An Engraved Invitation

Here is an engraved invitation. Or as close to engraved as you can get online.
I love being a Christian and I love being the pastor of St. Marks United Church of Christ. We welcome everyone. Seriously. We take Worship very seriously and approach it with a light touch but also a serious touch. Maybe we can be called traditional. We honor the traditions of Christianity. We also honor the Bible a lot. We honor the Bible to not take things literally and out of context. Sermons are preached on actual Scripture passages and not based on a random topic of the week with a variety of out of context proof texts. We take service to others seriously. Hundreds of people get fed by us, get clothing from us, etc. Lots of stuff. We take our faith seriously. We have great music and our music staff and participants work hard.
It is a diverse congregation. Politics are not preached. To be honest, who you vote for is your business. No one at the church is going to tell you who you have to vote for. We have a diversity of opinions on a whole variety of things. We welcome everyone. We take that seriously.
To be perfectly honest, there are people who will not like this church. If you think everyone should agree on everything all the time, we are not for you. If you think that going to church will provide you with easy answers for complex issues, this is not the church for you.
If you are a person with a lot of questions, we might be the place for you. If you are a person who not only tolerates a variety of opinions and people but gets energized by this, we might be the place for you. If you take your faith seriously enough to not be satisfied with short, simple answers, we might be the church for you.
We take kids seriously. We have an amazing Wednesday night program for kids. We teach them, feed them, give them a chance to sing and act, and play. Tomorrow, at 9:15AM we are starting a new Sunday School program. I know, that sounds boring, doesn't it? We have classes for kids of all ages with cool rooms, and a neat new curriculum that will challenge them to think. We have adult classes, one new one about the challenge of parenting as a person of faith. The book is written by two female clergy who are honest enough to know they do not have all the answers. The teacher of the class is clear that she doesn't know all the answers either.
I don't have all the answers either. Think about church. Churches can be places where a variety of people get together and love, support, and care for each other and wrestle with their faith together.
Easy answers? Nope. Are you welcome? Yes. But I'm...... You're still welcome.
We Worship at 10:30AM and tomorrow we are serving Holy Communion. Guess what?
You are welcome at our Table.
No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.