February 15thChaplains of dignity
This paper is from the Church Planting Resource - Fall 2022 - A resource written by Norm Dyck, Mission Minister, Michel Monette, Catalyzer Minister and Fanosie Legesse, Intercultural Mission Minister. You can download the complete resource or read individual articles online.
Michel Monette, MCEC Catalyzer Minister - Planting a church in a poor neighborhood requires surrender. You must give up your pride and look for what God is already doing in the neighbourhood. God is at work before and after you arrive. Do not be so arrogant as to think that you have the solution. You are not a church planter. Christ is the planter. You are tools in his hands. It is Christ who calls his church and establishes it. You are a catalyst for what Christ is already doing in the neighborhood. The crossing guard directs, protects people and controls traffic so that all are safe. The chaplain teaches, instructs and coaches the individual on both the spiritual and personal aspects of life.
Reinventing the wheel
Since you are Christians, you may be tempted to open a food bank, a laudable and valuable work. Have you asked yourself if there are already any in the neighbourhood? Why double or triple what is already there? Perhaps instead you could ask the disciples around you to volunteer at an already existing food bank.
A pastor of a long-established church in the neighborhood came to me for advice on opening a food bank in his church building. His members were interested and wanted to get involved. The geographical location of the church puts it in the heart of a food desert, so the arrival of a food bank was more than welcome. In a meeting with the pastor, I asked him, “Why do you want to do a food bank?” and he told me, “To save them, so they can accept the gospel and be saved.” I was saddened by his answer, and I said, “As soon as people learn why you are involved, they will not come anymore. The organizations in the neighbourhood will pressure you in order to shut you down. Feeding the hungry is already Kingdom work. You don’t need any other reason and you will see God at work.” Sadly, they never opened the food bank and the neighbourhood is still in a food desert. I wondered if I should have just encouraged the work and seen what would have happened.
Samaritans of the golden age
Have you wondered how the elderly in your neighborhood are doing? Do they have everything they need? Who does their grocery shopping, washes their windows, cleans their house, goes for a walk with them, pays their bills and goes to the bank? Do they have a family? Who listens to them tell their stories and their lives? Could a few members of your group be Samaritans of the golden age and do this? Today, you have access to amazing tools to understand and know your neighbourhood better. Waybase is one of those tools, created for Christians to be better instruments of God’s grace in their neighborhoods. Before you start something that already exists, first ask yourself if you can participate in what is already in place.
Your kingdom versus the Kingdom of God
Man is proud and for the first few years of my neighbourhood ministry I was arrogant enough to refer to my church, my plant, my vision and my way. I learned the hard way that God had other plans for me. He showed me that he was not working with me to build my kingdom, but rather I was working with him to establish his, one person at a time.
A young man came to me. He had heard about us from a few other Christians in the city. It seemed that God had called him to plant a church in the neighbourhood. I always rejoice that God sends workers into the harvest. It is abundant and there is a lack of workers. I have been praying since 2002 that God would send workers to this neighbourhood. I am always happy when they come. I explained to this young man what I understood about the neighborhood and what I thought should be avoided to succeed in establishing another chapter of the Kingdom of God there. He seemed to listen but turned a deaf ear.
If you have succeeded in giving hope and dignity to just one person during your stay, then that is what you were there for.
Filled with the teachings of church planting movement, imported from the U.S., he began his work. I follow him on social media, and he has managed to get several followers, mostly transferred from other churches, but few from the neighbourhood. He still manages to help some of the poorer people by serving some meals and providing other services. He was invited to participate in the neighbourhood’s pastoral association but did not come. Women pastors and Catholics are involved, which does not seem to fit with his ecclesiology. I praise his efforts and pray that God will allow him to see, as he has shown me, that it is God’s Kingdom and that it is he and he alone who chooses his family, not us.
When working in a very poor and destitute area it is very important to understand and accept that the church will remain small and changing. It is very difficult for humans to continue to witness poverty and human misery in a constant and ongoing way. Only a handful of men and women can do this. It took me a long time to accept. People will come and go from the church and leaders and members will be renewed. It is even possible that what you are doing will not last and will not pass the test of time. You will then be tempted to think that you have failed. Failure, in this context, is only true if you have not made an impact on the lives of the people around you. But if, on the contrary, you have succeeded in giving hope and dignity to just one person during your stay, then that is what you were there for. Jesus, when he was on his way to heal the daughter of Jairus, also healed a woman who, at that time, had no right to be there. As she crawled on the ground to touch Jesus’ robe, she ritually made everyone she touched unclean, but Jesus healed her and made her whole. Suddenly she was no longer an itinerant outcast due to constant bleeding. One person to restore was enough for Christ who took the time to stop and restore her dignity and hope.
A man used to come to church on Sunday mornings and enjoy breakfast there. He lived on the streets, used alcohol and drugs, and came to church drunk and drugged. He would visit us during the week as well and take the time to call his mom. He lived in a crack house, a boarding home for homeless people and drug users. He told us that he liked to cook. My wife suggested that he invite us to his house, and we gave him a gift card to the grocery store. We told him that we would go to his house for dinner with him and his friends the following Saturday.
To be dignity chaplains is to bring dignity where it is absent.
When I got there I prayed that God would protect my stomach because his hands, the table and the pots were unsanitary. But God knew what he was doing. We prayed before eating. During the meal, customers came and went as they bought drugs from one of the men at the table. A man came in who did not want to eat because he felt unworthy to be with us at the table. He told me about his nightmares and bad dreams and that he did not know how to make them go away. He also shared that he did not know how to stop doing what he was doing. I looked at him and said, “Today, I forgive you of all your sins. When you have another bad dream just invite Jesus into your dream, and where you sleep, you will sleep in peace.” This man accepted that Christ gave his life for him and he was baptized a year later. Today he is a street worker and helps others get off the streets. Does he relapse? Of course, he does. Who among us does not relapse? Jesus has forgiven all his sins, past, present and future. Being a hope brigade sometimes means having the courage to give hope where it seems least likely to be received.
We returned home that night with the feeling that we could have left the neighbourhood then and there, and that Jesus had healed those with whom we had shared a meal. To be dignity chaplains is to bring dignity where it is absent.
These are a few stories about how we have been brigadiers of hope in a very dark and murky neighbourhood. Find your neighbourhood and your dark cave and turn on the light. You are children of light, after all.
The principles outlined in these stories are unconditional love, non-judgment, brotherly acceptance and the knowledge that it is Christ who is building his church. We are only the workers.