 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri About Outreach (maybe not what you expect) Wednesday, June 28, 2023 What do we think we mean by “outreach” anyway? A friend of mine says that individuals and groups need to ask themselves: What do we know (or know how to do), and what does my community need? This helps us focus. That’s important. Add to that, What resources do we have, and what does the community lack? It seems to me that often small churches surrounded by bigger ones fail to ask those questions, an instead assume that we need to do some version what everybody else is doing. Let me tell you a story. Last Sunday after Eucharist, Minda was going home when she stopped to visit with someone in the community. Because she travels in an open wheelchair instead of in a closed vehicle, she stops and talks to everybody – and people stop to talk to her, too. The woman she met on the street mentioned that she has two gay daughters, and that although she misses church, she doesn’t go, because there is no where they can go and be fully accepted as they are. Minda told her about St Alban’s. The woman’s response was a happy: “There’s a liberal church in Bolivar? I didn’t know…” What do we know, and what does the community need? -We know that women and men are equally called and commissioned to preach, teach and celebrate the Eucharist. -We know that LGBTQ persons and their relationships are fully equal to those of straight people and that they are also called to live in the joy of the Lord with equal responsibilities and equal opportunities. -We know that disabled persons share equally with everyone else in the gospel and are not “they” but “we.” -We know that those who have mental illness or are family members of those who do are “us” too, and like those with physical illness, fully belong. -We know that immigrants, and all Black and brown people in our midst are not burdens to be rejected or feared, but persons of equal worth within this Church with their own unique stories to tell and gifts to bring. -We know that women are fully empowered by God to make their own moral choices just as men are, and that they should be supported as they do – whatever difficult decisions they make. -We know that poor people are not to blame for our systemic preference for the wealthy, and that sometimes they need the simplest gift of all: money. -We know that simplistic biblical or theological answers do not satisfy the minds of young people who know perfectly well – or hope – that God is greater than any rigid dogma. The Bolivar area needs to know that there is a place, and that there are people who love the Lord Jesus AND are “woke,” and that we are not ashamed of being “liberal”. What resources do we have? First of all, we have YOU. You are the ones who can tell this good news in a town where people can still say they do not know that “there is a liberal church” in town. Tell it. People are literally unaware. Many people have left Church only because they are fed up with a religious and political agenda that has led them to believe God and other Christians have nothing good to say to them. Secondly, we have a building. We provide free office space for two therapists and have done so for several years. Those two women cannot afford to rent office space to see the often marginalized and under-insured clients no one else wants to serve. The children’s therapist told me yesterday in tears, that if we were not here, she simply could not see the children she works with – because she could not afford to rent an office. If you have tried to find long-term, out-of-school therapy for children you know she’s right; It is nearly impossible. The adult therapist says the same thing. She sees clients from adult residential care homes in our area, clients who are not always reliable, whose progress is slow, who struggle even to express their struggles. But she drives from Springfield to do it because their lives matter, too. And we have Lori Cohen’s group, Fresh Hope that meets here. And we have Lori herself whose long patience and prayer has begun to pay off as people are beginning to find companionship and support for their mental health journey. Thirdly we have a congregational Discretionary Fund When there is a short term or one-time need that other agencies or churches are not able to meet, we are. We have been able to provide a motel room for an out-of-town patient discharged from CMH with nowhere to go until the bus a couple of days later, for example. The social workers at CMH know to call us if they have exhausted all their more readily accessible resources; even at night we answer our phones to help. We do not need to do what everyone else does. And we do not need to be embarrassed that we don’t. But we do need to do what we are best equipped to do and what we know our community needs. Finally, here is something else we have: a deep understanding that those we serve are often our servants, too. Example: We can begin real recycling again, after trying to do it earlier. We can recycle clean glass and all kinds of plastic, tin and aluminum, flattened cardboard and clean paper. Why? Because the adult therapist lives near a good recycling place in Springfield and will take it all down for us every Wednesday after she sees her clients. The Body of Christ is real. We need each of us – and we are grateful for each as well. |
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