Open Doors

Well, here we are at the end of our little mini-series. We’ve been discussing together what it means to have Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors and hopefully you’ve gotten a new perspective on the United Methodist promise. We began our journey together speaking of Open Hearts and we learned that open hearts are: loving, forgiving, serving, vulnerable and open to God. Last week we discussed Open Minds and learned that open minds are: questioning, learning, creative, accepting and open to God and Christ. Today we discuss the final part of the promise. We explore what it means to have open doors. While the first two areas of the promise were really more individual, the concept of open doors is more about the church as a whole.

This is probably the biggest challenge for us as a church because it means that we have to combine the use of our open hearts and open minds as individuals and make a commitment as a church to truly have open doors. Having “open doors” doesn’t mean that all of the doors in our church are physically open all the time. It does however mean that we give the appearance of being open, even when our doors are locked. We can have an “open doors” attitude without endangering our building, and that’s what we’re discussing today. A church with open doors is a church that is welcoming. A church with open doors is engaging. A church with open doors is ecumenical. A church with open doors practices hospitality. When we have open doors, we are open to what God can do in our community.

A church with open doors is welcoming. A church with open doors will be a place that feels warm and inviting to EVERYONE who chooses to walk through these doors, but it goes further than that. A church with open doors will also try to offer choices for worship and activities that speak to a variety of people, ages, backgrounds, and interests. We can make room in the ways we choose to do worship and in the places we practice worship. A welcoming church is wheelchair and walker friendly and has alternatives for the hearing and sight impaired. A welcoming church has no secrets. It instructs “outsiders” in the theology behind what is going on in the service, even if that is redundant for the members. Being welcoming also means welcoming every person who walks through the doors. Have you ever been in a church where it wasn’t welcoming? Maybe you walked in the front door and no one said hello to you, but they greeted their good friend who walked in behind you. Maybe you walked into the sanctuary and sat in someone’s “regular pew” and you were asked to move. Maybe you were looked at strangely because of what you chose to wear that morning, or worse maybe you were treated poorly because of your gender, your age, or the color of your skin. Maybe you felt so lost in the worship service that you wanted to leave. Have you ever felt that way when entering a church? In a welcoming church a person who has never set foot in the building before will feel “at home” when they are greeted. Did you know that the first ten minutes AFTER the worship service are the most important moments when a person is considering becoming part of a church? In a welcoming church, that 10 minutes is filled with intentional fellowship, invitations for further involvement, and personal interest in the guest. In a welcoming church, people are greeted, welcomed, and invited to take part in all of the activities we have available, but they are also welcomed again AFTER the service. A welcoming church is the kind of place that people are drawn to, that people will want to visit again and again, and that people will feel like part of the church before they even consider becoming members. A church that practices open doors is this kind of church—a welcoming church.

A church with open doors is engaging. This might sound strange, but a church with open doors engages the world outside of its doors in such a way that it becomes a valued part of the whole community. A church with open doors remembers that the doors of the church open both ways…both inwards and outwards. The doors open inward to let people in, but the doors open outward so that God’s word can be taken out into the community. A church with open doors engages the surrounding community. Engaging the community does not mean that we set up shop and do things FOR the community. It’s not about offering service to the community. While that IS part of it, that’s not what I mean by engaging. A church that engages the community does things WITH the community… with the community in the forefront of its thoughts and actions. An engaging church is willing to meet and connect with unreached people where they are. Engaging the community is not something we do. Rather it is something that happens when our intentions are to: build trust in one another, become comfortable together, learn how to understand each other, create working relationships that cut across traditional boundaries, and develop a sense of identity with those with whom we are working. Engaging the community is creating a partnership with the community outside the doors of any organization, and a church with open doors will engage their community in a way the not only grows the community but grows the church. St. Sabina’s catholic church in Chicago is an example of a church that has engaged its community. Faced with financial trouble and near closure, St. Sabina’s and their Pastor Father Phleger made a commitment to revitalize their neighborhood. In so doing, the church has not only brought businesses and people back to their area, they have increased their membership and have been able to pay off all of their debts. In addition to offering a church and parish school, St. Sabinas offers shelter programs, prison out reach, social services, senior housing, and an employment resource center. Through engaging the community, St Sabina’s has built it’s community up out of ruin and contributed to the lives of countless people. This is an example of an engaging church. A church with open doors engages the community in as many ways as possible outside of the doors and in doing so, they invite people to come inside the doors and become a part of the church. A church with open doors is engaging.

