BACK TO CHURCH SUNDAY 30th Sept

As many of you know on September 30th, Churches in this Diocese are joining churches across the land in a project know as Back to Church Sunday. This initiative began a few years ago in a Manchester. It was realised that there people who used to attend Church either in the parish or elsewhere who had for various reasons stopped being church goers. The incumbent thought that the congregation would know of people who might, if invited, come to Church for a special service. The congregation duly invited their guests to join them for a Church service with impressive results. Now that the idea has spread to Kidlington we are going to try it out.

At present there are special invitation cards for people to take and give to somebody, who with a little encouragement, might like to come to Church with them. It would help, I think, if there was an offer to accompany the guest to Church on that occasion. No persuasion is required and all that needs to be done is to make the invitation with a card that is provided in Church. We all want to see our congregations grow and this would seem a relatively easy way to achieve that aim. Trying to grow our congregations is not the work solely of the clergy; it is something we should all attempt to do. If we invite people and when people appear whom we do not recognise, we have a real duty of hospitality. So often we can ignore new people and think somebody else will look after them. Do we invite people to come to drink coffee with us after a service or do we just expect them to join the queue waiting to be served? Hospitality does not end on the first occasion somebody comes to Church. For some weeks, even months, it is difficult to break into a congregation so part of our hospitality is to keep making people feel welcome. If some new members of our congregation join us as a result of Back to Church Sunday it is very important that we continue to nurture them and to speak with them when they have been there for some weeks.

Another aspect of hospitality is taking them seriously and having the humility to listen to what they say. Sometimes newcomers see us in a less than flattering light and can make telling observations about the way we behave. If you care to look on the website of The Ship of fools you can find the comments of a visitor to various Churches. Two churches in Oxford have had this anonymous visitor. He comments on the hospitality and on the way the worship is conducted. Would we have the humility to accept the comments made about us? There is the concern that one Sunday we could receive such a visit and we would need to ask the question how would we fare?

Back to Church Sunday is both an opportunity and a challenge to us. To make ourselves attractive as a worshipping community we may need to make some changes in the way we worship and in the way we receive newcomers. What the Ship of Fools website reminds me is that we should welcome strangers whoever they may be, sometimes as the Epistle on September 1st reminds us we can entertain angels without knowing it!

Anthony

   Last changed Fri 7th Sept 2007