EVENT EVANGELISM
The liturgical calendar is an attractive mystery to those who don’t live with it as we do, both churched and unchurched. Not only are our seasons color-coded, but so are our days of special observance. Just the fact that we have days of special observance puts us a leg up over many of our Christian neighbors.
We use the calendar to teach and inspire our own people, and to organize our common life. We have the further opportunity, however, to make great use of special seasons and events to attract others who are seeking to be taught and inspired, and who can appreciate some structure to organize their own spiritual lives. We’ve just observed Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, and now we are in the season of Lent, which has an amazing attraction for people one would not expect to be very keen on abstinence and penitence. (It always amazes me that we Episcopalians, as hedonistic as we are by nature, would be as serious about Lent as we are.) In the weeks ahead, we have not only more of Lent, but also the heaven-sent evangelistic advantage of Holy Week and Easter, and our deeply symbolic ways of honoring them.
If we are ever to invest in some advertizing, put up special signs or banners, send out fliers, and invite neighbors to attend worship with us, now is a great time for it. Passion Sunday, with its procession of palms and the dramatic reading of the Gospel; Maundy Thursday, with the washing of feet and that heart-wrenching stripping of the altar; Good Friday’s observance, in silence and awe; finally the Great Vigil of Easter and the Sunday of the Resurrection—who could possibly miss out on the messages of those powerful and moving remembrances, when they are done with reverence and care?
Our communities are filled with hungry hearts longing for a faith to take that seriously, as we ourselves once were. Let’s do the best we can to find them this year, and offer them sanctuary.
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