Join the Conspiracy, Join the Conversation

My church, Marble Collegiate (www.marblechurch.org) started a new ministry for those who are jobless and/or seeking jobs. It’s a combination of support, networking, and workshops. They announced it weeks (months?) ago, in fact I was surprised how quickly they got it together.

I hope that is the case elsewhere!

I keep getting the impression from folks that many are unwilling to help those in need because often they feel like “Well its their fault” as it relates to foreclosures etc. I’m amazed to hear things like that from people who follow Christ especially. It’s as if these people are moral failures because they made an unwise financial decision (as if that should be the standard by how we decide who to help or not help).
The other excuse I hear is, “well we’re hurting too and can’t afford to help anyone else.”
I hope we can find people who have put aside the excuses and are really working to help people.
I can’t wait to hear the stories – and perhaps how they overcame the excuses within their own communities.

http://reallifestimulus.blogspot.com/

Well, Tom, you’ve hit the nail on the head. As the Communications Director for the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, I ran a whole series on recession and the church. Preparing for the articles, I talked to 25 clergy, all of whom were prepared to talk about the effect the recession is having on their pledging and about particular individuals suffering job loss, etc.

However, when I asked ‘what are you doing about it?’ I was met, quite literally, with silence, generally followed by excuses…‘well, that’s private…’ or ‘nobody wants to be embarrassed by talking about it’. To this date, nearly two months after the series ran and despite several open calls for stories about proactive churches, I still have not heard from one single church about anything new happening to support struggling individuals and families.

I have to wonder if our institutions have becomes so focused on the bottom line that they are absolutely unwilling to look this beast in the eye for fear that it will give members an ‘excuse’ not to pledge. I also wonder if our church communities have become so sanitized that members are discouraged from sharing struggles because it might make them — and, more importantly, the rest of us — uncomfortable. Finally, I wonder if we are now so unwilling to share our abundances that we just don’t want to know or touch anyone who might need something we have.

Well, Tom, I have no answers. But I sure do have a lot of shame and embarrassment about the behavior of our churches these days.

One reason is that churches spend 80-90% of their income on themselves and the needs of their own people. Staff salaries, facilities, equipment, maintenance, health benefits, etc.

Think of what would happen if churches stopped perceiving the kingdom in terms of a Come To Us asset based model and replaced the buildings with meeting in temporary locations and/or homes. Instead of funding salaries and the expenses of assets, the church could meet the needs of people as this post addresses.

How many billions of dollars do Christians spend a year on themselves and their church buildings? How would the kingdom of God be changed if we divested ourselves from our assets and staff salaries so that we could spend money on others?

Our problem isn’t that we don’t have anything to give. Our problem is that we give it to ourselves and conveniently forget this as we let people in our communities struggle and suffer.

Do we wonder why there is little net growth in the kingdom? It’s because all we do is shuttle believers from one church to another. You can be sure if we pulled our money out of assets and put it into the lives of people, there would be a lot more interest in Jesus.

Jesus did not say, A new command I give you: build sweet, beautiful high-tech buildings and hire savvy church marketers. All men will know that you are my disciples if you have a cool worship center, edgy music, a relevant pastor and lots of programs. What was that new command and what blocks us from living that command not in convenient ways but in meaningful ways? As much as we may want to over-spiritualize it, money means something when it is used to meet people’s needs.

We think that stuff draws people to our churches because… well, because it does. But does it draw people to Jesus? What would happen if we committed to help one family make their mortgage payment for three months, regardless of whether they made a foolish decision or not? How many foolish choices have each of us made? I have made tens of thousands and God has never used that as an excuse to withhold his love from me.

</rant>

Hi Tom,

Well, here’s what we’re doing this Lent:

http://commontable.org/

New Hope Fellowship, the church we’re joining for Lent, is made up mostly of folks who are homeless, nearly homeless, or formerly homeless – some who have been struck by the current economic situation, and others who began struggling many years ago.

But to be perfectly honest: a) we’re doing it mostly because we’ve met these folks, and think we have a lot in common plus hopefully a lot to offer each other, and we want to get to know them better – not so much because we thought we should do something in response to the recession, and b) while we hope we’ll find ways to be helpful to folks who are struggling, and admittedly we have some ideas of what those might be, we’re mostly trying to enter into this relationship open to whatever God has in it for all of us together – so as for what our “helping” will look like – dunno. Ask us again in a few weeks. Maybe we’ll be the ones receiving help.

Good question, Tom. I hope we do end up being helpful, and I hope lots of other communities do too, and we can share ideas.

Peace,
Mike Croghan

Tom, you ask a good question, but embedded in your essay is a clear approval of President Obama’s stimulus. You might want to do some additional reading about the effects – intended and unintended – of his policies. When free market opportunities go into freefall, and tax policies discourage risk-taking, wealth evaporates. The less there is, the less there is for everyone, even those with hearts and wallets inclined to the work of Christ.

An essay in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal gives a succinct picture from this side. I think it’s important reading for any Christian who is worried about where we’re headed from here, and how churches can and should help.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629969453946717.html

Grace and peace,

Susan

Hi Tom,

Your thoughts generated a new post at my place, in which I describe an idea that I’m shopping around: some old fashioned community organizing, hosted by faith communities.

http://fathertlistenstotheworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/growing-together-building-community-in.html

I want to tell you that I started a diaper bank in SW Florida. We help infants, toddlers, special needs children/youth, and the elderly. Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, WIC, or most food banks do not help these vulnerable people with diapers. I am the only diaper bank in Florida. Right now we are helping around 300 families with diapers each month. Most of the churches that I have gone to do not support what I am doing in any assistance or diaper drives for us. Last year I even went to a local Christian radio station and repeatedly asked them for assistance in spreading the word with what we were starting and received a no. Two weeks later, they did their own diaper drive and sent a semi truck of diapers to Texas after the hurricane. Great mission, but really hurt our local community that is in desperate need of diapers. Right now we are one of the top three cities in the nation that is challenged by home foreclosures. I need diapers to give to these families that have nothing. Expenses for diapers alone just for “special needs” families are between $400. & $500. a month. I praise the Lord that for almost 2 years we are still growing and helping our local community with diapers. I pray that the churches see our outreach and join our mission in helping those in need of diapers. A small child sitting in a soiled diaper is more likely to be abused. Our elderly become depressed, lonely, and home bound due to their embarrassment of incontinence and lack of income to provide for themselves. I believe that they deserve quality of life and diapers can make that difference.
Thank you for reading about our outreach.

Here in Kitsap County we began a non-profit 3 years ago called One Church-One Family. I’m glad we did and I believe it was providential. We now see churches partner with a large social service agency to provide emergency shelter, friendship, and help to homeless families. Also, churches are working together bringing down denominational walls as it doesn’t matter when you’re helping the homeless. More and more churches are jumping on board as they realize they can help. I think churches (and the church secretary gets the cold call) are stymied about the enormity of the problem and don’t know how to answer the call for “one more night in a motel”. There will always be another night and more and more people. We have a long way to go but we now have 3 homes of our own to add to the county resources and lots of church people stepping up to do various jobs related to this ministry. So far about 30 churches are involved in some way or another.

Hi Tom,

I am the community and college minister at Beaverton First Baptist Church and we are trying to do several things to reach out to those who are struggling right now. We work together with several churches with food, essentials and other pantries. We are going to offer computer ed classes to help people become more employable. We help out with laundry and going to help with haircuts. We are working with the children to provide them with activities in the summer and tutoring in the school year. We are going to be working with the neighboring HS to mentor some of the at risk kids. We are doing an ESL class as well. We are going to help with resume’ building, how to find a job, etc… We also open up our church for a homeless shelter when there is severe weather.

I am always looking for good ideas to help and reach out and meet needs in our community.

I hope this doesn’t sound like we are “tooting our own horn,” but I thought it might be encouraging. If you have some good ideas, I am also on the look out.

Thank you and Blessings on ya,

Kelly