We Go to our Mailbox (and our Inbox)

How churches respond to visitors
We don’t get much mail. Being on the road last year without a physical address seemed to discourage all but the most persistent junk mail from catching up with us. (Some still found us. It’s rather sad when we've sent a small amount to a charity that more than two years later, they’ve spent at least that much on requests for more money. We tossed those letters without opening, but one organization has followed us to three addresses, with no response on our part.)  

But we do get mail from churches. We go to a new church almost every week (though we didn’t this week, just went to the same one we attend most weeks), and MIndy faithfully fills out the response cards. Even though some churches never get around to mentioning where visitors can register their attendance, Mindy tracks it down if she can. Some churches ask visitors to  stand, even to introduce themselves. More than one church had ushers who handed us a card and pen and watched as we filled it.

Last year we didn’t have a physical address, only email, but this year we have both, and we often fill out both kinds of addresses. Strangely, some churches don’t offer a choice of which you’d prefer. They have their own preferences. We recently visited a church that announced they’d send a gift to our home. It turned out to be a gift certificate for a free burger (which could have probably been sent by email just as easily and more economically, though of course we're grateful for free food!).

It’s a very good thing for churches to reach out to visitors. It’s definitely worthwhile to thank visitors for coming and even better to offer opportunities for people to become involved if they choose. But there are some things we think could be improved.

For instance, Mindy usually fills out the cards, and she usually writes, “Dean and Mindy Anderson” because, you know, those are our names and she figures one registration card is enough. A number of times, we’ve gotten letters or emails addressed to “Dean” alone. Would they have been addressed to Mindy if she’d put “Mindy and Dean Anderson,” or was unthinking sexism at work?  It seems to us that if two names are on the card, two names should be on the letter.

Another occasional problem with giving an email address has been those churches that never stop sending emails. Like the charity that found us after every move, some churches don’t manage to ever take us off their mailing lists, even after we ask.

Sometimes those letters come with an assumption that the receiver is already excited about and committed to the church. “Now that you’re part of our family” is the tone -- even when we just visited once. I guess the next step after one visit is membership...and probably a place on one of their boards.

But any of this is preferable to churches that don’t follow through at all (or worse yet, make no effort to know who's at church on any given Sunday). A visitor who comes as a stranger and remains a stranger -- unless that's their choice -- indicates the church is not doing what the church is called to do, to be Christ’s representative to the world.

So those letters, whether electronic or snail, are good things. Even better is a greeting from a person in person that can lead to a real relationship, like some of those we've found since the start of this project.

Mindy Goes to Church at the Airport

Midway Airport Chapel, Chicago, Illinois
I was at the gate, waiting to find out if I my standby status would get me on an earlier flight home, when I heard the announcement: “There will be a non-denominational Christian worship service in the airport  chapel in fifteen minutes, at 2:00. The half-hour service is open to all.”

I’d noticed the signs for the chapel and idly wondered if I should check it out, but I’d been hurrying to the gate -- and the gate agent told me it’d be about 45 minutes before my standby ticket could be confirmed for this flight. Spending half an hour in the airport chapel at Midway airport in Chicago sounded perfect.


About half of the United States' busiest airports have chapels with chaplains and regularly scheduled worship services. JFK in New York has four chapels (and worship times) for Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic travelers. Most chapels, however, are designated as "interfaith," serving anyone who wishes to sit quietly and pray or meditate. I was curious what Midway offered.

I had to ask for directions from a rather bored airport police officer (who pointed out the very obvious signs), but after going down a corridor, into an elevator, and up one floor...I saw a doorway with a few tables of information around it: looked like a church entry hall to me.

When I went through the doors into the chapel itself, I noticed another woman was sitting on the floor by the windows across the room. She had a book open in her lap, and I realized she was reading Psalms quietly. Not wanting to intrude, I sat down on the chairs on the near side of the room after taking a few pictures. A few minutes later, a man in a clerical collar came in and introduced himself as Pastor Tom. As he shook my hand and invited me to move to the other side of the room, the woman stood up to greet Pastor Tom too.

“Renee! I’m glad to see you!” he said, and introduced us to each other. He and Renee continued a conversation that had obviously started last time they’d seen each other, and I gathered my various belongings to move closer to where she was. I heard her say she had to catch her flight and wouldn’t be able to stay for the worship service, and she left a moment later.

