October 24, 2012

Late for the Party

I enjoy church crashing.

Or, to put it differently, I enjoy visiting different churches for Sunday morning worship. I love to worship through the unique lens a community has developed to seek and know God, to find out what mission and ministry they are engaged in, and to hear what makes them excited about being part of their faith community.

I refer to these jaunts as “church crashing”, a play on the phrase “crashing the party”, which means showing up when uninvited. Far too often I have encountered places that are not as welcoming as they purport to be and I have felt more like an itinerant interloper than a welcomed guest. That is, I have felt like I was crashing their party. Still, the good outweighs any negatives and I have always felt like I’ve gained more from the experience.

On a recent venture to a new church, I thought I was arriving with plenty of time before the service was scheduled to start. So much that I bought a cup of coffee and leisurely perused the neighborhood.

Much to my surprise, I walked into the church and found that the service had already started. No one was immediately at the back of the church, but I managed to catch the eye of an usher. He walked up, without a bulletin, and asked, “Can I help you?” Now more befuddled and searching for words, I quietly muttered, “Umm, I’m here for the service.” To which he replied, “You’re late, it has already started.”

Between my confusion over how I didn’t get my information correct and the lack of any welcome into the pews, my instincts kicked in and I walked out.

No worries, I thought, there is another Episcopal church nearby with an 11AM service.

However, I was mortified to walk into this next church and realize that I was wrong again. I was even later than I was for the first church I was at, with the sermon underway. For all the utility of smart phones, I had failed to check this pertinent detail. Thankfully, I didn’t have time to kick myself, as there were three ushers seated at the back and one had already gotten up. He quickly came over to me smiling with a bulletin, quietly welcomed me and directed me to the pews.

What a remarkable difference. I sat down, silently said a prayer, and joined in listening to the rest of the sermon.

What do I hope we can gain from this? Whether you have ushers or greeters, or a ministry that serves both purposes, this is your first line of personal contact that someone has with your congregation. Do your ushers stay near the entrance throughout your worship service? Plenty of people struggle or just simply can’t show up on time. Do we still welcome people, even if they can’t be perfect and show up as we want them to? My experience could have been a one-off and I still want to visit the church I walked out of. Regardless, it was a tremendously off-putting experience. What would an un-churched person walk away thinking from that experience?

We’re a church, not a club. Some attention and intentional discussion should be had toward how we’re receiving people for worship. Those at the doors are not bouncers, nor maître ds. Welcoming doesn’t need to be extreme. A smile and good morning can be just the ticket.