Ponderings

As an abysmally shy person I venture into community gatherings with no small amount of trepidation. Comfortable in the cocoon of our church community, I’ve been somewhat sheltered from the perceptions of the wider world and often surprised by the media summations. The tragic deaths of six Kirkwood residents last week pushed even me out of my comfort zones and into the fray of public discourse.

Admittedly, the public discourse was a very friendly group of parents at Avery Elementary. And I was there at the invitation of one of the leaders. And the parents gathered were all of a common mind on the need to build bridges across the chasms of race and class in our community. Admittedly it was a pretty safe audience and by all accounts a healing and helpful dialogue.

With one small caveat. When being introduced as the pastor of Evangelical UCC, I could see the visible wince. One very dear mom said, “Really?” She went on the explain that when she was church shopping a couple of years ago she considered visiting our church because of our UCC connection, but she knew that she wasn’t evangelical. She knew enough both about the United Church of Christ and the word evangelical to know that there is a dissonance. Even so, her disdain of all things evangelical in our politically polarized culture kept her out. She seemed sad to discover that ours is a treasure missed.

This is a story that has been repeated in most of our new member classes over the past couple of years. This is a story, too, that members have shared when confessing their reluctance to share the name of our church with their neighbors and friends. We love our community, we are proud of our church, but we offer our name with a huge disclaimer.

If you are privileged to know the meaning our name, its rich and challenging history, you know that our name, Evangelical, is perfect for our community. Evangelical with a capital “E” is about unity in diversity, about inclusion, about passion for justice and for peace.

Of course, if you don’t have that privilege you are left with the definitions of the wider culture that at this juncture in history are bleak. Evangelical according to the Associated Press is about political wedge issues, judgement, other worldly salvation, and the assumption of superior knowledge.

Safe in my cocoon I’ve known that our name has been hijacked. Those of us who’ve enjoyed the new member conversations have discussed the growing disconnect between our name and its cultural definition. From the safety of the cocoon, I have fussed that our name is an unintended bouncer and a false message. Being in a wider community gathering as a representative of our church, however, the issue was no longer cerebral. I felt the discomfort as well as the lost opportunity as I spent my 30 seconds of introduction time un-defining “evangelical” rather than telling our story.

As we’ve navigated the grief and shock of this past week, I suspect that we’ve all found ourselves in places new and challenging. As I ponder the many lessons of the past week and the weighty issues laid on the table, the conversation I find myself returning to is that of our name and its dissonance. Perhaps the odd note rung by our name is opportunity gained, perhaps it is opportunity lost. Like so much else this week, I simply don’t know.