Day 31: June 4Scripture: Luke 14:15-24 ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled." The only thing that remains constant is change, the saying goes. I serve a church in the West End of Richmond, just a couple of miles from a church my father served when I was a child. Occasionally, I find myself driving by the parsonage I lived in and I’m always struck by how much the neighborhood has changed. Different ethnic groups, languages, educational and income levels are represented in those homes now. And the congregation I currently serve will have a difficult time reaching these people. I serve a very warm, open, and slightly racially mixed congregation, but we’re located in a very nice neighborhood. The result is that if I’m a young Mexican with a number of tattoos and body piercings, if I think about God or church, I’m not likely to try going to church in a wealthy neighborhood. That means that my congregation is going to have to do “church” in a radically new way to reach people that are different than most of us are. We may have to take the feast to them with a second campus or some other radically different approach. And I am happy to say we are looking at these possibilities. The one who has prepared the feast (God) sends his servants (you and me) to extend invitations to everyone. Some of these will be people of means. They possess real estate, oxen, or stock portfolios. They look like middle and upper class people whom we already see in many of our United Methodist Churches in Virginia. Yet many of these live under the illusion of self-sufficiency: “If I have all I need, I don’t really feel like I need God.” Such people are likely to make excuses. It’s time for us to extend more invitations to the rest of society. The neighborhood of Virginia is constantly changing. Prayer: God, send us out into the interstates, boulevards, and back roads, to compel all of your children to come to your feast, that your house may be filled. Amen. Kirk Nave |