Sarah Monroe in her blog, "Rural Renewal?", talks about the possibility that the rural church could fill the role of the community center, rather than trying to continue services "as they have for the last hundred years." She says, "The church could again assert that God is just as concerned with the body as God is with the soul."
As I consider Monroe's opinions, I look around Lubbock, a city of over 260,000 people, and question how Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) Lubbock can address the needs of the GLBT community. In many ways the GLBT community of Lubbock is like the rural communities in Monroe's blog. Many GLBT individuals feel isolated and as though the rest of Lubbock is not a place for them. In Lubbock, there are two regular places where GLBT people can meet each other, the bars or the MCC Lubbock.
They fear church as it was often the first place that said they did not belong and can't or won't find community at the bars.
Should MCC Lubbock's role become as Monroe suggests for rural churches? Can MCC Lubbock and MCCs throughout the world become places where others can find community and by doing so possibly find spiritual growth? Before we can begin helping people become disciples, we have to get them in the door.
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Isn't the question we ask so often, "How do we get people in the door?" I have so many friends and have met so many people who I would love to invite to church and be part of my faith community, but I know that the idea of them to come to "church" would be beyond their comfort zone. Sometimes it's because as you said Sandy, church is the place they've been hurt or shunned or told they did not belong.
ReplyDeleteSometimes our own structure and polity and desire to do things "right" scares people off, especially when they are already worried about the possibility of standing out and not being part of the community.
Is it through hosting other events and community gatherings that we get people together into community and then gradually invite them into worship? Or do we bring "church" to others outside of our building and say "screw the doors."
Very Insightful Sandy,
ReplyDeleteI believe that churches should minister to the total person. What if the MCC Church of Lubbock also became a type of mini LGBTQ Center? This could be an opportunity for individuals who were once hurt by church to receive healing from church.
I find at City of Refuge that we are having to homogenize who we are as GLBTQ individuals and who we are as Christians so that we can do authentic outreach. James the Christian can go to the bar with James the Gay man...and James the Gay man can go to church with James the Christian. If I can bring all of who I am to the table all of the time people begin to lose the images of stuffy bible-thumping,judgmental Christians.
So many of unchurched and dechurched people believe that one cannot be a Christian AND a fun person. This is something with which I struggled. I thought there wasn't a place for me with God because I enjoyed dancing or drinking or talking philosophy. I think if Christians can step out of their protected buildings and show the world that they are humans, more people might want to hear what they have to say.
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