My parents used to tell me that first impressions matter. So my mom always kept a very clean house in the chance someone came to visit or if I or my sister brought a friend home unexpectedly from school. My dad always keep the cars clean and the yard mowed. We always had clean clothes and reasonable times between haircuts. Probably not much different from your family.
Organizations also present “first impressions” with their buildings, employees who welcome, or the cleanliness of the facility. The front door might be one of the most important features of these organizations. Here are a few front doors I have come across in Midwest stores recently.
This is posted on a sliding door into a business. This store is a large chain and is located in the upper middle class section of town with low crime. Nothing about this sign says to me I am welcome to shop there. I have never seen a sign like this on any other business, that does not mean do not exist but I have never noticed one. I just found it to be a weird notice and felt it to be unnecessarily hostile.
This is a welcoming place. It has the clearly marked sign open, the door is open, and the hours are posted. There is plants that greet you from the parking lot to the door letting you know that this place holds a variety of , trees, flowers, porch/deck furniture, and other yard DYI things. But what you see outside is only a small taste of what is on the inside. The staff don’t just grow plants in a bucket. They are gardeners as well. They are capable of listening to garden ideas and advising how to proceed because they live in both places.
Churches have signs as well. Our churches often put up intentional or unintentional signs up with our actions. Perhaps they act like the fist sign. Your life will be scrutinized here. We will judge you and use a filter process to decide if you are like us. We will examine every aspect of your life until we are satisfied you look, sound, and act like we think you should. If you do not agree to these terms you are free to leave the facility.
What if our church and the way it functions looked more like this garden center? What if we were more inviting and welcoming? What would it look like if we could find the balance between being welcoming to all and strong in our Christian identity? What if we found a way to interpret and discern what God is doing in the world? A missional church needs to examine their church “signs”. What signal are they sending?
Much like the garden center, there is a a need for churches to have a welcoming presence with their building, signage, and people. The church must missionally welcome people and empower others to action. The missional church needs to have a welcoming presence of hospitality and be able to discern how God is calling us to act. God is at work cultivating our missional gardens and we need to realize what it takes to welcome and send others into his vineyard.
