Lent

So…how do you feel about spring cleaning? Do you love it? Do you hate it? I know some people who love spring cleaning. After a long, cold winter that is spent inside, they see spring as an opportunity to be more active, take inventory, and begin cleaning up their households, yards, and anything else they can think of. They get things in order. Perhaps things have put off during the winter. They thought about cleaning this, or taking care of that, but it was too cold, the weather was too bad, or they just wanted to stay inside. Well, welcome to “Spring Cleaning.”

The first meeting of the Five Practices Lenten discussion took place on March 2nd. We had 14 people in attendance. The topic was radical hospitality. There was quite a bit of discussion. First, a definition of radical hospitality was offered. We began to understand that radical hospitality was welcoming the stranger. The question of the night was, how well do we do that?

We discussed what the condition of our church said to first time visitors. We discussed whether the bathrooms were easy to find, and if our signs were appropriate.

We talked about how best to introduce ourselves to people we don't know. We decided that saying something like, "Hi, I don't think I've met you" or "Hi, my name is [input your name here], I don't think I know your name." Of course there are other ways to do this. The important point is to realize that we are to welcome those who come. Instead of asking someone who the new person is, we decided we would ask them ourselves.