On May 6th, Cincinnati Enquirer Columnist, Krista Ramsey wrote an article entitled Keeping the Faith with Children. The article focused on community organization call the Council of Christian Communions and its executive director Joellen Grady. It focused on the struggle to get churches to partner with Grady. As I read the article I was struck by two aspects of it. The first aspect being that Community Organizations and Churches struggle to work together. The second thing I noted was how true it is that the Church needs to be more active in the community. The church should always be working to strengthen families and give students a chance to experience Jesus in a life-changing way. Still those two groups don't currently work together well.
Just last week, Parkside Christian Church, the church that I am so blessed to work at announced a partnership with the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative in an effort to mentor Mt Washington and Riverview East Academy Students. I am so excited to say that already over 50 people have stepped up to be mentors. That confirms to me that at least in Parkside's case the church is more than willing to be involved in the community. Especially when they see a need. I believe that followers of Christ are willing to help when they see a clear need. That is what the Gospel is all about, but still for some reason it is hard for Community Groups and Churches to work together. Where is the disconnect if everyone involved cares about the same thing?
In the past 2 weeks I have had conversations with 5 different Christian based community organizations. All of them have great dreams and passions for how Jesus can take their talents and abilities to make a difference in students' lives. I look at some of them and see that a few of them are more effective than others. I also notice that some of them are trying to adapt as the culture changes. Most organizations that I talk to though want to partner with the church and most describe themselves as a tool that can be effectively used by the church. I definitely see the truth in what they say, and I love their passion, but their is still a disconnect. There just isn't enough time or energy to partner with all of them.
I saw a Bill Cosby quote the other day that I thought was interesting. Cosby said, "I don't know the secret to success, but I do know how to fail, and that is to try to please everyone." That's a hard truth to embrace. I have had to say no or not now to some really great people that I admire, because I know that it would just cause our Student Ministry to be involved in too many things and spread our volunteers and leaders too thin. That's hard for me to do.
I believe in a Kingdom of God that is bigger than Parkside Christian Church, and I believe that God has called me to be a worker in that Kingdom. I love what I am able to do. Mentoring students into young men and women who are passionate about Jesus is such a blessing. Everytime though I talk to a Faith Based Community Organization it stirs up some inner turmoil for me.
This is the question I get caught up in: Why does everyone need to have their own initiative or own program? People need a common goal to be unified. They need to know what they are striving for if they are going to be committed to it. Community service and involvement is SUCH a popular thing these days, but everybody seems to have their own ideas on how it should be done. People will develop a passion for something and instead of just getting involved in it, they try to reinvent it or start a new organization.
Maybe what we need to do is go green with our Faith Based Community Groups. It would be hard to do, but what would happen if we reduced/recycled groups that we felt had outlived their effectiveness? Or what would happen if organizations with common goals just merged into one instead of simply collaborating? That would be gutsy and probably messy, but couldn't also become something incredible? What if people who wanted to make a difference simply started finding places in their community that needed leaders? Why can't we just support the community by being coaches, substitute teachers, tutors, and role models? We may have a common goal, but I am beginning to think that we have so many different methods on achieving it that we have forgotten the why in our pursuit of the how. I am committed to the Why of what I am doing, but I am still trying to simplify the How of partnering with Faith Based Organizations.
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