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Greetings!
I know some will find our title article a little provocative but I really enjoyed this piece by Dr. Susan K. Smith. The title instantly made me think about organize religion or better yet how people of faith are organized. In this day of celebrity preachers and Me, Myself and I Ministries, Inc. where ministries are being built and branded around personalities and the gospel is being repackaged and sold while ministers look for platforms to market themselves and sell their remixed gospel CDs and DVDs, I often wander if today's church would be pleasing to Jesus. The way we organize tells a lot about our priorities. In the city of Baltimore where I reside, there are over 2,000 places of worship. That's 2,000 mortgages, water bills, telephone bills, gas and electric bills and some salaries as well. This sort of fragmentation leads to duplication of ministries and duplication of ministries lead to wasted resources which are our time, talent and finances. Does this make good organizational sense? The more churches we build the less capacity we have to do holistic ministry, ministry that touches the mind, body and spirit. Eighty-five percent of churches financial resources go to maintaining the institutional church leaving only fifthteen percent to impact the community. Normally the first person to be hire in a black church, after the pastor, is often the minister of music; very few Ministers of Social Justice, Social Service or Ministers of Community Development. This shows that the priority of many churches is the Sunday morning experience, good preaching and good music with very little resources to address life after Sunday. Think about the issues facing many urban communities: failing schools, high drop-out rates, violence, lack of affordable housing, environmental injustices, gangs, lack of family sustaining wages, and broken homes. I hope this article will get you to think about how we as people of faith organize and if we are organized in way that would be pleasing to God.
My good friend, Pastor Heber Brown, put me down with the Potters House in D.C. They offer a unique model of church organization. I have posted their link to the right.
I have also been working with the faculty of the Social Science Department at Coppin State University and my advisory board to develop the Black Church & Public Life Institute, a civic engagement and capacity building program for faith-rooted leaders. If you would like to know more about this program email us at info@kineticnet.org .
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God, yes; organized religion, no
by Susan K. Smith
On Faith
 Q:What should pastors do if they no longer hold the defining beliefs of their denomination? Do clergy have a moral obligation not to challenge the sincere faith of their parishioners? If this requires them to dissemble from the pulpit, doesn't this create systematic hypocrisy at the center of religion? What would you want your pastor to do with his or her personal doubts or loss of faith?
Mahatma Gandhi was said to be studying Christianity and was impressed with Jesus. He was studying law in South Africa, and was on his way toward becoming a Christian. He decided to go to a Christian church to worship.
A white elder met him at the door and asked him what he was doing; Gandhi said he wanted to enter the church to worship. The elder told him he'd do no such thing: "There is no place for you here, Kaffir. Go away or I will throw you down the stairs."
Gandhi left, and later said, when asked about Christianity, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians." He admired Jesus but said that followers of Jesus were not like their Christ at all.
I say all of that to say that I believe in God, but I believe less and less in organized religion. Christianity is a disappointment, not because of God and not because of Jesus, but because of people.
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Check out what others Faith & Justice members are saying
I find this article provocative. As a pastor of a church, how can you say organized religion no, and God yes. The church is organized. The church is religious, or religion. The church is organized religion. The way to say both is to invite people to God and invite people to the journey, to change, growth and development.
 Dr. Earl Trent
Normally I would not respond to articles like this, however since the author is a Senior Pastor and seminary graduate I express my thoughts. The argument for God but against organized religion is an old one. It is also one that falls short for the following reasons.
Wtihout organized religion there are no sacred texts. The Bible through which we learn about God and the interaction of humankind is a product of centuries of caretaking by the church. With no orgasnizaed religion there is no one to copy, preserve or pass down the sacred text that become our canon.
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This is part of a Pew Research Center series of reports exploring the behaviors, values and opinions of the teens and twenty-somethings that make up the Millennial generation
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The Potter's House
The Potter's House is a restaurant, a bookstore, a gift shop, a concert venue, a theatre, an art gallery, a gathering place for innocent conversation, work meetings, worship or subversive activism. The Potter's House is maintained by the Potter's House church, one of the faith communities in the tradition of the Church of the Saviour, Washington, DC
The Potter's House is the first of several outreach ministries of the Church of the Saviour. We, the members of that church, asked ourselves, 'Would Jesus want to hang out with folks at a traditional institutional church? or would he want to hang out over a beer in a bar or coffee in a restaurant?' The resounding answer was the latter. We chose coffee over beer because of our support for the budding AA movement in 1960. Gordon Cosby along with several others opened the Potter's House doors in April of 1960 to the world as it was then. The Jesus embodied in our hearts and minds of our committed, intentional church met people involved in the Civil Rights movement, peace movement concerning Vietnam, anti-poverty movement. Our hearts and minds were transformed to make the Potter's House a birthing place for most of the 501c3 activist and service organizations in the Adams Morgan neighborhood today:
Christ House,
Jubilee Housing,
Jubilee Jobs,
Good Shepherd Ministries,
Columbia Road Health Services, and
Samaritan Inns
Potter's House today attracts people of diverse backgrounds seeking to journey together for larger spiritual purposes. We are the original church coffeehouse, "the church in the marketplace". A warm, holy place where no one is a stranger for very long.
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About Us
... You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (Isaiah. 58:12)
Kinetics mission is to disseminate information and develop new ideas that work to strengthen social movements within the African-American community; providing them with the tools and skills to pursue justice and better address the needs of those whom they serve.
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The Black church has been central to every major political and social movement in the African American community; however some are concerned that the church has lost its focus in search of individual wealth and prosperity rather then collective struggle and empowerment.
According to R. Drew Smith, director of the Public Influences of African American Churches Project, contemporary black church activism has centered around electoral activity, and only infrequently around direct public policy advocacy; the potential influence of black churches among broader publics has been significantly impaired by a lack of black church-related infrastructure devoted to policy advocacy and intergenerational civic interaction.
Recommendations:
Academic institutions and churches should make a concerted effort to help scholars and people in the pews to see themselves as part of the same mission and undertaking- however different their responsibilities may be;
Churches should establish stronger links with non-church advocacy groups to provide members with hands-on experience with policy issues and community service. (PIACC Project)
Mission:
To promote civic engagement and capacity building among faith leaders.
Modules:
- Civic Engagement
- Community Economic Development
- Theology and Ethics
- Public Policy
- Capacity Building
Outcomes: To increase the knowledge of faith leaders in the areas of public policy, civic engagement and community development
To increase strengthen the capacity of ministerial alliances/faith-based advocacy organizations.
To bridge the gap between faith leaders, academia, and community leaders.
Decrease the fragmentation and duplication of ministries and community-based programs thereby increasing the overall capacity to serve our community.
Develop the African-American Ministry Match Database |
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Join Us
Kinetics Faith & Justice Network mission is to provide the faith community with the tools to advocate and mobilize on local, national, and international issues, to build capacity to solve our own problems, and to use dialogue as a catalyst for social change. Members include clergy, scholars, lawyers, social justice advocates, and nonprofit and business professionals.
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