{"id":14998,"date":"2017-03-20T11:52:59","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T18:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=14998"},"modified":"2017-03-20T12:09:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T19:09:43","slug":"welcoming-the-stranger-pt-2-do-not-be-bound-by-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/welcoming-the-stranger-pt-2-do-not-be-bound-by-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming the Stranger Pt. 2: Do Not Be Bound by the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By the Rev. Keith Hackett <\/strong>| Photos by Jesse N. Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Rev. Keith Hackett is a retired clergy person in the PNWUMC Conference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since retiring three years ago Joan and I have been visiting a variety of churches for worship, both United Methodist and other denominations, and both in our community and others. Following are a few observations that hopefully may help pastors and congregations as they seek to welcome the stranger in their midst, especially when that person ventures into worship.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Part 2: \u201cDo Not Be Bound by the Past\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

There are many aspects of worship that are determined by tradition and may be stumbling block to strangers among us, and not be easy to change or adapt. One of these is the prayer that Jesus taught us.<\/p>\n

Firstly don\u2019t assume that everyone knows it or uses the same version. Print it in the bulletin, have it on screen, or announce where it is in the hymnbook.<\/p>\n

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One way to make prayers, information, and other useful visuals available is to simply place them on a screen for everyone to see. You’d think this would be a simple suggestion, but for some churches, this may not be desirable. How does your church make the message more accessible to parishioners?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Now, take a long careful look at the language and theology of this prayer, both for us as well as for the stranger.<\/p>\n

First, language. Where and when else do we speak in Shakespearean English?<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done\u2026For thine is the kingdom.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Is your church message relevant to youth or young adults? In what ways can we make messages truly timeless for those seeking a better understanding of faith in the 21st century?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What does it say to strangers in worship when we invite them to join us and recite archaic language? What does this say about the relevance of our message for today? Does the gospel belong to a previous century or to the 21st<\/sup> century? If we want to convey to the stranger that we have a 21st<\/sup> century gospel with a 21st<\/sup> century message, that is relevant today then maybe we need to look again at the words that we use to express this.<\/p>\n

And then the theology that we verbalize week after week, probably without ever thinking about what we are saying. \u201cAnd lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.\u201d<\/em> Do we really believe that it is God who leads us into temptation? That it is God who sets the trap (read again the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22: 1-18<\/a><\/strong><\/span>) to test us? It is not the devil that made me do it, but God who led me into temptation! What does this say to the stranger about the nature of God? Is God like a father who suggests to his young child that he throw a brick through a neighbor\u2019s window? Or like the tax lawyer who suggests that we omit some income on our tax returns? Or the spin-doctor who suggests to the politician that s\/he tells the public that s\/he \u201cforgot\u201d certain facts\/events?<\/p>\n

I, for one, do not believe this but I am asked to say it every Sunday. But what does this say to the stranger who has come to worship for the first time because a child was killed by a drunk driver; the soldier struggling with having carried out the orders of warfare; the suicidal person looking for hope; the sex offender who hasn\u2019t yet accepted responsibility for what he\/she has done?<\/p>\n

So what can we do? Starting immediately we can use the ecumenical version of the Lord\u2019s Prayer, MHB #894 which uses modern language and in which we accept responsibility for our actions and seek God\u2019s help in overcoming the evil within and around us \u2013 both personal and systemic.<\/p>\n

Almost there, but what about the opening \u201cOur Father\u201d? Is there a way to be true to the words of scripture and at the same time be sensitive to those who are offended by what is described as gender exclusive language? Some have suggested we begin with \u201cOur Father -Mother\u201d or use the Greek \u201cAbba Amma\u201d. Some years ago worshipping on vacation I was introduced to an opening that I have since used and commend:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a congregation who brings many names to the worship of God, we invite you to begin \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer\u201d with the name you hold dear\u2026Our\u2026in heaven\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Continue the conversation with those in your church and the new strangers we intersect with so we may welcome everyone in worship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I invite you not to be bound by the past and\u00a0try to put yourself in the shoes of the stranger and ask yourself what will help the stranger to feel comfortable in worship, and commit to following Jesus as a regular member of our worshipping community.<\/p>\n

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The Rev. Keith Hackett is a retired clergyperson in the PNWUMC.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By the Rev. Keith Hackett | Photos by Jesse N. Love Since retiring three years ago Joan and I have been visiting a variety of churches for worship, both United Methodist and other denominations, and both in our community and others. Following are a few observations that hopefully may help pastors and congregations as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":15004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,6,394,113],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-conversation","9":"category-local-church-2","10":"category-opinioneditorial"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/INSIGHTS_WelcomingStrangerPT2.png?fit=741%2C486&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-3TU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15006,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14998\/revisions\/15006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}