THE PULSE
Compiled by Adam Miller
Ideas, insights, inspiration for you and your church
MY TURN: Culture and Christianity in Boston
By Bland Mason
It was fairly easy to be a Christian in Kentucky. It’s a lot harder in Boston. We learned that quickly here, and, oddly enough, it’s one of the reasons I have a lot of hope for the church in Boston.
A guy who visited our church recently wrote me an email saying he believes in God and has never really been to church but is open to church and Christ for the first time. I rarely receive those kinds of emails. In Boston people have no reason to be nice to me. While Boston is ranked the number one rudest city in the United States, I tend to think of it on the positive side—people are incredibly honest. I think gentility can breed superficiality. We can work on courtesy, but I like honesty.
While most servers at restaurants or clerks in a store don’t have the casual friendliness of those in the South, they will tell you exactly what they think about God, Jesus, and the church.
So if someone in Boston says that they are open to exploring Christ and church, they mean it. And if someone shows up to church, it’s not because it’s good for their reputation. Boston breeds out nominal Christianity. It simply filters it out since there is little to no positive cultural pressure toward church in the average neighborhood, school, or work place.
I get plenty of emails that aren’t as nice. I’ll get feedback from people telling me the church seems too narrowminded or that the Bible seems out-of-date.
The interesting thing is that Muslims, Buddhists, agnostics, and even atheists will show up at our community groups because they crave true fellowship. Folks in our community groups will meet for several hours, on different nights of the week, just enjoying Bible study, food, and being around—quite possibly—the only Christians they know.
While we may be in one of the least Christian cities in the nation, what we do have is unbelievably strong. I’ve grown because of it and so has my family as we experience Christ through community like our lives depend on it. Up here we’re constantly reminded this is a matter of life or death.
Bland Mason is the church planter and pastor of City on a Hill church in Brookline, Mass., in metro Boston.
44 Winter 2012 •
onmission.com
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