My heart sincerely hurts…or better yet…aches for churches that are plateaued or dying. As I pray for how to help with an injection of spiritual adrenaline, one practical thing that comes to mind is this: We are not ready for guests to arrive.
My family hosts a small group on Sunday nights, so it is our weekly ritual to go through the house and clean prior. In my case, it is more like straightening. I love for things to be neat and orderly to the viewer, and my wife likes for things to be deep cleaned! Hers is a love for the sterile surroundings. Mine is more of a compulsion for the appearance of neatness…so much so, that I don’t really like for drawers or doors to be left open (feel free to pray for me about this :).
And you may ask, why the ramblings about your compulsion? Well, glad you asked! We clean our house for a reason, and that reason is simple. We clean our house, because we are preparing for guests to arrive!
On any given Sunday morning, you can walk into hundreds, thousands, and maybe tens of thousands of American churches that have little to no expectations of guests arriving. Or, they expect them to come, but haven’t prepared the church for their arrival. They see the people coming through the door as family, so they really don’t care about the physical appearance of the building they utilize for their weekly worship.
Here is the problem! Guests do see the junk in the corner. They are concerned about whether you have dust or dirty toys in the children’s area, especially during flu season. They do notice the strange aroma coming from the bathrooms! 🙂 Sorry for the pungent example (all puns intended), but it is just the truth. The point is this; they do see that we haven’t prepared for their arrival.
Here is a fun suggestion for our church families. Take a day, and as a family, prepare the house for guests. Saturdays were always great for us at Hampshire First Baptist, in Hampshire, TN. On that day, as a family, you can clean (vacuum, dust, wipe down the glass), put on a fresh coat of paint in the much needed areas, install an air freshener (not too overpowering), pressure wash the outside, remove the clutter, etc. This is much like at our home when we change the sheets, put things away, vacuum, bake cookies for aroma therapy (who am I kidding? eat up), touch up paint, fix the door knob, etc. We do this for our own sanity, and for the sake of putting our best foot forward.
By the way, I noticed something on the days after we cleaned together…both at home and at church. I noticed that our family was ready for guests. The energy in the place was charged, and we wanted to see people coming down the sidewalk. We had an amazing sense of expectation!
In addition…we invited people! Have you ever noticed that after a day of cleaning, working together, and knowing the house is clean…that it makes you want to invite people over? Same goes for our church family and our place of worship! This is practical and not deeply spiritual, but it is the truth… So, let’s except the challenge, send out the invitations, and prepare for our guests to arrive. Then, make sure to help them feel at home!
Captains Blog 