The Upload
Posted on Aug 26, 2016 by
Dear Salem Family,
I have been thinking lately about the difference between being welcoming and being invitational, and how can we as a church and community be both? Or, rather, how we need to be both. There is something to be said about hospitality when visitors arrive at church or hospitality to long time veteran members. When you go someplace you are looking for that place to be welcoming, hospitable and accessible. These things create an environment you want to return to and be a part of.
But, welcoming in that sense, is passive. It says that we are waiting for people to be a part of our community because they just happen to drop by, or come of their own volition. However, inviting is active. This means we go out in to the larger community and invite others to be a part of this community. God calls us to be the church in the world, not just within our four walls. That requires us to be invitational in the community, not wait for people to come to us. It requires us to be in relationship with communities that may not be “like” us. If we do all of this work to be welcoming within the church to the other, but yet we aren’t in relationship with the other outside of our four walls, we are being passive.
Being invitational is hard. It requires vulnerability and it requires work. It means stepping outside our comfort zone. I don’t have the answers, but I wonder, why is it harder for me to be invitational? I love the Salem community and the great missional work that is done here. Why would I not want to invite someone to be a part of that? Is it that I’m afraid the community will change? But, would that be such a bad thing? You never know how one life can affect another. It’s not always about how the Salem community will affect someone, but maybe how they will affect the Salem community and change our lives.
Something to think about as we go in to the fall and all of the great work the Salem community is engaged in. I invite you to think about how to be welcoming and invitational.
Peace to you,
Meghan Harmison
Director of Adult Ministries and Outreach