Let’s imagine ourselves serving whole city

Reflections on the church

Recently I was talking to one of the pastors of a suburban church in the big city. (OK, it was my husband, who serves in my district.) I was challenging him to think in a new way about the vision his congregation has of whom it serves. What I said was that First UMC in Corpus Christi probably imagines itself to be a church that serves the entire city, so why doesn’t every other church in the city imagine itself that way, too? Instead, suburban churches tend to think that they serve a particular neighborhood right around their doorways.
“Do you think that the great big nondenominational church here thinks of itself as a neighborhood church?” I asked him. “No, of course not. Maybe part of its success is based on a vision that it is a church for the entire city.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized that it was a lesson every church in the district could learn from, not only suburban churches.
And here’s why: I can truthfully say that as I travel around the district and listen to both laity and clergy, I find that what we all have in common are narrow views of what it means for our churches to serve particular communities.
In some cases, what we mean when we say we serve a community is that we serve whomever finds us and manages to cross the thresholds of our churches. In some cases, what we mean when we say we serve a community is that we serve the relatives of the families who are already members of the church. In some cases what we mean when we say we serve a community is that we serve anyone living in the homes right around our physical plants.
Altogether, what we usually mean is that we serve the folks with whom we are most comfortable, who manage to find us because, of course, everyone in town knows where the closest United Methodist church happens to be.
I am so grateful that we had excellent participation in the training for becoming welcoming congregations and that one by one churches in the district who participated in the training are finalizing their plans for certification. But maybe the next training should be to become “pursuing congregations” that know not only how to welcome folks who happen to cross our thresholds for whatever reasons but are in active pursuit of the entire community.
I think of when Bishop Joel N. Martinez was challenged at the annual conference session one year to explain what “all” meant in the proposed vision statement “Offering Christ to All.” He simply replied that all means all.
What if our churches broke out of whatever narrow views we have of what particular communities we serve? What if we actively pursued all those who need Christ wherever we reside rather than waiting for them to find us?
God bless the efforts we make to offer Christ to all. (And all means all.)