The Community Church Connection

Positioning Ourselves Best for Hospitality to Strangers

 Dear sisters and brothers:

 There is an intriguing passage in the New Testament that suggests that sometimes angels visit our churches to see how we are doing in the welcome of strangers and outsiders.

 Let’s look at Hebrews 13: 1-2 NRSV:

 ”Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

 This passage suggests that reaching out to visitors is really important.

 It also suggests interestingly that our outreach to “strangers” is a part of “mutual love”, obviously, I think, because God’s promises to his people not only involve God’s blessings for us, but also the bottom line promises of God using us, in partnership with Jesus, to bless all those still outside the church now.  This all suggests that “they” then become part of “us”, and therefore a part of “mutual love”.

 So “mutual love” for the church would seem to be outward focused and non-narcissistic.

 Reading back into the previous chapter, Hebrews 12, we note that the immediate context of this angel passage is about offering “to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;” (verse 28).

 So it does not seem to be a stretch to conclude that worship practices and customs “acceptable to God” must involve hospitality and outreach to strangers.

 Though I write this before our congregational meeting Feb. 28 to consider adoption of a policy statement about welcome for those in our community who are still outside the Stow Community United Church of Christ, I presume that we will discern together that God is calling us take this very biblical stance.

 I would like to share a very simple way we as a congregation can position ourselves to “show hospitality to strangers” and authentically welcome our visitors and guests:

OK, here it is:

 We can all position ourselves as far forward as we can in the Sanctuary during worship every Sunday.

 There are several very good reasons for doing this.

 First is that visitors do not like to be forced to sit in front of the “regulars”.  Visitors generally prefer to maintain a bit of distance from the front and to sit behind the regulars.  So if we all sit in the back, we are being inhospitable to our visitors, because we force them outside of their comfort zone.

 Better that regulars accept some slight discomfort in moving up than visitors.

 Second, in a congregation that has steadily lost members, having the remaining members sit widely separated in the back gives a very bad impression of the church and discourages visitors from coming back.  It signals to visitors: “This is a declining church, and the members don’t seem to see it.  And they seem to be distancing themselves in the back from what is going on up front.” 

But if the members would be clustered at the front, the visual signal for visitors, instead, would be: “Wow, they’re all clustered in the front, as close to what’s going on as possible! This looks exciting!  And there’s still lots of room to grow, and room for me.”

 The third good reason (and there are many more) for clustering in the front is that we connect better this way as the Body of Christ: The group dynamics work much better. The preacher connects better with the people during the sermon.  The congregation sings and worships better. We open ourselves more to God among us. The members can easily reach out and touch each other’s hands in prayer and in greeting and blessing one another.

 So by positioning yourself better in worship “to show hospitality to strangers”, you just never know:

 You may be completely unaware that you have actually shown hospitality to an angel who came some Sunday morning to check up on how we are doing, as well as clearly showing hospitality to those from the community whom God has sent to us to be blessed and to become a part of our congregation and who in turn, then, become a blessing to others.

 May it be so, and grow, at the Stow Community United Church of Christ. Amen.

 Fraternally,

Bill Meyer

Toward a music ministry of joy:
Looking to the interests of others

            I wanted to do some further scriptural reflection on the theme we’ve been talking about in worship for several weeks: How God’s amazing promises to Abraham in Genesis 12 (and beyond) flow through to the church today.

This means the bottom line on Christianity is that we are called by God to partner with Jesus to be and become a blessing to “all the families of the earth” by the very power of God in us.

            This is absolutely huge!

This becomes a major theme in the New Testament.

This should also be a major theme in how we approach everything we do at Stow Community United Church of Christ.  The church must function not only for the benefit of its members, but also for the benefit of those outside the church, who aren’t here yet.

            Once we embrace this very biblical theology, it makes decision making in the church very simple, because it is no longer about us and our personal preferences.

Decisions and discernment are simply about doing authentic ministry, about others’ needs and doing what it takes to make friends for Jesus.

            Of course, this has major implications for how we program our worship and especially for our choices of church music.  Our music should speak to every significant group in the church – and also to every significant group outside the church that God is calling us to welcome into the church.

            Let’s look at the context of one of the first recorded church hymns for guidance in this.  It is the so-called “Christ hymn,” the text of which is quoted in Philippians 2: 6-11.

