Sometimes churches get it right and give us hope that all is not lost when it comes to organized religion.
That's what happened in my town in 2003. A church saw a need and recruited other churches, across demoninational lines, to meet that need -- a lack of medical care for many citizens. I have to hope that part of their idea (rightly so, I think) was that a church should be judged by its actions, not by its words (like damning everyone to hell).
They started a free medical clinic in Taylors, SC, a few miles from my house, in an area better known as Greenville, SC. Taylors is a little wide spot in the road within Greenville, Co.
Two years later, in the summer of 2005, when the clinic opened, it was the first time in a long time I read something in the newspaper about organized religion that didn't make me cringe or piss me off.
Anyway... the church was Taylors First Baptist. (They have a great pre-school, too). And the pastor, Frank Page, was just elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The only thing I really know about the church is that they were the leaders in getting a number of other churches involved to start the free medical clinic, that many of their members volunteer there, and that they have a great pre-school.
I appreciate any church that starts a pre-school as a service to their community. My kids went to a wonderful, around the corner from my house at the Episcopalian Church. They had a great time and learned a lot, and it was inexpensive enough that we could manage to pay for it, even though I'd just quit my job to work at home and raise two kids.
I appreciate a church even more that sees a huge community problem -- like lack of affordable medical care -- and says not only that they can do something about it, but goes out and does it.
Other than that, I know nothing about Frank Page, but his election still gives me hope.
I wrote him an e-mail today at his address at Taylors First Baptist and told him that one day, as I drove around Greenville and saw church after church. (We have a ton!) I thought to myself... if they all stopped preaching hatred and intollerance long enough to actually do some work, they could really accomplish something. (Okay, I didn't tell him that part about shutting up with the hatred bit...)
But still, it made me think... if all the churches just adopted one community problem and made it their own, made it their mission to fix it... we wouldn't have any problems left in Greenville. I mean, not a one, and I'm serious about that. We've got a bazillion friggin' churches. They have a ton of money that, if they chose to use it to do important work in this community and if they told their church members that god wouldn't judge them by whether they showed up at church every Sunday but by what they actually did day after day in this world.... what problems could we possibly have that we couldn't fix? (Okay, I may not have put it exactly that way in my e-mail to Rev. Page, but you get the idea.)
So, I'm encouraged. I told him my idea of no community problem churches couldn't solve, if they wanted to and suggested that maybe he could sell the SBC on that. Or tell them they have work to do, to get out in their communities and start solving problems.
Just an idea.
A church that works.
I also thanked him for his church being what I think a church should be.
Here's a bit I pulled off the web about the free clinic:
"A faith-based organization, the clinic had its beginnings in the hearts of community leaders who had been actively engaged in international medical missions work for years, primarily through the highly successful Mo-Med ministry of First Baptist Church, Taylors. The clinic's purpose is to offer primary health care at no cost to the ever-growing number of people with low incomes and no health insurance.
"A collection of churches in the area -- large to small, white and black -- lend support to the clinic. Baptist congregations include Northgate, Locust Hill, Jubilee, Hampton Heights, Aiken Chapel and Taylors First, just down the street from the clinic. Three Methodist churches -- St. Mark's and St. Matthew's as well as Aldersgate -- are involved, as is an independent congregation called The Vine."