Radical hospitality revealed in feeling uncomfortable

by Marilyn Johns


Part of my work, and the reason you haven’t seen me much this fall, is that I travel to a wide variety of Christian churches to preach, teach, and meet the members of these small congregations. Recently, I visited an African-American Missionary Baptist church in North Carolina. I’ve preached in African-American churches before, but they were United Methodist, or Presbyterian, or even American Baptist – mainline denominations. Missionary Baptist was a church unfamiliar to me, and I was plenty worried that I wouldn’t live up to their idea of worship.

Now, I’m a Presbyterian. In preparing a sermon, I read and reread the passage, look to some commentaries for ideas, and await direction from the Holy Spirit as to what I should say to the particular church I’m visiting. Then I write the sermon. In the Missionary Baptist church, the notion of “writing a sermon” is completely foreign. In their worship service, the first hour is filled with singing and praising and prayer and preparation for the Spirit to visit them right then. There is no bulletin. There is no written sermon. The preacher preaches on what the Spirit has given him (not usually her) to say at that moment. When I asked the pastor ahead of time how long he normally preaches, his response was, “Until it’s time to stop.” It’s a very different way of preaching from the typical 18-minute, “three points, a poem, and a prayer” sermon we Presbyterians are used to.

I know my limitations, and I know something about the need for authenticity. So rather than try to be something I’m not, I prepared my sermon and preached it from the text. Worship was different than I experience at Pilgrims or most other mainline churches. I was stepping way outside my comfort zone. Even as I preached, I was sure everyone was bored with this fairly low-key, not terribly emotional proclamation. But then I realized they were willing to step outside of their comfort zone too. They listened, they appreciated, they were gracious – one person even asked me for a copy of the text! The people in the Missionary Baptist church opened themselves up to hearing God in an unfamiliar way, even though it wasn’t their preferred style, because that is what true welcome is.

Radical hospitality revealed in feeling uncomfortable