If You Lived Here, You’d Know How to Get There

Being unable to fully use our mobile phones (see yesterday’s post) we’ve spent the last 4 or 5 days at the mercy of others giving us directions.  This is a basic skill that apparently is not covered in the education system.

 

I am reminded of the classic comedy line where somebody is on a bus (or train or trolley) and asks for directions to a given place and is told, “That’s easy; watch me and get off one stop before I do.”

 

Being told that the restaurant in question is next door to Red Lobster is of no use if you don’t know where Red Lobster is.  Somehow, even though it’s rather plain that you need help, there seems to be an assumption that everybody knows everything there is to know about your home town.

 

This has got me wondering if we do the same sort of thing in the Church; if people are entering into our congregational life as outsiders and we’re simply assuming they know all the basics of both the Bible narrative and the way we do church.

 

Several years ago, we attended a church that had as a staff position, ‘Pastor of Assimilation’.  While there are negative aspects of the word ‘assimilation’, the position recognized the fact there were people who were potentially confused and the need to point them in the right direction.