Reno UMC Sermon: 10-11-09

October 11, 2009
Rev. Judith Bither

Radical Hospitality

When my son Russell moved from the West coast to North Carolina, he had many adjustments ahead of him. Although he’s learned to enjoy grits with breakfast and southern biscuits any time, some other things have taken more adjustment. One difference is that churches tend to be larger and more formal. There also seems to be a culture that he was not familiar with having been raised in Alaska, Northern California and Montana, plus four years of college in Oregon. In North Carolina Russ visited a large range of churches—everything from Duke Chapel, 1^st UMC Chapel Hill and 1^st UMC Carrboro, the Moravian Church, The Roman Catholic, the Quakers and more recently the United Church of Christ in Chapel Hill. Allow me to share his blog entry from March, 2008:

if I may be totally unfair I'll preface this by saying I know it's unfair and I haven't had enough experience to form this impression, but we do it all the time and here it is: The United Church of Chapel Hill has lots of nifty ads on the local buses about being a different kind of church. So I went there a few years ago and after the service no one talked to me. I've never heard of that happening to visitors to any church. I just kinda stood around at fellowship. So a bad first impression.

Yesterday I was walking down a minor street in Carrboro. A car came to a stop sign as I was crossing the intersection. She clearly saw me, but cut me off. She had a UCC bumper sticker that read "ask me about my church." Makes me want to get the one that says "How would Jesus drive?" So, they've done a good job of making a bad first and second impression...Some time I should post about how what I want from a church is logically impossible: basically a diverse church where everyone is just like me.

I lift up Russell’s experience not to say that the UCC in Chapel Hill is unfriendly; I have no doubt some visitors to First Church Reno have had this same experience. We tend to speak to and socialize with those we already know the best. It’s human nature.

To practice radical hospitality we must be intentional and to understand our motivation for welcoming the stranger. In his book Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations United Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase writes, “Vibrant, fruitful, growing congregations practice Radical Hospitality. Out of genuine love for Christ and for others, their laity and pastors take the initiative to invite, welcome, include and support newcomers and help them grow in faith as they become part of the Body of Christ.

Invite, welcome and include…

Bishop Schnase defines his terms this way: “Christian hospitality refers to the active desire to invite, welcome, receive and care for those who are the stranger so that they find a spiritual home...it is an outward focus, a reaching out to those not yet known, a love that motivates church members to openness and adaptability, a willingness to change behaviors in order to accommodate the needs and receive the talents of newcomers.”

According to the dictionary radical means “going to the root; fundamental, basic; extreme changes or reform.” The reasons the bishop uses the word radical with hospitality will become clear as we hear his experiences and rationale.

What is the reason for wanting to bring new people into our church? Is it just to have more people contribute their money and time to keep our doors open? If that’s our motivation for hospitality, we will never be successful. The church exists for the purpose of drawing people into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ in such a way that lives are changed.

To live in community with others is part of God’s plan and intention for us. Schnase contends, “A congregation is a school for love, the place where God’s Spirit forms us and the place where we learn how to give love to and receive it from friends, strangers and neighbors. The church is the presence of Christ in the world, the means by which God knits us into community in order to transform our lives and the lives of those around us.”

Sometimes we forget that our church offers something people need. We must be clear about why people need Christ, why people need the church, and why people need our particular congregation.

Bishop Schnase points out that people have no reluctance to tell people where they get their hair cut, where they get their car fixed, where they like to eat. And yet, concerning the most important relationship Christian disciples have—the one to God through Christ’s church—they feel hesitant to speak. Most of us would not be comfortable going door-to-door to promote our faith like some churches do, but there is a big difference between that and inviting friends or neighbors who have no church home to join you here.

In most communities 40 to 60 percent of people have no faith community relationship. In the West, it’s said to be closer to 75%! Do we have something here worth sharing? Can our church make a difference in someone else’s life? Bishop Schnase doesn’t mince words with what it is we are to offer: People need to know God loves them, that they are of supreme value and that their lives have significance. People need to know that they are not alone; that when they face life’s difficulties, they are surrounded by a community of grace; and that they do not have to figure our entirely for themselves how to cope with family tensions, self-doubts, periods of despair, economic reversal, and the temptations that hurt themselves or others. People need to know the peace that runs deeper than the absence of conflict, the hope that sustains them even through the most painful periods of grief, the sense of belonging that blesses them and stretches them and lifts them out of their own preoccupations. People need to learn how to offer and accept forgiveness and how to serve and be served. People need to know that life is not having something to live on but something to live for, that life comes not from taking for oneself but by giving of oneself. People need a sustaining sense of purpose.

How are we do go about communicating that to everyone who walks through our doors? Certainly not by telling them what they should do or feel or think. People learn by being welcomed into a genuine community where they recognize a sense of love and acceptance being modeled.

This doesn’t and can’t take place only on Sunday mornings before, during or after worship. It will occur by welcoming individuals and families into our classes, ministries and small groups. How do we help people feel welcome and that there is place for them in our group?

First by extending an invitation, which may even mean picking them up and bringing them with you.

Second, introduce them to others in the group; include them in conversations.

Third, make sure they have what they need—a seat, a book, a hymnal, or whatever the group is using.

Finally, encourage them to return and follow up on that with a note or phone call.

Once a new person joins our group—be it the Quilters, choir, book club, or any other class, they will also be watching and noticing how we treat each other. Are you courteous and up-lifting, or are there inside jokes or people talking behind the backs of other members? Again, the purpose of welcoming the newcomer and stranger is not simply for building up the size of our group! It is to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world!

You can see why this is called radical hospitality. Schnase writes, “Churches that practice Radical Hospitality do not look only at the numbers, corralling people through perfunctory processes to get them to join. Instead, they genuinely engage people, listen to them, and help them to feel accepted, respected, connected, needed, involved and loved. They focus on the ultimate goal of helping newcomers grow into the Body of Christ’s people.”

To become a vibrant, fruitful growing congregation in downtown Reno requires a change of attitudes, practices and values for all of us. Good intentions are not enough. Schnase is very blunt about this: “Too many churches want more young people as long as they act like old people, more new-comers as long as they act like old-timers, more children as long as they are as quiet as adults, more ethnic families as long as they act like the majority in the congregation.”

At our first Leadership meeting last month, 30 of us gathered to discuss Radical Hospitality. In addition to identifying a need for better signage on the outside and inside of the building, we also identified the need for a system for following up on people. We need you if you are willing to send notes to visitors, take a bake good to a new family, communion to a shut-in, reach out to those who we haven’t seen in a while, put the weekly attendance on the office computer. But more than that, each and every one of us has the personal responsibility of inviting and encouraging neighbors, family, co-workers and friends to join with you here. Why? Because you believe that what we have, what we do here is worth sharing.

About six weeks ago Russell went again to the UMC in Carrboro and found an entirely different experience. He was greeted and invited to join a small group for lunch after fellowship. He has now become a regular part of the church there. Perhaps they had decided to practice radical hospitality! Bishop Schnase encourages us to reach out, not by being pushy. Do it with integrity. Do it in your own voice. Be faithful to yourself and to God. Practice Radical Hospitality. Do it for Christ’s sake. Amen

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