Look around the whole place. What meets the visitors’ eyes? Will they feel invited into our ministry in the larger world?
The pictures on the wall, for instance. At my home church, 13 of the 17 framed photos hanging in the vestibule and the hallways and the fellowship room are of the building or sanctuary at one point or other in our history. The message here could be, not that we worship in this space, but that we worship the space!
The dominant picture in our fellowship hall is an oversize version of Warner Sallman’s well-coiffed and placid Head of Christ (1940), a living-room-style portrait loved by many a white congregation of yesteryear. Because so many grew up with this now out-dated image, its popularity forbids replacement by something more representative of Jesus as we have come to know him, “as if for the first time,” in the gospels.
What else meets the eye of the visitor? Ah, the bulletin board. Often overcrowded with dog-eared notices, maybe you have someone who keeps close watch over it and keeps it tidy and up to date, so that our work in the world beckons to others.
And signage? I see that we are doing much better these days on posting clear identifiers of space and directions to other spaces. Nothing worse for a visitor than to be lost in a strange place, unless it’s also to get the impression that anyway the members here are familiar with their private club.
Look around with the eyes of a non-member, and see what message you get.