• Real: They acknowledge they will not be perfect or consistently, radically embrace every group. A radically welcoming congregation is one where the members are becoming God’s radically welcoming people.
Radical Welcome Is Not . . .
As you seek to understand radical welcome, get crystal clear on what it is not:
• Radical welcome is not an invitation to assimilate. We must move beyond the traditional inviting church paradigm, beyond inviting people to come inside and take on what we’ve already packaged and nailed down (as you will see in part 2). We are offering an embrace, and that means we have opened ourselves, offered ourselves. The risk is great, but embrace requires us to gird ourselves with the love of God and to say, “Come, bring who you are. My arms are open to you. Would you open yours to me?” We will receive one another, not losing our unique identities and histories, but releasing the rigid boundaries so that our stories can connect and a new community might be born.
• Radical welcome is not feel-good ministry. We are not pandering to the self-centered consumerism or corporate, customer-service expectations currently sucking the life and gospel out of many churches. Radical welcome is not simply a matter of making new or marginalized people feel comfortable, fashioning church in our own image, or hopping onboard for the next cultural trend.
• Radical welcome is not reverse discrimination. There is no need to toss out the gifts of tradition, or to ignore the needs and voices of people who have enjoyed certain privileges. An abundant, radically welcoming attitude says there is room for everyone to be heard, and that there is something beautiful, valuable and holy that everyone brings to the holy banquet, including those who’ve sat at the head of the table for a long time. In reality, there’s bound to be some relinquishment and loss on the part of the empowered groups, but only so that each group can speak and help to shape the community they now share.
• Radical welcome is not a conventional church growth strategy. You are quite likely to grow if you take it seriously. But that’s because it is an expression of Christ’s New Covenant, a way that is rooted in the gospel. Should you engage this transformation, others will surely find your community attractive and compelling, because they will see the passionate and compassionate spirit of Christ at the center of it, and because your hearts will be so open, radiant and fearless, they will prove irresistible.
• Radical welcome is not political correctness or a haphazard, reactionary throwing out of the baby with the bathwater. It is deeply faithful, deeply committed to welcoming and participating in the continuous, powerful, surprising in-breaking of the reign of God. It’s about finding yourself utterly accepted and embraced by God, and then running into the world and your community to see how you could extend that hospitality to others.
Eight Radically Welcoming Congregations
I could tell you more about radical welcome, or I could show you. Here are some brief sketches from eight congregations trying to live the dream of radical welcome.
We had to convince people that no one was trying to take over “their” church and run away with it. This isn’t an “us” versus “them” situation. There’s only us.
ENNIS DUFFIS, GRACE CHURCH-LAWRENCE
Grace Episcopal Church in Lawrence, Massachusetts, was faced with that most painful of dilemmas: change or die. The historically white, middle-class city of Lawrence had shifted, and the sons and daughters of the aging white church community had moved on. Members of the dying church opted to live, and that meant embracing their now-Latino neighborhood.
From the beginning, there were concerns that Grace would become a Latino church, that the new members would actually “steal” the church from their white elders. The Latino priest and missioner, Ennis Duffis, took that fear very seriously. “We had to convince people that no one was trying to take over ‘their’ church and run away with it. This isn’t an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ situation. There’s only us.”
Resurrection came when white and Latino members worked together to create and run several homegrown community ministries, and when they intentionally crafted opportunities to communicate openly and to truly enjoy and respect each other’s cultures. Eventually, the dominant Anglo community began to welcome the leadership of younger, less educated, less affluent Latinos. Moving beyond mere representation, the thriving congregation now looks like the neighborhood: more Latino than white, including a Latina who heads the vestry and a Spanish-language service with praise music and lots of children, preceded by a smaller but stable Anglo service. The next frontier for Grace: continue to grow while nurturing points of common ground between the white and Latino worship communities and the ever-changing neighborhood.
Harlem, New York, is a mix of cultures, races and classes, and small but spiritually mighty St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in West Harlem seeks to embody it all. A banner at the front of the church announces to the world: “St. Mary’s-West Harlem: The I Am Not Afraid’ Church.”
Jesus says go to the highways and byways and welcome those people. This church came to the byways and got me and showed me that love.
JASEN TOWNSEND, ST. MARY’S-WEST HARLEM
The presence of white and black members who hail from Harlem’s established middle class and from nearby Columbia University is no great surprise here. Even the growing Latino population fits the neighborhood’s multicultural profile. Perhaps most remarkable—especially for the Episcopal Church—is the leadership of the homeless and poor members, many of whom came for the community meal program downstairs and, thanks to the genuine and explicit welcome, made their way upstairs for Sunday worship.
These powerful apostles have brought a fresh spirit and urgency to the reading and singing of the gospel, and constantly challenge their companions’ middle-class Anglican expectations. They also bring a commitment to welcome others as they’ve been welcomed. Jasen Townsend entered St. Mary’s by way of the soup kitchen several years ago. When I met him, he was marching, shouting and waving as a straight ally in New York City’s Pride Parade. Ask why he does it, and Townsend just points back to the gospel. “If the guests who were invited to the wedding feast won’t come in, Jesus says go to the highways and byways and welcome those people. This church came to the byways and got me and showed me that love. . . . If you want to love Christ, if you want to live like Christ, then you’ve got to love every person.” The next frontier for St. Mary’s: broadening their radical welcome to include even more Latinos and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
We have a history of resisting oppression, but we also know we can’t live off that glamorous history. Others need us. How do we support them, too?
EMILY FRYE, ST. PHILIP’S-HARLEM
Just blocks away, St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Harlem, New York, looks for the most part like what it is: the oldest black Episcopal Church in New York. Parishioners point with pride to their courageous founders, who in 1809 left the venerable Trinity Episcopal Church on Wall Street and demanded a separate home for black Episcopalians in New York. St. Philip’s has been proclaiming black liberation theology ever since.
That venerable history drew the cream of black society for the better part of the last two centuries. But when Cecily Broderick y Guerra came to serve as their first female rector, she wasn’t impressed. Instead, she said she sensed the church had become a “terminally closed system.” So she set out preparing the congregation for transformation, both to welcome residents of their economically depressed neighborhood and to make room for gay and lesbian people at the center of their common life. She preached about the link between discipleship, welcome and transformation. Meanwhile, older black leaders began to make another link: the one between