Tim Garthwaite writes
The holiday is safely over. One of the allegedly "worst Mondays in the year" was put to bed this week and life returns to normal. We have even survived whatever New Year resolutions we might have briefly toyed with last week!
But what changes? The breaking news over the holiday period was significant and will force changes on some people. What of the rest of us?
By a bizarre quirk I was actually involved, in different ways, with ten churches in the run up to Christmas. It struck me how difficult it was to find out when each church would be open over the holiday. That is not just Christmas Day but the holiday as a whole. Modern family life often dictates Christmas with one grandparent and New Year with another. Very few churches advertised services over the entire holiday period.
Most churches put some effort into advertising Christmas Day services. Many churches have some sort of "Come to church at Christmas" campaign. How many of those are ineffective because church communities are closed communities?
They do not "see" themselves with the eyes of the outsider. Individual Christ-ians are usually very open and welcoming, the institutions less so and it is on record that most (new or returning) visitors to church attend for the first time only when they are taken by a friend. It does seem that as a community we are not open and welcoming enough for them to attend alone.
This thought struck me forcibly when I saw one church advertising its Christmas services with a leaflet directed at non-attenders. It said, "Times of services on the notice board in church." So you had to go to church to find out when you could go to church!
As a community let us make a New Year resolution. Not one made in the maelstrom of January 1 and rapidly forgotten but one made in quietness after reflection and prayer. Let us resolve to be more open and welcoming, to make the effort to receive strangers warmly, to do the small things that are really inconvenient, like planning ahead, having someone lurking by the door to welcome strangers, realising that the church looks vastly different from outside.
The Christ-child that we celebrate at Christmas came for all people. We forget that simple fact at our peril.
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