Was there a second gunman on the grassy knoll?  Who built Stonehenge?  Is Elvis really dead?  What about Bat-boy and Area 51?  Did the butler do it?

What is your favorite mystery?

I'll share mine with you.  Why is it that Hartford averages only 900 people per Sunday at worship?  I've just gotten through talking to Hartford Baptist, Shiloh Baptist, Sardis UMC, Pondtown UMC, Prosperity Missionary Baptist, and New Canaaan Ministries.  Those totals come to 623.  We average right at 150 per week.  I figure you can count another 127 for Mainor Temple, Assemble of God, Wesley Chapel, Oak Grove, and the other churches.  That means only 900 people worship in Hartford on a given Sunday.

Hartford has a population 2,369 within our city limits.  There are 5,281 people in our zip code.  That means that only 17% of our population is worshipping each Sunday.  It's a mystery, right?  Why would that few people come to worship?  My guess is that there are a few reasons that people don't come to worship (at any church):

     They have not found passionate and relevant worship.  Worship seems distant and cold to these folks.  They haven't felt energized during any worship services they have attended.

     They are "out of the habit."  These folks have just lost touch with what matters most.  Inside, they want to come, they just haven't found that last push to get going on Sunday morning.

     They are afraid.  These folks don't know what to expect.  They feel like they don't belong and don't "Know" how to worship.  They feel like outsiders.

     They have never been invited.   Oooooh.  That one hurts, doesn't it.  When asked why I didn't go to Huntingdon or the Auburn Wesley Foundation, I have often replied, "Because no one ever asked me."  Believe it or not, some people have never been invited to church.

Maybe you can think or a few more reasons, but the mystery remains.  Maybe you can help me make the mystery go away.  Maybe we can change the status quo of worship attendance for Hartford.  We work hard to make worship relevant and passionate.  We work hard at making people feel genuinely welcomed and adopted into the Hartford family.  We invite folks to worship with us and are making realistic effort to break down any walls of fear or "feeling different."  Still my guess is we can work a little harder.  I won't rest until everybody in Hartford is going to one of our great churches (preferably ours!).  I still believe that a rising tide lifts all boats and that what is good for Hartford is good for Hartford First United Methodist Church.

In conclusion, I want you to do a few things to solve the mystery:

     *Invite someone to church this week who doesn't normally go.

     *Be intentionally hospitable to new faces during worship.

     *Smile and introduce yourself to someone you don't know (even if they have been coming for a while and you feel embarrassed that you can't remember their name.!)

     *Pray for those folks who don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior and that God might use you to show them a personal, relevant, and passionate worshipful relationship with the God that loves you both.

God bless!  See you Sunday.

                                                   Pastor Jack                                             

07/01/2006