• By Rev. Briony P. Desotell, Oscoda UMC •
Bishop Sally Dyck challenged people of the Saginaw Bay District to return to the roots of the gospel by developing a culture of radical hospitality at the March 12 Bishop’s Day at Midland First United Methodist Church.
“It’s not an easy time to be the church,” she confessed, “and yet it’s also an exciting time to be the church.”
The challenge and opportunity of ministry in the world today is that we as the church are asking the right questions and getting back to the basics as a community of faith.Dyck, who currently serves the Minnesota Area, titled her address “An Inside Out Church.” Challenging insular Christian mindsets, Dyck encouraged listeners to stop looking inward and shift their focus outward.
She challenged attendees to take the good news at the heart of their faith – that is, the love of Jesus Christ – out into the world.
She said radical hospitality means returning to the basics of scripture and tradition, recovering the heart of Jesus’ teaching. The biblical model for hospitality involves meeting the needs of our guests rather than our own.
“If we as the host still expect to be served,” she cautioned, “then we’ve turned upside-down what our faith is all about.”
If we as hosts are focused on our own wants and needs, we miss critical opportunities to share God’s love by welcoming the strangers in our midst, just as Christ once welcomed us.
Radical hospitality is first and foremost about the attitude with which we encounter others.
“You can have all the gimmicks – mugs, pens, gift baskets – but if you don’t have love,” Dyck cautioned, “it’s nothing.”
Drawing on the example of a saint in her own life, Dyck challenged the United Methodists of Saginaw Bay to develop “Betty Eyes.”
“Hospitality begins with the eyes, with how we see people,” she said.
“Betty was a woman who had the gift of hospitality. Whenever she encountered anyone, the look in Betty’s eyes exclaimed, ‘You’re just the person I was hoping to see today.’”
Dyck encouraged the listeners to ask themselves, “Who does your heart break for?”
The fundamental problem in the United Methodist Church today, by her assessment, is that our hearts have stopped breaking. When church members are more concerned with perpetuating an institution, when churches cling to traditions rather than looking beyond themselves, then faith loses its heart.
When, on the other hand, people of faith practice hospitality, reaching out and welcoming others not just in word but in reality, then the attitude of love and care will be contagious.
Rather than bemoaning the church’s dwindling numbers, or agonizing over how hard it is to change the direction of an entire denomination, Dyck encourages us to start at home, with ourselves.
The way to open our hearts, minds, and doors as a church is to start by opening our own lives and inviting others in.
“Think about what you do,” Bishop Dyck urged, “and how you can do it differently; others will catch the spirit and follow suit.”
From the practical questions of signage, potluck seating, and accessibility to the difficult questions of our unspoken prejudices and unconscious assumptions, Bishop Dyck encouraged the church to wrestle with the hard questions.
“How open are our doors, really?”
Bishop’s Days attendees proved to be open to sharing the spirit of Christ, evident by donations of more than 2,600 disposable diapers for the “My Brother’s Hope” free store ministry of Harrisville UMC, which serves Alcona County the second Saturday of each month.
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