Just a few days into my job at Safeway and I had the opportunity to meet Bill. Or should I say, Bill met me… Bill is a friendly guy, but at first glance you would not give him much attention. He walks slowly and his speech is slurred from a palsy that also causes his hands to tremor when he shakes you hand. Bill showed some immediate interest in coming to our church’s meetings and I have to admit that part of me wanted to say “no”. Yeah, I realize that makes me look like a jerk for even feeling that way, but still the feeling was there. But I overcome that urge and invited Bill to come and join us for one of our Saturday Night Reunion meetings. It turns out; Bill is a great guy who is in desperate need of a caring community. His wife has recently passed away, and he is lost and looking for meaning in his life. Bill may not even know it yet, but he is looking for Jesus. Bill is exactly the reason I am planting this church and I am so glad God gave him to me.
The most interesting thing about Bill is that he does not fit into any of the demographics that make church planting organizations get excited. I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked by potential partners, “who is your target audience?” or “what group are you trying to reach?” I have always resisted answering that question and, in part, Bill is a good reminder why. I have never met a church planter or a pastor who said a guy like Bill is their target demographic. Everyone wants to reach the middle class, middle age, middle American, but who is out there reaching the Bills of our world—you know, the folks who don’t exactly fit into our “ideal demographic.”? For those of you in the know, lets just say that Bill is no “Saddleback Susie” or “Saddleback Sam”.
All this makes me wonder, do we still value church in the cracks? I sometimes think that in our fervor to reap a harvest for God’s Kingdom, we have put more value in reaching “blocks” of people more than people themselves. But what about the people who don’t fit into the big blocks? What about the people in the cracks? Do we in the church tend to look for the biggest needs amongst the largest groups of people so that our time, effort and money will reap the biggest numerical growth? Do we value only the needs that have an easy formulaic or pragmatic solution? Do we look to mega-church programs and pre-packaged studies because they really meet the needs of people we know or because they meet the needs of a targeted demographic? Do we minister based on our intimacy with the lost or our on our knowledge of the latest Barna survey? I just can’t help but wonder if we have not missed something or someone. How many Bills have we overlooked or undervalued? What about the needs of those not in the majority? Who is reaching out to the people who don’t fit into our surveys and demographic studies? What about the people in the cracks? Where is the church in the cracks?
This article was published in August, 2007 issue of Next Wave: Church and Culture & in the October 17, 2007 issue of our local paper, The Gazette.
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serious food for thought.
j.r.
I call my version “Church on the fringes.” Given the demographics of my neighborhood, it’s not hard to believe that no church planter, in his right mind, would intentionally choose an econonmically depressed, inner-city community that is infested with drug dealers, gang activity, urban blight, etc. In my comment to you on my own blog I gave you a run down of the neighborhood God has chosen for me. Incidently, it is the same neighborhood I was born and raised in. In fact, the old Baptist church building that we took over, my cousins and I used to throw rocks at when we were kids. Tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor.
So, I guess I’m out of my mind for saying yes to the invitation to return to one of the darkest neighborhoods I ever known; the same streets Almighty God rescued me from many years ago.
Didn’t the Pharisees say something similar about Jesus congregating with “sinners and tax collectors.” What about when he healed people on the Sabbath. That really got their blood boiling.
Jesus is looking for guys like you and me who don’t mind being called crazy or out of your mind for the sake of His call and His kingdom.
So, my friend, keep ministering in the cracks and fringes and see how God blesses your socks off. Sometimes I wonder if guys like your friend Bill are really angels in disguise, sent to test us; to see how we will respond. Will we ignore the Bills of the world in favor of the “normal” people? Or will we receive them and love them as if they were family?