Speaking Faithfully, by Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson

Call it the chicken-dinner problem. The last parish I served was a small one in a rural area. Approaching from the north, you would pass farm fields, a barn or two, some houses. At the edge of the cemetery, before you saw anything else about the church, you encountered a large, permanent sign advertising the congregation’s annual fund-raiser.

The leaders of the congregation understood that perhaps their church should be known for something more than grilled chicken, stuffing and desserts, no matter how delicious. But the dinner was a big event, and it was necessary. And so the sign stayed. To the extent that any unchurched neighbors thought about the congregation, they thought about the chicken dinner. They would stand in line for it every year. None of them ever thought our parish might have something else to offer.

Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson come out of the Episcopal church, where the problem is more likely to be highbrow concepts like a robust baptismal ecclesiology. Yet their difficulties and those faced by my humble congregation boil down to the same question. How can churches and other religious institutions speak effectively to let the world know that something is happening with church people that they might want to be a part of?