Your Church and Persons with Disabilities: Merely Access or Full Inclusion?

by Rev. Laura Barclay

I recently received a copy of the American Baptist home Mission Societies’ newsletter, The Christian Citizen, with the focus “Disability Ministry: From Access to Inclusion.” There was not only an abundance of ideas and practical information for how to become a more welcoming congregation for persons with disabilities, but also helpful articles that engage the imagination of readers without disabilities on what it would be like for a disabled person to walk into their congregation. One chaplain, Bill Gaventa, relates the following on page five:

“What we most want,” I have so often heard [from persons with disabilities], “is simply to be included in what is already there.” The place to begin, therefore, in ministries with people with disabilities and their families is not a new “special” ministry that is tacked onto the church. That approach can be derailed by first raising feelings of inadequacy among members about the skills they assume are necessary to include people with special needs. It is better to begin by talking with individuals and families about what they need and want and then taking a good look at what the church already offers. Then ask, “Why does anyone come? What are the gifts resident in the faith community and the congregation’s dream of this life and mission together? People with disabilities and their families say, “We want a place that is safe, sanctuary, a place of welcome and acceptance, a place where we can worship and learn, a place where we can both participate in and contribute to the life of a faith community.” That’s not so different from most other people!”

Keeping in mind the idea of providing sanctuary for persons with disabilities and provide inclusion in activities and initiatives already taking place in your congregations, ask, “How welcoming is my congregation? Do we have persons with intellectual and physical disabilities in our congregations? How do they feel when they are at church? How can we be more welcoming?”

After brainstorming, review some of the fantastic tips below provided by The Christian Citizen on how to become a more inclusive and inviting congregation for persons with disabilities. What would it look like to embrace these ideas in your congregation?

*Consider installing lifts instead of traditional elevators in older churches for cost-effective inclusion (pg 6).

*For vision and hearing-impaired members (a number that will increase as your congregation ages), consider using projection equipment for announcements, song lyrics, congregations responses, Scripture lessons and sermon outlines. Consider also using an adaptive listening system (pg 6-7).

*Some church use American Sign Language interpreters in their service. Is there anyone in your congregation who is fluent and willing to volunteer (pg 7).

*Create opportunities for employers in your congregation to connect with those with disabilities who are underemployed or unemployed. Create employment opportunities in the church itself (pg 1).

*The Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition (IDAC) is spearheading an effort to raise awareness of and support for employment of people with disabilities through a solidarity statement. Encourage your congregation to endorse this effort and implement its provisions (http://www.aapd.com/what-we-do/interfaith/idac-statement-of-solidarity.html) (pg 1).

*Support members and visitors with disabilities who are out of work with specific advice and training, supervised volunteer opportunities and introductions to those who make hiring decisions (pg 11).

*Hire qualified people with disabilities as ordained leaders, religious educators, musical directors, communicators, administrators, support staff, technical support and maintenance workers (pg 11).

*If you have returning veterans in your church, consider that loud bands can trigger PTSD. Consider a more contemplative approach to worship (pg 19).

Whatever you choose to do or are already doing in your congregation to provide the welcome of Christ to all persons, may God bless your efforts with reconciliation, inclusion, and relationship building that strengthens the body of Christ that is the church. Let us remember the words of the Apostle Paul, who said in 1 Corinthians 12, “There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Let us always remember those who may suffer within and outside of our churches who feel the pain of division because of our failure to extend the welcome of Christ.


To read this edition of The Christian Citizen to learn more about creative an inclusive community, click here: http://www.abhms.org/resources/christian_citizen/index.cfm

Churches Are Called to Lead the Way in Accessibility

By Dr. Dennis Herman

The Epistle of James leaves little wiggle room: “…If a person comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, ‘you sit over here in a good place,’ and you say to the poor person, ‘You stand over there or sit down by my footstool,’ have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?”

