Back to Church Sunday – how welcoming are you?

TAKE an average street in an average town just about anywhere in Britain and you will probably find some people who used to go to church but have stopped. Maybe they stopped because they moved house and never quite connected with the church in a new area. Maybe they stopped because the demands of children’s Sunday morning sports and leisure commitments squeezed church out of the equation and it was too embarrassing to only come every month or so. Maybe they stopped because they fell out with the Vicar – though that was at least two Vicars ago! Whatever the reason, there are people out there who believe in God and who might be open to an invitation to come back.

You will also find people who are open to giving church a try. Maybe they have recently lost a loved one, or moved house, or changed job. Maybe they are facing some sort of illness themselves; or maybe they are just wondering how best to bring up their kids, or trying to find some rhythm or meaning to life. Whatever the reason they might be open to an invitation to give church a try.

Take an average church in an average town just about anywhere in Britain and you will probably find a community of men and women which prides itself on being friendly and welcoming but which doesn’t actually do much to make that welcome obvious or intentional. Very good at being nice to people when they do turn up; not so good about encouraging them to come in the first place.

Right across our diocese, as part of a national initiative, churches are participating in Back to Church Sunday. This is a chance for churches to be intentional about welcome. In some churches I am sure that this will bear fruit in new people coming to church for the first time, and in others who used to come giving church another try. But whether this campaign is ‘successful’ for your church or not it is vitally important that we think about what it means to be welcoming, what it is actually like to come to our church for the first time. And welcome isn’t just about what happens when newcomers arrive at our door. It is a process and an attitude that runs through the whole of church life. It also raises challenging questions of how we help people learn the Christian faith and become part of the Christian community. A welcoming church has a place of nurture where people can take the appropriate next steps on their journey. All this will bear lasting fruit as we discover afresh how to develop a culture of welcome in our churches.

Please share your story with others in the diocese. Let us know how the campaign went for you: not just stories of who came back to church, but also stories of how you have