Imagine you moved to a new town. The first weekend arrives in your new home, and you decide to go to the church around the corner. When you get there, you walk through what you hope is the right door and find your way to the church’s worship space. You look around and notice some folded piece of paper that others are picking up, so you grab one. Now comes the hard part… where do you sit? You don’t want to be too close to the front and are conscious of the reality that you might sit in “someone’s seat.” So you stand awkwardly waiting until an option that seems like it might work presents itself. You sit through church and hear the pastor mention something about coffee in some room with a name attached to it you’ve never heard. Since this is your first time here, you wait for others who have been members of this community their entire lives to start heading to what must be the room that was announced—at the very least, they aren’t headed outside. Sure enough, you end up in a room, and there is indeed coffee and treats. You silently follow the line, get your coffee, and re-engage in the same awkward process as before: figuring out where to sit. You see a room full of people engaged in conversations with people they’ve presumably known for weeks, months, and even years, and you don’t want to intrude on their conversations, so you find a table no one has sat down at, sit, and have your coffee in silence, just watching the room. After about 10 minutes, when you’ve finished your coffee and notice the room is starting to empty, you decide you might as well leave too. You stand up, grab your things, and head home.
Imagine how you would feel if this was your experience and if this was the same experience you had week after week. Did you notice what was missing? Interaction. Engagement. Acknowledgment.
As people, we long to be seen, heard, and loved. This is the basis for a community—a group of people inhabiting a shared space and interacting with one another. Sadly, the story above is an all-too-common occurrence at many churches. It is entirely possible that you can come to a church, find a seat, sit through Mass, find your way to some sort of coffee and treats, and leave without ever speaking to another human being. You may have had this experience at a church while traveling or perhaps even when you first came to Our Lady of Peace. Very few church communities are immune to this phenomenon, and Our Lady of Peace strives to become one of those communities.
We want to be a community where no one can enter our doors without being seen. We want our guests, first-time visitors, and lifelong members to know and feel that they belong here and that we, as a community, desire them to be here, worshiping and living the life of Christ with us.
It’s easy to pass this off as a platitude no different from your gym, your child’s school, or your favorite coffee shop; however, ours is fueled by a love of Christ, a desire for others to encounter Him, and has its foundations in Sacred Scripture. As you look through the Bible, you see examples of radical hospitality: Abraham and the angels (Gn 18:1-10), Elijah and the widow (1 Kg 17:8-16), the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:29-37), and in Jesus’ teaching on the sheep and the goats (Mt 25:31-40). In all of these, and all of Sacred Scripture, you learn about the love of God and His love for you, which is expressed through, among other actions, acts of radical hospitality.
The most important part of this is the question of why. As disciples of Christ, we are called to a life in Him, which means we are called to imitate Him and to love like Him. In so doing, we position ourselves to invite others into this same Life in Christ; in fact, we are commissioned to do just that: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age” (Mt 28:19-20). This co-missioning we are given is an edict to reach outside of our comfort zone and engage with the stranger, the visitor, the guest, the person who has been sitting behind us at Mass for the last 8 years whose name we have never known. In getting to know the people in our community and those who are guests to our community, we open up the opportunity to share the love of Christ Jesus with them and become true brothers and sisters in Christ. This is a tangible way we live out our community’s desire to draw near to Jesus so that we might draw others to Him.
What are some practical ways to ensure everyone who shadows our doorstep is seen, known, and loved?
Come to Church a few minutes early, hold the doors open for people as they enter, and say, “Good morning! How are you?”
Be aware of the 10-foot circle around where you sit during Mass and strike up a conversation with anyone you don’t know before or after Mass.
Invite those same people to join you for coffee and donuts, out for a coffee, or to an upcoming social event at OLP so you can get to know them better.
Join a small group and/or invite people to join your small group so they can meet more people and build relationships in the community.
These are just a few simple ideas to get started. The best thing you can do is to reflect on the love that God has for you and how you can reflect that love to everyone around you throughout your day.
People who feel seen, known, and loved at our church are more likely to call Our Lady of Peace home. Then the real joy begins as we build God’s Church one person, one family at a time, worshiping and praising God for His goodness, love and mercy, and building a community of Christian witness that will transform our families, our city, and the world.
