neighborhood trust
Create
By Rob Moss J
ennifer and her seventh- grade daughter, Maria, attended a congregation’s
confirmation ministry for the first time. Te family had no church home, but Jen- nifer wanted her daughter to be part of a community that would show her love, care and support. Jim, a guidance counselor at a large suburban high
Authentic relationships involve mutual trust and dying to our own agendas.
school, is working with a congregation to provide much needed career mentors for students who may fall through the cracks aſter graduating. Rosa, a principal, not only encourages members of a
church to come to the elementary school library to help students with homework, but asked other local princi- pals to do the same. Not interested in church herself, she nonetheless has invited members of this same church to offer a Bible study for parents and families in the school building.
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www.thelutheran.org
Tese examples of trusting partnerships are happen-
ing, but are coming about in a way that may be counter- intuitive to many of us. Authentic relationships involve mutual trust and dying to our own agendas. Christian congregations, which for decades have
been the trusted center of communities, have in many cases become disconnected from their neighbors. Some congregations are seen as self-serving, judgmental and unsafe places. Tere is good reason for this skepticism. Instead of unconditionally loving their neighbors, they have looked at them primarily as a way to bolster the church’s membership. In a time of numerical decline in congregations
across denominations and the country, it’s tempting to think of the neighborhood around the church as merely a resource to be tapped. So we advertise programs, exude hospitality, jazz up our worship and more, all in an attempt to get the neighbors into our building. We all want to dodge the “congregation-in-decline” label and can become frantic in our efforts to avoid it.
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