DISCIPLESHIP:  BUILDING PATHWAYS OF BELONGING

1 Corinthians 1:4-9

selections from Luke: 4:16-18a, 5;27-30, 8:1-3, 11:1-4, 13:11-13, 14:25-27,18:15-16

June 15, 2008   -  Rev. Janet Robertson Duggins

 

 

It’s not hard to find things we like about our church, is it?

 

We like the atmosphere of warmth and caring.  We like the music.  We like the gracious and dedicated ministry of our deacons.   We like the opportunities to have thoughtful discussions about scripture and about topics of interest, including some tough topics.  We like that our children learn to worship by worshipping in the Children and Worship program.   I understand that some people even like the sermons sometimes! 

 

The same is probably true for people in lots of other churches, who, like us, love the place in which they worship and the community they worship with.

 

But it’s not uncommon, at the same time, to hear church members who love their churches asking “But why doesn’t our church grow?”  The question is one of genuine (and very understandable!) puzzlement:  they see good people, good programs, genuine love for God, real caring for each other, thoughtful concern for the world… but it doesn’t seem to lead to growth.

 

Probably you’ve heard similar questions voiced here, with the same kind of puzzlement.  I know I have.  And I confess to sometimes having that same bewilderment.    I think, “maybe we need to change some of the things we do… but which ones?  and how should they be different?

 

There is no single or simple answer to these questions.  There are lots of factors that affect whether or how much or how a church grows in the number of people who make up its worshipping and ministering community. 

 

Some churches choose to sidestep these questions –asserting that they’re not important, ignoring them,  resigning themselves to an inevitable decline, or simply hoping-against-hope that sometime in the future we will see a growth trend again.

 

Our Session doesn’t want to take any of those paths of avoidance.  Lately the members of the session – and some other folks as well – have been thinking about these issues.   We expect to continue exploring them over the next year or so.    Jerry and I have been doing some reading and thinking about these questions, too.  You might have figured that out from the sermon topics this spring and summer!   When we learn new things we like to share.   And we have been learning some things.

 

There are lots of reasons why churches grow or don’t grow, of course, and each one could be a sermon.   I’m only focusing today on one of the things I’ve become aware of.  It may be the most important though.  What I’ve come to understand is that very often church members are absolutely right about how great their church is – the programs and ministries, the relationships, the worship services.  Most churches – ours included, I think – are doing lots of things right.

 

Often the obstacle to growth is not that the ministries or relationships are flawed or lacking; the obstacle may be that it’s not so easy as we assume for people to actually get connected with those programs and relationships.

 

This sort of puts me in mind of one of my favorite books from childhood, The Secret Garden.   In this book, a lonely little girl discovers a walled-off garden with no entrance to be seen.  She can see the tops of blossoming bushes over the wall and hear birds twittering in the garden, and she’s intrigued.  She is sure that the garden is a wonderful, magical place, and in fact it does become a place of healing and transformation… but only after, with much persistence and a little luck, she manages to find her way in. 

 

Now that makes for a lovely story about a very special garden;  for a church, it’s not such a lovely image.   It ought not to take persistence and luck for an interested person to find his or her way into the program, ministry, worship, and relationships of a congregation.

 

But sometimes it can be like that (or it can seem like that,) for somebody who’s new.

 

The great ministries and programs and opportunities of a church – even sometimes the content of the faith a community professes – can be like walled garden rooms -  potentially interesting, maybe even life-changing, but not so easy to find one’s way to the inside.

 

This is not, of course, what Jesus calls his church to be like.

 

We need to be about more than great worship, programs and ministries, more than warmth and loving relationships, more even than a rich spirituality rooted in good theology and biblical understanding.  We need to be about building pathways of belonging.  You will understand, of course, that by that I don’t mean figuring out how to get people to join the church and get their names on the rolls.  I mean avenues that enable people to find their way in… to genuine community in which they are helped and supported in finding connection with Christ.   Because it’s near to impossible for us to help anybody develop and grow in a life of discipleship, of following Jesus, until they begin to feel they belong.  And that means making room not just in the building but in our hearts and our lives for them.

 

I know that it’s easier to just enjoy being with those we know.  I know it feels good to be surrounded by familiar faces.  I know that change is difficult and inviting someone new into the circle is to invite change.  I know that there are a number of us who like our church “just the way it is;”  I know that because I’ve heard some of you say it.   I sympathize, I really do.  In spite of the fact that I can stand up here and talk without any problem, I’m actually pretty shy and feel most comfortable in very small groups of people I know very well. 

