One of the most telling differences among individual American churches lies in their approach to the world beyond their doors. In my mind there are two major camps: the “just-us” churches and the “justice” churches.
For some congregations, the “just-us” sort, interactions with the wider community are strictly limited to their evangelism efforts. In such churches, members are encouraged to invite their friends, acquaintances, co-workers, dry cleaner, dog groomer, or whoever to come to their worship services. The goal of these invitations is to “win souls for Christ”. The invitation to participation in such communities assumes that the visitor will (hopefully!) become “one of us” and will adopt the primary religious beliefs of that congregation.
Traditionally, these “evangelical” churches limited their outreach to “soul winning” and they stayed away from anything political AND they did not engage in ministries in the community separate from that goal such as food pantries or other programs to address poverty. In such churches, there are ministries of care for “members” such as taking casseroles to a grieving family or other such kindnesses, but those ministries to those in need stay “inside the house” and do not usually venture forth to provide food, shelter, clothing, or other support to strangers beyond their doors.
Meanwhile, whole other swaths of Christian churches have always been engaged with the wider community without any emphasis on spreading their beliefs or even inviting folks to attend their church services. For these, “justice”or “mission-oriented” churches; hosting a food pantry, homeless shelter, and/or providing various other social services is a highly-desired activity.
All of these sorts of congregations, through their denominational connections, sponsor “missionaries” throughout the world. But these mission workers can be similarly divided – like their parent churches – into those who are going to other countries for the purpose of “soul-winning” or “service”.
Having been a Presbyterian or member of the United Church of Christ all of my life, I have always been part of “justice-oriented” congregations that engaged in the wider community to serve the hungry, the poor, and those who are oppressed. My spiritual ancestors have also engaged in struggles for justice at home and abroad for hundreds of years moving beyond attention to those in need to becoming advocates in the public sphere. We’ve worked to abolish slavery, end apartheid, and now we are on the cutting edge of movements to address climate change, economic inequality, and the growing prison-industrial complex, to name a few.
In my experience, many people are really confused by these very different ways of “being church”. And for those of us who do not engage in any “soul winning” sort of evangelistic outreach, we often bristle when there is any suggestion of doing “outreach” that does not have “justice” or social service at its’ core. We are delighted to work in the food pantry, but are allergic to speaking of our faith to others.
The irony is that we are prone to become just as isolated from the wider community as those “just-us” churches that only focus on “soul-winning” when we fail to link our love for our faith community AND our faiths and beliefs to our service in the wider community. This isn’t easy for us progressive religious types. We really are opposed to anything that looks like evangelism.
And yet, we love our faith communities. We truly value being part of a church family. We are dedicated to our spiritual growth and to sharing that journey “inside the house” with our sisters and brothers. Part of our problem is that many of us have a hard time describing our faith to others. We don’t really have the words or courage to share what we believe (or don’t believe) with ease. This is especially hard for a community like Montclair where wide theological difference is the norm.
So . . . when the opportunity arises, what say you? What words shall we borrow to describe our common life together? How do we invite others to join us in our “justice” church so that we don’t become a “just-us” church?
Starting on Sunday November 3rd, we will begin to explore what it means to be church in these first years of the 21st century. What’s new? What’s old? What still works? What needs some attentive change? This would be a swell time to attend Celebration regularly and . . . you might even invite your friends too.