Soul Force

Invite Them In!

Rev. Paul Sprecher

Second Parish in Hingham, www.secondparish.org

February 21, 2010

^Readings

^{“Planning for Growth,”}^{in Big Ideas for Small
Congregations, Jane Dwinell and Ellen Germann-Melosh, pp. 158-159.}

If you do want to grow in numbers—because you think Unitarian Universalism has a saving message and not because more numbers may mean more money or helpers—take the time to look seriously at the culture of your congregation, your visibility, your worship style, your Religious Exploration programs, your organizational structure, and the commitment that you have to change. Change is hard work. It takes a level of commitment that many people don't have—just look at all the failed attempts to diet, quit smoking, and start exercising that come with every New Year's resolution. You have to want to change— all of you.

You also need to be honest about your desire for change and what you think that change will look like. Just as many dieters are unrealistic about what size they can be—some people will never be a dress size four—don't set up unrealistic expectations for your congregation. A more expressive, modern worship style may just be too stressful for you. Maybe the thought of lots of children in your sanctuary is just too much. You still need to be who you are—while being open and accepting of newcomers and the ideas they bring.

We believe there are six steps to change and growth.... Here's how to grow:

1. Determine what size you can be, how long it will take you to get there, and who you will attract.

2. Make sure your worship and your Religious Exploration programs are strong, interesting, and spiritually relevant.

3. Clean up any old conflicts or tensions that may drive away newcomers. Seek out help if you don't.think you can do this yourselves. Conflict is a tricky business.

4. Become truly hospitable. Check your appearance, parking, signage, order of service, newsletter, and guest information. Create a greeting and follow-up protocol.

5. Develop an organizational structure that will be the best one for the size you expect to be, and change your bylaws to reflect that structure.

^6.^{Through assessing your congregation's gifts and your
community's needs, com}^{mit to}^one^{mission (social
action) project that will express your faith and bring your congregation into
the life of your local community.}

^{NRS Luke
14:16-23 ‘}^{Then Jesus said to him, "Someone gave a great
dinner and invited many.}¹⁷^{At the time
for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come;
for everything is ready now.' 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The
first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see
it; please accept my regrets.' 19 Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of
oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.' 20 Another
said, 'I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.' 21 So the slave
returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became
angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the
town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.' 22 And the
slave said, 'Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.' 23
Then the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel
people to come in, so that my house may be filled.’”}

^Sermon

^{One of my colleagues
tells a story about a woman in her fifties who was invited to church by a
friend. Her husband had died, her children were well-launched but had moved to
other cities to take jobs in their professions, and she was lonely. She had
avoided going to church for much of her life because she no longer felt
comfortable in the tradition in which her parents had raised her. When she
came to the Unitarian Universalist church with her friend, however, she
immediately felt at home. She realized that she had found a community where
she could be true to her own beliefs while being part of a congregation where
she shared a commitment to her spirituality and to her need for friends and
companions. She joined one of the small groups that the church sponsored and
became active over the years in the church, serving on the parish committee,
ultimately as its chair. About ten years after she joined the church, she was
stricken with cancer and died six months later, surrounded by friends from her
congregation. Her one complaint during her years of membership was that no one
had gotten around to telling her about that church until she had suffered from
loneliness for a number of years. Why, she wondered, would people keep such a
wonderful community secret?}

^{We have identified
March 7th, two weeks from now, as “Bring a Friend Sunday, an occasion to share
our secret with others, for letting our light shine so that others can share
our good news.}

^{We Unitarian
Universalists often have a problem with letting others know what we as a church
and as a faith tradition have to offer. As a religious movement, we don’t want
to be like other traditions in reaching out to those who might want to hear our
saving message. We don’t feel comfortable “evangelizing,” sharing our good
news. Even “good news” can put us off, and using the word “evangelize” can
shock and repel us. Another colleague, John C. Morgan tells of a time when he
used “evangelism” in a sermon.}

^{As I was gathering
together my notes and heading for the coffee [he reports], I noticed out of the
corner of my eye that someone was marching toward me, face flushed, angry eyes
looking for a landing spot on my psyche.}

^{“Don’t ever use that
word here,” she said.}

^{“What word? I
asked innocently, already knowing from past experiences what she was going to
say.}

^{“Evangelism!” She
drew back as if the word itself had caught in her throat. I think it had.
“Don’t use it again. We have newcomers here today!”}

^{I wanted to ask how
newcomers had learned of this church if not from someone’s evangelism, but I
held my tongue.[i]}

