If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?
. . . If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret.

I Corinthians 14:23, 27

To open one of my recent classes on “Reaching Out to our New Neighbors,” I flashed the above verses up on the screen. As you might guess, my choice of Scripture drew some puzzled looks, since speaking in tongues is not a liturgical tendency for which we are noted at Pohick.

And so I quickly passed out a copy of the previous Sunday’s bulletin with the following instructions: “Now, imagine you are a visitor on Sunday morning who has never before been in an Episcopal Church. Are there any parts of this bulletin that might seem to you as though it were written in a foreign tongue?”

The class members had little trouble picking some out. “Sanctus,” said one; “S-114” said another. “How about ‘collect’?” said a third, “it sounds like you’re taking up a collection!” Several other obvious candidates soon followed.

“If you were a visitor to our Church,” I continued, “chances are that you would find at least some of these terms indecipherable.”

I went on to relate my recent experience at a retirement luncheon for one of our members who had worked for the Federal Government. While I enjoyed the occasion immensely, I commented afterwards that they should have distributed a code-book for the uninitiated, since every fifth word from each speaker’s mouth was a governmental acronym. I had no idea what most of them were talking about!

How to fix the corresponding problem for the newcomer at Pohick?

One approach adopted by some congregations, I shared with the class, is to print out the entire Order of Service with all of the speaking parts and hymns included in booklet form each Sunday. That’s a course I’ve decided not to take at Pohick, not only because it would kill a lot of trees, but also because it would hinder our congregation (newcomers included) from learning to use our Prayer Book and hymnals, all of which are rich resources for worship.

Then I drew the class’s attention back to St. Paul’s words in I Corinthians, particularly his insistence that any “tongue speaking” be accompanied by an interpreter.

“In our situation with visitors on Sunday morning,” I asked, “just who are the interpreters?”

“We all are!” came the reply.

And of course, they were right. For newcomers to begin to feel at home on Sunday mornings, they need not just the all-important warm smiles and words of welcome; they also need for those of us “in the know” to help them navigate the intricacies of our liturgy. That means feeding them the right books (“What is this LEVAS book, anyway?”), helping them find the right pages (“What does this ‘S’ mean in the hymnal?”), and guiding them through the various “ups and downs” of our rather aerobic liturgy.

You have some help in this regard. The very first page of each Sunday insert is entitled, “A Warm and Special Welcome to our Visitors and Newcomers!” It contains a wealth of useful information about Communion (often an area of confusion for newcomers), the Nursery, Sunday school classes, and Coffee Hour. The Ushers are also available for tending to such special needs as large-print Prayer Books, hearing devices (which we soon hope to upgrade), and mobility issues.

When the service has concluded, introduce new families around and invite them to Coffee Hour. Identify them to the ushers, clergy and greeters, so that they too can greet them and pass onto them one of our welcome bags. With just a little conscious effort and a gracious attitude, we can make our visitors not only feel welcome, but soon feel completely at home.

Remember: God sends each and every one of them to us. All have their own stories and reasons for coming to us. Honor that. Be willing to listen and even to share your own spiritual story.

Charity may begin at home; evangelism begins at Church.