            As he writes this letter, Paul is in prison and is under extreme psychological pressure – swinging between he’s going to be executed – no, God might let him live – but then again, he’s probably going to die.  In the midst of all this, Paul emphasizes rejoicing in the church, and all being of the same mind in Christ, who became a servant of others.

            Notice how Paul sets all this up in Philippians 2: 2-11, NRSV, (emphasis mine):

Make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

                                    who, though he was in the form

                                                            of God,

                                                did not regard equality

                                                            with God

                                                as something to be exploited,

                                    but emptied himself,

                                                taking the form of a slave,

                                                being born in human likeness.

 

                                    And being found in human form,

                                                he humbled himself

                                                and became obedient to the

                                                            point of death –

                                                even death on a cross.

 

                                    Therefore God also highly

                                                            exalted him

                                                and gave him the name

                                                that is above every name,

                                    so that at the name of Jesus

                                                every knee should bend,

                                                in heaven and on earth and

                                                            under the earth

                                    and every tongue should confess

                                                that Jesus Christ is Lord,

                                                to the glory of God the Father.

            In quoting this very early church hymn, Paul speaks of a ministry of joy.  In his discussion of church music, he insists that we must have the same mind as Jesus himself so that we may “look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”

            I think this means that every significant group in the church must insist that the musical and cultural needs of all other groups be taken care of.  So, for instance, the older folks at Stow must insist that we program music and worship material that will be welcoming and affirming to the young.

And, in turn, younger families must insist that we program music and worship material that will speak to the older members and their interests.

Of course, this will be a miracle.

According to Paul in verse 5, this requires that you all have “the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  This is another way of saying we must to be filled with the Holy Spirit, or, as Paul says in Philippians 1:27, “standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.”

So pray daily for more of the Holy Spirit in you and in Stow Community United Church of Christ.  When it happens — and it will — it will be a miracle.  And it will be of God.  Then we too will admit, as Paul writes in Philippians 1:28, “this is God’s doing.”

So may our music ministry, and all we do, be led by the mind of Christ. May we thus look to the interests of others – in a miraculous ministry of unity and joy.  Amen.

Fraternally,

Bill Meyer

A John-the-Baptist ministry for me and the Stow church

I’m very excited about beginning my intentional interim ministry at the Stow Community United Church of Christ! And I look forward to getting to know all of you!  In many ways I think it is appropriate for me to be writing this during the season of Advent – when we look forward to the coming of Christ and his Kingdom in fullness.

            I’d like to draw us back to Advent and the Lectionary Scripture passages of Advent for some important themes in my ministry – and in yours.  (Ministry, after all, really belongs to the people of God, who are a Priesthood of All Believers, with Jesus himself as the chief pastor.  See Ephesians 4:1-16, I Peter 5: 3-5 and Psalm 23:1.)

            The Lectionary is a three-year cycle of four Scripture readings for worship each Sunday, which most denominations, including the United Church of Christ, use at least part of the time.  I was struck that three of the four Sundays in Advent had readings about John the Baptist.  And the second Sunday of Advent had two readings about John.  So John the Baptist and his ministry must be pretty important as the church begins its story.

            Two themes in John’s ministry and his call from God stand out for me.

            First, it was a ministry of preparation and constructive change, so that God’s people might bear fruit.  In Luke 3: 4c, 6, 8, NRSV, John reminds God’s people:

“ ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. … and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. … Bear fruits worthy of repentance.  Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”

            For me and for the Stow Community United Church of Christ, this means we must be focused (1.) on prayerfully working together to discern God’s will for us now, guided by God‘s Holy Spirit, (2.) on removing obstacles to effective and fruitful ministry and (3.) on preparing to share and see God’s salvation for all people through Jesus.

            Secondly, it was a ministry of pointing others to Jesus, rather than pointing to himself. In John 3: 28b, 30, John pointed his disciples to Jesus, rather than to himself:

“ ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him. … He must increase, but I must decrease.’ ”

            For the Stow Community United Church of Christ, this means that the church is called, not to call people to the church as an end in itself, but to call people into a freeing, transformative relationship with Jesus, with the church then as a vital means to that end.

            For me, this means that I am primarily working to prepare Stow Community United Church of Christ for a successful, thriving, permanent pastorate, which will in turn direct the focus of the Stow community, and the Stow church, to Jesus himself.                                                                                   

Fraternally,

Bill Meyer