A Public Church is a welcoming church.
But avoid repeating “welcome” too many times. Aren’t we overcompensating with our welcomes? They certainly communicate an anxiety to fill the vacant pews which are plainly evident. Everybody sees the sign out front which says, “All are welcome.” Take the words out. It would be more useful, and accurate, just to say, “English spoken here.”
Accordingly, be the welcome, don’t say it. Often, first off in the service, the pastor expresses special greetings to the visitors (regardless of whether there may be any that morning). The welcome refers to categories of people–gay and straight, black and white, married and unmarried–and sadly only brings to mind job postings by equal-opportunity employers.
Then follows a whole inventory of spiritual states–doubt, searching, alienation–which formerly would have barred you from church but now, correctly, are the very conditions welcomed. Yet, because no liturgy (except Unitarian and Baha’i) is premised on multiple beliefs, such a welcome, stated in that way, is plain dishonest, unless we abandon our theological assumptions altogether.
Although expressed in good faith and in the spirit of “extravagant hospitality,” as my denomination likes to say, the welcome speech does not remove serious impediments for the newcomer.
Consider that the entire service is effectively conducted in a foreign language, in “Godspeak.” We don’t need to apologize for that, obviously, but be aware that the over-use of “God” is an impiety making claims beyond what is biblically warranted. Moreover, God-language manifests itself in one of many possible dialects–for example, the evangelical or the Lutheran or the Presbyterian dialect. Liturgical words bear specific meanings to the initiates but feel like inside code to outsiders. The public church will edit, edit, edit!
Another impediment to the welcome occurs at times when people are called upon to participate–stand, sit, pray, sing, place money in the offering plate. They will hit newcomers as surprises. Perhaps a brief “stage direction” that locates the ritual moment in its spiritual context would be educational to the oldtimers as well as welcoming to the visitor.
To be honest, Sunday morning has really been designed and executed for the stakeholders. Why not accept that and devote our energies to attracting a public by creating, promoting and delivering independent public events (but not at worship time), say, four per year–TRULY public events. It could be a Hiroshima Memorial Sunday, Earth Day, MLK Day, or others we might create with another community organization. We present them as a public service, at the same time that they function as bridges to the sabbath service where visitors eventually arrive and perhaps in their turn become stakeholders.
Let’s just resolve to adjust our rhetoric to the public beyond our pews in a truly public way, and become the public church.
