16 May 2023

“Welcome to our church” is a greeting I have heard more than once when visiting other parishes. 

Such a greeting is, of course, meant to be encouraging – inviting visitors or newcomers into a friendly place. Both theologically and missionally, however, there is a problem with this sort of welcome language. The church is not “ours,” it is God’s. God is the host; we are ALL both the guests and the servants. The moment the church is described as “ours” then we are claiming ownership, and those who come seeking God become “you” or “them”; people who are by definition not inside and in consequence people who, at best, need to prove their worthiness or, at worst, need to be kept out at all costs.

Theologically, beginning a church service by invoking God’s name (Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and/or greeting one another in the Lord’s name (The Lord be with you) puts things in the right order. We are in God’s house after all. Depending on your Scriptural metaphor of choice we may be tenants, guardians, visitors or heirs, but ultimately ownership rests with another.

And missionally there is good reason for being very careful about how we use the word “our” in relation to the church: people may feel excluded. When visitors or newcomers are welcomed to “our church” or “our service” or offered some of “our hospitality” in “our hall” or “our meeting room” a barrier is instantly established between we who hold the keys, literally or metaphorically, and those who do not. Visitors, newcomers or seekers are instantly marginalised as “not us”. What is meant as friendliness instead can be perceived an assertion of power and control.

I vividly remember one Sunday some years ago when I visited a parish church in the UK with a not-very-churchy friend. After first being welcomed to “our” service we were asked at the end whether we’d like to come over to the hall for “our” morning tea. My friend’s naïve response was: “It’s ok. I wouldn’t want to intrude – I can go to a café.” Rather than being welcoming, the “our” language used in the invitation was perceived as exclusion. Someone on the margins didn’t feel comfortable responding positively to what seemed to be an invitation to a private gathering. I understood how the invitation was meant but I didn’t intervene that Sunday because I could already guess at the quality of the coffee we were likely to be served…. My friend and I went to the pub for a nice lunch.