A CHURCH WITH
LOTS OF DOORS
Luke 14:15-24
July 13, 2008 - Rev. Janet Robertson Duggins
People who study churches describe some churches as “front door churches” and others as “side door churches.” They aren’t describing the location of the main door to the building. What they mean by that is that in some churches the main way people come to have their first interaction with the church is by attending a Sunday morning worship service. That would be a “front door church.” Most advertising, signage, brochures and such put out by a front door church will stress the times of its church services and what those services have to offer those who attend, such as great music, distinctive preaching, or a certain kind of atmosphere.
Most churches are front door churches, probably. We know that lots of people, perhaps most of the people who decide to visit a church like ours, come for the first time to attend a worship service. For many people, that’s the best way to find out what a church is like. We recognize this, so naturally we try to do a good job of providing a welcome to them: someone at the door to say hello, the words of prayers that might be unfamiliar are printed in the bulletin, information about what’s going on in the church, an invitation to have a cup of coffee afterward. A welcome is more than those things, of course: you all keep hearing us remind you that the welcome you extend to someone new is just as important as the coffee or anything I might say.
Since we do put a lot of effort into a Sunday morning welcome, sometimes we who have been part of a church for a long time may forget that a Sunday morning worship service might not be the best way to invite or introduce everybody into the Christian community, much less into a life of following Jesus. For a lot of people, Sunday morning church has simply never been a part of their world or their routine. Some people have had a negative experience of “church” or just a boring one. Others might be a curious but intimidated by what’s unfamiliar to them. A lot of people assume that faith is old-fashioned, and they can’t picture how it could be relevant to them.
Should we be concerned about how the church could ever reach any of those folks? In particular, should we be concerned about this perceived lack of relevance? Concerned enough to change anything we do? I know that there are some who say we are not called to be relevant, just to be faithful. I say, “baloney.” I say that to be faithful to the gospel requires that we care about being relevant. NOT because we need to change our identity or our message to make it relevant, but because we understand that the gospel IS relevant, and we know we had better be careful not to make it irrelevant. We need to make sure the way we proclaim the good news of Jesus makes it possible for people to see and hear and feel the power of Jesus’ love, and to know that it’s for them.
Our religious foremothers and forefathers might be surprised if they were able to visit churches today and find in them such things as:
support groups
parenting classes
financial management seminars
food pantries and clothes closets
senior centers
voter registration drives
exercise groups
parish nurses
counseling
preschool and playgroups
book clubs
concerts
after-school programs
rock bands
connections with people of very different faith traditions through groups like
ISAAC who work to make changes in our community
coffee as good as at the cool local coffee shop, and fairly traded besides
I suppose there are still some people who wonder what on earth these things have to do with church, or why we don’t just focus on more traditionally “religious” activities – church services, choir, Bible study, prayer, funerals.
But such things provide “doorways” into the life of the Christian community for people who might not know how or why worship or Bible study might be relevant to their lives… but who do know that they have needs of one sort or another and may be looking for someplace nearby where somebody knows that people have those needs. A church that makes a point of having a number of these other ways for people to connect with its ministry is a “side door” church.
There’s always some danger that a church which provides many
points of connection might lose its grasp on the real, core purpose of the
church, which of course is not coffee or music or groups or programs or services
of any kind, but making
disciples. A church that
forgets THE main mission of the church is bound to lose its focus and lose its
way. But when a church’s life and
ministry includes health ministries as well as the sacraments, parties as well
as hymn singing, tutoring for kids as well as
The other really important thing to note about the “side doors” is that they can open possibilities for relationships which probably are not so readily available just through attending Sunday morning worship. People come to church looking primarily for two things: First, a sense of meaning or connection with God. A worship service can offer that. But the second thing people are looking for is relationships – real friendship, not just polite coffee hour “hellos.” That’s not so easy in the larger crowd setting of Sunday morning worship and the short time before and after.
The sad truth about mainline churches is that most churches like ours regularly receive at least a few new members… but we lose lots of them as fast as we gain them. Some people call this the “back door” effect. Why does this happen? The main reason is that many folks who start out interested in being part of a Christian community don’t end up forming real relationships that keep them connected.
So… more ways to connect – more doors – is really all about living out the mission Jesus gave to his church: making disciples. I hope we want to strive to have lots of doors to our church – both front door and side doors. But here’s the thing: we can’t just have the doors; they have to be really and truly open. It has to be possible for people who aren’t here yet to find the doors and find their way in. This means that simply having worship, having a choice of services, having various kinds of programs and groups and opportunities isn’t enough. When people come through the doors they need to find themselves truly welcomed and cared about and listened to and befriended and given a place where they can belong and grow and give. But first, they have to be invited in.
Jesus’ parable about the great banquet offers some interesting insights about this idea of inviting.
Right off the bat it acknowledges something we may not like to admit: No matter how fabulous the party – no matter how great the program, ministry, caring, music, sermons, whatever – not everybody is gonna want to come. There are all kinds of reasons, and some of them aren’t very good reasons. Some folks just don’t have that sense of need. For some, there are other distractions. Others maybe need or want something that we can’t offer them. But never mind that: there are others, Jesus points out, who would be glad to be invited, who do need or want something we can offer. They just might not be the people we have thought of inviting.
To me, one of the most striking phrases in this story is what the dinner party host says to his messengers: “Go out and compel them to come in.” Compel is a strong word. The point is a wholehearted effort, and genuine desire. This may be of particular relevance for people like us whose church is not in a highly visible location. Our desire to be inviting is not going to be communicated to large numbers of people by a welcoming building or a message on a sign out front. So we have to go out of our way to communicate. We have to make that extra effort. We have to care about sharing the love of Christ in a way that is compelling. Probably we shouldn’t get too literal about the idea of using force here! The parable’s point is not that God wishes to – or that we should – control or manipulate anyone. The point is God’s desire to share the party with as many as possible. We hesitate about that sometimes; our lives often feel pretty full already, and we aren’t always sure we can make room in them for new relationships. The parable invites us to God’s generous, open-hearted vision – there is room, and we want new friends to fill it.
It seems likely that Jesus means to literally suggest that his people will make a habit of inviting those in need to dinner. It’s true, certainly, that our communities are probably pretty different from the little towns of Jesus’ day, where most everybody knew everybody else and meals were eaten with the doors open to the sight of all passersby. Hospitality in our society is a bit more complicated. But the point is not so hard to see: don’t just ask your friends and people just like you; widen your circle, especially to include the needy and the lonely, But this being a parable, we know it’s not just about dinner; it’s about the kingdom of God, and so it’s about the church, too.
This is in fact the kind of dinner party the church is. We are pretty often in denial about this, and so we present to the world an image of respectability, and self-sufficiency, and having-it-all-together-ness… but the nature of Jesus’ kingdom of God movement is that we are a motley crew – people with all kinds of backgrounds and needs and flaws and failures and differences who have been dragged in by Jesus’ persistent love.
Tom Wright, in a new commentary on Luke’s gospel, writes this:
Christians [today] reading this [parable] anywhere in the world must work out in their churches and families what it would mean to celebrate God’s kingdom so that the people at the bottom of the pile, at the end of the line, would find it to be good news. It isn’t enough to say that we ourselves are the people dragged in from the country lanes, to our surprise, to enjoy God’s party. That may be true; but party guests are then expected to become party hosts in their turn.”
Amen
Resources: Luke for Everyone, by Tom
Wright
The Engaging Church, by Charles Arn and Allen Ratta