Over the last decade, I have enjoyed learning about soccer. When I was young there really weren’t opportunities to play soccer – I wish there had been. However, it is the one sport Kenneth loves and so I have been to a lot of soccer games. Now corner kicks and off sides are second nature to me, but when Kenneth was first playing I had a lot of questions. Why are there yellow and red “cards”? And what’s with the clock and ‘extra time’? I noticed at high school soccer games the clock winds down and there can be as many substitutions as needed. Is this “Americanized soccer”? Before I get into what I really want to say, my analysis of soccer, is that too much depends on the blindness and whims of the referee. The whole concept of ‘diving’ (faking being fouled so one can get a free or penalty kick) is ludicrous. Personally, I think soccer needs instant replay. I still feel sorry for Ghana in the last World Cup when a player from Uruguay slapped the ball with his hands out of the goal after the ball had clearly passed the plane of the goal – it was a goal! Not only that, but the player from Uruguay committed the gravest of sins, he touched the ball with his hands… both of them… intentionally! What’s a red card for?! All Ghana got was a penalty kick that was missed and they lost. (According to Kenneth the Uruguayan player plays for Liverpool and is now famous for biting the ear of an opponent!). The point is, after my rant, when one is new to something one can offer questions and perspective that can be useful.
And so it is with people who are new to the church… not only new to OUR Church but new to THE church. People who have been a part of the church all of their lives and have been active in many churches have a lot of experience and we need to listen to their suggestions. But I’m not thinking primarily of them, here; they are more like people who played soccer in another league. I’m talking about the unchurched. There was a time when we could assume that most people knew what church is about. But these days, especially in our region of the country, we can make no such an assumption. There are people around us who do not know what communion is, or stewardship, or why we have flowers on the alter. (Why DO we have flowers on the alter?) It can be challenging to receive questions that seem so basic but force us to reconsider why we do what we do. For one semester during seminary, our worship professor assigned that we go to a different church each Sunday from a different tradition. I learned a lot and I had a lot of questions! He also asked us to try to step out of ourselves to imagine going to worship without knowing even the basics of tradition and liturgy. What would that feel like? What questions would we have? Why do we have vestments? (Remember yellow and red cards?) I remember one Sunday recently someone asked me why I was wearing a black robe instead of a white one? The answer was pretty simple, because I felt like it… but imagine what an unchurched person might think if he/she comes for three weeks and I’m wearing my white robe and suddenly it’s black? Who died? Then the danger is, when we change vestments for Advent, for example, this same unchurched person could accost me after church and wonder if I’m feeling a little blue?
One thing the demographics tell us about our “neighborhood” is that there are a lot of unchurched people living here. Many who feel that they are spiritual, but don’t go to church. We usually assume that they don’t go to church because they have made a researched and reasonable decision not to. Far from it! In many cases they haven’t a clue about what we do in worship and they are scared! There are two things we need to do about this: The first is to let people know more about who we are… I’m sure that one of our “modules” for Beta-Vitality will be marketing. The other is this one – we need to imagine coming to church knowing nothing. In essence, putting our feet in their shoes. Considering everything to be strange, imagining how it must feel to not understand what is going on and even more, not to know a soul. This is what radical hospitality is about. It isn’t just being open, inclusive and accepting… it is being intentional and assertive – purposefully being prepared for the stranger who doesn’t know what a hymnal is, or what we mean when we say they are invited to coffee hour.
See you in worship. Pastor Jim
