We might be. But I hope not, because the world needs the body of Christ to proclaim God’s loving justice for the world so that children may be safe, our neighbor receives their daily bread, and the chains of injustice are broken so that all may experience the liberating love of God in our world.

I recently did a three hour training on congregational justice ministries. I like to begin workshops with an activity or simulation to get people’s minds moving and also to provide common language that can be the foundation for additional education throughout the workshop.

This simulation is a modified version of the Falling Rock Activity that other organizers have done (I borrowed and adapted this activity from others who borrowed and adapted it themselves). The participants were divided into groups and invited to a role play of community members who wished to address a community wide problem (falling rocks). The groups were:

Clergy
Parents/teachers/community
Mayor’s office
Media
Business leaders
Public Health Department
Court/judge (me)
Social Service Providers/Red Cross

Each group had the same facts along with a group description and goal. The clergy group’s description (in-part) said they were an ecumenical group looking to plan a city-wide ecumenical worship service long before the crisis arose. One of their members had been recently arrested protesting to save squirrels in the midst of the construction project.

After 10 minutes of ‘group conversation’ the groups were invited to engage with each other. The parents group immediately ran to the Mayor’s office, (but the Mayor had strategically stepped out of the room only to come back in for a last minute press conference.)

THE CLERGY SAT THERE UNSURE OF WHAT TO DO.

The clergy didn’t ask the parent group what they needed, they didn’t engage the media, or work with others. They focused on trying to fully understand the problem in front of them before engaging.

The parent group and others (remember, all the participants at this event were clergy and congregational leaders!) never even thought to engage the clergy group for extra help. During a debriefing of the activity the same sentiment was echoed repeatedly.

“what could they have done?”

What could the clergy do? What could the congregations do? How can we actually solve problems and be part of the solution?

Key Takeaways include:

Our Congregations don’t want to move too fast because we don’t want to step on others toes. (Too often we assume there is some expert out there with all the answers).
Our congregations wants all the information before making a decision, which paralyzes us from action.
We don’t know how to talk to the community about difficult issues.
We know this is a problem, but don’t know how to fix it, so we do nothing.

There is also another reason that paralyzes us from action - our anxiety surrounding declining membership and financial support. That did not come up in our conversation, but I think we all know it is real.

So what is the church to do? How can we be the Body of Christ for the Sake of the World? When all else fails, I recommend that all people of faith begin conversations with others with the simple question:

How can I be of service to you today?

As trans youth are attacked by our state legislature, as the solution to killing is more weapons in our schools, as our policy makers cut taxes for the wealthy and food for the hungry, we cannot sit on the sidelines.

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS…

We cannot sit on the sidelines anymore praying for everything to work out. We must engage the world and witness to the radical love of God. God doesn’t need our prayers, but our communities need our hands and feet in the movement for justice.