Pastor Tom excused himself and opened the door to a storage area. A few minutes later he brought out a cross and set it on the table at the front of the room, explaining that the room was used by Catholics, Protestants, Muslims (there was a stack of prayer rugs on a chair near the door), and a few Orthodox Jews, so religious symbols needed to be portable. He ducked back into the other room, reemerging in a black clerical robe.

We were waiting for anyone else who might come in -- occasionally employees or airport police come in when their schedules allow -- and Pastor Tom and I chatted for a few minutes.

He mentioned that many of the Protestant chaplains who serve at the Chicago airports are from the Evangelical Free Church. (Skyword, “the only authorized Christian Protestant chaplaincy privileged to serve the Chicago O’Hare and Midway airport communities,”* is a ministry of The Moody Church in Chicago). Dr. Hutz Hertzberg, the overall leader of Skyword chaplains, was ordained in the Evangelical Free Church (as was Dean).

Pastor Tom serves in the Reformed Baptist Church, but he mentioned that he grew up in a nominally Catholic family. He was quick to tell me that at least half of the people who come to the Protestant worship services at Midway, in his experience, are Roman Catholic, and he uses songs from the missal as well as hymns more commonly associated with Protestant worship. “God prepares us for the ministry He has for us,” Pastor Tom said.

After we talked for a few minutes, he began the worship service with a blessing from the book of Nehemiah. We sang “My Jesus, I Love Thee” acapella from a laminated copy of the hymn. I wondered if we skipped the verse that begins, "I love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death" because some who attend the worship service are fearful about plane crashes. Still, we sang three verses together, and I thought we did a nice job with the harmony.

As he’d mentioned when telling me a little about Renee, part of the worship service was a time of sharing praise and prayer requests, and Pastor Tom asked if I had any prayer requests. I shared something, and he did as well. Then we prayed. During the prayer, a man came in and took a prayer rug from the chair near the door. Pastor Tom had mentioned earlier that this sometimes happened during worship services, so I wasn’t too surprised when Pastor Tom paused his prayer to ask the man to pray outside the chapel. The man didn’t seem bothered by this, and a few minutes later, he came again to quietly return his rug.

After our prayer (concluded with the Lord’s prayer, which in the printed program used the word “debts,” though Pastor Tom used the word “trespasses”), Pastor Tom said he’d give an abbreviated version of his sermon, since he didn’t want me to miss my flight. He read what he called “Paul’s resume” from Philippians 3: 4-14.

“What have we given up?” Pastor Tom asked. “What might we be called to give up? Am I willing to know Jesus in His suffering even to death?”

A few minutes after 2:00, he concluded the worship service with a benediction, and I hurried back to the gate to see if my standby ticket would get me a seat on the plane home. As I went, though, I was grateful for the opportunity to have a moment to worship in the brief time I was at the airport.

Statistics:  

Service Length: about 20 minutes

Sermon Length: about 7 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Everybody who comes is a visitor, except the chaplains. Pastor Tom makes it a point to greet each person, introduce himself, and introduce each person who attends to the others in attendance

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Count: 2

Probable Ushers’ Count: 2

Snacks: Midway Airport doesn’t have refreshments, but they’re available at worship services at O’Hare

Musicians: vocals only

Songs: “My Jesus, I Love Thee”

Distance to Church: about 100 yards and up one level from my gate, 2,250 miles from home by car

Open WiFi: I couldn’t get the airport wifi to work for me

Tie/Suit Count: none

Church Website: http://www.moodychurch.org/skyword/

http://airportchapels.org/

*from their website

Five Things We Plan to do in 2016

We've got big plans for 2016. You wonder what they are, right? Here you go:

1. Visit a church in every state

We've visited and posted about many California churches this last year but now we're crossing the state line. We plan to ask ask people in a church in every state these two questions. "What makes for a good church?" And "What makes for a good bar?" Which leads us to...

2. Visit a bar in every state

For a lot of people, a bar is community. We're curious what people in bars in different states think makes a good bar...and a good church, so we plan to ask them.

3. Test the limits of our 2006 Dodge Caravan

We plan to leave California on New Year's Eve, 2015, beginning the New Year in Las Vegas. The minivan, which has well over 160,000 miles on it currently, may or may not make it through the year (but we're hopeful).

