Over the past few weeks, we’ve been picking apart the idea of ‘radical hospitality.’ You’ve heard us talk about new and old ways we might welcome guests into our church….into our Sunday School classes…and even into our homes.

And each week, we’ve asked you to jot down your thoughts on those bright green cards we’ve left at the end of each pew.

We thought you might be interested in some of the wonderful suggestions that have come in, both from those cards and from this radicalhospitality.com blog.

The themes that emerged were pretty clear: while we’re already doing a LOT, we can do even MORE to step out of our comfort zones, to welcome people into North, on Monday through Saturday, as well as on Sunday.

• Several people suggested we consider offering a family activity during the week, which would include a dinner and fellowship time.
• One note expressed appreciation for the way North acts as a peaceful place to debate important public issues…and urged that we do MORE of that in the future.
• There were suggestions that we include a wider range of worship styles, including more Spanish and African music on a regular basis.
• And that we extend a more intentional and affirming ‘welcome’ to guests who are gay or lesbian.
• Another card suggested that we offer a ‘welcome gift’ to Sunday morning visitors – perhaps a loaf of bread or a pie, that groups could make in advance and keep in the church’s freezer.
• Or perhaps we could prepare hospitality bags, filled with socks and snacks, perhaps a toothbrush and soap, that would be given to our guests who attend “Bread and Bowl.”
• Several cards contained reminders that a warm smile and a welcoming handshake is never unwelcome…even if you don’t know the name of the person you are greeting. Yet.
• One card reminded our pastoral staff that we need to explicitly invite Sunday visitors to the fellowship time after the service…because they might not know where they’re going. And we might want to post one of our ‘greeters’ near that location, as well…to guide visitors down the hall.
• Here’s our favorite question…or challenge:  What if, when visitors came to our church on Sunday, they always found an open seat at the end of the pew, where they could sit down without climbing over someone? In other words, how easy would it be for all of us to just scoot toward the middle of the pew when we arrived…leaving the end spot for a guest? Simple, right?

And that brings us to the underlying message of all of these Moments: that there are things that we all can do – some of them easy, some of them difficult – to make North Church more hospitable.

And while some of these ideas cost nothing, they DO assume that the lights will be on, the heat will be working, and our pastoral and office and maintenance staffs will be available the way we’ve all become accustomed.

So when you’re thinking and praying this week about what your family’s stewardship pledge will be for the coming year, we urge you to think of how it felt the first time YOU were welcomed into North Church….and to commit that you’ll help enable OTHERS to receive that same blessing.

Micahel Toulouse mentioned a few of the groups that meet here during his talk, but here is the complete list or organizations. Wow!

1. UVA University Singers
2. McANA Neighborhood Alliance
3. League of Women Voters
4. West District Women’
5. Maple Road Development
6. Neighborhood Meeting
7. Piano Technicians Guild
8. Art for Beds
9. Bread for the World
10. Sudanese Group
11. 12-Step Group
12. Indianapolis Metro Ministries
13. CURE
14. Mid-North Food Pantry
15. African Center
16. City of Indpls – Race Relations Leadership Network
17. Beta Graduate Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta
18. Tobias Center
19. Harmonie Opera Club
20. McCOY – Reaching Youth On-line
21. Louisville Institute Consultation
22. Wabash Pastors
23. Morehouse Glee Club
24. Indiana Conference Caucus
25. Clarian Yellow Rose Memorial Service
26. Horton Photography Class
27. Marion Co. Health Dept.
28. Greenville College Choir
29. Lenten Breakfast
30. Domestic Violence Workshop
31. Children’s Bureau
32. ETC
33. QGI Quilt Guild
34. Fuller Center
35. Head Start
36. Indpls. Flute Club
37. HARMONI-LISC
38. IACCRR
39. Archibald Piano Recital
40. NAMI Indianapolis
41. Indianapolis Brass Choir
42. Native American Ministry Cultural Training
43. Vista Care Memorial Service
44. African Children’s Choir
45. Census Bureau
46. Clergy Covenant Group
47. District Lay Speakers Committee
48. Trusted Mentor Volunteer Training
49. First Baptist Church Choir Retreat
50. UMC Commission on Archives and History
51. 38th/Meridian St. Corridor Neighborhood Roundtable
52. Chamber Recital
53. UMC Historical Society
54. Marion County Health Department – Flu Shots
55. United Way
56. United Senior Action
57. Wishard Referendum Volunteers

When the Stewardship Campaign’s Steering Committee began talking over the summer about how North Church could embrace the idea of ‘radical hospitality,’ we started with looking at what we ALREADY do to welcome the community into our building.

