Inviting others in

This week I spent a precious few days with a cohort of clergy from around the country, meeting here in San Diego. This is a group I help facilitate of senior pastors from Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches in the South and the East. We meet monthly online and gather in person a few times over the course of our 18 month commitment, and we have become quite close over this last year. We stayed in an assortment of Airbnbs in Mission Beach, everyone marveling at the beauty of the ocean just steps from our door. We visited St Paul's Cathedral and talked with Canon Jason Evans from our diocese, who gave us new perspective on the church in the West, church planting, and mission. And we did a lot of laughing, and a lot of just sitting in the ocean breezes, talking and sharing. I think the San Diego air (and tacos) did everyone a great deal of good.

Jason pointed out that broadly speaking, new people coming to church here are coming for one (or all) of three reasons: they've seen good work the church is doing and want to be part of that; they are lonely and isolated and needing community; they're attracted to Jesus...even though skeptical and uncertain about the religion around him. They're no longer coming just because church is something you do, and this is increasingly true all over the country. That means our invitation needs to look different! We have so much to share, but with church attendance less of a given, it looks different now how we share it. 

So what do you love about St Francis? Can you share that with someone this week?