Radical Welcome

January/February 2009

by Stephanie Spellers

It took an old Swedish Lutheran church to teach this young Black Episcopal priest something about radical welcome.

Resurrection Lutheran Church in Roxbury is a gracious, fraying Lutheran church that once teemed with the Swedes who used to populate this Boston neighborhood. When I wandered onto their doorstep in 1997 (at the time, an unchurched seeker with a divinity school degree), Black children were everywhere. And this church was their home.

The real surprise? Several of the White folks who’d grown up at Resurrection had stuck around. Others actually drove past other Lutheran churches closer to home in order to be part of this messy, multicultural arm of the body of Christ. This church was their home, too.

I had stayed on the fringe of church most of my life. If anybody asked, I said I was still dreaming of a church I had never seen: one that recognizes every person as a bearer of Christ and seriously tries to welcome each person’s gifts, presence, and power—regardless of the structures of oppression in the wider church and society.

I witnessed that welcome at Resurrection. And so this church became my home, too.

A Radical Witness

The music minister, Randy Rice, introduced me to radically welcoming worship. An out, partnered, gay White man, he would pound out “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” from the organ loft and then race down the steps to lead our tiny gospel choir in a jazzy setting of the Sanctus. Resurrection was a poor church, but Randy found the money to hire a keyboardist who played gospel and contemporary music. He knew they weren’t his forte, but he also knew they were the soul of this neighborhood. So he developed an aesthetic that honored both the music of the people’s hearts and the beloved traditions.

The pastor, the Rev. John Heinemeier, introduced me to radically welcoming leadership. “Big John” was a Texan of German heritage who had honed his community-organizing skills in Brooklyn and the Bronx. He took us all deeper into the neighborhood, building youth and family programs on a shoestring, trusting the gifts of young and poor people (often over those of more savvy, educated leaders).

Caroline Ramsey, our African American lay associate, introduced me to radically welcoming hospitality. She had worked as a top government official, then left it all to give her life to Resurrection. She skillfully mentored, challenged, organized, and loved all people: poor, wealthy, gay, lesbian, bisexual, Latino, Black, Asian, White, young, middle-aged, old. And when she smiled, you felt you were looking right into the face of Christ.

No Quick Fix

Even years later, I often wondered: What would it take for the wider Lutheran church to radically welcome like that, embracing youth and young adults, gay and lesbian people, people of color, the poor? Could mainline Protestant churches ever break through the dominance of our European history and culture and incorporate the gifts, presence, and power of other groups?

There is no quick-fix list. Radical welcome requires deep change: a comprehensive transformation that shifts the patterns of exclusion and oppression woven so deeply into every church’s systems.

But it starts with imagination. So consider the witness of Resurrection Lutheran Church.

Then think about how our systems separate people into groups and then oppress or grant privilege according to their: race, culture, language, education, socioeconomic status, generation, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability.

And then:

Look inside: Which (cultural, economic, generational, and so on ) groups are present in your congregation? Whose culture, preferences, history, leadership, and decisions shape the church’s life and worship? Whose do not? Why? How about in your women’s unit? Your circle?

Look around: Which groups surround your congregation? Of these, which historically and systemically marginalized groups are least likely to feel valued and embraced as part of your church? What’s the story behind this pattern?

Look back: In your congregational heritage, whose stories and cultures and experiences rarely show up? Which groups are likely to see a sign for your church and think, “Well, they don’t want me”? Who sees a sign for Women of the ELCA activities and thinks they’re not welcome? Why?

Following Jesus' Example

There are groups in your congregation and in your wider community who have received pitifully little welcome from churches like ours. Once you’ve identified these Others, you can invite a broad circle of leaders (not just the pastor!) to get set for radical welcome:

As a congregation, as a congregational unit, build your vision for what radical welcome would look like for you.

Identify the barriers blocking full embrace of Others in your church, making an honest assessment of your church’s whole life, from mission statement to ministries, leadership to worship. Consider the same for your women’s organization.

Develop relationships with marginalized members, neighbors, and civic leaders, and let them share their experiences and tell you what it would take for them to feel radically welcomed.

Decide together what would need to change in your church, your unit, your circle, so that The Other experiences radical welcome.

Prepare people for change, including learning to reckon with fear and making sure that people in the “insider” groups don’t feel that they’re being kicked out.

The journey is a long one, but it’s worth it to know we’re following Jesus’ example, embracing once-marginalized voices and cultures, and sharing the radical Good News of resurrection life . . . together.

The Rev. Stephanie Spellers is the author of Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other and the Spirit of Transformation (www.churchpublishing.org/radicalwelcome) and serves as priest and lead organizer for the Crossing, an emerging church worship community in Boston (www.thecrossingboston.org).

Interested in joining a Women of the ELCA book discussion on radical welcome? Click here.