“Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” – Matthew 25:34-35
Dear Disciple of Christ,
Last week I mentioned my church being encouraged to care for the homeless in New York City. By way of review, here is what I described.
In those years (in the 80’s), there were about 60,000 homeless in New York City. Many received care in Manhattan (medical, psychological, and with job training) and slept quartered in armories in New York that held more than 600 at one time. It was not a good setting at all. So an organization called, “Partnership for the Homeless” designed a program working with churches.
The plan called for a church to offer space for ten homeless (male OR female) to sleep over night in the church. They would arrive by bus at 7pm and be picked up at 7am the next morning and brought back to the social service agencies in Manhattan. You can imagine how much better (and safer) people felt in a church with 9 others than in a military armory with 599 others. The mayor was right and the churches that participated (like ours) recognized that they had been blessed to be a blessing.
I don’t know how you felt when I described that “opportunity” we undertook, but I expect some readers might have felt a little “uneasy.” “Uneasy” would be an understatement of the reaction of some of the members of our church. To me, as a pastor (and disciple of Christ), the act of caring for those in need, providing a safe place for them to sleep, was natural and indicative of what disciples of Christ would want to in caring for others. When I heard about the program, I honestly felt that our congregation would embrace it as a way to care for the strangers mentioned by Jesus in the lesson above. The text is pretty clear about what it meant to be one of Christ’s sheep and that was to “welcome the stranger.” Those sleeping on the streets or in overcrowded armories would be able to receive a safe place to sleep (in our church) as well as food to satisfy their hunger.
As I said, I had an innocent (naïve?) expectation that others in our church were going to feel, similarly, the same joy at answering human need. In fact, it was without very much discussion and a unanimous vote, the church council approved our going into the program. We would be offering our church one night a week (Saturday night) as a site for Partnership for the Homeless program. When the council meeting ended that night, I drove the three blocks home and my wife was waiting at the door. “What in the world happened at the council meeting?” she asked as I came in the house. I honestly tried to think, considering all the areas of ministry we discussed, what could cause a problem (and wondered how she would have any idea about it).
In the time it took me to drive those three blocks home from church, “word” had gotten out about what we had decided to do or better yet, what “Pastor Johnson was doing.” Depending on the kind of leadership you provide in a church, that can be the evaluation of positive and negative actions. In this case, it was considered quite negatively by a number of church members (regardless of their “formal” vote. So you can imagine that, by the next Sunday, the word had spread to the entire membership. It became clear that it would be best for the entire congregation to make this their ministry (by a congregational meeting and vote or they could decide it was not something we could do.
To be honest, this was one of the most challenging times in my entire ministry. When people are afraid, their actions and reactions can be pretty brutal. We know that, as John wrote in his first letter, “perfect love casts out fear.” Would the obverse also be the case “Fear casts out love”? Would that complete fear cast out our opportunity to love those in need”? It sure seemed like it at the time. Perhaps you can imagine how the congregational meeting went to decide the issue. The room was filled to overflowing. The (member) scout leader and our school teacher had invited parents of the kids to come and see what would be happening (bringing homeless to use the room their kids used). The bishop received a letter from a member to make sure he was aware of just how “far out” this pastor was (that was me they were talking about..
At the meeting, the council sat silent as the assaults came in. I answered question after question (without satisfying those who thought the ministry was not something we could or should do). Suggestions were made that this was something that should be left to the local schools to do. Though the homeless had more physical checkups and medical care than anyone else using our facilities, people feared what they would bring into the church. Finally, the “question was called” (meaning there was a motion to end discussion and take a vote). That brought another motion, that the vote should be done by secret ballot to make sure that, as the provider of the motion said, “Pastor wouldn’t influence the vote.” I indicated my willingness to raise my hand in support of the new ministry but the motion passed by a wide margin.
Most surprisingly (to all in the room), when the ballots were counted, the motion to do the program failed… by ONE vote! We all imagined (including me), based on the discussion, that the only one in the room wanting to do it was me. The president said quietly to me, “Perhaps we should take another vote. It might pass now that people knew others were in support”. I thought that was inappropriate, since the congregation voted and we’d need to proceed without that program.
Hang on and I’ll share next week what happened next with that homeless program, how God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform. Stay tuned.
Peace,
Pastor Johnson