As a missionary, I have lived in three different countries of the world and have visited numerous others. In some situations, I have felt treated as a visiting dignitary, with honored seats in special places. In other situations, I have felt like the poor person crashing the party, the uninvited guest or, at best, the reluctantly tolerated guest. I did not feel comfortable in either role, but admittedly I was less comfortable when I felt like a party crasher. How do people feel when entering our church building? How does it feel to be poor and off the street, trying to find a message of home in our assemblies? How about those with special needs? Do the physically handicapped find it difficult to get in and around, to find a seat where they can blend in and not stick out on the front row or feel hidden on the back? How about those of other races and nationalities—are they met with warmth and welcome? What about nursing mothers who want to their baby with them for an hour of worship? What about anyone whose worship culture is different from the one we have known?

In the first church I pastored after returning to the States from South America, I challenged the congregation to shorten some of its unused pews to accommodate walkers and wheelchairs so that there would be seating options other than the front pew or the back of the sanctuary. It was a struggle for the church, but some of those who opposed it later were glad they could park their wheelchairs and not “stick out” in the aisle. In the last church I pastored, we designed and constructed an accessible sanctuary where not only wheelchairs and walkers could fit in at various places, but the back “row” consisted of glider rockers where nursing moms could bring their babies into the worship service. (I guess it helps when the pastor’s wife is a professional lactation consultant!)

There are many ways we can say “welcome” to our worship and church building. Likewise, there are many ways we can say “stay away,” or worse yet, “don’t come back.” I realize we cannot be everything to everyone, but as the Church who tries to follow seriously the exhortation of James 2:2-4 and the inclusive love of Jesus, let’s ask what ways we can open our hearts, our ministries, and our building to all who seek God’s love.

Dennis Herman is the interim pastor of Oxford Baptist Church in Oxford, NC. This article originally appeared in their church newsletter, The Forecaster.

Shift Happens (Or It Should)

by Rev. Dr. Larry Hovis

Most of us in North Carolina realize that a significant shift has been taking place in recent years, a shift in the relationship between the church and the culture. Earlier in my life and ministry, the church sat at the center of the culture. A majority of people went to church, or at least understood the nature and purpose of the church. The culture supported, rather than competed with the church.  The church enjoyed a privileged place in most of our communities.

That is no longer the case. The place of the church has shifted from the center of the culture to the margins of the culture. Not only do most persons not attend church, but they don't even feel guilty about it! Some have no direct knowledge of the beliefs and practices of the church and don't see how it is relevant for their lives.

This is a relatively new phenomenon for most of our churches in North Carolina, but it has been going on in Canada for a long time. On a trip to Canada during last summer’s sabbatical, I met with Baptists who share our core beliefs and practices and learned how they have been dealing with shift for several decades. As I visited with Marc and Kim Wyatt (CBF Global Missions field personnel from North Carolina), congregational leaders, regional denominational leaders, a seminary professor and the leaders of Canadian Baptist Ministries (a global missions agency), I learned of shifts they are making that are enabling Canadian Baptists to deal faithfully and effectively with the larger cultural shifts that have now reached the Tarheel State.

From Church-As-Community Institution to Church-As-Mission Outpost

In our heyday, churches were viewed as significant community institutions. People understood what churches offered and came to churches to receive religious goods and services (programs and ministries) in much the same way they went to other community institutions to receive the goods and services they provided. Church leaders worked to provide the best programs and ministries possible in order to attract people to the church, who, for the most part, understood what the church was trying to do.

Churches in Canada no longer pretend that the culture "gets" the church. Instead of thinking like marketers or managers or even chaplains, they are learning to think like missionaries. When missionaries move to a new place of service, they don't assume that those they are trying to reach understand what they are doing. They don't begin by creating programs to attract persons to the church. They first learn the language and customs of the community. They build relationships with people to discern their felt and real needs. Then they begin to translate the Gospel of Jesus Christ into tangible need-meeting ministries that connect with people where they live and where they hurt. Bible studies and worship services grow organically out of tangible expressions of the Kingdom of God, not vice-versa. In the future, in order to deal with the changes in our culture, we church leaders in North Carolina will need to think more like missionaries and less like program managers or chaplains.

From Fearing the Stranger to Welcoming the Stranger

Because of an open-door immigration policy, Canada has become a haven for people all around the world who have immigrated there to flee persecution or to seek a better way of life.  The city of Toronto is the most multi-cultural city in the world, and much of the rest of Canada has become very culturally diverse.

