What if being the church influenced how we live in our communities and not just where we go on Sundays?
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Today, I'd like to call your attention to a recent report released by The Barna Group. This research is the result of posing the following question to 1,021 adults:
Many churches and faith leaders want to contribute positively to the common good of their community. What does your community need, if anything, that you feel churches could provide?The number one answer (as provided by 29% of respondents)? Ahead of all other responses, such as cultivating biblical values (14%), serving youth/families elderly (13%), assisting in recovery (10%), addressing workplace/financial/educations issues (7%), serving the community (5%), and engaging politically (1%)?
In case you're wondering, the arrow to the left (29%) represents all adults, to the top (31%) represents the response of churched adults, and the bottom (25%) represents the response of unchurched adults (defined as those who have not attended church in at least six months, not counting weddings or funerals).
Interesting points here:
- Both those who are churched and those who are unchurched seem to agree here. The church can/should be engaging with our communities on poverty-related issues. A phrase used a lot around my church this year is "engage the church. engage the city." We're not just about one or the other; both matter.
- Disability is only mentioned in the poverty category in this report. While it is true that factors like the financial hardships of special needs and the limited educational/vocational options for some individuals with disabilities can contribute to higher rates of poverty among this demographic, this doesn't capture all people with disabilities, and it only focuses on practical and not spiritual needs. (Don't get me wrong. We need to start with the practical needs. We just don't need to stop there!) We oversimplify the need if we toss "disability" into the "poverty" box and fail to acknowledge that it can be present in any box of ministry.
- There is certainly room to grow. Consider the graphic below. These are the folks who responded that they weren't sure what the church could do to meet needs in the community or who didn't think the church could do anything. I noticed first that a third of unchurched adults responded in this way. But then the churched number caught my eye. Sure, it's only 9%, but what is being preached in our churches if nearly one out of ten of those attending don't know what we could do to reach out to the community or think that we can't/shouldn't do anything?
- One conclusion in the report was that those who were unchurched weren't typically hostile toward the church. They were just indifferent. Hostility can be harder to influence, but indifference? Imagine what could happen there if Christians were known more for being the church than simply going to church. If those 33% unchurched adults who answered "don't know" or "nothing" saw the church demonstrating the love of Christ as we serve those in our communities, what difference would that make in their indifference? And not only their indifference to the church but perhaps their indifferent to the head of the church, Christ?
- And, finally, in the words of the report: "Churches are not thought of as contributing to civic enhancement, beyond poverty assistance. Most people do not connect the role of faith communities to civic affairs, particularly local efforts like assisting city government, serving public education, doing community clean-up, or engaging in foster care and adoption, and so on. There are opportunities for faith leaders to provide more intentional, tangible, and much-needed efforts to assist local government, particularly as many services have been diminished by the economy."
