Church and Welcoming Strangers

Today was the 75th Anniversary Celebration at our church. It was a lovely event. I preached from Ephesians 2:19-22, where Paul tells the Gentiles in the church at Ephesus that they are no longer foreigners and strangers (older translationship use the term Aliens :)) but that they are fellow members of the household of God. I talked about how important it is that we as a church embrace the newcomers in our midst.

One of the things we feature at ICB is a big bamboo cross. The story is here. The idea is that the bamboo is split in the middle and the hollow side of the cross is supposed to face out to demonstrate our congregation's openness to people in all stages of faith (or lack of faith).

Funny thing this morning. We noticed before church that the cross was displaying backwards. So instead of having the hollow side face out to represent openness - we put the solid side out. I guess that represents unwelcome? The thing is, I think we've been doing that for as long as I've been the pastor. That's three years. I suspect it has been going on since the congregation moved to the Christian College - that's five years! Thing is that no one has noticed in all that time.

Isn't that exactly what happens to churches. We try to be a welcoming place. We plan for it. We pray for it. We do everything in our power, but we engage in practices most of which we aren't even aware of that create an environment of unwelcome.

I think ICB is a pretty welcoming place. But then I'm an insider. We have to be vigilant about making sure we really are welcoming. After all - Jesus taught us to welcome the stranger.