 

But how we feel sometimes has very little to do with the truth.  We may feel that we like the idea of a tight-knit group for our church, we may feel that it’s good for us, we may even feel that we are entitled to it… but it’s still not what Christ wants for his church.  In fact, it’s not really even good for us:  think about the fact that others welcomed and discipled you into the church and into faith.  Think about the enriching relationships you have now with people you once did not know.  And think about the nature of the gospel:  good news is meant to be shared.

 

As I was thinking about this, I got to thinking about Jesus’ life.  You know, we so often think of Jesus going around and spending a lot of his time in the company of a close group of 12 friends; maybe you picture Leonardo DaVinci’s last supper painting.   But the gospels actually paint a broader picture.   In fact, a lot of scholars consider that “12” was largely a symbolic number linking Jesus’ ministry with the history of Israel’s 12 tribes.  MANY more than 12 people are called disciples or followers of Jesus:  There was Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea; there were the siblings Mary, Martha and Lazarus,  There was Mary Magdalene, and the other women who sometimes traveled with Jesus and helped out by sharing their resources.  And then there were people Jesus healed who followed him.   All of them included because the company of Jesus’ followers was by its nature, because of his message, a constantly-growing community.

 

I also got to thinking about Jesus’ ministry, and about how many different ways he made connections with people.  Some people he healed.  Some he fed.  Some he challenged with uncomfortable but undeniable truths.   He talked theology.  He told stories.  He spoke to some people in the houses of worship.  He spoke to others on hillsides, or on the streets, or at supper tables.   He blessed and welcomed children into his presence, which no doubt made their parents feel welcome, too. 

 

So far as I can tell, there was no “evangelism” committee charged with a list of “outreach” responsibilities.  Outreach was a part of it all.

 

I don’t think outreach, membership growth, or disciple-making happens through assigning a set of tasks to a committee.   It happens as we together make it our business to clear and create and maintain pathways of belonging into all the ministries and relationships we value in our church.

 

We need to think about how someone new to our church would learn more about the basic beliefs of the Christian faith.  We need to think about how somebody who felt a call to minister to children or help the poor could get started.  We need to think about how someone longing for Christian friends could find some here.  We need to think about how somebody who feels lost might find his or her way back to God.

 

When we think of ways to welcome newcomers to Westminster we naturally think in terms of Sunday morning worship, and greeting them before or after the service.   That’s a good place to start but pathways to a real sense of belonging have to lead more deeply into the many different ways we can and do share our lives with each other. 

 

What if we thought about every single thing that happens in this building or under the sponsorship of the church as a potential pathway of belonging …  not just to this congregation, but to Jesus and his church?

 

Could we think of the Knitting and Prayer group that way?  Or the choir?  or Wednesday morning Bible study or Wednesday night volleyball?  Serving lunch at Ministry with Community  and the social outings on the second Saturday of every month?   Third Age?  Vacation Bible School?  a Building and Grounds workday?   the depression support group?  a book discussion group?

 

Any of those potentially could become a pathway of belonging to someone.   The problem is that until you’ve been to it, you might not know how well one has to be able to knit to join the group, or what level of knowledge the Bible study assumes, or where to go at Ministry with Community, or what age is the “third age.”   Pathways of belonging need to be intentionally planned, and for the most part they need to involve making personal connections.  How else can we get to know enough about someone to understand how he or she may want or need to connect?  How else will they know they are really welcomed, by people, and not just by a bulletin announcement?

 

What if we really thought outside the box?  would it be too hard to include a new person or someone you don’t know well in your lunch plans after church?    to ask “is there anything I can pray for for you?”, and then to really remember to pray?    What if every time you connected with someone new to the church or not previously known to you, you made a point of introducing that person to someone else?   What if you could be sure it was ok to offer the ministry of our deacons or the pastoral care of one of the pastors to an acquaintance in need?    What if we spent time at every meeting, and as part of the planning for any program or event, asking questions like “how will we make a newcomer feel welcome?” or “who can we invite who’s never been part of this before, and how shall we do that?” 

 

I believe that developing the habit of thinking this way would radically change the way we do things as a congregation.  And yet (as some of the church growth experts like to say) “it isn’t rocket science.”   It’s not even new.  It’s radical only in the truest sense of that word, in that it returns us to our “roots” – that’s what radical means, getting to the root of something – to our roots in Jesus’ call to “make disciples.”