In a recent gathering of a small reflection group, we explored the question of how Broadway can grow into being a more invitational community of faith. How do our members go about inviting friends and acquaintances to join us? What is natural to us as a community and to individuals? Where are the entry points for exploration and belonging?
Several wise observations surfaced:
If we are long-term members of the community we may already have our primary social relationships and have less contact with new and different people. If we are retired we are no longer in the work place, surrounded by those contacts. Our primary friendships may actually be within the church. Those same long-term members remember how they were first invited to Broadway and who welcomed them when they arrived. Nevertheless, if older adults are active in social settings such as the ARC or Lifelong Learning courses, they still do meet new persons they could invite to join us at worship or some other ministry of the church.
Another identified challenge for Disciples and the Broadway congregation is that we want to avoid being identified with more aggressive evangelical groups and their methods. There is a fear that we may be characterized as door knocking, pamphlet distributing, intolerant, arguing you into heaven Christians. Because we don't want to appear like "them" we swing way to the other side, reticent to invite at all. That is a problem because we begin to "hide our candle under a bushel basket" and remain a best kept secret. We may need to be encouraged to invite our friends to join us in genuine and loving ways, sharing why our community of faith is so important to us.
That leads to a most practical challenge, one with which many of us are uncomfortable. What do you say if someone asks you, "What do you like about Broadway and why do you participate?" At this point most of our group members were stymied. We may have a few signature ministries of which we are proud and can point to. We have a feeling about being at Broadway. But what would our "elevator speech" be, our short synopsis we could share with anyone if the opening presents itself?
Such an elevator speech, a summary of what is important, would have several components. It would be important to share some of the theological essence of our movement as well as the way our congregation shares life together. Here are some aspects that come immediately to mind:
- Our life is centered in God and the way Jesus revealed God to us.
- We interpret the scriptures as a sacred story that informs our own stories. The Bible is a library of witnesses from different times and places. It must always be interpreted.
- We have no other requirement for entrance into the Christian life and community than the good confession, "I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God."
- Our practice is adult believer's baptism by immersion, but we recognize all other forms of baptism in the broader Christian family. You do not need to be re-baptized to become a part of us.
- We are the church of the open table to which all who long to commune with Christ are invited. That open table extends radical hospitality in the way we invite and include everyone in the community of faith.
- We are clearly Christian but have a universal outlook as regards other Christians and the adherents of other faiths. "Not the only Christians, but Christians only."
- We practice a serving faith where action completes believing. We believe that a relevant faith engages with our society and world. Prayer and service are two sides of the same coin.
- We are a movement of Christian unity. "Christian unity is our polar star."
- We do not base our unity on total agreement on all matters but rather on God's love for all. "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love."
- We have a congregational polity, determining our own direction even as we belong to one another in covenant with the larger Disciples movement. We do not have bishops who appoint pastors to parishes; we call our own pastors.
- Women serve in all aspects of church life and ministry.
- We treasure the multi-facetted diversity of the whole human family, especially as it manifests itself in our congregation.
- We are a movement for wholeness, reconciliation and peace in a broken world.
- We believe that faith is best formed in a multi-generational community of faith.
- We believe that the collective form of love is justice, and prophetic justice-making is the collective form of loving.
- We practice the spiritual disciplines, all of which deepen our walk with God.
- We do not know or predict the future, but we know that the future is in God's hands.
For deeper reflection on the core beliefs and practices of the Disciples and Broadway, see the following:
