The leader of one of session at Mt. Sequoyah during Bishops’ Week drew a box and then gave the following instructions. Outside the box, list the type of people in your community who are not part of your church. Inside the box, list the reasons why the people outside the box do not feel welcome, do not visit, or join your church. On the back of the paper list three things that need to start happening to destroy the box that keep people outside the church and three things that need to stop happening in your church to destroy the box. I found this exercise to be most revealing and frustrating.
The exercise was revealing because several of the participants listed many of the same types of people who are not part of the church. The same responses came from pastors and laity in large, medium, and small membership churches. They came from leaders in rural and urban settings. Most United Methodist Churches reach people who are very much alike. A majority of congregations do not reach young adults, single parents, people living in poverty, the working poor, African Americans, Native American, Asians, and Latinos. Even congregations located in these neighborhoods do not attract and retain these population groups.
The most painful part of this exercise was realizing that our attitudes and behavior post a sign over our church facilities that proclaim, “If you belong to these groups, you are unwelcome within these walls.” Most of us would vehemently deny we intentionally exclude anyone from active participation in our congregations. However, our attitudes and behavior contradict our denials. A few examples demonstrate my assertion. A few years ago, an individual requested the UMW to change their general meetings from a lunch meeting the first Tuesday of each month to the third Thursday evening and provide childcare for all meetings. The executive committee carefully evaluated the impact on both present and prospective members and the cost of providing childcare. They arrived at the logical conclusion, they would continue their present schedule, provide childcare, and aggressively recruit younger women to participate in their organization. Very few younger women responded to the challenge to join the existing group of women who actively participated in the UMW ministries.
A congregation seeking to involve single parents in the life and ministry of their congregation advertised a new ministry for single mothers that would meet every Tuesday evening at 7:00 p.m. Very few of the young mothers responded. Someone forgot that single mothers work long hours, have no one to help their children with homework, and struggle to keep their homes clean and the children in bed at an early hour.
I find it frustrating that our lives are so complicated, demands so extensive, and communication so fractured that even when we see and hear the needs of those in our community who are missing from worship, we have difficulty knowing how best to respond. Being the Church of Jesus Christ and loving those Jesus would have us love is not an easy task. It requires us to lay aside our own preferences and conveniences to stand in the shoes that we so often ignore or overlook.
I wonder what would happen if every Administrative Council participated in the exercise of identifying the people in their community who are absent from the church, examine what would need to change, and then take at least one positive action to reach the lost, forgotten, and unloved in their community—to actively seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Grace & Peace,
