Several conversations I’ve had within the church community have gotten my head spinning to the point where I could not sleep. So here I am at 2:30am writing out what just had to come out or I would not sleep at all tonight (or should I say this morning). The question I would like to ask you to think as I pour out these stories and thoughts is: Is my church building bridges?
My husband is from a small rural town in Brazil. Most who know us know his story, but many of you may not. He is a man who has seen the several faces of death, pain and poverty. His parents are just barely literate. His mom ran a brothel for the larger part of his adolescence. Before that his family had lived on the streets for a time. He has been sick and close to death without the money for a hospital. He has lost family members to drugs and guns. And he grew up and even today many look at him and ask what he could possibly amount to.
I have had my fair share of hardship, but I have also been blessed with a great family and tons of support. When I wanted to go to college, I worked hard to get through and barely made it financially, but left not only with a double major and a minor, but my last semester was completely paid for in Europe and I came out with enough to get me through my first semester of seminary.
Why the short bios? I just want you to put a face to some of the questions that may come up in meetings—things that may seem like a great topic to debate and people may have interesting thoughts on, but let’s make it human.
I recently read the question on a blog somewhere asking why there aren’t more ministers with Master’s and Doctoral degrees. Indeed, I got the impression that it would be generally accepted if it were proposed that a church leader should be required to have such a document. With that in mind, I set about responding and then had connection issues and, in short, completely lost my response that took me quite a while to formulate. But the idea of my response is the idea of what I write now. Is the church building bridges? And now I ask, Where is the church building bridges?
As I mentioned in my short biography (the ultra- condensed and simplified version), I myself have studied at the Master’s level, though I admit I have been unable to complete the complete degree. I still dream and hope to be able to complete that before my previous credits expire! I spent several years, in fact up until recently in my married life, attending a Brazilian Assembly of God church. I admit, I was appalled at the lack of requirements for anyone to do just about anything. The rules for appearance and expectations of behaviors were strict, sure. But the leadership of the church simply was not equipped at all to handle the complex issues of depression, broken marriages, drug use, or even basic counseling. I did some of the translation and paperwork and things worked, though to this day I still am puzzled at quite how. I say this not to insult the church or its leadership, but to put things into a certain perspective. This church is not a dead church. It struggles at times but has also grown over the years. First and foremost, it serves a purpose that few if any other locations in Kansas City do—serving the Portuguese-speaking community.
While working in this church, many knew about my educational background and would ask me what I might recommend for them to further their theological knowledge or even to help in a family situation. Many came to the United States “creatively” to say the least and owing great debts their families back in Brazil could never dream of paying. I would dare to say that most have paid those debts, but many still suffer to support families both in the USA and in some cases families in their home countries. So if we were to create a church home for the Portuguese-speaking community, or for any cultural community for that matter, what might it look like? What requirements would be placed on leaders and who would be the leaders? How would we get the word out and who would we reach out to?
I have been told on several occasions in not so many words that regardless of my own education, free time, willingness and calling, I could only go so far as long as my husband’s educational level was not up to my own. I can tell you that if we were to wait on traditional structures and paths, that would never happen. My husband can read in Portuguese, though not impressively. He is passionate and his sermons (he often preaches and records himself in the car when he is driving for work) are stylistically impressive. I have sensed the work of God in his life and a calling, though I still am not sure where that will lead. All that to say that his English is still on the weak side and reading in English will probably always be a weakness for him so traditional English training would not be a route I could consider.
This, combined with a growing sense for the hurting families of the Brazilian community in KC with few to no resources to help guide them through difficulties, convinced me of a need for a Portuguese library of Theology and Family, which I have already started in my living room, however small the collection might be. Reliable and trustworthy resources are very difficult to find in Portuguese here, and I have tried and failed several times at buying from Brazil. I have been searching for answers to the educational struggles in families and those who aspire to lead with integrity and education for seven years and have only in this past year begun to touch the surface of a resolution. I continue my search for the great hurdles that appear, but I ask you to once again consider. Who should lead these cultural groups? They have incredible potential for reaching the cultural communities that live all around us, but I would raise the point that I can do quite a bit to facilitate and even initiate these ministries, but without leadership from within these people groups, my ministry could only go so far. We have many great ministers in our church who have made enormous contributions with little education.
What am I saying? Am I saying we don’t need education? Not at all. If you ask my husband, he would tell you I am the last person to make such a statement. Education is my passion and I hope that whatever my future ministries entail they include education on some level. The church needs structure. The church needs requirements. Leaders particularly need to be held responsible for their theological positions because they do play a large part in the formation of the life of so many others. However, the church also needs creativity. The church needs carpenters and leaders who can see the potential in someone regardless of their background and hurdles. The church needs to consider that some of the bridges being built are serving those who already have ways of getting across, while there are still people groups we see every day who are in large unreached or who may feel like there is no place for someone like them to belong. We need to remember that while there were many great scholars and wise men in our Bibles, some of the leaders were quite unexpected.
I am thankful that in my biography I can say that I have a local church that is a church building bridges and looking for other areas where they can build bridges. At my recent interview, I saw in the eyes of each board member a light that sparked inside myself—a desire to build those bridges. It’s so exciting to be a part of such a church and I’ve seen the Nazarene church do this in so many ways in so many places. I am not sure what all of this means for my own personal future. My path has never been very traditional and I’m sure my husband’s even less so. I would simply challenge the church and its leaders to not forget to look into the faces of and the needs of the people. I would challenge leaders to continually seek to build bridges with the wise guidance of other leaders, but also to get to know personally the individuals who may be tomorrow’s bridge builders. Take your church outside of the blog and outside of the building and look face-to-face into your community. Then start building. And please blog about it. And bring it back into the church. Why? Because the most vibrant areas, those areas I’ve most loved in my experiences were not walking into cultural pockets that were exclusive in and unto themselves. Those communities tend to get a bit boring. No, the passion and fire and learning flows where cultures intersect!