Just-in-Case Ministry

Love Actually is your basic unrealistic but fun holiday movie. I love this scene when English-speaking Jamie shows up in Portugal at the restaurant where Portuguese-speaking Aurelia is working. With their imperfect attempts to communicate Jamie proposes to Aurelia (with an audience) and Aurelia answers the proposal in English – which she has been studying “just in case” Jamie returns to Portugal to find her.

What if it had never been necessary? What if Jamie never returned? What if she learned English for nothing?

Well, Jamie did return and Aurelia was prepared. And it was Christmas and everybody lived happily ever after.

A colleague who serves an English-speaking congregation with a significant Swahili-speaking population shared with me today that at the Sunday afternoon Swahili service, everything is translated into English as well just in case the English speakers from the 11 am service want to worship with their Congolese siblings and get to know them.

My friends, this is what lavish hospitality looks like:

• Our church – which has no children – has someone at the ready to staff the nursery just in case guests show up with children.
• All the communion bread is gluten-free just in case someone happens to be gluten intolerant.
• Bibles are available for the Bible study just in case someone forgets to bring theirs.
• Umbrellas are available just in case a storm breaks when it’s time to leave the building.
• Handrails are added to the outside steps just in case someone needs them.
• Easy-to-share snacks are kept in the church kitchen just in case a hungry person comes by looking for something to eat.
• Personal health supplies are kept in the women’s bathroom just in case they’re needed.
• Diapers and wipes are available in all the church bathrooms just in case there’s an emergency.

We can’t prepare for every possible need that might arise, but we can anticipate common needs that are probable in our church buildings, depending on where we are and who graces our buildings.

Here’s what I’m not talking about:

• “Let’s sell a piece of property and put all that money in the cemetery fund just in case our church closes and money’s needed for perpetual care.” No.
• “Let’s hire paid singers just in case our little church has no one to sing tenor.” No.
• “Let’s call a young pastor just in case young families are looking for that in a church.”* No.

*File this one under “myths some church people still believe.”

Just-in-case ministry is about making people feel safe and welcomed. It’s about doing something that takes effort in order to make someone else comfortable.

I remember a colleague who always wore a t-shirt and jeans to worship because there was a homeless man in the congregation who dressed like that, while most everyone else word collared shirts and nice slacks or suits. When challenged by a suit-wearing member (“Couldn’t you dress up just one day a week?”) he said, “As long as C. dresses in a t-shirt and jeans, I will dress this way. If everyone dressed like C. I would probably wear a suit just in case someone joined us that week wearing a suit.“

Healthy churches remember that serving God is about welcoming the stranger, the vulnerable, the uncomfortable. It’s not about storing up treasurers on earth.

Happy Advent 3.