I imagine it was difficult, in the early days of a high level of immigration, for traditional Canadian Baptist churches to embrace the newcomers to their communities. The changes in their communities caused most of them to decline significantly in terms of traditional measurements (attendance and money). But in time, some of them began to discover ways to welcome the newcomers to their communities who came to Canada from other countries. And the congregations that have learned to make this shift are growing again.

For example, I was given the opportunity to preach at Bromley Rd. Baptist Church in Ottawa. It's a church that in many ways is very much like North Carolina CBF churches - architecturally, programmatically, and liturgically. But this traditionally Anglo church has reached out to newcomers in the community, particularly immigrants from Haiti and Karen people. They have reversed the decline in membership and attendance, they have more children in their Sunday School, and most importantly, they more faithfully reflect the Kingdom of God.

In North Carolina, our churches haven't always been welcoming to newcomers. Sometimes, often out of fear, we have shut the doors of our churches and our lives to them. A key task facing us is to make the shift from fearing these "strangers" to welcoming them as brothers and sisters in Christ.

From Mission Trips to Global Discipleship

How can we make these two shifts? Canadian Baptists have developed a powerful tool to equip Christians and churches to move in this direction. Like us, the Canadians have been sending church members on mission trips for three decades. But they discovered, as many of us know intuitively, that these trips often have as great an impact on those making the trips than on those we are seeking to serve. So, they have developed very intentional processes to utilize short-term mission experiences as vehicles for missional formation and discipleship development.

By leading mission trip participants through a pre-trip preparation phase that lasts several months, guiding them in focused reflection during the trip, and helping them apply what God taught them on the trip after they return home, church members who take mission trips not only grow more deeply in their faith, but they are better equipped to serve as missionaries in their communities when they return home.

In the coming years and months, CBFNC will be working to develop processes that will help congregations who participate in our mission efforts to make this shift. Not only will it enable us to be better stewards of the significant resources we pour into mission trips, but it may be a vital avenue of spiritual renewal for our churches and Kingdom-transformation for our state.

The church in North Carolina, like the church throughout North America, is undergoing drastic shifts. We may not like it, but we can’t stop it. Thankfully, like-minded and like-hearted Baptists in Canada have more experience in dealing with these shifts than we do. By learning from them and following their lead, we can make our own shifts that will enable us to be faithful to God’s mission in our time and place.

Larry Hovis is the Executive Director of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina. 

Going Into All the World...On the Corner

By Dr. Dennis Herman

As missionaries for fourteen years, my wife and I lived and worked in three different countries. We took pretty literally the great commission, "...Going into all the world, make disciples and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..."

On a recent walk around the block at our home in Raleigh, I passed the school bus stop. A quick glance revealed at least three and maybe four continents of the world represented by the students awaiting the Wake County bus. As I walked farther and entered the supermarket on the corner of Creedmoor and Stonehenge, I saw employees and shoppers from other lands, and heard accents and even languages I did not recognize. I felt at home when I finally heard someone speaking Spanish! I can sometimes understand Spanish better than heavily accented English.

My walk reminded me that not always do we have to go anywhere beyond our own neighborhoods to encounter the world. I often wonder what those folks from other countries think when I try to strike up a conversation with them, or even when I don't try to strike up a conversation with them. I wonder what difference a smile and a nod make, or if these strangers in our midst are used to being ignored and seen through as if they did not exist.

Common courtesy nudges me to be friendly and acknowledge those I see and associate with ever so casually. And the Great Commission reminds me that "in my going," to the corner of my neighborhood or the corners of the earth, I am to be about the work of discipleship. That first step may be just a smile, a greeting, or an invitation to conversation. That's how “mission work" begins, a simple greeting and acknowledgment of the God made creation we call a "person." Maybe our courteous gestures may lead to a conversation or a friendship. It’s worth the effort!

Dennis Herman is the interim pastor at Oxford Baptist Church in Oxford, NC. This article originally appeared in their church newsletter, The Forecaster.