A church with open doors is ecumenical. A church with open doors will not only welcome members from diverse faith backgrounds, but will work together in harmony with other denominations and faiths to provide service to the community and to each other. Ecumenism is a concept that is difficult for many to grasp, as we all seem to have “marked our ecclesial territory” and often find ourselves embroiled in battles of “they don’t believe what I believe” kind of situations. Being ecumenical means that we put our denominational and other structures on the back burner and put our common beliefs in God and community in the forefront, working towards common goals in ways that uplift and encourage all of the churches that do the work. This is not without problems however; as there are some who believe that their version of the faith is the “one true way” and all others should be condemned. One-true-wayism however, does not edify God’s kingdom on earth and does not benefit the whole of humanity. A church that practices open doors will gladly work with other churches to celebrate what they have in common and grow in understanding of their differences through service, praise, worship, and working towards common community goals. While this is not always easy, a commitment to work ecumenically helps open the hearts and minds of congregants and therefore helps open the doors of the church to the community at large. A church with open doors is ecumenical.

A church with open doors practices hospitality. Hospitality is the act of making others welcome through love and acceptance. While welcoming is a part of hospitality, hospitality takes the act of welcome one step further. Letty Russell says that “hospitality is an expression of unity without uniformity. Through hospitality, community is built out of difference not sameness.” To me, the best illustration for this understanding of hospitality comes from the movie Lilo and stitch. In the movie, we meet Lilo, a strange little orphan girl who feels friendless, and we meet stitch, a blue alien monster who is bent on destroying everything in his path. The two are joined when Lilo adopts Stitch as her dog and finds in him someone to talk to, someone to share things with and confide in, and someone who relieves the pain and loneliness she feels. And Stitch, in the care of Lilo, realizes his own aloneness, and his need for love and acceptance. A word that keeps getting repeated in the movie is, to me, the definition of hospitality in Christian community. OHANA…Ohana means family, family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. Practicing hospitality means that we ensure that no one is left behind or forgotten. It means that we struggle to work through differences without demeaning those we strive to include. We must value diversity of perspective because unity doesn’t mean that we agree on everything. It does mean that everyone is invited to share and that no one is left behind or forgotten. Being a church with open doors means practicing this spirit of ohana…it means doing what ever we can to make sure no one who walks through our doors gets left behind or forgotten. It means that we are a church that place a high value on treating people with hospitality. A church with open doors practices hospitality.

A church that is truly welcoming, fully engages the community, works ecumenically, and practices hospitality will not only open its doors to the community it serves, but will be open to all that God can do. We heard in today’s Gospel lesson: knock and the door will be opened. We are promised that God will provide good things if we but ask. Well, we also have to be the ones DOING the door-opening and providing the good things. This is what it means to be an open-doored church and doing so will bring us not only closer to those we serve, it will bring us closer to God.

How do we become this church? This place of open doors? How does Court Street United Methodist church become a church that truly practices open doors?

Well, the first thing we do is work on practicing open hearts and open minds. Once we individually have open hearts and open minds, we can begin to focus on open doors. We can begin to work on being welcoming, engaging our community, being ecumenical, and practicing hospitality.

