Dear Friends,

Our Congregational Conversation on 9/22 and a follow-up conversation at Council two weeks later has had me thinking more about what it means to be a “neighborhood church.”

To me that has two connotations.

Our thoughts first go to being connected with our neighbors within walking distance from the building.

Ideally our involvement would “not be for the neighborhood, but with the neighborhood” as Clare Price said on the 22nd.

We already have the Ice Cream Social, the Rummage Sale, food bags for STAP at Thanksgiving, and the Angel Tree at Christmas.

There are two negative thoughts, though, that make us hesitant to go further with this: a lack of people resources and how we define “success”.

We are few in number and the numbers we have are highly involved. We don’t know if we have the energy to take on more.

There is also this notion that our engagement with the neighborhood is a “success” only when our neighbors attend worship on Sunday mornings and become members.

Friends, increased membership is not the goal of outreach!

Showing love to our neighbors with no benefit to ourselves is the purpose. They may or may not want to worship with us. They may belong to other churches already.

So growing our membership to those we partner with shouldn’t be a consideration.

However, outreach and mission with the community is attractive to many progressive Christians. They want a way to live their faith in a hands-on way.

Inviting friends, BU and SUNY Broome students, and the greater community in general to help us do new projects in the neighborhood gives others a way to serve.

In doing so, they may like what they see happening here at FCC and want to join in other ways.

The second connotation of the neighborhood church is that the neighborhood is much larger than the blocks around our building. Our members come from all over the area, driving miles to get here.

What brings you into the center of the city?

What appeals to you here?

FCC is a theologically progressive congregation with a heart for social justice. Not many churches in this area can claim that.

We need to brainstorm ways the larger community can become aware of the nature of the ministry we do here.

One idea that has been expressed is expanding cultural events such as Jazz Vespers and the offerings of Face It! Theater group to bring people in the door. When they are here, how can we display information that tells them who we are, what we believe, how we serve?

Another possibility is to become more vocal advocates for the justice issues in our region.

What other ways can we serve our larger neighborhood?

A final comment, somewhat related to all of this:

Most churches believe that they must attract families with young children in order to grow.

That is a holdover from the days when most everyone already belonged to a church, so the way to get new members was to give birth to them.

We live in different times. There are so many people of all ages who have no church connection, yet are hungering for spiritual relationship.

A large portion of those are Baby Boomers who are starting retirement with time and resources on their hands, wanting to put them to use, and feeling a need for spiritual connections.

Here again is where the progressive nature of FCC is appealing to those who are “spiritual but not religious”.

I encourage us to expand our ideas of being a neighborhood church and our ways of connecting with our neighbors.

Grace and Peace.

Lisa

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