Pilgrim Practices - A Review

by Rev. Laura Barclay

Pilgrim Practices: Discipleship for a Missional Church by Kristopher Norris is book that posits “discipleship is primarily an identity and is formed and practices in and through the church community” (xvi). The way that one forms that identity is through pilgrimage and practice, ancient ways that can and should be renewed in the current social context. After identifying American hyper-individualism as a paradox to the church as the body of Christ and a communal path of missional discipleship as expressed in the book of James, Norris outlines eight pilgrim practices for discipleship: believing, listening, welcoming, committing, speaking wisely, witnessing, caring, and praying.

I resonated the most with Norris’ chapter on welcoming. Norris identifies hospitality as one of the issues with which the church has struggled the most and longest. Since Christianity became a dominant religion, it has struggled with how to treat the poor, as well as its role in fostering racism, sexism, heterosexism , and other –isms from which the greater culture suffers. I was particularly taken with his interpretation of James 2:1-8, where James states that a congregation should not favor a person “wearing …fine clothes” over dirty ones. Norris exegetes that the rich person is a wealthy politician that can do favorable things for the congregation and the poor person is pushed to the side because he can only bring himself and that is seen as a burden. Norris challenges us to look beyond alliances between church and state and the identities that society places on us and embrace the radical hospitality of Jesus, who insists that the poor are blessed and that the rich are on notice.

Also intriguing was his chapter called "Witnessing: I Pledge Allegiance," where he encourages us to be Christians first and then Americans, Southerners, sports fans, etc. He encourages Christians to step outside politics and be more proactive and hands-on to solve problems as churches. I agree with much of this, as the Church engaged in real world problems coheres to the vision of the kingdom of God. I would caution that churches still need to be vigilant and active in the political realm in a non-partisan way on issues like religious liberty and speak truth to power on issues of justice that can only be overcome by overturning unjust policies. I would venture to say that Norris would agree at least on the church taking prophetic stances, based on his statements in the subsequent "Caring" chapter quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. and urging churches to speak against war.

Kristopher Norris writes with great thoughtfulness and wit (I laughed out loud when he referenced Ben Stiller’s attempt at prayer in Meet the Parents) about reclaiming practices that are absolutely necessary for the church to embrace transformational discipleship. I recommend this to churches that are looking to do a study on discipleship. The questions at the back of the book can help facilitate group discussion. Norris’ writing, while solidly researched, is appealing to both ministers and laity, and his humor, compassion, and pacing makes this a quick and enjoyable read.

You can get more information and order Pilgrim Practices here: https://wipfandstock.com/store/Pilgrim_Practices_Discipleship_for_a_Missional_Church

St. John’s Baptist Forms Partnership to House Transitioning Homeless Families

Left to right: Dennis Foust,  Darren Ash, and Larry Hewitt in
the new offices for Charlotte Family Housing.

by Rev. Laura Barclay

In October 2010, St. John’s Baptist Church formed a Space Utilization Committee to assess how to use the second floor of their building, leading to an amazing partnership with Charlotte Family Housing that shelters families above their worship space.

Larry Hewitt, chair of the space committee, related that the church has previously housed a hospitality house for families of patients in the neighboring hospital. The hospital proceeded to build stand-alone facilities, and St. John’s wanted to figure out how to utilize the space in an ongoing partnership with the community and ensure that the building would be serving God beyond Sundays and Wednesdays.

Bert Green, Executive Director of Charlotte’s Habitat for Humanity, put the committee in touch with Darren Ash of Charlotte Family Housing, and they began talks to form only the second shelter in town that houses families. Moving in above the Fellowship Hall with the name “Hawthorne Place,” dorms will house six families at a time, with common areas for a computer lab, laundry room, kitchens and closets.

Ash relates that this move has been a blessing at a time when Charlotte seemed to be pushing homeless populations to the north side of town, making them feel unwelcome downtown. Many of Ash’s clients work at the neighboring hospital and will no longer face a long commute.

Ash shared that the goal is to transition these families out of the dorms and into the comfort of their own apartments, and then offer counseling services to help them cope with past traumas. Charlotte Family Housing has rental vouchers for about 120 apartment units for transitioning families, and the organization shelters and houses around 200 families a year.

Left to right: Ash, Hewitt and Foust in the living area of the
new apartments for homeless families.

