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.