The following is from “
“The comments from a woman working in connection with the local justice department summarized the feelings of many. ‘What do you think churches could do to improve their relationship with the local community?’ I asked… ‘I don’t see anything that churches could do.’ She wasn’t being mean, but rather to-the-point. ‘We’ve already got tons of churches. …And nothing has changed, has it? Did you know that three or four of these churches have been here since the town was on the map? But some of the social issues just keep getting worse and worse… People don’t have enough job training or employment opportunities. Drunks wander the streets. The same homeless people have been circling in and out of the shelters for the last fifteen years. Kids don’t have anything to do to keep them out of trouble. Meanwhile, the churches keep right on existing, holding their services every Sunday. And it never changes anything. It seems pretty obvious to me that churches are not the answer.’”
What a convicting answer! This text caused me to think, and I wonder what the people in our community might say about churches in the area. We have several missions that reach out to the community, one of our most active being the food bank, but I wonder if we can do more. I wonder if we just simply exist, or if we are agents of positive change in people’s lives. I know Elmwood, and I think we can.
1 comment:
I have been thinking a lot recently about the "missional church." I don't have any answers either, but I feel like the church is really stagnating. In our country we seem to have developed a model of the church as a kind of bastion of piety where Christians gather to resist the forces of the world. We even have phrases like "go to church" that evoke the concept of church as a place. Church should be a living organism. We are the Church wherever we are and wherever we take it. Not to undermine the value of weekly gatherings in an appointed building. I just feel that many people have the wrong mindset about the Church. Perhaps once we changed this entrenched cultural mindset we could begin to function as an inclusive community. Instead of following our pattern of reaching out and retreating like tides on the shore of the world, we could be a network of believers among others.
Post a Comment