Just People - that's the title of a course that has been co-produced by Tearfund and a group called Livability , a Christian social care group based in England. Together they have produced this course to help Churches discover what their community needs and how to go about meeting these needs. It might be something we will have a closer look at in 2009.
I love the title because it can be taken in 2 ways. First of all, it can be taken to mean the kind of people that we are, that we are just people. It comes from a key verse in the Old Testament book of the prophet Micah: the prophet sees the people being very good at worship, thousands of services are being held in their 'Church' every year and lots of sacrifices and offerings are being made; but something is still not quite right. He tells the people that there are three qualities that God wants to see in His people: "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)
If the Six O'Clock News or The Scotsman are to be believed we are all very concerned about our savings, our pensions and how much difference a reduction of 2½% in VAT will make to our lives. Did you know that 10 days ago we 'celebrated' World Toilet Day? No, it wasn't an excuse to spend the day on the toilet and stay at home from work, though judging by the bugs going around some of you may have done just that. No, this was a day created to raise awareness across the world that some 2.5 billion people don't have a proper toilet. For some, that means they are more prone to disease and some 5000 people a day die because of water-borne diseases; for others, especially women, they have to use places that expose them to great danger. For Christians to act justly is to be concerned for people like these, not to neglect our own financial perils, but to put them into some kind of world-wide context.
There are people nearer to home who are treated unfairly, who are victims of discrimination, who are abused and oppressed. Do we give any impression of being concerned for these people or do we leave it simply to 'political types' to get involved in STOPTHETRAFFIK campaigns and the like?
The second way of reading 'Just People' is that this is just about people. I wonder how much paper is produced by our congregation that is designed to keep the structures of Church alive. I know that we need structures and committees; we can't do without them. I know we have traditions and ways of doing things that go back a long while, but in the end the Church is people and is about people loving God and loving one another.
We have had, in Church over the last few weeks, a few young families, people who are new to the community and who have come to our Church for the first time. How well are our Church services geared for them? Do we expect a young mother to hold her child and a hymn-book at the same time, or do we simply expect that she takes the child to creche? What happens if the child won;'t settle on his own with strangers? Do we simply expect a young mum to sit in the creche with her son till the end of the service and hear very little of it? Or do we think seriously about extending the sound system into the creche room and projecting hymn words on the screens so that she can hold her child and sing at the same time? On the other hand, do we expect an elderly person who has poor eyesight simply to see something on the screen a long way off? Church is about people of all kinds and all stages and making life easier for all of these will mean different things; there is no one way that will answer this question for everyone.
If we are a Church that is centred on Christ and on people then, our concern must never be 'it's always been done that way' at all costs. Our concern must be 'how can we help all of the people to love God and walk humbly with God?
Just people - there are two huge challenges in these 2 simple words. The first is about the kind of person I am and the second is in the kind of Church we are. What does it mean for you to be a just person? How can we be a Church that focuses on helping people love God?
Answers on a postcard please...
