Red Door Warning

Advent Lutheran Church's open doors

Today’s lesson in the joys of urban ministry.

This morning, I went through my usual my-son-didn’t-sleep-enough-last-night routine, which involves going to Starbucks before I walk into church. I picked up my order, walked across the street, and started to unlock the church’s side door. As I inserted the key, a woman walking down the sidewalk started speaking to me. I took out my headphones and asked her to repeat herself. “I know it’s none of my business – but there’s some strange things that are going on in this church.”

For a moment, I was concerned. She looked like someone who lived in the neighborhood. She was obviously on her way to the subway. Did she see something? Are their shenanigans going on that we need to know? I asked her what weird things she had seen. “Weird things!” she replied. I probably squinted at this point – and realized this was not one of those kinds of things. Was she going to start into a tirade against women preaching, or gays and lesbians, or some other such randomness.

She started to walk away and I asked her again. She said “You should look up what it means to have a church with red doors.”

She turned. I shouted after her: “WHAT WEIRD THINGS?”

She replied “RED DOORS.” And then she was around the corner and gone.

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