I am a huge fan of the YMCA.
If you don't know, it is a very old (150 year +) non profit organization whose mission is
"To put Christian Principles into practice through programs that develop healthy spirit, mind and body for all."
(disclosure: I work for the YMCA)
The YMCA is in almost every community across the country and in over 120 countries.
It exists to serve and turns away no-one based on an inability to pay.
A friend of mine recently blogged about how the "church" has abdicated its role in saving our communities.
"I believe that most of the work of God in the world today is largely being done by para-church organizations anyway, as the church has abdicated this responsibility.”
http://www.axxess.org/?p=42
Sadly, I agree with his assessment.
This reminded me of a story from a few years back. I was an eager young program director working with a friend of mine at our local YMCA to create community development programs. Some of them included:
- Teen Clubs, Teen Camps
- Grief Support Groups for families who had lost children
- Kids in motion classes
- Classes offering financial strategies for families trying to buy a home
- Healthy Kids day/ Activate America anti-obesity programs
- Workshops for adults with MHMR disabilities
- English for Speakers of Other Languages
The town we live in has many Spanish speaking citizens (legal or not I do not know, or care) And the YMCA is the largest childcare provider in our town (over 1000 kids daily) so we come into contact with Spanish speakers (breadwinners!) all the time who would benefit from learning English (more importantly their kids would benefit! imagine navigating an emergency room in Mexico with YOUR baby and no one spoke English).
There is a large local conservative evangelical church in the town I live in. And they have an existing ESL program. So we thought, "Hey, why not partner with them? They have the teachers and the curriculum, we have 1000 plus kids and workshop space and buses for transport"
Its a win/ win right?
Not so fast...
We placed a call to the local church and after leaving several unanswered messages, we got their ESL coordinator on the phone and it goes something like this:
YMCA: Hi this is the YMCA and we have heard you have an ESL program, would you be interested in partnering with us to serve more people?
Church: (after a considerable pause) Um. To be honest, we got your messages..
YMCA: Oh great! what do you think?
Church: Well, to be honest, we have concern that the YMCA has deviated from it's Christian path, so I am not so sure how comfortable we would be partnering with you...
YMCA: Uh? We want to see people speak English. I didn't realize that was a point of theological concern.
Church: I will take down your name and number and share this with our Executive Pastor...
YMCA: OK?
Church: Have a blessed day!==================================
Suffice it to say we never heard back from them.
She was sharing a little code with me: We (the YMCA) are not explicitly anti- Gay, Abortion, Mormon, Muslim, Jewish enough to be CHRISTIAN.
Books could be (and probably have been) written on this small point.
This type of church is indicative of many churches that you have seen. Angry, Narrow and Scared. What is so egregious about their behavior is not just their arrogance (which is pretty hard to stomach) but rather the complete waste of resources. "Giving" to others (like providing ESL classes) with pre-existing terms is NOT charity. Their process of branding everything with their brand of Christianity is such a waste. The result of which is little Christian ghettos where people can only speak to those they agree with. This is a joke and from the outset there is a cautionary tale to be learned for the Emergent set:
If you think you have nothing to learn from the "moderns" you will be doomed to repeat their mistakes... So dialogue and learn from one another...
aloysha
