Welcomes All People Series

One thing I appreciate about White Clay is that it has tried hard to include all people in worship. Our older members have sacrificed and worked hard to provide all that we see. This is something to honor.

This past week I was challenged in my pastor’s Bible study. I have a certain way I like to do things, and there is a retired segment in my group who didn’t want to do things the way I wanted to do it. I had to humble myself and listen to them and honor them. It was a challenge because sometimes they can be hard-headed.

The elevator in the church is one way of honoring our older members. Improving the sound system would be a way of honoring our older members. How is the best way to honor our older members in our programs and our fellowship?

Becoming a welcoming church involves not only honoring our older members but also honoring our oldest member. Who is White Clay’s oldest member? God. Why did God put himself in the context of honoring older people? He said, “Revere me.” Why? Because God is the oldest member of the church.

What’s God’s role. God sees himself among his people as a visitor, as a guest. Are we welcoming of him? So often we see ourselves as the guest in worship. We are the consumers, the paying customers. We come to church, we listen, we watch the actors on the platform, and we listen to God’s word and we think this is worship, but it’s not. That’s not how God envisions worship. God is our guest, and the prompters are the pastors and the worship leaders and the choir, prompting us to worship, to celebrate him. Are we caught up in worship as part of this drama? Is God pleased? Is he so enraptured in our worship that he doesn’t even think about what time it is? Like a good movie, is he so caught up in how we worship that time just flies? Is it so good for him that he doesn’t care to look at his watch, or is he yawning? Do you give God the pre-eminence? Are you welcoming him and entertaining him? Do we honor God in our fellowship and our stewardship? Are we honoring God with our facility? Are we honoring God with our outreach and with our preaching? Is our focus to revere and honor him, or are we pointing back to ourselves? Are we making decisions based on what we would like, or is our main focus God’s desire? How can we honor him in our lives and in our church?

The older we become and the longer we are members of a church, we are tempted to think that this is MY church. I’ve been here 30 or 40 years, and I have paid the bills. How can some young punk preacher or some young punk member come in here and begin to change things all around? This is my church, and I’m not going to let it happen. I appreciate the ownership of a church, but whose church is it? It’s not my church or your church. It belongs to the oldest member of the congregation–it’s God’s church. Our consideration should be what honors him.

Becoming a welcoming church means that we open ourselves up to strangers or to visitors, and this covers all categories. Think, who is a stranger, who is a visitor? Anyone who comes through the door, regardless of economic status, regardless of race, regardless of physical ability or disability, regardless of culture, regardless of language. It’s whoever God brings to us, and are we willing as a church to accept anyone? Are we willing and able to welcome anyone and to treat them as a native born, to treat them as if they have always been part of the family.