In addition to living space, families receive asset-based social work to overcome obstacles to housing, as well as vocational counseling, housing advocacy and subsidies, financial incentives like microloans, ongoing clinical social work, and volunteer engagement with clients.

New pastor Dennis Foust is excited about the investment the church has made in their partnership, and is looking forward to building relationships between his congregants and the new residents through Wednesday night suppers, worship, and volunteer opportunities. Ash noted that the level of faith these families had was astounding and uplifting to the employees, who note their reliance on God during difficult times.

St. John’s partnership is prophetic for our times. Charlotte is ranked #2 in the nation for family homelessness. Charlotte Family Housing formed this year as a merger between three organizations to more efficiently and effectively care for homeless populations.

This partnership exhibits a church actively aware and engaged in their community and committed to what Jesus identified as the greatest commandment—loving God and neighbor.

Justice for Hector, but a Long Road Ahead

by Rev. Laura Barclay

Friday, September 2, 2011, was over a year in the making for Hector Villanueva, CBFNC pastor and legal resident who faced deportation after applying for citizenship and was arrested for a 15-year-old crime for which he had already served time—cashing a check that wasn’t his while homeless. CBFNC staff organized ministers and laity to pack the courtroom in support, and Hector gave compelling testimony about his transformation in serving God through his ministry and his commitment to his wife and children, which includes two adopted daughters. The judge, moved by his testimony and our support, said that he was convinced of Hector’s “rehabilitation” and canceled his deportation. The judge carefully reminded him that he could never be a citizen under current U.S. immigration law, though his wife and children all enjoy that privilege.

Relief and joy washed over Hector, his family, and reverberated throughout the CBFNC network. We’ve received countless messages of support for Hector over the last year and in the wake of this positive decision. However, the fact that Hector is barred from citizenship is a reminder to us that our system is flawed and there is little room for grace. States across our union are faced with these realities every day. Denominations are suing the Alabama state government for violating the practice of their faith by passing a law indicating that anyone who aids an undocumented immigrant will be arrested. Arizona requires all immigrants to carry and show their papers. Here in North Carolina, our Hispanic Network of Churches is facing a growing crisis. Police officers camp outside their churches, checking the documents of every driver entering for worship. Many of our Hispanic pastors, who are citizens or legal immigrants, have to drive vanloads of members to church because the police can only check the driver’s ID. Our current system is clearly broken, and our immigration quota system has barred many immigrants from ever obtaining citizenship. This means there is no line for those without documents to get into in order to immigrate legally.

We as Christians are called to respond to our neighbor. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus reminds us, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Whatever your opinions on what immigration reform should look like, the gospel is clear in how we should treat the stranger in our midst.

What can you do for your immigrant neighbor? You can begin by getting to know them. Consider a partnership between your church and a Hispanic congregation. Listen to their stories. Learn more about our current immigration system, by non-partisan resources and not from the mouth of a politician trying to get your vote. CBFNC, along with the United Methodist Church and other faith groups, has partnered with the Baptist Center for Ethics to produce a documentary, Gospel Without Borders that can be used in Sunday schools paired with an online discussion guide. Consider attending an upcoming screening. The North Carolina Council of Churches also has an excellent church resource called Becoming the Church Together which includes lessons and a concise time line for learning about the history of immigration.

Throughout Hector’s ordeal, I learned that immigrants have no right to an attorney and no right to benefits other than public education and emergency care. Many states have barred children brought here by their parents from obtaining a college or vocational education. Immigrants are under such hardship they can barely attend church without getting deported. We must ask ourselves what an authentic Christian response looks like in these difficult situations. I, like many of you, am a white, U.S. citizen who has never had to worry about such consequences. Instead of harboring guilt for this privilege, the proactive question remains: How will we use the privilege we were born with to change the system for those who have none? I hope that you will take advantage of one of the above resources and walk with us on the journey.

Gospel Without Borders - A Film Review

by Rev. Laura Barclay
From the start, the gritty images of border crossings, border patrol, police cars, barren deserts, and government buildings place the audience firmly in another world—one with which immigrants are all too familiar. The video begins with the question, “Lord, when did we see you?” as we watch a desolate path that evokes images of the Good Samaritan story.

