Welcoming the Guests
One Sunday night several years ago, at a church I served as a youth minister, I was waiting with our youth ministry volunteers for students to arrive for UMYF (United Methodist Youth Fellowship). We met upstairs and kept the front door to the church locked for safety reasons. I had one adult volunteer that I would assign each night to welcome students at the door and direct them to the youth room. UMYF began at 5:30 PM and at about 5:35 one of my volunteers pointed out to me how odd it was that so few kids had showed up. I few seconds later I received a text message from one of my students that several of them were outside in front of the church waiting to be let in. It turns out that my adult volunteer got distracted by a conversation with another volunteer in the church kitchen and forgot about greeting students at the door. It was a simple mistake yet points out to me how often a simple job we have been assigned can be so critical to an organization’s success. Imagine if the students arrived to a locked door and simply decided to leave. Fortunately for our youth ministry this was not a typical occurrence, and our students knew to wait.
Today, we may look around the church and wonder why so few people are showing up anymore. Sure COVID-19 took its toll on church attendance, but the downward trend of church attendance has been happening for a long time. Why? The answer to that question, I believe, is that we have failed in the one job we have been given. In John 15:9-12, Jesus says, “As the Father loved me, I too have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you.” Jesus has given us one job to love each other just as Jesus has loved us!
The modern perception of Christians is that we are hateful, judgmental hypocrites and I don’t think that perception is unfair. I cringe every time I hear about someone who has said something racist or hurtful to another human being while having a description of being Christian in their social media biography. I grow weary of reading another article about a Christian that has chosen violence instead of peace during a dispute. Our faith is not something we use to justify ourselves as more righteous and better deserving of favor than people we consider lost. Our faith, instead, should be a reminder of how we are to love and how we are to put others first. After Jesus gives the command to love on another as he has loved us, he says this in verse 13, “No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for another.”
Why has church attendance in the Christian faith been declining? It is because we have locked others outside by neglecting our one job. This Sunday, June 18th, we will continue this conversation as we discover that God has work for us to do and we need to get to it.
In God’s grip,
Pastor Chuck Church
