A Project of
God’s Mission: Christ Church in Austin,
Minnesota
Context:
Austin is a
“big” small town. We are approximately 27,000 people straddling Interstate 90
in southern Minnesota. We are 40 minutes away from Rochester and 100 miles
south of the Twin Cities Metro Area. Our sister city is Albert Lea which is a
short 20 minutes to the west. The Hormel Corporation, a Fortune 500 Company
that is primarily a pork processing industry but which has diversified over the
years, dominates Austin. Austin is the hometown of this large and prosperous
corporation and is the home of its executive offices and also The Hormel
Institute, a cancer research facility. From the 1920s on Hormel has dominated
the town and have made itself Austin’s sole beneficiary. This has become the
town that Hormel built.
The demographics
of Austin have changed dramatically over the last three decades. Where we were
homogenous we are now quite diverse and becoming more so. We have been a hard
working meat packing town with social divides that ran rigidly along “who you
were” in the Plant. Socio-Economic-Status is a dividing line in Austin. This is
quite entrenched. Race is another dividing line. Quality Pork, a company
serving Hormel, began recruiting and hiring in certain areas throughout the
south some time ago. Many who came were of “Hispanic” or “Latino” decent and
culture. New people, new language, and new culture clashed with a very
homogenous white, Midwest culture. These barriers still exist. We have since
seen African immigrants and some Karen people of Burma move to town to find
work. The Hormel Institute and it’s Corporate Offices along with the Mayo
Clinic have brought many nations to Austin and there are some really vital and
good services that are beginning to erode those barriers.
A major
challenge for a majority of people living in Austin is simply making ends meet.
Although the current average household income in Mower County is $40,395 we
have a poverty rate of just over 18%. Over 50% of children in public schools in
Mower County receive free and reduced lunch. Many families are either not
making it or are just making it. To be honest I just don’t really know the
hopes and dreams of most people who live in Austin. I assume they are the same
as my hopes and dreams. I want to be loved and to love. I want to have a job
that is fulfilling and where I am respected and valued. I want to live in my
own house. I want to be comfortable. I want to have friends and family who I
can count on and who can count on me. I want to be entertained when I feel the
need and I want to be able to get away from it all from time to time. This is
the case with my friends, family, and colleagues and the neighbors who I’ve
come to know. But for many these simple hopes and dreams are just out of reach
in Austin.
There has been
the challenge of addiction and drug use in Austin, especially among the younger
population. I believe that in part this has been bred out of a sense of
economic and financial insecurity. Our town is a town where there is a sharp
and obvious line drawn between those who have and those who do not. Gangs have
also been an issue from time to time with violence, suspicion, and racism
breaking out, dividing neighbors and neighborhoods.
An Approach
to what God may be up to:
I would like to
use short passages of Scripture to frame the discussion surrounding God’s
Mission in Austin Minnesota and the church’s part in that Mission.
Episcopalians are woefully short on personal scriptural experience. There tends
to be a “disconnect” between what we do as “church” and the narrative of God’s
Story. Because of this I think our faith communities (Episcopalian) have a
harder time understanding that we are doing God’s Mission. Our efforts of
outreach and service are merely social programs. They lack the vitality of
faith and love. They make us feel better because we do things for poor people
or for “far-away foreigners”. This probably represents another bit of residue
from our “establishment” pass.
I would like to
think about “the other” and so passages of scripture that speak about the
“stranger” come to mind. The stranger is the person who is not “us”. In Austin
this makes real sense, as we are a community that is experiencing changes in
demographics along racial/cultural lines. Strangers are people we do not know.
They are neighbors waiting to receive us. They are “family members” waiting to
meet us. We must seek and serve Christ in them just as we do so in each other.
Matthew 25.31-40
‘When the Son
of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the
throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will
separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the
goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then
the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something
to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me
clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited
me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you
hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when
was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you
clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?”
And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of
the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Gifted and
Called:
If we are not
joined up with God’s presence and movement in the local context then we are
simply not the church of God in that locale. Together we are called and
equipped to serve God’s Mission in the world. In Austin we must exercise the
gifts the Holy Spirit has placed within us, and the variety of callings we
embody, to serve our neighbors and community. Christ Church is made up of
people from a variety of social, economic and cultural perspectives. We need to
recognize and affirm those differences as a blessing from God. Each of us has a
unique perspective in this community and has made connections to a wide margin
of the people living here. This is a real gift that must come into play when we
consider our place in God’s Mission in Austin Minnesota.
Participation
in God’s Mission:
I recently took
part in a webinar sponsored by the Episcopal Church Foundation called “Becoming
Local: From Neighborhood Engagement to Neighborhood Church” this can be found
somewhere on the ECF website though I haven’t found the link so I will include
the link as an endnote to this “project”. This was a story told to us of an
Episcopal Church in San Francisco called Saint Cyprian’s. It’s a wonderful
story of one faith community’s effort to make sense of its decline. Essentially
they sought the answers to what God was doing in community involvement and
getting to know their neighborhood; in making real and vital connections to the
world around them with no strings attached. The story of this community’s
renewal seems to me to be a case study of a church that has become “missional”;
they are real “People of the Way”. In any case the webinar offered some very
helpful resources including an article by Roxburgh on the “missional church”
that I would make use of with a faith community also struggling to understand
what God was doing and how they fit into that story. This is the case with my
local faith community/parish in Austin. We have struggled through a couple of
decades of decline and business as usual. We have struggled to make sense of
what God is up to within and without our walls.
I believe that
before we can begin to understand what God is up to in our “neighborhood” we
must understand who we are as a “faith community”. I would try to help
breakdown and build up concepts and worldviews about what the church is and
what the church isn’t. We are still holding on to concepts of “outreach” that
are self-serving and pretentious. What we described in discussion as
“Establishmentarian”. I would work with focus groups on these issues. I would
concentrate efforts at leadership committees for sure (vestry and outreach
committee). To this end I would engage these focus groups in “intensive” discussion
of scripture and tradition. I would try to engage these groups in meaningful
exercises that would shed light on these issues. I have included one “bible
study” as an appendix that would work very well. These would be ongoing
exercises or book studies. I would have to find a balance with this approach.
Most people are not used to theology and find it tedious. Short 15-minute
reflections with prayer included in a “business meeting” might be more
practical. Coffee gatherings outside of church would be best. Envisioning must
take place or anything that follows will be merely “projects” and things to do.
I think our
first task in leading God’s people in discerning their participation in God’s
mission is to help us see our neighborhood, our town, in the light of what God
might be up to. One of the resources that were suggested in the Webinar was
what is called “An Exegetical Walk”; an exercise for maybe an “outreach team”
or a vestry committee to take part in. the exercise leads the person or group
of people to take a walk in their neighborhood and asks them to observe and
reflect of what they see and hear.
I modified this exercise to fit my local faith community and have
included this document in the appendices.
One thing I
might try is to provide a list of resources in the County ranging from
emergency responders to schools, mental health facilities and practitioners to
food shelves. Churches to service organizations, welcome centers to grocery
stores, etc. I would ask the group to begin to visit or contact these
resources; to understand how they function, what we can do if we need to refer
someone to them, what kind of supports they need from the community, and other
questions that occur to us. I have a hunch that it’s in a list of resources
like this that we’ll find God at work. Making connections to these resources
will give us a real keen understanding for the needs of the world around us.
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