Gospel Without Borders is a documentary produced by the Baptist Center for Ethics and sponsored by the United Methodist Church, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, and other faith groups that shows vignettes of immigrant stories. Woven in are interviews with attorneys, ministers, immigrants, and government officials. The documentary challenges the audience to look through eyes of faith and step outside hyper-partisan, vitriolic viewpoints.

Eleven miles inside the Arizona border, the Presbyterian ministry “No More Deaths” offers water and food to immigrants near death after they have crossed a dangerous section of the Sonora Desert. In the last decade alone, at least 5,000 have died here because towns have been sealed off by border patrol, forcing immigrants to wander through treacherous paths. The ministers there share that they spend much of their time walking the migrant paths looking for the dead or near dying, who reluctantly cross the border to find jobs to support their family. Recently, they found the body of a 14-year-old girl, identified only by the green shoes in the missing person’s description.

Another vignette tells the story of CBFNC pastor and missions council member, Hector Villanueva, who was taken from his home in front of his children by local sheriff’s deputies. Hector, a legal resident who had applied for citizenship, served 16 months in prison in California almost 15 years ago for cashing a check that was not his. According to immigration law, if you’ve ever committed a felony, even if you’ve served time and paid for your crime, you can still be deported. Hector, who dedicated his life to God in prison, now faced deportation and a possible forced separation from his wife and children, who are all U.S. citizens. Still, he pastors Iglesia Bautista la Roca in Siler City and has faith that his case will be dismissed.

Though these stories are gripping, viewers might ask questions related to policy. Interviews with an immigration attorney and a Mexican consul engage some of the misperceptions created by partisan bickering. Attorney Paul Charton addresses the myth that these immigrants are merely skipping line to get in the country illegally and states, “There is no legal avenue for them.” Andrés Chao, the Mexican Consul in Little Rock, AR, refutes the rumor that undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes. In fact, they do pay taxes and pay into social security, of which they are not eligible to receive benefits. They also confront the idea that immigrants drain money from social services. The only services they can receive are emergency health care and K-12 public education, which every person in America receives. All told, immigrants pay more into the system than they receive from these few programs.

There are several more compelling stories, and the documentary asks questions for thought and action. There is a review of what the Bible says about fear, justice, and a Christian response to the stranger in the land. Gospel Without Borders ends with suggestions for next steps for your congregation, and images of multicultural Christian worship, calling the audience to a kingdom-centered community.

This documentary has a short and long version and can be split into chapters for Sunday School viewings, study, and discussion. There is a balance between telling immigrants’ stories and confronting the questions that keep many Anglo Christians from engaging in ministry or justice work with immigrants. Perhaps the most poignant quote from the documentary comes from a Baptist minister in Alabama, Ellin Jimmerson, who asked us to remember that Christians should hold U.S. law in regard but recognize that it is not always moral. She states that, like WWII era Japanese interment camps, “Segregation was a system of laws, thoroughly legal and thoroughly immoral.” This quote stands out for me as a white, moderate, Baptist minister, because I will forever be haunted by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s statement in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail that he was more troubled by “the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than justice” than by the KKK. As a white moderate, I am reminded to be constantly vigilant and advocate justice for the oppressed.

The biblical call to welcome the stranger and work for justice is currently at odds with the treatment of immigrants. This documentary challenges us to think about those tensions and act. Now what is your congregation going to do about it?

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina is sponsoring screenings of "Gospel Without Borders" around NC. For more information, please check out CBFNC's Immigration Resource Page.

Answering the Door

by Rev. Laura Barclay

A couple of months ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Power of Persistence,” which I cut from a sermon I delivered recently. The whole point of the entry was for Christians to encourage themselves to live out an active prayer, answering the door when our neighbors knocked and were in need. Somehow, I’ve always found that my sermons have a way of challenging me either when I’m writing them or in the weeks after, but I’ve never faced a more direct challenge that I did a few weeks ago.

