My Backyard (Wendy S. Bailey): The Wrong Question
“How can we get more people to come to our church?” I am asked this question a lot….
The question isn’t how can we get people to come here, it’s how can we get our people to go there. We have to deploy our members into our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces to be witnesses of Christ in those places.
Amen!
Boy, ain’t that the truth? We even get the same question from our CDC, asking us, “how many are you getting IN?” — and blank looks when we try to reframe the question just like Wendy’s saying, talking about how we’re seeking to move OUT into the community in missional ways.
Why can’t we have more Wendy’s scattered around the country?
Wendy doesn’t know it yet but I have secretly dispatched agents to Texas to collect DNA samples so we may begin cloning her at the Louisville offices.
Seriously, I think you raise an interesting question. “How many have you sent?” What would qualify as someone being sent? How would you measure it?
Ah… yet one more “layer” that is (depending on who you talk to) driving either “us” nuts, or those who are “supporting” us!
Seriously, when we begin redefining the mission, then practically everything has to be reframed to some extent. We’ve started using (simply as a “translation effort” with the institution) a term “ministry contact” — which is simply someone who considers our community their spiritual “home” having what they consider a significant “contact” in the community with no strings attached. It might be the guy who came up to me in the coffee house saying, “you’re part of “that church? Can I ask you a question?…” and what follows is his anger and hurt at being Jewish in this town wondering why almost every Christian wants to tell him how he’s headed for hell… stuff like that.
The hard part… is both the “translation / education” effort — many of the more “traditional” folks here simply don’t want to be educated on new ways — they could care less, even if that attitude kills us all – but it also encompasses the entire “scale” of NCD work for us — what constitutes “success” is suddenly something different — yet bills still need to be paid, BOO statutes need to be taken seriously, and here’s an “emerging NCD” that according to all the old “parameters” just isn’t “measuring up.” (Regardless of how so many times we end up with one of those “apples and oranges” situations — we’re saying one thing that we’re so excited about — and others are hearing something totally different, that they are reacting to negatively.
Excuse me for being crude, but sometimes it just really sucks being one of the first! (Little did I know how “prophetic” my blog tag line, “Hanging ten on the tip of the spear” was going to turn out!”
Keep on doing YOUR thinking — it’s nice to know we’ve got you where you are on many, MANY of us’s (is that a word?) behalf!
Grace
Not so fast, y’all! We aren’t letting Wendy go anytime soon.
She does ask the best questions, doesn’t she?
“Hanging ten on the tip of the spear”
LOL
Just so long as it doesn’t become “Hoisted on the tip of a spear.” 🙂
I see more little blades of grass growing through cracks in the pavement. Enough of the them will eventually break up the concrete. Keep growing!
“Not so fast, y’all! We aren’t letting Wendy go anytime soon.”
Okay! So how about we move the Louisville offices next door to the New Covenant office?
Now THERE’s a good suggestion! Then I could be Mom of presbytery and GA at the same time.
LOL!!
LOL
The Momerator!
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