Ministers of the Social Club

Last week I met with a lady to talk about how our church could help a growing problem in Columbia. The problem and solution seem actually quite simple if we could get people to give a little time, space and energy to it. This is the problem: there are many single parents who become homeless or lose their children because they can only take jobs when childcare is provided. Most childcare centers are open from 7:30pm-5:30pm. That is great for the average working mother, but what about the earlier and later shifts; those jobs starting at 6:00am and ending at 9:00pm? How are single parents supposed to find work when they are limited, due to the operating hours of childcare facilities, by the work they are able to take? The lady I spoke with owns an adult career development center for lower income families. She said that several of her clients have to turn down jobs because of the childcare problem. In our conversation, she lamented some ministers of the past who used to be quite boisterous in advocating for such issues on behalf of children are no longer living. She lamented the days when some of Columbia's great ministers cared about what happened beyond their immediate church congregation. She said there were days in the past when the communities of faith in Columbia, led by their pastors, where a loud, respected and listened-to voice on such issues. But now, she said, few of them are left. I wasn't around for those days, but of the people she told me about, I hope I can learn to walk in their shoes in being a leader not only at my church but in the community. But I felt convicted because I know she is right; we like to play it safe--especially in the age of church decline.

But if ministers really were doing their jobs well, myself included, I don't think blossoming non-profits like Family Promise of the Midlands would be having such a hard time trying to find churches to sign on to host 14 people one-week every quarter. I also think a minister would be saying something about the mental health--or lack there of--care for people who need it but can't afford it. Surely a minister would have stepped up by now to question our government in cutting education funds in our state. By now a minister would have spoken out about so many other issues that might not directly pertain and effect our churches, but are concerns of the faith community and the community at large. But instead I see ministers of outreach at some churches posting how many shoes they keep in their closet while children in our very community--probably their very church--don't have a single pair of shoes except for the ones they are wearing but outgrew last year.

If we want to start making disciples, we, the ministers and those who call ourselves Christian, must begin living discipleship beyond church on Sunday. In an article by Richard Heitzenrater, "Take Thou Authority: Ministerial Leadership in the Wesleyan Heritage," that looks at John Wesley's 1756 "An Address to the Clergy," Heitzenrater writes, "The obvious foil to the matter of pure intentions to glorify God and save souls, is the desire for worldly gain." I do believe we have Methodist ministers in our ranks who have abdicated their Biblical ministerial role for a more passive leadership role that seeks to be both in and of the world so as not to ruffle the feathers of church goers. Such soft leadership does not teach our church what a disciple of Christ looks like in the here and now. Rather such leadership accommodates the way of the world at the expense of domesticating the way of Christ. Such hypocritical leadership is not leading the people in our pews to be "altogether Christians." But then how can we make "altogether Christians" if we, ourselves, the leaders of the church, are being merely nominal or almost Christians?

We sit and complain about church decline, but as one of my members reminded me last night at bible study in the words of Jesus, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." Church decline is not a harvest problem; it is a laborer problem. The problem lies with us. Where are those greats that I was told about--those ministers that boldly stood up as the voice of Jesus in our community and government? When we recover that courageous voice--whose concern extends beyond our own comfort and our own flock--then maybe we'll begin to leave behind the era of the social club and start really being the church, the "ecclesia" we are called out to be by our Creator.