Anglican Perspectives

Seeker inSensitive Anglicans?

I heard once and have repeated many times that the number one emotion people feel when going to a church for the first time is fear. Will I fit in? What will be expected of me? Am I dressed right? There are just lots of unknowns which can cause fear.

 

I recently experienced this to be true firsthand. Becoming the full-time Director for Church Revitalization and Coaching for the American Anglican Council I found myself in the interesting situation of having to find a church home. For nearly two decades I just went to church where I worked. Sure, I’d go to other churches when I was on vacation but that was more as a spy to gather good ideas that I could apply at my church. Going to church to see if it was where my family and I belong was different. I felt fear.

 

I’ve been to two churches so far, I am friends with the rectors of both, and was recognized by people when I walked in. I knew the cultures so I knew how to dress. With all that in place I still felt fear as I walked up. Would I like it? Would my family like it? I hope they don’t make me put on a nametag! (neither church did, thankfully). Now if I, a seasoned church person felt fear, how much more will a non-believer who accepted an invitation to come to our church feel it? It is important that we are sensitive to that fear our visitors are feeling.

 

Most of us will be familiar with the church growth movement’s concept of being “seeker sensitive” or “seeker friendly.” It has gone by different names. I have always been amazed at how many Anglicans I know that have a negative reaction to this idea. It’s like as soon as I mention the need to be more seeker sensitive they immediately jump to an extreme position like I’m suggesting we abandon the Book of Common Prayer and replace liturgical worship with fog machines and light shows. I get that their objections come from a desire to protect the style of worship we value and love. However, it seems our own fear of losing our liturgical traditions causes us to go too far and become a seeker insensitive church. A church that is not sensitive to our visitors.

 

One definition of insensitive is, “deficient in consideration.” Deficient is defined as “lacking something.” So to be seeker insensitive would mean to be lacking consideration for those who visit our church. Would you agree with me that that could describe many Anglican Churches in North America?  Isn’t it true that often we do church primarily for those already in the church and without much consideration for what people will experience if they visit?  Maybe we Anglicans react negatively to being seeker sensitive because of our observations of mega, non-denominational churches that promote the idea. Okay fine. Let’s say we drop the term “seeker sensitive” and instead simply use the word, kind. Wouldn’t it just be the kind thing to be considerate of the needs and feelings of those who visit our church?

 

Kindness to strangers and visitors is not a modern church growth idea, it’s a Biblical idea. In Luke 6 where Jesus, teaching on love for enemies, says first in verse 31, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” then in verses 35-36 concludes, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  Visitors to our church are not even our enemy. In fact, the Father is drawing them whether they know it or not! How much more should we be kind, considerate, and merciful to our visitors!

 

If you have objections to the seeker sensitive idea but don’t want to be seeker insensitive, would you consider the following as ways to just be kind to visitors:

 

  • Yes, have greeters and friendly ushers, but better, have every member see themselves as a greeter on Sunday mornings. Everyone should be on the lookout for visitors and be willing to break from their conversations with other members to at least say, “Hi” and “Welcome” or “Glad you’re here.” I know you’re asking, but how will I know they are visitors? Many churches are small enough where you’ll just know, let’s be honest. For larger churches, visitors are easy to spot. They are walking slower than everyone else and reading the signage! Check it out, you’ll see it’s true!
  • At the beginning of worship, take a brief moment to welcome those visiting that day. Assume they are not familiar with the liturgy and explain a bit about how it goes. I made it a habit of doing that every week even if I knew there weren’t any visitors that day because I wanted the members to know that if they invited someone they could be confident Fr. Mark would make sure they were welcome and wouldn’t “drop the ball” the day they came.
  • Put your bulletins together with visitors in mind. What will they read? Will it make sense to them? Is it clear where to stand up, sit down, kneel? Back in “Christiandom” times we could assume visitors were already believers and probably knew the basics. In our current “Missional” times we should assume our visitors know nothing. Present with the unchurched in mind and seasoned church visitors will be fine too.

 

Basically, don’t be insensitive to your visitors. Prayerfully seek ways to show kindness to them. And by the way, both churches I visited were very friendly, greeted us well, and we felt very welcomed! Way to go! – 9/15/17

 

The Rev. Canon Mark Eldredge is Director of Church ReVitalization and Coaching for the American Anglican Council.

 

See other revitalization articles from Canon Mark.:

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