All Are Welcome

Really?

I spent the morning trying to get into churches. Mind you, I wasn't in a black ski-cap trying to make an entry with a crow bar, I was just simply trying to find the church office door so that I could drop off posters about our upcoming organ concert. This seemingly simple task took hours and I really shouldn't have worn heels.

It wasn't that I'd expected the churches to be unlocked (although one Catholic church did at least allow you inside to the chapel). I just thought maybe there would be a sign indicating where one should go during the week. (One church had a sign directing me to the house next door, which was not itself marked and as I knocked on the door, I worried I'd find the pastor at home reading the paper.) I thought that maybe there would be a bell a person could ring. When there was a bell, I thought someone would answer it. Sometimes I just walked around trying doors. Sometimes I resorted to pounding on windows (I could see someone in there!). One church -- ONE -- had a sign indicating the location of the church office, another sign pointing me to the bell and they actually answered the door when I rang it. I almost hugged the secretary when she met me as I came in.

Now, I didn't do an official count, but I'd guess that almost all these churches had a sign out front that said something like, "All are welcome." I might have been "welcome," but I'm a church person and I sure as heck couldn't find my way in. We find all sorts of ways to filter, don't we?

To be fair, I'd expect that access would be easier on a Sunday morning. But I wondered what I would have done if I were someone long gone from the church in a moment of crisis hoping against hope to catch someone who might help. I also must say that my own church would also have failed the test. While our church office doors are the ones with our address above them, they are still not clearly marked and the bell is hard to find. When I first arrived everyone entered the church on a Sunday morning by a little side door that even a mouse might not have tried. We are working on signs and banners. We are working on meaning what we say. It's time to be welcoming even to those who don't know how to get through the door.