Tom's September 2003 article

Article from Epistle to the Presbyterians, September 2003

by Thomas A. Sweet

I subscribe to a publication that culls interesting quotations and ideas from a wide range of books, periodicals, newspapers, and journals and then packages them together into a newsletter. Earlier this summer, one of the entries was an advertisement run by a Roman Catholic parish in Oklahoma in a local newspaper. It said, “We welcome people who are single, twice-divorced, under 30, gay, filthy rich, black and proud, poor as dirt, can’t sing, no habla Ingles, married with pets, older than God, more Catholic than the pope, workaholic, bad speller, soccer moms, screaming babies, three-times divorced, passive-aggressive, obsessive-compulsive, tourist, seekers, doubters, bleeding hearts…oh, and you!” Now THAT’S hospitality! What a wonderfully eclectic mix and mass of humanity. Room for all. Welcome to everyone.

True hospitality, of course, does not take place in newspaper come-ons or church mission statements. Hospitality happens in our hearts. Hospitality happens when we “see” the presence of God in other persons and peoples, when we know them to be as much a part of God’s human family as we ourselves are and so treat them with generosity and compassion. I believe unequivocally that the best marker of how far along we are on the journey to which Christ calls us both as individuals and as a congregation is the extent of our hospitality.

As a congregation, we have offered hospitality to many groups and people in our community who use our facilities. Just in the past year we have welcomed Jamestown Harmony Express (Barbershoppers), Jamestown Juneteenth Committee, Society for Creative Anachronism, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Blackwell Chapel AME Zion Church, Creche, Koinonia, Mozart Club, AIDS Community Services, Community Music Project, Universal Pre-K of the Jamestown Public Schools, Pipe Organ Excursion, JHS Marching Band, Jamestown Newcomers Club, Peer Care Connection, Safe House of Chautauqua County, Jamestown City Council PTA, Southwestern Central School Baccalaureate, North Main Street Church of God. We have financially supported St. Susan’s Soup Kitchen, Kids@Promise, Reachout Ministries, Joint Neighborhood Project, Birdie Turner House for Women and Children, Safe House of Chautauqua County, Union Gospel Mission, Jamestown Community Learning Center, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children), Bread for Life, YMCA Camp Onyahsa, WNY Shooting Stars Basketball Program, Infinity, Peer Care Connection, YWCA- Get in the Game, Westminster Food Pantry, Blackwell Chapel, Habitat for Humanity; Judson Fellowship, Chautauqua County Jail Chaplaincy, ACP, Children’s Love Fund and a host of other mission endeavors throughout the region and the world through our annual giving to the Presbytery of Western New York, the Synod of the Northeast, and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). In addition, save for three or four of the projects listed above that our church supports financially, we also have members of our church directly involved in each one.

Within our congregation, we also have tried to deepen our hospitality to you who already are members. Within the last several years, we have called Shari Erickson to be our parish nurse who has been invaluable in helping many of our members to navigate life transitions. (Call her!) We have become a “Stephen Minister Church” with twelve specially-trained Stephen Ministers which means that you never have to walk alone through life’s difficulties, devastations, or challenges. (Call Shari, Joanne Nelson, Catherine Willard!) Seeking to deepen our ministry to youth and their families, we are thrilled to welcome Beth Babel to our staff as Director of Youth and Family Ministry. (Call her!)

Another way in which our congregation is planning to deepen our “church family hospitality” this fall is by engaging in an “Every Member Conversation.” It has been more than a decade since First Presbyterian has conducted an “every member canvass” during stewardship campaign season, opting instead for a more low-key approach to giving. Truth-in-advertising requires me to tell you that our “Every Member Conversation” is also about money- PARTIALLY. Our church cannot continue to thrive without the financial participation of every member in our ministry. BUT, we also want to talk with each member about your perceptions of the church, your experiences, your expectations. There is growing recognition and respect for our church’s ministry in the wider community (The Buffalo News called to tell me it wants to send a reporter and photographer to First Pres on September 7 to do a story on our church), and we want your church membership to be meaningful as well.

Sometimes in churches members complain that “they only want to see me when they are asking for money.” Two responses to that: First, the church is not “they” but “we.” There is no church apart from its members. There is no “us”-“them”-“they” in the church. Church membership in our country is not forced on anyone. Likely we have joined for a variety of reasons, but all of us who are members of the church have made a voluntary decision to be such (hopefully as a response to Christ’s call) and all of us promise to support the church’s ministry. Thus, each of us should expect to be called on to offer our support.

Second, each of us has a standing invitation from the church to be in worship Sunday mornings. Please read this as a personal invitation to you to be present as often as possible for worship beginning September 7 at 10:30. The sanctuary of God is the primary place where our church community gathers. Here is where we experience the joy of being a church. Here is where the awe and wonder and challenge of the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached and prayed and sung. Here is where we support each other and befriend one another. Here is where we are commissioned and sent into our world, into our week ahead, to bless our community and those we meet with love, compassion, integrity, and hope. We do not want to see you only when we are asking each other to support our church. We want to see you most of all in worship.

But there are other invitations as well for your participation: women’s circles, youth ministry, choirs, mission projects, adult education, fellowship suppers, teaching, office volunteers, dreaming our next steps, committees, becoming a Stephen minister, book groups, starting a new men’s group, prayer team, cleaning the sanctuary, visiting our homebound members, taking communion to those who cannot be present in Sunday worship, stirring up a group to take on some of the ills of society, befriending a child, etc., et. al, ad infinitum!

There is so much to commend this church. Thank you, God! But you cannot know that from the sidelines. And we are diminished by each one who does not participate, at least in worship. Read no guilt into this, only invitation. We want you! September 7 is Rally Day, Coming Together Day, Homecoming Sunday…whatever you want to call it. We start with breakfast at 9:30; worship at 10:30. See you then if not before!

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all!

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