The Gated Christian Community

Val (my wife)  and I were exploring as we often do when visiting an area that is new to us. A sign had caught our attention as it promised an interesting destination. We headed down what wound up being a long, sparsely populated, road.

Suddenly, a familiar message appeared in the midst of what appeared to be a lushly vegetated nowhere, “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.” We were driving too quickly to catch a glimpse of the church but made a mental note to stop on the way back. Experiencing Episcopal churches in our travels adds to the richness of the experience.

On the return, we saw the sign for the church a little sooner. As I prepared to turn into the driveway, the fact that it was blocked by a locked fence was, fortunately, quickly apparent. The fence caused us both to comment, “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You?”

I have intentionally avoided giving any location or identifying details. There are probably valid reasons that a church that is so far away from any homes or heavy traffic would be protected. I don’t want to pick on this church. But the contrast between the sign and the gate was striking and evoked thoughts of how our churches often become gated Christian communities. They are wonderful communities to which to belong, but difficult for outsiders to become part of.

Somehow, many Episcopal churches gradually slide into becoming akin to gated Christian communities. There is something about us that makes it easy to become careless about welcoming the stranger. There is even a joking reference to Episcopalians as “God’s frozen chosen.” But it isn’t a joke. Few members of Episcopal churches don’t want their church to grow, yet often insufficient members of any given congregation do enough of the welcoming things that enable that growth to take place.

It is a challenge. We get wrapped up in our roles within the liturgy. We get wrapped up in worship. We hustle off to coffee after the service to connect with good friends we haven’t seen enough of during the week. We get tied up just spending a few moments with each of the people we enjoy connecting with. The guest and the potential new member get left outside an unintentional fence.

As Jesus prepares to leave His disciples to carry on His work, he commissions them to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matt 28: 19- 20). That is our commission too, reaffirmed in our Baptismal Covenant. It is a big task, but one that can get an easy start Sunday mornings as we put welcoming the stranger first. With that as a priority, we can joyfully integrate that welcome into all that we do usually Sunday morning.