Ezra Klein on Chaos | Small Churches Big Impact

I'm still in Scotland! Here is an article from three months ago. I'll be back at it in July.

-Liz

Do! A Little!

One important point is that the best reaction to the chaos is to take a deep breath and figure out how to do well things that churches do well. The name Act! Be Church Now is something I thought of in terms of the current crisis in our government, but Be Church and the idea Act! are essential to my ecclesiology.
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The internal work of church is definitely to learn how to be with God. Who we choose to be as a community is what defines our health as a congregation. I'll write more on this in later weeks. But I'm not good at sitting around and praying. My prayers happen while I'm doing things. The answer to these times is to Act! The answer to how to be church has always been Act!
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To be sure, especially in struggling churches, some people choose to do everything. To try everything. To aim to be everything for everyone. That is not going to help. Anxiety driven action is not what helps us to be the Body of Christ. (Thus, more on how to be coming soon.) But to have a single action, or two actions, that define your congregation to the people outside your doors is essential to my definition of church. The purpose of church is to meet the needs of the people of God--members, visitors, and those in the community we are a part of. (Not all the needs. One of the needs. Two of the needs.)
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Both of the churches that I serve right now, and most of the churches I have every served have food pantries. We are taking seriously Jesus command to feed those who are hungry. One church I served also had a moving ministry, providing support, and a truck, for people moving into or out of our town. Another had a healing service and worked with Rape Crisis Center. One of my present churches provides a Rainbow Senior Meal once a month, lunch for the shortest days, dinner and an outdoor BBQ the rest of the year. Another is the sponsor of the town's Bridging Differences group, providing conversations about how we can welcome people across differences in racial identity and sexual orientation.
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As you can see, all of these projects are somewhat connected to political environment we are in. But we didn't start them because of that. We started these ministries to serve the needs of people in our community who would otherwise be overlooked. Each of these programs took years to become embedded in our community and to become markers of our identity as church.
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That is the gift of church. We have the time to be the steady presence reaching out to a group of people that might be hurt by society at large. We have the time and the foundational values that allow us to set the priority on the relationships that we build. We are not necessarily the most politically astute and we don't have the legal chops. We have, or can choose to build, the relationships with the people who need to be heard. Often it is the church in town that calls the community to gather after a disaster.
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So to churches that are making connections with people who would otherwise be ignored--keep going. Keep doing the work you are doing. These relationships are essential to the future of our communities. If your church is not yet making those connections, spend time now figuring out what group that you can reach, and begin the work of building relationships.
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​​Reply to this email to let me know the little things you are doing. I'm preparing an article with lots of little ideas.​
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Ezra Klein suggests that the chaos around us in intentional. The point is for the chaos is meant to overwhelm us. Distract us. It is the strategy.
Remember that God creates the world out of chaos, so we can choose to stay focused on God, and focused on our relationships in the community. We can Be Church Now.

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Small Churches, Big Impact is a podcast about churches that make a difference in their communities. They are all great but I like this one about supporting Arab Americans simply by being church for Arab Americans.

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