talk about it a lot to anyone who will listen. Why do all the people got to your church? Oh, I guess they don\’t, at least no one ever talks about it.CP
Rev Ref, says\’ The church is always open, I stand out front on Sunday mornings and I hang out in the bars once a month\”Bravo!How to be welcoming, saying we are just like you is a start. We share all the foibles, aches, pains, relationship problems, doubts and fears as everyone else. Maybe if we used our facilities for more events to celebrate life openly joyously, people would be less afraid of judgment, which is, unfortunately what most expect from a christian church.