It was a late Saturday night, and my husband and I were exasperated with some home projects that including putting up a very complicated ceiling fan and light fixture. It was now 11:45pm, and we’d been at it for a few hours. Parts of all shapes and sizes were strewn about our dining room table with confusing directions to piece it all together. All of a sudden, the doorbell rang. We hesitated for a second, wondering if we should answer the door. It was late, the streets were deserted, and we were tired. After a few more seconds, Ryan and I went down the steps and opened the door to a man who looked both tired and upset. “Do you have a problem with black people?” he asked. My husband, a community organizer, answered no and said, “What do you need?” He continued by talking about his experiences with some local non-profits that had treated him very poorly and refused him services. Before long, he was sitting on our step, pouring his heart out about how badly people treat him on a daily basis. He had asked for a little bus money somewhere in the conversation, which we gave him (we don’t usually do this—we’d rather direct people to services or give food), but he still stayed, telling his story.

Pastoral listening ensued and my tiredness and fear of answering the door at night abated. As children, we are taught to fear strangers and not answer the door, which is healthy and appropriate to some degree. For some reason, that fearing of the stranger seems to be hard to let go in our adult life, and can keep us from embracing fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

After about a half hour of discussion, we encouraged him to visit a local church that had a good homeless ministry. He nodded approvingly, and said he wanted to be around people that would treat him as an equal and not look down upon him because of racial or economic prejudice. He walked off toward the bus station, but his impact stayed with me. I turned to Ryan and said, “We both wondered whether or not to answer the door, and I just preached on this a few Sundays ago!” Ryan responded that my sermon was the first thing he had thought of when the door rang, and that’s why he’d answered it.

I don’t say this to pat myself on the back. On the contrary, I am humbled and alarmed at how close any of us are to turning our backs on others simply because we are tired. At any point in our lives, we can find ourselves playing the various roles portrayed in Jesus’ parables. Though we might try to be that Good Samaritan, we might find ourselves playing the role of the priest passing by the wounded man on the road. This was a helpful lesson in humility to me to practice what I preach!

Separation of Church, State, and Bathrooms?

by Rev. Laura Barclay

The offices of CBF of North Carolina share second floor office space with the NC Revenue Service, among other businesses. We have never had a major conflict with that office--until that fateful Tuesday. My co-worker came back from the restroom horrified. “They are putting locks on the restrooms to keep the public out!” Upon our questioning of the building manager, who arrived shortly after to give us the code to the bathroom keypad, he explained that it was to “keep street people out.”

“Who are street people?” I asked.
“Uh, you know, not people who would come to your office. It’s mostly the people that come to the tax office,” he responded.
“Oh, you mean poor people?” I asked.
“Oh, no. I mean, the people that visit your office are ok,” he said nervously.
“So, our visitors are somehow better than those of the revenue office?” I questioned.
“No….”

And so on. My co-workers and I argued something like this: “Going to the bathroom is a basic human right. The tax office should not dictate this as there are other paying tenants in the building. If you give us that code, we will give it to everyone, because the government cannot say who can and cannot go to the bathroom. We are a church, and Jesus preached hospitality. We refuse to sit in a building and idly watch people who come in to conduct business not be allowed to use the bathroom because they are not deemed eligible by the revenue offices’ standards. It’s inhumane.”

He later apologized, explained he was a Christian and just doing his job. He stated that they had responded to a complaint from the tax office about a messy bathroom. Because they had the highest number of visitors of any tenant, their opinion was chosen without asking others.

Perhaps this encounter underscores, in an everyday and mundane way, the importance of the Baptist value of separation of church and state. We can’t even agree on bathroom procedure! While the government does have some wonderful services that the church is simply not organized enough to provide (i.e., public education and unemployment services, among other things), we can call the government toward the hospitality exemplified in Jesus’ life. We have the freedom to do so because our interests are not entangled. I encourage you to do this in your own lives and churches, whether it pertains to healthcare for millions of uninsured Americans, environmental concerns, systemic poverty issues in your community, or any issues that weigh on the hearts of those who love God and their neighbor.

Thoughts and questions for reflection:

How does the church reflect hospitality? Is your church open to the poor?

How do Christians reflect or not reflect Jesus’ call to hospitality?

What does Jesus’ example of hospitality mean to you?