By Nathan Brown

Across the road from my office at our church publishing house in Warburton, Australia, is our local Adventist church—and its sign board with movable letters on which the message is changed most Tuesdays. This sign sometimes advertises upcoming events or quotes occasional Bible verses, but most often announces that week’s preacher and/or sermon title with an invitation to attend.

I am intrigued by the various expressions of welcome that the sign employs from time to time. There are those that seem a contrast with the sermon title—perhaps “Sinners Are Condemned/ All Welcome” or something similar—and seem likely to be an unsuccessful invitation. The most common formulation is probably “[INSERT SERMON TITLE HERE]/ Everyone Welcome.” But, having not contacted me for the week’s sermon title, my most recent preaching appointment at this church was billboarded in this way: “This Week’s Preacher: Nathan Brown/Anyone Welcome.”

I was left reflecting on the distinction between “Everyone Welcome” and “Anyone Welcome.” In this instance, “everyone” and “anyone” can probably be used interchange- ably, but “anyone” seems a lesser welcome and risks a negative connotation. Perhaps one way of expressing it would be to distinguish between welcoming anyone who chooses to come—on an individual basis—rather than extending the sense of welcome to everyone who happens to see the sign that week, whatever their response.

Perhaps the distinction is so fine that it is only “word nerds” like me who would even reflect on it. Of course, the most important welcome—for either long-time members or first-time guests—is not what is posted on a sign, but our expression and practice of welcome and inclusion in church and as church. These do have important shades of meaning.

In the Book of Acts, the church began with this statement by Jesus: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The progression Jesus set out became the pattern for the remainder of the story, beginning in Jerusalem with ripples that spread further and further until we reach Paul in Rome, continuing to preach the good news about Jesus in the capital of the empire.

But this pattern also triggers a story of expanding inclusion in this newly inaugurated kingdom of God. Beginning with the Jews, these same ripples reach the Samaritans—of the “Good Samaritan” infamy—then Gentiles and ultimately peoples beyond Jewish imagination. In the process, so many others are caught up in this expanding reality, including women as disciples and leaders, eunuchs, and others outside acceptable understandings of holiness, persecutors and oppressors, soldiers and jailers, governors and kings.

Much of the tension among the early church leaders came from the fact that their theology could not keep pace with the expanding inclusivity of the kingdom of God and the action of God’s Spirit. Those who were coming to know God, both through their preaching or apart from it, challenged their Jewish assumptions and sensibilities.

In her provocative book Pastrix, Nadia Bolz-Weber points out that the story of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch (see Acts 8:26–40) might be better understood as the conversion of Philip. Through this story, Philip is the one repeatedly described as being directed by the Holy Spirit and his appeal comes in the question from the eunuch, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” (v. 36). In Philip’s theology, there were good reasons why this man should not be baptized (see Deut. 23:1). But God was doing something new and Philip responded to His leading.

This kind of scandalous inclusivity in the reach and response to the Gospel caused larger tensions, which came to a head in the Jerusalem council of Acts 15, which functions as a culmination of the first half of the Book of Acts. As well as Philip’s meeting with the Ethiopian, there had been Peter’s rooftop vision and subsequent ministry to Cornelius and his household, and the initial success of the missionary work of Paul and Barnabas. The church had grown rapidly from a small Jewish sect to an international, multi-cultural and majority-Gentile movement.

It is inherent in the nature of any human organization or group that it will seek to define who is included and who is excluded. In a sense, this is what makes them a definable group. And, of course, particularly from some in Jerusalem, there were the calls that these new believers had to become Jewish—to become “like us”—to be fully recognized as members of this new community.

While the mission reports seemed compelling, James— one of the leaders in the church in Jerusalem and probably the brother of Jesus—resolved the debate by drawing on the Old Testament teaching in Isa. 45. He urged that Jesus’ followers should expect that God does new things and that the church of Jesus must grow deeper, broader and more inclusive. James expressed it succinctly: “My judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19).

Of course, there are core beliefs and practices that are what it means to be a community of Jesus—and the Jerusalem council wrote to the new churches to encourage their faithfulness in such matters—but the conclusion of the council was that, no, we don’t all have to worship, look, live, practice, or even believe exactly alike to be full members of the faithful community of Jesus. And that it should not be difficult to turn to God in the context and culture of our church communities. As author Rachel Held Evans has put it, “What makes the gospel offensive isn’t who it keeps out, but who it lets in.”

More than a billboard sign, the Gospel mandates that everyone must be welcome. The experience of the early church was that wherever they felt the boundaries were settled, the Holy Spirit pushed them further. First- and second- century commentators lampooned and criticized the Christians for their scandalous inclusiveness. It was a marker of the reality of the work of God among them—and beyond them.

“Everyone Welcome” must not be merely a sign we put up; it must be a core practice of our faith in Jesus and our life together as His people today. If we are truly worshipping Jesus, anyone and everyone is always welcome to join us.

–Nathan Brown is a writer and editor at Signs Publishing in Warburton, Victoria, Australia. His most recent book is Engage: Faith that Matters. Email him at: [email protected]