Welcoming congregation certification
provides opportunity to check hospitality



At charge conferences and district meetings, you have heard me emphasize this mission statement for the McAllen District:
“We will follow Jesus by welcoming others and by transforming our church and community through intentional faith development and risk-taking mission and service.”
All of those words are important to me, but I want to dwell in this article on welcoming and transforming. 
The Welcoming Congregation certification process offers a great tool for a church to check its hospitality. Most churches believe they are friendly, but the welcoming congregation process helps the church see if it’s friendly to strangers or if it’s just friendly to the folks “we’ve always known.”
Twenty-four of our district churches have been certified as official Welcoming Congregations. And 11 of those churches have renewed their certification for a second year.
If your church is still looking for ways to be more hospitable, give Cathe Evins at First UMC, McAllen, a call. She can make suggestions that will enhance your welcoming. Keep up the good work!
I expect district churches to be about transforming lives. Such transformation takes the imaginative and courageous leadership of pastors and laypeople alike.
We pastors can no longer just preach, teach and counsel. Lay-people can no longer just be faithful in coming to “church.” All of us who follow Jesus must reach out beyond ourselves to engage and invite people to faith in God and offer all—even the ones who don’t look like us—the hope and love of God demonstrated in our service and care.
That reaching out takes your leadership—leadership that loves and challenges, that walks beside and points ahead, that gets down and dirty with those in need, and inspires all to be more and do more for God. We are learning how to lead like that in this district. Thanks be to God!
As I see it, my job as district superintendent is to help support, encourage and celebrate the pastors and lay leaders of our district churches who are about that welcoming and transformational mission—and to hold accountable, resource and encourage those who are not yet there. (I will say more about this aspect in a future article.)
Please notice that I didn’t say that my job is to judge or condemn anybody or be insensitive to the immensity of the challenge and effort. Indeed, the work is hard, but it is worth doing because it is God’s work.
And that reminds me. My job is also to keep holding up to all of us in this district that the welcoming, transforming work we do is ultimately God’s work, not ours. That means that God will empower and grow the work as we open ourselves to God’s leadership and direction. God will produce the fruit as we follow in faith.
But let us not blindly stumble along in our faithful pursuit of Christ. Let us find the resources, the training and the confidence to move forward in holy boldness.
 Mary and I thank you so much for the generous outpouring of cards and e-mails expressing your condolence and sympathy for the death of Mary’s mother. It is great to be a part of this community.