Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I love how God flips our expectations upside down.

Sixty years separate the two couples. The first couple is in their 90s, the husband dapper in a tie and white slacks, whose likeness to Bob Barker always requires a double take. He steadies his wife as she climbs the three steps to the altar rail. She steadies him right back when he rises from kneeling. 

The other couple just started coming to church in the past few months. She’s a bit shy but bright. Her husband teaches English and wears the Three Stooges down his tie. Their son is nearly 2 and so busy, eager to explore.

The older couple has faithfully attended the Episcopal church for nearly a century. On this Sunday morning, they carry in Tupperware containers of cheese spread and fruit, crackers and cookies. 

They haven’t sponsored coffee hour in years, she tells me. But the younger couple inspired her. They had signed up and brought snacks the Sunday before. 

“I thought if they were willing to help the church and they’ve only been here for a few months, then I could to.” 

I am certain that the older couple has a wealth of wisdom to share with this young couple. But for that moment, the young provided an example to the old. Too often those of us who are longtime members of a community weary of the obligations when those who are new to it, who are hungry for it, see obligation as opportunity. We forget what it’s like to be on the outside, to need a place for our souls to thrive. 

Too often we see evangelism as a one-way relationship – with those of us in the church bringing new people in to the congregation so their lives can be transformed. We practice evangelism in an old model of imperialism – as the superior savers of some poor, lost souls. 

But what happens when they save us right back?