I am so excited and even a little nervous for this Sunday! This is our big kick-off Sunday where we mark the beginning of our program year. Sunday school will come to life, the J2A group and Sacred Ground will be meeting. It is going to be a joyous occasion as we celebrate all of the potential for the coming year. There will be a lot of very obvious signs that we are trying to draw people in. Probably the crown jewel of Sunday’s festivities is a Peruvian food truck that Wendy Joachim and her intrepid helpers have arranged to serve the congregation lunch after the 10:00 am service. We hope this will be a draw to get people in the door for the first time, or maybe back after a long absence. With luck and a proper welcome, they may make it to the third floor at 9:00 am to see the Sunday School rooms and meet the teachers, which is where we really hope people will end up. Unless you have a young child or volunteer as a Sunday School teacher you probably have not been to the third floor on a regular basis. Over the summer we have put forth significant effort to spruce it up, and make it look like the happy place that it is. The hallway now is missing much of the clutter that occupied it’s space, it has a fresh coat of paint, and several beautiful (and occasionally hilarious) murals made by our own Cara Omohundro. Teachers have been in the classrooms preparing for our guests, and across the board we are preparing the way for growth and vibrancy.

In clergy circles there is occasional cynical chatter about being too focused on growth. The general idea is that you care more about the institution than serving Christ, and you just grow, grow and grow, at the sacrifice of an authentic effort to serve Christ and our neighbors. To put it mildly, I think this perspective is a bunch of garbage. We love to display our signs that say “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You: No Exceptions”, but we don’t look at the chief indicator that we are being welcoming, which is growth! Welcoming people is not lifting prohibitions on participation and advertising the lack of those prohibitions, it is an active process that requires effort, vulnerability, and taking the time to actually learn people’s names (with or without name tags), and their stories. The outpost of the Jesus movement that we are tasked with caring for has something to offer our community, and without truly welcoming people, we will be an exclusive club, and not a glimpse of the Kingdom of God that we are meant to strive to be.

With that being said, I suspect there are kinks in the armor of my soul that let my ego seep out into my efforts to be a leader in the Church. We should feel good we’ve successfully welcomed someone into St. Luke’s, and we should feel good when we notice there are more people here than a year ago, but I cannot let my desire for growth completely overshadow my love for scripture, prayer and worship. Sunday mornings are energizing at St. Luke’s, and this coming Sunday will feel like a festival, which I absolutely love, but deep down inside I wonder what the scripture and sermon would feel like with an audience of four, rather than two hundred. I wonder if it would feel more honest, transparent and authentic. Kick Off Sunday will be a good and holy thing, but something discreet and quiet can be a good and holy thing too, just in a different way.

So much work has been put forth to truly welcome people to St. Luke’s, and to get the Church ready for growth, but we are adding something a bit different as well. The past two Wednesdays Fr. Celal and I have set up a little makeshift chapel in the narthex by the columbarium, and we celebrated the Holy Eucharist with prayers for healing. Just two others join us, but that makes it easy to confidently call each other by name. We tell the stories we find in scripture, we remember the saints who come before us, we pray for those we love and for each other, and we celebrate God’s grace purely because that is good within itself.

Join us for the festivities this Sunday, and help us welcome people to the home they didn’t know they were missing. Learn about all of the great things you can do at St. Luke’s, and enjoy time sharing with others after the services. Be sure to have fun, and know there is a place for you if you ever crave quiet prayer with those who are also need of God’s healing grace.

Blessings,

Nick