Our neighborhood is a mission field, our church is a mission station
Reflecting on this past year as a Pastor serving in the Northwest Dayton area, it is fair to say that it has been a year of both challenges and opportunities. As a United Methodist specifically, we have all been left reeling from the pain and grief of disaffiliations which have swept through our West Ohio Conference like a raging storm in the last two years. This of course comes at a time when poll data demonstrates that church attendance as a whole is trending downwards, and I cannot help but think these two issues are related.
As a society, we live in very tense times where political and social division is rampant. And when the Church mirrors the vitriolic rhetoric of the culture at large with its own disputes, it is only natural that many would turn away. Still, as difficult as this whole process has been for United Methodists everywhere, I am nevertheless reminded that schism is ironically biblical and sometimes necessary. The Book of Acts chronicles the story of Paul and Barnabas who, after having traveled together for some time, reached such a point of contention that they could no longer work with each other. They prayed for one another and went their separate ways. I feel that in the United
Methodist Church we have been in a Paul and Barnabas moment for far too long now, and the best path forward is to bless one another and go our separate ways. This separation, as agonizing as it has been to go through, will ultimately free churches to contextualize their theologies and mission appropriately for those whom they are called to serve. In this way, I still hold out hope that all our churches will emerge bearing fruit, even through the pain of separation.
And while the overall decline in church involvement has certainly affected us where I serve at Fairview United Methodist Church, I do not see these changing trends as a reason to be discouraged. Indeed, I see the shifting of the spiritual and religious landscape in America as an unprecedented opportunity. We find ourselves in a parallel situation to the Church of the Apostolic Age, where the culture is overwhelmingly non-Christian (or in our case post-Christian), and thus, the mission field is no longer far off places, but right here in our backyards. The Early Church experienced an explosion in growth not because they had a goal of increasing Sunday worship service attendance, but because they transformed entire communities through acts of justice, kindness, compassion, and service. They held everything in common and they strived to meet the needs of those around them. It was an external rather than internal focus.
This is the true mission of the Church and I’m pleased to say that we have a mission on the corner of Fairview and Catalpa. Over the past year, we have been blessed with several grants to expand the operation of our food pantry ministry in an area of Dayton where food scarcity is widespread. Of the three days that we’re open, we serve on average about 37 households a week, and we’re on pace to serve three times as many families as we did last year. Indeed, our growth has been so rapid that we’re still in need of more volunteers to meet this rise in demand!
And it isn’t just about offering food. We get to know the people who come through our doors. We build relationships. We offer prayers and presence. And while you won’t see them worshiping with us on Sundays, many of the people from our neighborhood refer to Fairview as “their church” and that resonates with me and gives me hope, because I think this is precisely what it means to be the Church for our times. Our neighborhood is a mission field, and our church is a mission station, embodying Christ’s command “to love our neighbors as ourselves.”
As such, even amid our present challenges, we’re grateful for this sacred work and the blessings it brings.