Transcending friendliness for authenticity

I have visited hundreds of congregations, and the leaders of each of these churches are convinced they are friendly. But when I challenged one congregation on such an assumption, the church’s leadership council plunged into a heated and angry debate over the degree of their friendliness. One man insisted that his was the “friendliest church in America.” Yet, when a single young mother visited with her two children, she was told she should care for them herself in the nursery. “Our church doesn’t have nursery workers because we don’t have any children,” the mother was told.

You see, these people were friendly to each other but not to the strangers among them. This church was a tightly knit club whose members were dying and the congregation was shrinking.

We will have more visitors than usual attending our churches this fall. This is the result of our TV and newspaper promotion of United Methodist churches as places of “open hearts, open minds and open doors.” Over and over again in this Igniting Ministry campaign, we have been urged to provide friendly, inviting environments for our guests. Some good ways to get started:

• Make sure worship service times are clearly posted outside the church.
  
  
• Record a telephone message announcing worship times and offer an invitation to attend.
  
  
• Save the best parking spaces for guests rather than for staff and members.
  
  
• Be sure the worship bulletin includes the words of the Lord’s Prayer or where to find such in the hymnal. In other words, be “worship user friendly.” We will have visitors who do not know the Lord’s Prayer, Gloria Patri, or Affirmation of Faith.
  

This is only a partial checklist addressing some very practical concerns. The way you greet, treat, care for and follow up with visitors is crucial.

But I’m also concerned about something that transcends friendliness. Above all, I want us to provide a worship experience that’s baptized with a sense of awe and the presence of the Holy Spirit. We must avoid the illusion that friendliness can be substituted for authenticity of worship. This requires we spend time in careful preparation for each worship service. It means we saturate the worship hour with prayer. We’re not trying to be the friendliest club in town. We’re seeking to create honest encounters with God who heals our brokenness, forgives our sins, offers hope, and empowers us to go forth and “do good” — to live meaningfully and treat others as we treat ourselves.

God forbid that visitors find our open doors lead only to a vacuous and innocuous hour of friendly fellowship. My dear brothers and sisters, offer Jesus Christ to all who worship. Do it prayerfully, humbly, creatively, thoughtfully and expectantly. The stakes are too high for anything less.

Grace and peace,
Ray W. Chamberlain Jr.
Resident Bishop

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