Presbyterian Evangelism (not an oxymoron!)...

“Invite a Friend to Church Sunday!”
       Uncommon words for Presbyterians.
       Uncomfortable words for Presbyterians.
       Un-doable words for Presbyterians? Maybe. Maybe not.

I suppose there’s bad news in the mix. If “you build it and they will come” worked anymore, we wouldn’t have to invite people to church. They would drive by, see the building, and eagerly speed up the drive to introduce themselves and get involved. We do have people speed up our drive, but they live in the back forty and are in a hurry to get home. The days of people flocking to us because everyone is doing it are gone.

More bad news involves the three most common terms/phrases people use to identify Christians: hypocritical, judgmental, and anti-homosexual. That’s the identity that gets spread through the media. That’s the “controversy” that sells. Grace and acceptance are not nearly as marketable. (Everyone knows the name of that church picketing funerals whose name I won't mention because I refuse to give them more free advertising. Only we know the names of our ordinary, local churches.)

There’s also interesting news in the mix. I’ve been reading about membership and the lack thereof. A multitude of organizations survey people inside and outside of the church. Much information in the first wave of survey results were not positive. The most shocking statistic for Americans who have always claimed to be a religious people, was the 20% of people who now are unafraid to claim “none” status when asked about religious preference. Believe me, that got church tongues a-waggin’. If people will actually admit publicly they don’t care about church, we might be in trouble. People have not cared about church forever, but “none” would dare admit it. Now “nones” embrace it. Yikes!

But once you find a shocking behavior, people study it further and results get refined. Claude Fischer, a professor of sociology at Berkeley helps understand the statistics.

FIrst the “nones” are neither atheist or agnostic, they are “nothing in particular." Fischer says, “A growing proportion of Americans, particularly young ones, who lean liberal politically (and were not much religious to start with) have responded to the growing connection between churches and conservative cultural politics by declaring their opposition to organized religion. If religion means the “religious right,” they seem to be saying, then count me out.” The economic issue seems to be the extended period between adolescence and adulthood where young adults are not in stable jobs, homes, or relationships, and until they are, they don’t tend to “return to church.”

What do people want? One more list from a researcher.

• A church that makes space for imaginative risk-taking and creative self-expression.
• A church that nurtures a deep, holistic faith that encompasses every area of life.
• A church that doesn’t separate or demonize science, but interacts with it positively and prophetically
• A church that understands and works toward a vision of “restored relationships” instead of sexual repressiveness.
• A church that pursues and includes outsiders as Jesus did.
• A church that allows doubts, helping integrate questions into a “robust life of faith.”

And now, the good news in the mix. First, the reformed tradition (definitively my church, Forest Hills Presbyterian, and others I know about) does not intentionally practice a repressive, exclusive, judgmental Christianity--we work hard not to. We slip up; we are fully human. But we value the inclusive, educated, relational discipleship that Jesus embodied, that Jesus taught us God embodied. Our word, “grace.”

Second, the church of Jesus Christ has been blessed with a great, diverse congregation, a people called together to spread the good news of the gospel--not that we are “in” and others are “out,” but that God has acted on behalf of all people and that we, recognizing that great gift of love and grace, have been called together, bringing our gifts to work to equip each other as disciples and answer God’s call to work to change the world, bringing justice and peace as defined by God. Micah puts it well... we attempt to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.”

So, to consider an “Invite a Friend to Church” Sunday, perhaps we don’t mean “friend” in the traditional sense, someone we know, who probably goes to another church, but who will come with us one Sunday. Perhaps we should say “Invite a Child of God to Church.” Our call here is to be aware of the people in our lives who need community, who need purpose in life, who need God’s grace. We know God is at work out there ahead of us. We now know that most people we converse with are not atheists or agnostics, but people who probably think all church is something we are not and who are looking for the very things we experience in this faith community. We need to remember that we are not “saving” them, but inviting them to come, experience and know the “Triune God who creates, redeems, sustains, rules, and transforms all things and all people.” (From the Book of Order, PCUSA)

Maybe you don’t know who that person is that God asks you to invite, to include. You can still do something--three “P’s”. Pray that God will be active in their lives to turn them toward openness. You may not know who they are, but God does. Practice articulating the grace you have experienced (including the failures for which we all must make amends). Pledge to actually invite others who cross your path for that is God's work on their behalf.

“Invite a Friend to Church Sunday!”
       Un-doable words for Presbyterians? No. “We can do all things through Christ...”

See, there is such a thing as Presbyterian Evangelism!

(Disclaimer...a version of this was written for the church newsletter.  Apologies to those reading twice.  Kudos for actually reading your newsletter!!)