Hoping in Hospitality

As I write this reflection during Holy Week, I am thinking about hospitality. You may know that Easter Sunday is one of the biggest Sundays of the year. We see most of our church members that day, get to check-in with folks who attend only a few times per year, and meet new neighbors as we welcome guests. The staff is busy right now around the building, making sure our dishes are clean, our floors are vacuumed, our organ is tuned, our bulletins are accurate, and our website is updated. Our administrator is organizing kitchen staff to make a delicious Easter breakfast. Our musicians practice tirelessly the week before Easter, preparing for extra services and added guest instrumentalists. Volunteers are preparing communion elements, sourcing flowers for the flowering of the cross, and putting together worship packets for kids. Personally, I am obsessing over writing my sermon and prayers, and practicing the logistics of immersion baptism in my office! All of these activities are in preparation for an Easter service we hope will be meaningful to all who show up, whether we know them well or are meeting for the first time.

Of course, the Resurrection does not depend on whether the microphones work or the sanctuary is dusted or the coffee is hot. It does not depend on the prayers or the Scripture readings or the hymns or the sermon. None of us makes Easter happen with all our busy-ness, and it can be challenging to remember that. What we are responsible for is creating space for people to encounter the Holy. And creating a comfortable, welcoming, inclusive, accessible space is hospitality.

There are many people in this church who are gifted with hospitality. They offer warm smiles and help people find their way through the maze of our church buildings, remember names and pray for others. I am grateful for these gifted ones, and I hope we do not take them for granted.

But I also think that hospitality is something that we can nurture—and we need to! We all have something to offer our church’s hospitality ministry (like we say in each Sunday’s call to giving, we are truly grateful for all the ways you give to the church!) SFBC has the opportunity to grow in our hospitality, so that the warmth and welcome of this place does not depend on one or two people being present. Greeters, ushers, communion servers, worship leaders, musicians, Sunday education hour teachers and facilitators, and folks in the pews—we all have a role to play in hospitality.

The events and activities included in this newsletter are not simple FYIs. They are invitations for you to participate in the life of our community and practice hospitality. Right now, we need YOU, so I ask you to thoughtfully and prayerfully consider what you could do to support this church’s hospitality.

I hope:

• Each family in the church will sign up to be greeters once a year. All ages and abilities are welcome!
• Church members take an active role in keeping our facilities neat and tidy (i.e. cleaning up and restocking pew materials, maintaining the Wiggle Room, Parlor and nursery, etc.)
• Each person who comes into the church for a worship service is greeted warmly and personally (and without pressure to share their life story or join an activity right away!)
• Church members will feel empowered to offer hospitality to one another outside the church building

Beloved SFBC, in these precarious times, we need each other. I believe we can show up for one another, and for our neighbors. You don’t have to be anyone but yourself, because you are enough. So bring yourself, and let’s create a church that is as hospitable as we can be!

I love you and I love being your pastor.

Rev. Anita