4. Maintain three blogs with unique content (and the occasional crossover)

We began Church and States (deanandmindygotochurch.blogspot.com) about a year ago in order to write about visiting churches in California and to write about churches in movies. After a few months, we spun off Movie Churches (moviechurches.blogspot.com) into its own thing. Today's the first day we're posting on Dean and Mindy Walk into a bar (deanandmindywalkintoabar.blogspot.com) where we'll write about visiting bars as non-bar people. Among the three, we plan to post 5-7 times a week in 2016. Feel free to follow any or all of them.

5. See a lot of old friends and make a lot of new friends

In each state, we hope to spend three or four days (including Sunday) in one place getting to know one church community and one bar community. We'd like to stay with friends who can introduce us to their church and/or their bar. In places where we don't already know people, we hope to connect with friends of friends. And when the minivan breaks down, we're hoping somebody can recommend a good mechanic wherever we find ourselves.

Why are we doing this? Because we believe God is working through His church with great variety and creativity, and we hope to give those who faithfully attend one church (or don't go to church at all) a glimpse of His work. We'd love to have you along for the ride, so please add your questions, comments and suggestions in the comments section.

-- Dean and Mindy

 

Ten Far North California Travel Observations

This month, we're traveling to the farthest North, South, East and West churches we can find in California. Each week, in addition to church reports, we'll be reporting about our travels.

 1) As Jesus said, "This wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign." Well, we found one shortly after we got on I-5 North. A large home-made sign posted on a trailer truck read, "Saturday is the Sabbath; Sunday is the Mark of the Beast." Recently we visited some good folks at the Seventh Day Adventist church, and they didn't let us know about Sunday being evil. I'm curious whether it is best to skip Saturday to Monday (playing heck with the calendar) or do Saturdays twice.

2) Last week we were in Chicago for a late Christmas with our daughter and son-in-law and in Indiana for a wedding. We had snow expectations for the Midwest (like Cosby and Kaye in "White Christmas") but were disappointed. California came through with the holiday white; first with lots on Mount Shasta and more by the road along the way.

 3) The scenery was gorgeous, even with the bleakness of the desert (high desert -- low precipitation every year, but plenty of vegetation). Mountains covered with evergreens were all around, and snowy Mount Shasta dominated much of the time. A full moon shining on the Butte Valley would have been beautiful (sadly, it was cloudy the night we were there). In addition, Dorris boasts the highest flagpole west of the Mississippi.

4) I turned on the TV at the motel to see a couple engaged in activities that I would hope were a part of a loving marriage, but I have my doubts. I quickly changed channels but you'd think they'd understand we're on a church field trip. Otherwise, a nice room, a comfortable bed and clean.

5) There was a Mexican restaurant a short walk from the motel. The dining room seemed to be the living room for the family that ran the place -- kids watching Animal Planet on the TV and a treadmill as part of the decor. But the food was good, so all was well.

6) Train whistles! Amtrak's Coast Starlight and several freight trains come through the area every day.

7) The full moon rose above the mountains as we drove home. Wow. Sadly, no photo.

8) The motel offered a continental breakfast. I (Mindy) appreciated the hot coffee, and Dean had a pastry. We could have had oatmeal if we'd wanted it. The vending machine seemed to be in a midwinter slump, though.

9) We both had colds, so this was good practice travelling while ill. It will probably happen again this year. You don't want a picture of the mountain of used tissues, so here's another photo of Mount Shasta instead.

10) We paid $3.99 a gallon for gas on Sunday in Dorris after paying $1.79 a gallon for gas on Thursday in West Lafayette, Indiana.  In a Dorris market, a sixteen ounce jar of Jif Peanut Butter was almost $5, a couple of dollars more than you'd pay in most of the state. This is the price to be paid for living in the high country.

--Dean and Mindy

What's Happening in 2015

Mindy and I (Dean writes) will be starting an adventure in the year 2015. We will be visiting churches throughout California on a thematic basis (megachurches/home churches, urban churches/rural churches) and we would like you to join us. Just for fun, we'll also be writing about our visits to churches in films, churches in history (real and imagined) and will be writing about church trends, quirks and peeves.

All this is in preparation for an even bigger adventure in 2016 when we plan to visit a church in every state. Bookmark or follow this site now and join our church pilgrimage.