We asked for a list of the groups that regularly convene in North Church. These are non-church organizations—groups  that see North as a place of peaceful welcome and safety. The list we were given was a full page long. Single spaced.

Including:

• The Maple Road Development Association.
• The Piano Technicians Guild.
• The Indianapolis Flute Club.
• Head Start.
• Several 12-Step groups, including AA.
• Then there are the North Church groups that reach out into the community….such as Bread and Bowl…the Farmer’s Market… the Best Friends Ball….and Christmas Jubilee.

Nearly every day…and many evenings, our parking lot fills up and our doors open to people we don’t know.

But they know US:

They know that when they come into North, they will receive a smile, a gentle voice of hospitality, and some help in making that day better.

It might be a bowl of soup on a cold day….or a safe place for a mother and her children to sleep for the week.

Maybe it’s fresh locally-grown produce…purchased with food stamps at our weekly Farmers’ Market.

It might be a new skill, learned at one of the Shepherd Center’s many classes.

Or a new awareness, deepened at a Race Relations Study Group.

As Kevin said to one of our committee members years ago, we don’t practice this kind of hospitality as a ‘recruiting tactic,’ to build the membership of our congregation.

We choose to do it … because we believe deep down that it’s what Jesus wants us to do.

It’s what He did, to the least of us, to the forgotten, to the lonely.

As we each continue to think and pray about our household’s commitment to this year’s Stewardship Campaign, I ask that you recall the kinds of Radical Hospitality we are already practicing as a community….and what more we could do, with your support.

While working a booth at the covered bridge festival in Rockville, IN, I found this beautiful example of radical hospitality. The first Methodist church of Rockville stands here on a cold day with the doors wide open to serve coffee and cookies to everyone. They also opened their restrooms to everyone while most businesses have signs that restrooms are for customers only. It would have been very easy for them to stay in their normal routine and be closed on Saturday. Thanks for this outstanding example of radical hospitality.

World Communion Sunday features one of the essential ways that Methodists show their faith and their connection to other Christians: by sharing bread and wine with people we know, people we don’t know YET, and people around the world we may never meet, but with whom we share something precious.

You’ve seen the ways North Church has reached out:

Sometimes with a ladle, with our Bread and Bowl ministry, that’s fed hundreds of our neighbors several times a week for many years now; and

Sometimes with a market basket, with the farmer’s market on Thursday evenings.

And then there are the weekly Eatin’ Meetin’s, which have made Fellowship Hall a pretty raucous place more than once!

Underneath all those events is the message that Jesus shared food with his disciples and his followers, and so should we.

But there are so many MORE ways we could be sharing food together in ‘radical hospitality.’

The young adults group now holds occasional picnic on the second Sunday of the month, after the 11:00 service. Anyone who feels like a ‘young adult’ is welcome.

Perhaps North might host an all-church-and-neighborhood block party in Tarkington Park.

About twenty years ago, the people of North Church organized a series of dinner parties called “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.

The idea was pretty simple: church members and visitors had the option of signing up to be a guest or a host for a dinner for eight people at someone’s home. The host would provide the main course and the hospitality, and the rest would bring a dish big enough to share with everyone.

People who attended those dinners still talk about they met some of their best friends at North Church on those evenings. Since then, some of those dinner groups continue to meet and socialize regularly.

As we all know, North Church is too big a place to know everyone. But people who have shared a meal together are more likely to greet each other during the service, attend Bible study together, or share a cup of coffee before heading to choir practice.

Guests and hosts learn about each others’ children, our work, and what brought each to North Church.  Strangers become friends, which might not have happened under other circumstances.

North Church is going to revive those adult “Dinners for Eight” this fall (on October 24) and again in the spring (date TBA).

If you’d like to host a casual dinner for eight or be a guest at a dinner, please sign up on October 4 or October 11 in the community room after the 8:30 service, in the West Entry after the 11:00 service to sign up. You can also call the church office (924-2612) or sign up at the Radical Hospitality blog: www.radicalhospitality.com.