^{The word makes us
uncomfortable because it’s associated in our minds with a certain kind of
evangelism and some stereotypes about proselytizing. Perhaps our image is
formed by radio or television preachers who peddle a set of doctrines that are
designed to make people afraid if they don’t have certain beliefs and hopeful
of healing and contentment if they do. Perhaps we dread the occasional visits
of Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking at our doors to spread their particular
interpretation of religion and it’s promises and obligations.}

^{There’s an old joke
about our Unitarian Universalist style of evangelism:}

^{“What do you call
someone who knocks repeatedly on your door for no apparent reason?”}

^{“I don’t know.”}

^{“A Unitarian
Universalist.”}

^{But we do have
many reasons to share our faith.}

^{A dictionary
definition of evangelism is something more like the practice of relaying
information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those
beliefs. It’s about sharing our gospel, which means literally our good news.
“Evangelism is sharing our dream with others in order to transform the world.”[ii]}

^{For Unitarian
Universalists – for us – this has several implications, according to John
Morgan:}

^·^{Evangelism is
sharing. It is not simply individualistic; we’re not preaching a gospel of
personal salvation, of saving your own soul regardless of what may happen to
others. Our good news is about sharing the journey, “with respect for each
person’s search for truth,” as our covenant puts it. Our good news is about
inviting someone like the lonely woman in our story before they’ve suffered
from years of loneliness.}

^·^{Evangelism begins
with a dream, a vision that has power to claim some ultimate demand on our
lives. Evangelism is not about selling a commodity; it’s about important
issues, such as how to live and how to die, to what causes we are committed,
and to whom we owe allegiance.}

^·^{Evangelism aims at
transforming the whole world to one bearing a closer resemblance to our
dreams. It’s not about shoving beliefs down someone’s throat, or about making
everyone think alike or believe alike. It’s about helping each other love
alike. We believe that the principles and purposes we express will make the
world a better place. Without this belief, it’s difficult to share our faith
with others, and that’s how we can play our part in transforming the whole
world to resemble our dreams.}

^·^{We have to
understand and be committed to the dream in order to share it. We need to know
enough about our history and be able to share our values to reach others.
Effective evangelists are bridges between the past and the future in the
present moment; they know the faith and are not afraid to share it.[iii]}

^{Evangelism doesn’t
come easy to us. Too often we think of our churches as sort of private clubs,
places where those who share a common set of cultural and intellectual values
can gather and welcome only those who are pretty much like ourselves. Our
Unitarian tradition has a particularly strong tradition of clubbiness. A story
is told from 150 years ago of a lady who visits a Unitarian church in Boston
and comes to admire the tasteful and fashionable hats worn by the ladies of the
church. She goes up to one of them and asks, “Where to you get these lovely
hats?” The other lady replies, “Unitarian ladies know where to get
their hats!”}

^{How will they know
unless we tell them?}

^{Our Universalist
forebears were not quite so proud or so shy about sharing their faith.
Universalist preachers and missionaries went out on the hustings, preaching the
good news that all would be saved, that none would be damned, that this life on
this earth is a place we can give thanks for and enjoy, not simply a vale of
pain and woe to prepare us for a better life hereafter. They were willing to
go toe to toe with evangelists from other traditions who were preaching
hellfire and damnation and to debate the other evangelists very publicly as
they shared their good news. We need to find more of that Universalist fervor
in our hearts and reach out to others who are scared and lonely and need the
spiritual home we have to offer.}

^{Our story for the
children told a tale of hospitality to a stranger in need. The poor ditch
digger and his wife had something to share with the wayfaring fairy, even if it
wasn’t very much. We have far more to offer, and we must not behave like the
rich man who wanted to keep what he had to himself. There’s a kind of selfishness
involved keeping our good news to ourselves, hiding our light under a bushel.
It’s true that we value our privacy with a vengeance; we are Yankees here,
after all – but this faith really is something to share.}

^{The Epistle to the
Hebrews reminds us “[Hebrews 13:2] Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by
doing so, some have entertained angels unawares.” We never know when a guest
at our services is an angel, and we owe it to each one to offer a welcome such
as the ditch digger and his wife from our story, who entertained a fairy
unawares and reaped a rich reward. But rewards come regardless – simply in the
act of sharing and reaching out we are rewarded.}

^{Our first reading this
morning suggested six steps for growing our congregation. How are we doing in
implementing them?}

· ^{First, determine what
size you want to be and decide how long it will take to get there.} I think we can be more intentional about growth; we need to figure out what to do to attract more people to join us and see what we have to offer. Invite a friend Sunday is a great opportunity to do that. We often think that more publicity is the answer, and it certainly helps, but in fact 80% of those who join congregations are there because someone invited them to come. Send a postcard, put out the word, invite those who don’t have a church of their own to join us in two weeks – just for starters. Over a quarter of the people in Massachusetts are unchurched, and a goodly number of those express a desire to be part of a congregation much like our own – if only someone would tell them about it.

