As I have travelled around
Boyertown and tell people I work at good Shepherd Church, I usually get a
puzzled look. When I tell them where it is (just a couple of blocks
away), they say, “Oh, the one with the clock tower.” I usually respond,
“Yes, and we have lots of wonderful people who are doing remarkable ministry
there. We’d love for you to come and see what goes on – under the clock tower!”
That’s the truth – Good
Shepherd Church is sooo much more than a clock tower and I get a chance to see
this every single week! But, it doesn’t seem like our neighbors see us that
way. I have begun to wonder….what if
we turned the church inside out, so that our neighbors would actually get to
know us and so that we could actually make a difference in Boyertown?
On June 21st, we witnessed a powerful
transformation of a church, as the people of Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston,
SC gathered on Sunday morning to turn their building from a crime scene into a
sanctuary – one that was filled with hurting, loving,
faith-filled people. I think the memorials will continue for a while, but in
the end, this church will be known as a place of forgiveness and grace and not
as a crime scene or as just a beautiful steeple on the skyline. The people of
Mother Emmanuel turned themselves inside out, so that the world would know their
love.
Our Penn Southeast Conference
has an ambitious mission document for 2020, and one item in particular captures
my heart:
Turning our churches inside out: to focus on community
transformation as much as church growth. We want to see 5 cities or towns being
positively affected by the presence of a UCC church as measured by the quality
of life standards of those communities.
What if we committed
ourselves to becoming one of those churches? What if we worked to find lots of
ways we could strengthen this community? What if by next summer (when we hope
to have the work on our clock tower completed and when Boyertown celebrates
its’ 150th Birthday) we had begun turning ourselves inside out with
bold new ministries that would make a positive difference here?
The 2020 Vision Plan says, “We would need 2‐4 people trained to help determine pain points
in community and interpret MissionInsite data and other information. These
people would also need to learn how to better connect church with resources
within their own communities.”
If you are interested in
helping turn Good Shepherd inside out – there’s a bulletin board set up for you
to share your ideas, commit to being trained and commit to serving on an Inside
Out Task Team (which would begin work this fall). OR you can give me a call! As
we work to restore our clock tower, perhaps we can turn things inside out, too!
Blessings – Laura Lee
