How (not) to go to church

"While we must learn and practice habits of friendliness and hospitality. we cannot let attraction be the tail that wags the dog," Phil Kniss told his parishioners at the Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Va. in the first in a series of sermons entitled "Before the Watching World: How (not) to be the church in public." Otherwise, he said, "we’ve sold out to the consumerism and individualism that controls our culture. 'Come to the church with the biggest and the most.' 'Come to the church that will meet your needs the best.' 'Come to the church that has ministries second to none.' It is not our mission at Park View Mennonite Church to convince people to 'go to church' here. The mission of this church is God’s mission. Our mission is to embody the loving and saving presence of the living God precisely in those places in our community and in our world that God most wants to save. The places in the shadows that many of us like to avoid. Or the neighbors down our street who we have never met."