What will you be remembered for?

A question that I have asked congregations when I have done consulting work is how the congregation is known in the wider community. What is their reputation? What would Joe or Joan Blow from the neighbourhood say is this congregation's greatest asset that they share with a community? Too often congregational members do not know how to answer this question. Or they will immediately jump to the easy conclusion that the community would miss the rental space that the church has to offer. However when I push them and say what spiritual offerings would the community miss if the church was no longer there or when I say that any community centre could be doing the same thing, many congregants seem dumbfounded. What do we have to offer?

Often times, though, when I research the congregations, I discover that they do many things for the community that they take for granted. Supporting community initiatives like taking donations for refugees, offering classes for congregants and community members alike, going to meetings about various social causes and neighbourhood concerns, offering help to the poor and needy, being a place where people can come and seek advice and find solace. Churches do this work and keep quiet about it. We in the church forget that we do contribute more than space to the neighbourhood; we provide a service. We are very shy about sharing the good news of the work that we do.

Yes there are exceptions to this understating of our case. Some congregations are all to willing to broadcast the good work that they do. Other congregations do a form of outreach ministry well for so long, that they forget that there are other needs in the community. But from what I have seen, many churches do many good works quietly and do not share this good news with anyone.

The same goes for people I think. Yes there are those who overstate the amount of help that they give to others. But most people do very little to share the good news that they are trying to make some piece of the world a better place. I think this is to our detriment. Sometimes the world can seem to be as Jacob Marley states in Dicken's, A Christmas Carol, a hard place. But if I come to understand that Mary does work with refugees, Sam supports famine victims in Africa, Nancy works with people who are depressed, and Peter assists street people, then maybe I can see light in the darkness. Just like those countless churches that quietly do so much good work, we need to share the news of the quiet work we do. Then maybe our world will seem to be a kinder place. Blessings.