· Second, make sure your worship and Religious Education programs are strong, interesting and spiritually relevant. I think we are strong in these areas, but we can always use refinement; the members of our Committee on Ministry – Stephanie Shute Kelsch, Baba Shetty and Heidi Brieger – are especially charged with receiving your suggestions about how we can do a better job in this and all areas of church life.

· Third, clean up any old conflicts or tensions that may drive away newcomers. Here I think we have been doing a good job over the past four years. We have on the whole avoided the divisiveness which has sometimes characterized our response to issues of personnel or property.

· Fourth, become truly hospitable. We like to think of ourselves as an open, welcoming community, but we need to avoid “insider” language and the sense that we are a family rather than a congregation. People join families when they are adopted. They join congregations when they are welcomed whole-heartedly and find a place among us where their spiritual and social needs will be met. We also need to do a better job of following up when guests join us, and that includes me; on the other hand, followup by members is generally more effective than followup by the minister, because guests become members just like you are – not ministers.

· Fifth, develop an organizational structure that will be best for the size you expect to be. The Leadership Board and a committee on by-laws are wrestling with the question of what changes may be required in our structure to be as effective as possible as we direct the work of this congregation.

· Lastly, through assessing your congregation’s gifts and community's needs, commit to one mission that will bring your congregation into the life of your local community. We have chosen this year to focus on the Interfaith Food Pantry which we have hosted here at Second Parish for some twenty years. Kids and adults joined enthusiastically in preparing bags for the Thanksgiving and Christmas deliveries from our Pantry, the food collection our members and those of other Unitarian Universalist congregations on the South Shore conducted three weeks ago was a smashing success – and the whole idea started with a suggestion from one of our members. We need to do more, but we’ve made an excellent start. Our Second Sunday offerings are also part of how we fulfill our mission to be of service to our neighbors, and your generosity has been outstanding. Those actions garner publicity and attract others who also want to make a difference in our community and the larger world by their actions.

These are all points of focus as we reach out to invite unchurched friends two Sundays from now. We’re preparing a postcard to make it easier to invite anyone you know, and you can mention that we have a special Sunday coming up to whoever you think might be looking for a church community like ours. Unlike the parable of the wedding that Jesus told, we don’t have to compel people to come in – but we do have to invite them. We have this venerable place in trust from our ancestors, and it is our job to help pass it along to the generations that will follow us.

Let me close with an affirmation of what we have to share by another colleague, Scott Alexander:

In a world with so much hatred and violence,
WE NEED A RELIGION THAT PROCLAIMS THE INHERENT WORTH AND DIGNITY OF EVERY PERSON.

In a world with so much brutality and fear,
WE NEED A RELIGION THAT SEEKS JUSTICE, EQUITY, AND COMPASSION IN HUMAN RELATIONS.

In a world with so many persons abused and neglected,
WE NEED A RELIGION THAT CALLS US TO ACCEPT ONE ANOTHER AND ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH.

In a world with so much dogmatism and falsehood,
WE NEED A RELIGION THAT CHALLENGES US TO A FREE AND RESPONSIBLE SEARCH FOR TRUTH AND MEANING.

In a world with so much tyranny and oppression,
WE NEED A RELIGION THAT AFFIRMS THE RIGHT OF CONSCIENCE AND THE USE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS.

In a world with so much inequality and strife,
WE NEED A RELIGION THAT STRIVES TOWARD THE GOAL OF WORLD COMMUNITY WITH PEACE, LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

In a world with so much environmental degradation,
WE NEED A RELIGION THAT ADVOCATES RESPECT FOR THE INTERDEPENDENT WEB OF ALL EXISTENCE OF WHICH WE ARE A PART.

In a world with so much uncertainty and despair,
WE NEED A RELIGION THAT TEACHES OUR HEARTS TO HOPE AND OUR HANDS TO SERVE.

Amen www.secondparish.org