July 26, 2005

So my wife and I were flying to Albuquerque recently.

Sitting next to us was a man who appeared to be in his mid- to late-40s. Maybe a little older. Before long, he confided to us that this was his very first airplane flight.

I was a little taken aback, considering that my first flight occurred in 1956 when I was 11 years old and that I've logged a zippity-zillion miles in the air since then. So it took me a few minutes to try to imagine how it must be for him.

He asked some basic questions. His first inquiry, in fact, happened after we took off and got up about 10,000 feet.

"Will we go any higher than this?" he wanted to know.

He also asked about where to get his checked luggage when he arrived and whether he could use a camcorder while in the air (yes). In fact, when a flight attendant told him it was OK to do that, he quickly began filming the passing clouds and earth below.

I tell you all of this because it later struck me that he was experiencing what many visitors to faith communities go through. They often have little clue what is happening and they get not much help from people around them who can't imagine that they don't know the Lord's Prayer in a church or the sequence of prayers in a mosque.

The task of people of faith is to be welcoming, but we can't do that well unless we can imagine ourselves as first-time visitors and anticipate the many questions visitors will have.

There is, of course, one question I've never gotten a good answer to in any faith community I've visited: "What happens if you people lose my luggage?"

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