We can be welcoming. We can be the kind of church that makes a first time guest feel like a member of our family. Remember, the first 10 minutes AFTER a service are the most important to a guest. What we do during those ten minutes can mean the difference between having someone visit and having someone be a member. We can also remember that someone new to our church might not know how communion “works” or what version of the Lord’s prayer we use. We don’t want anything we do here to seem like a secret to someone who might be visiting. We might have to step out our own comfort zones, and we might have to encourage others to step out of theirs. We might have to shuffle the pews on Sunday mornings so that people can feel comfortable sitting where they wish. We might have to explore ways of worshipping and teaching that engage people who learn in different ways. We might have to sing songs that are old favorites in the same service that we sing a song that might be more “contemporary”. Everything we say and do in our worship can be an act of grace and can welcome people into our church and into closer relationship with God. We can do small things in big ways that make every person…members, non members, guests, friends…everyone…feel welcome in our sanctuary, in our building, and in our little corner of Rockford. We can be welcoming.

We can engage our community. We can open our doors to the community in ways that help us to not only grow in membership, but in ways that help us reach beyond our doors and to the community in which we operate. As I said before, engaging the community doesn’t mean doing things FOR the community as much as it means doing things WITH the community. Engaging our community might also mean that we realize who our community really is. Who is the community around our Church? What are we doing to engage that community? How can we be more welcoming of the world that exists around our building? I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I know that the hustle and bustle of 9-5 Monday through Friday that we see out there happens around our church and doesn’t happen IN our church. What can we do to engage the world out there? Whatever we choose, we must remember that our community is part of who we are and we must engage our community.

We can strive to work more ecumenically. We can join with the other churches in our neighborhood and our community to do good work together. We already do this to some extent…we work together on community causes and neighborhood ministries. We also just finished a huge joint effort with our downtown vacation bible school program. We put aside denominational issues and politics and focused on the children we were serving. We can continue this and other projects like it. We can share our facilities. We can get involved in activities other churches have going on. We can look past the “us” verses “them” mentality and think more in terms of “Downtown Churches” or “Rockford Churches”. Afterall, even though we may believe differently, it is one God that we are serving. A church with open doors is ecumenical.

We can practice hospitality. As easy as this might seem, it’s a lot harder in practice than in theory. Hospitality takes all of the other aspects of “open doors” and pushes them one step forward. When we create a hospitable atmosphere , we create that spirit of “ohana” that I spoke of earlier. Here at Court Street, we are actually good at providing hospitality. The UMW women who serve at funerals and are always willing to bake cookies are perfect examples of how we provide hospitality. The 5:12 café is another example of hospitality. If you haven’t been to a 5:12 service and stayed for the delicious treats and wonderful atmosphere that the Galloways create during the café, you should come visit, just so you can see this hospitality in action. The most powerful thing we can do to create an atmosphere of hospitality is to simply change ONE word in our thinking. If we begin to think of everyone who walks through our doors as our GUESTS…rather than visitors, friends, or outsiders…if we treat everyone as a GUEST rather than a stranger, we can think in terms of hospitality. A church with open doors practices hospitality.

If we can do all these things…become a church that has truly open doors, then we can open ourselves up to what God is doing here at Court Street and out there ON Court Street. Our promise of open hearts, open minds, and open doors is clear…and it is spelled out in Isaiah. We are to let the oppressed go free, share our bread with the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked. We are supposed to restore the streets we live in! This is the call of Isaiah and this is what it means to have open doors. And when we say we have open doors, we need to actually have OPEN doors. We have started this process with the Wednesday open doors meditation time…but there is more to be done. We don’t have to keep all of the doors in the building open and unlocked at all times—that’s not what I’m saying, but we do have to at least give the appearance of having open doors. We need to show our neighborhood that Court Street UMC is a more than just “that big old church on the corner”—and every time we close our doors to those who would enter here, every time we do something that doesn’t welcome…doesn’t serve…doesn’t nurture our community, I remind us of these words from the Gospel of Matthew…

And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

May we never be the church that closes its doors to the least of these…may we never be the church that doesn’t serve Christ in our work. I pray that together we can become a church that truly lives up to the promise of Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open doors.

Amen.