How does this incredible experience of God have expression in a person’s life? Always it leads us to some kind of communion with others. An experience that has some shared vulnerability. A participation in something we call “church.” This ekklesia is a group of people who are “called out” of the System/Empire/World where “might makes right,” or, “the one who has the most wins,” or “over-identification with a title, a role, my medallion status” are the organizing values.
Leaving that rat race, the church is a group where people are experiencing the love of Christ shared in sacrament, a ritual feeding of the Word and Eucharist that lead to developing a community of brothers and sisters who know they are Loved, Called—and Given. That group follows Jesus to extend that love into the world in ways that lead to the betterment of all. No pressures on getting others to join. People join by attraction rather than promotion.
I saw it at Zacchaeus Friary where our little band of brothers, a house church, expanded to include men who were unhoused, and generally, mentally ill. The men who lived with us experienced regularly Christ’s tender glance of love that came from the friars, who were receiving that love from Christ. They became our brothers. The friars, along with many others of good will, decided to provide more than a roof over their head, but a stable place of one’s own, wrapped around by a group of caregivers. But it needed a larger organization than our small friary.
This inner experience of Love needed a bigger container. A group of concerned folks congealed into the organization called Tender Mercies in Cincinnati. Born on the kitchen table of the friary, Tender Mercies bought up aging hotel buildings and renovated them for those without homes. The Provincial Council contributed enough money to add some hotels. Some of those friars worked for Tender Mercies, Inc. While I had left some months earlier I could see the expression of the Christ love on the faces of people now with a stable apartment and life. That organization continues in a much larger way today than ever imagined.
Being Church
In 1994, while pastoring in the inner city of Detroit, our little parish was largely composed of folks who were unhoused, some suburban folks, and elderly Seniors living in small apartments. What started as a sleepy service church became a dynamo of the Spirit as people felt the love of Christ and then were empowered to bring it to the streets. Annual “All Parish Assemblies” created opportunities to voice the direction of the Spirit.
A parish mission statement was developed, large goals for Worship, Catechesis, and Outreach were named and their implementation described back to the Assembly the following year. As they were fed with the eucharist this church became that for people in the neighborhood. Parishioners got up at 5 am to serve a daily hot breakfast for people on the streets. It led to someone donating major money for a Parish Nurse, who began washing people’s feet, providing both human contact and a venue for diagnosing bigger medical issues. That same Parish Nurse team visited the Seniors in their apartments, took blood pressures, offered help.
When our churches become the place where everyone wants to “hang out” because in this community we experience that incredible love of Christ, it naturally leads to giving it away. How to do that depends on the Spirit’s inspiration, the real needs that beg for recognition, and the creativity that comes forward in that community, prompted by the Spirit of the Lord, to heal a weary, waiting world.
Becoming Church
How does this incredible experience of God have expression in a person’s life? Always it leads us to some kind of communion with others. An experience that has some shared vulnerability. A participation in something we call “church.” This ekklesia is a group of people who are “called out” of the System/Empire/World where “might makes right,” or, “the one who has the most wins,” or “over-identification with a title, a role, my medallion status” are the organizing values.
Leaving that rat race, the church is a group where people are experiencing the love of Christ shared in sacrament, a ritual feeding of the Word and Eucharist that lead to developing a community of brothers and sisters who know they are Loved, Called—and Given. That group follows Jesus to extend that love into the world in ways that lead to the betterment of all. No pressures on getting others to join. People join by attraction rather than promotion.
I saw it at Zacchaeus Friary where our little band of brothers, a house church, expanded to include men who were unhoused, and generally, mentally ill. The men who lived with us experienced regularly Christ’s tender glance of love that came from the friars, who were receiving that love from Christ. They became our brothers. The friars, along with many others of good will, decided to provide more than a roof over their head, but a stable place of one’s own, wrapped around by a group of caregivers. But it needed a larger organization than our small friary.
This inner experience of Love needed a bigger container. A group of concerned folks congealed into the organization called Tender Mercies in Cincinnati. Born on the kitchen table of the friary, Tender Mercies bought up aging hotel buildings and renovated them for those without homes. The Provincial Council contributed enough money to add some hotels. Some of those friars worked for Tender Mercies, Inc. While I had left some months earlier I could see the expression of the Christ love on the faces of people now with a stable apartment and life. That organization continues in a much larger way today than ever imagined.
Being Church
In 1994, while pastoring in the inner city of Detroit, our little parish was largely composed of folks who were unhoused, some suburban folks, and elderly Seniors living in small apartments. What started as a sleepy service church became a dynamo of the Spirit as people felt the love of Christ and then were empowered to bring it to the streets. Annual “All Parish Assemblies” created opportunities to voice the direction of the Spirit.
A parish mission statement was developed, large goals for Worship, Catechesis, and Outreach were named and their implementation described back to the Assembly the following year. As they were fed with the eucharist this church became that for people in the neighborhood. Parishioners got up at 5 am to serve a daily hot breakfast for people on the streets. It led to someone donating major money for a Parish Nurse, who began washing people’s feet, providing both human contact and a venue for diagnosing bigger medical issues. That same Parish Nurse team visited the Seniors in their apartments, took blood pressures, offered help.
When our churches become the place where everyone wants to “hang out” because in this community we experience that incredible love of Christ, it naturally leads to giving it away. How to do that depends on the Spirit’s inspiration, the real needs that beg for recognition, and the creativity that comes forward in that community, prompted by the Spirit of the Lord, to heal a weary, waiting world.
Read: Loving the ‘Least of Us’
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