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FALL 1999
Phil Mullen
Central Philadelphia MMIn the Inquirer for Friday, May 14, there's a story about the Christian Life Center in Bensalem, Pa., which started nine years ago in somebody's living room. Somehow they acquired a pastor, David Cawston, who had left a church in WA in the 1980s, when its membership grew to 2,300.
These 24 people apparently rented space in a shopping plaza, then bought a church building. Now they have to hold two services each Sunday, & are building a 1,500-seat bldg. on 17 acres they're buying.
They have a $2 million annual budget "funded by contributions from congregants, nearly ¼ of whom give 10% of their salaries each year."
They have 20 church employees; serve meals to the homeless in downtown Phila.; hire a Christian rock band to play at their services; teach aerobics & home repair classes; & sponsored a series of public school assemblies "by the ministry group Radical Youth Invasion" in several school districts in Bucks County, Pa.
Traveling as I do among so many tiny Friends' Meetings, I find this story of the Christian Life Center makes me question ... myself.
Am I willing to give 10% of my income (either before or after taxes) to my faith community?
[I don't. I don't think most Quakers do.]
They go into public schools & cause a commotion, raising questions about our American separation of church & state.
Am I willing to go into public schools, & if so, just how?
[Our Yearly Meeting is in some public schools, through its peer mediation program. But we are careful to keep religion way out of it, to avoid that very mixing of church & state.]
They say, "Our focus & our mission is to reach the world."
Am I, as a Friend, focused within our Religious Society "to reach the world"?
[No. What I really desire is a supportive community with whom to worship once a week, & with whom to do certain good works. I think it would be "nice" if people came to join us, but put no energy into getting out to them.]
"The church aggressively recruits new members. Every Tuesday evening, a corps of 40 volunteers heads off to see first-time churchgoers. ... The volunteers drop off a plate of cookies or loaf of fruit bread, packaged with a golden sticker that reads: 'We hope your visit to the Christian Life Center was a sweet one.'"
Am I willing to put energy into welcoming attenders?
[No. At my own Meeting, in the past, attenders reported that no one even greeted them. We do no follow-up to encourage attenders to come again, so far as I know.]
"The church tracks attendance of newcomers & regulars alike through a computer database & 'communication cards' stocked in each pew. People whose attendance lags get a visit from church members who check on their spiritual & physical health."
Am I willing to keep track, even of the nine Friends who are assigned to me as an overseer of my own Meeting, noticing when they do not attend worship?
[No. Like other overseers, I often wait to hear that one of "my nine" has had a health crisis, & then I respond (though never yet with a visit to someone's home).]
One 57-year-old man who has joined that church says that he used "infrequently to attend a Presbyterian church. 'It was dull & boring, straightforward & monotone. ... '"
Am I willing to put serious energy into making our own Meeting less run-of-the-mill? We do not only sit in absolute silence: It is not forbidden, should the Holy Spirit fill someone, for Quakers to testify, or sing, or even dance.
[In fact, I am extremely conscious of what other Friends would think, so much so that I censor my form of words to what I believe they will tolerate. How open am I, even to the Holy Spirit?]
I wish the people at the Christian Life Center well. May the discomfort I now feel, reading of how they live their corporate life, stay with me a while.
A member of Central Philadelphia MM, Phil Mullen serves Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as Director of Projects and Services. This e-mail message was distributed to all PYM staff, plus many of Phil's personal friends and associates, on the day when the Philadelphia Inquirer article appeared. The Quarter thanks Phil for allowing us to reprint it. —EDRETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
