Finding Faith ... in doing better to welcome everyone in our church doors

"Dale is the only pastor I’ve met who says that there are a lot of Christians who don’t practice what they preach. That was huge to me, to see someone who recognizes it and wants to talk about it."

That was a quote from Summer Sturlaugson, the care coordinator assistant at Lighthouse Church in Fargo, N.D., in a story in our local paper about the unique church that serves a community focused on those struggling with addictions.

Sturlaugson, who struggles with addiction herself, told the paper that during the pandemic, she shut herself in her home, and she admitted to attempting to complete suicide. But along the way, she found Lighthouse Church, which was opened by Pastor Dale Wolf, who struggles with addiction too, 10 years ago. And now she works to help others with addictions find hope.

Pastor Dale isn't wrong, Faith Family. ... You can't imagine the number of folks I run across in my ministry who no longer trust the church because they see right through the hypocrisy we practice on so many levels. ... We simply have no defense; we're guilty.

We tell people that they are welcome at our houses of worship, or into our faith communities, but then we turn up our noses when they come looking and thinking differently than we do.

So, if we were truthful with ourselves, what we would really say instead is, "Everyone is welcome ... if you look and act and believe the same way we do. Please leave all of your differences at the door so that they don't make us uncomfortable."

And as along as we are being truthful with ourselves, we'd also have to say that what we're doing isn't working either.

While so many of us faithful sit in our big, beautiful and almost empty churches, built in another time and period in history, the very people that Jesus would be hanging out with today if he were still on earth would be out there, beyond our doors. They are the kind of people who are attending church in places like Lighthouse Church, if they are attending church at all.

There is no disputing it, Faith Family, there was a shift in societal attitudes toward church happening long before the COVID pandemic, but the pandemic absolutely accelerated whatever that shift is. Our attendances across all of the main stream Christian churches is in a free fall. And we best come to terms with the fact that the days of packed pews with people who all look alike and confirm to our church's written and unwritten customs ... are gone.

We are in a new era of the church. An era when the work we should be doing is concentrating on serving those who find themselves on the margins, those without a voice, and those who don't feel loved in this world.

Jesus set this example for us 2,000 years ago, and it's shockingly simple. Jesus didn't center his ministry on the synagogue where he'd find those filled with piety and righteousness. ... Never. ... Jesus focused his ministry on those on the street, where anyone could approach him for healing. ... And, guess what? ... He never, ever turned them way, or shamed them for looking, acting or believing differently.

In fact, it was Jesus himself who essentially said that ministry should look more like medical care ... like a hospital for the spiritually sick. In the Gospel of Mark 2:15-20 he tells us so: "15 And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

We have work to do my fellow faithful friends. .... We can no longer sit in our pews and lament the days of yore when there are so many hurting people out there that we could be caring for. And despite our pride, we must start to think that our model of spiritual care may not be what everyone needs. Folks are coming back to church, and so we need to go find them ... wherever they are at.

And by the sounds of it, Pastor Dale Wolf and the staff at Lighthouse Church are the ones who are truly welcoming of anyone and everyone. And we'd do well with a little humility so that we could learn a lesson from them. Amen.