Open the doors – Ephesians 4:1-6

Open the doors – Ephesians 4:1-6

As children we hear the little rhyme, “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors and see all the people.”

It makes me wonder…as we journey through these 40 days of Lent, what do people see, hear and experience when they open the doors of our church, our Christian Church, Disciples of Christ churches? Do they find the wholeness that we as a society are seeking in our fragmented world? Peace in these times of war? A welcoming table that includes everyone?

We have been opening doors of churches in the Eastern Cape of South Africa over the last eight years. The doors are sometimes rusted with nails poking through and others are polished and new. But when we open the doors of our partner churches there, we have found teachings of reconciliation from the horrible years of Apartheid. And we have seen healing take place around HIV and AIDS, poverty and injustice. We have much to learn from our South African brothers and sisters.

God, as we journey through this Eastertide, may the doors of our churches open up beyond the steeple and the four walls of the church building and extend into our communities and the lives of our neighbors and friends with wholeness, peace, and reconciliation. Amen

Dawn and Jon Barnes, members of the Seventh Street Christian Church, Richmond, Virginia, served the Kei Regional Council of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA). They both worked as a development officer in the Kei region of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. They are in the process of being re-appointed to an assignment in Mozambique.