D'OH!

I am not always very bright. My mom will attest to this. Critical thinking is not my forte. Heck, it's not even my three-te.

A case in point is a discussion we've been having at Trinity about developing a Spanish service and nurturing a Hispanic ministry at our church. For anyone who doesn't know. more than 1/3 of Aurora's population is Hispanic, as of the 2000 census. I grew up in the Southwest, but I never found businesses, even Mexican restaurants, where people didn't speak English in Arizona. But when I moved here, Paul and I went to a local Mexican restaurant, and the menu was in Spanish; the waitress only spoke Spanish, and we were the only table of people speaking English. So, it makes sense that our church would offer Spanish language services, given that our neighborhood is full of people who speak Spanish; we're already offer immigration services and have contact with people in the Hispanic community.

That's what someone might think. It's not the first thing that came to my mind. And it's not the first thing that came into the minds of people I spoke to about starting a new service. A lot of us were pretty defensive and had a lot of questions. Who would run the service? Our priest doesn't speak Spanish. If we have another priest come in and do the service, would we have to pay him? Well, he'd volunteer at first. What about other costs? Wine and bread, bulletins, prayerbooks, musicians? And how would these new folks blend in with the rest of the congregation? And what happens if there get to be so many Spanish speakers that the current congregation gets squished out? What then???

It might seem that we jumped to some apocalyptic thinking, but the UNKNOWN can do that. We don't know all that might happen. It could be that we'd give it a shot, and it would fizzle. That happened when in the 1980s the priest tried offering Spanish services. So a meeting was arranged in February for members of Trinity and the other Episcopal church in Aurora, St. David's, to meet with Rev. Pedro Lopez and Bishop Scantlebury about starting a Hispanic ministry at one of our churches. We asked questions about how this might work, what the costs might be, and were told about what a church in Elgin is like since starting a Spanish service. That service grew to two services, and now the Hispanic community is larger than the original congregation, but no one has been squished out. But the vibe the Trinity folks had was not positive. Some of us were skeptical that doing this work would sink our foundering financial ship, that we don't have the resources, that there isn't the people-power to pull it off.

I talked to several people about this late last year, and after the February meeting, I spoke to some more. I didn't get a lot of positive feedback about the idea of moving forward. Only one person said she might be interested, and then only in attending a service, not in helping getting things going. When the issue came up at our last vestry meeting in February, I retold the conversations I had had with people. It was obvious Fr. Charlie was disappointed, and he said he'd heard some very positive feedback from folks. Then another member, Rob, brought something forward.

Rob pointed out that Jesus called his followers to open their doors to people who didn't speak their language. He called them to minister to the strangers in their land. Paul went to people who weren't Jews and called them into the circle of Christ's love. Again and again in the Bible, God has His chosen leaders go to the people who are in the most need and who happen to be outsiders to the original community of God's people. Rob also said that we need to move forward with our hearts, trusting in God, not letting our rational brains take over.

I went home with Rob's words running through my head. And I thought about one of the readings we've studied in January: God calling Moses to serve His people. Moses was an outsider since he had been raised by the Egyptians, even though his genetics tied him to the enslaved Jews. We've had a lot of readings from Paul's letters, and we've talked about Paul serving Gentiles, people who weren't Jews. Before I went to bed, I prayed to God to open my heart and get me out of my head and its doubts.

I got up in the morning and had thoughts about others in the Bible we've been reading about saying, "No," to God because they thought they didn't have the right skills. God said to Jeremiah, "Do not say to me, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you." Isn't that what's happening here? I am telling God, "No, we don't have the resources for this new project," without trusting that if we move onto that path, He will provide what we need. By this time, I was driving to work, and said to God, "Okay, I'm getting it."

My first task at work that morning was to observe and write up an evaluation on a part-time teacher at a satellite campus of my college. The class had read an article titled "The Christian Paradox: How a Faithful Nation Gets Jesus Wrong" by Bill McKibben and they were talking about his points about Christian hypocrisy. The teacher also showed a PBS video about an Episcopal family and their church, and the work the church and family did to fulfill God's calling to them to act as Christ would. The class had a discussion about the hypocrisy of some "believers," and how this family seemed to truly embody the idea of being a Christian. They also talked about the idea that people might do this work for personal gain in the afterlife, but that idea notwithstanding, they seemed to truly act as Christians.

I left the campus to go teach my own classes at the main campus. As I was driving, I thought about Rob's words, about the Bible lessons, and about the video and class discussion I had heard. Wasn't my own action pretty hypocritical? I claim to want to do God's work in the world, and I've even explored being a deacon, and still listen for that call. But here I was turning my back on God's people because of the possibilities it could be harmful to Trinity, and of the work I might have to do to help. I found myself saying to God, "Okay, okay! I get it! I'll change!"

But I also heard God telling me something else. It's not enough to change my mind. As a leader at Trinity, I am called to change the minds of others. I'll be challenging people to change their own minds and give this a chance. The last thing I heard God telling me is that support doesn't mean that I have to do all the work. There are people who want this and who want to work at it. It's enough at this time that I support them with prayers and a positive attitude. There might be a time when more is asked of me, but right now, this is what I need to do.

I ask this of my readers as well. Please pray for our church as we look to grow and open our hearts, buildings, and other spaces to God's people. Please pray that in your own communities, the people who need to be served are being served, even if that means doing some hard work, or being open to challenges and changes.