When I was a pastor in a small town, there were a great sense of community. There were Memorial Day remembrances, firehouse breakfasts, ham dinners, the Holiday parade, the annual Day of Prayer, Rotary meetings, and community trash pick-up days. Many participated in community events regularly. However, there were also a segment of the community not at those events. They were people from the emerging community.
What is an emerging community?
As a pastor, it was easy to see and meet the visible people in the community: the mayor, firehouse chief, the bank manager, the restaurant owner, school administrators, and the business association representative. Those visible people in the community were easy to identify and were regularly a part of community events. As the years went by I started to learn about the people in the emerging community. The people who were not easily seen, but their numbers and presence were growing. Individuals and people in the emerging community did not look or act like the people in the visible community.
As I wrote in my book, The Work of the Associate Pastor, a pastor’s calling also requires a pastor to be in the connection points of the community. Pastors ought to places themselves in places and spaces in town meetings, community groups, non-profits, and schools – the visible community. There are also times a pastor looks for the edges of the community. The places of growth. The new local mom’s group, the new restaurant that attracts people in their 20’s, the growing food pantry, or the recently moved assistance office – the emerging community.
The growth in the emerging community can be a welcomed presence. The new coffee shop that fosters connection points for people to meet and talk. The new workout studio that encourages people to be physically healthy while joining others on the same journey. The new comic book shop that brings in additional foot traffic on the town streets. The community garden club that beautifies the look of the town. The new neighborhood that is built. Things in the emerging community that have a visible and immediate impact often are a welcomed presence.
The growth in the emerging community is not always welcomed by the members of the visible community. I remember when a non-profit which gave help to low to mid-income families wanted to move into town, because of the growing need, there were cries of protest. Some members of the visible community expressed fears and anxiety of tax revenue loss, zoning violations, decreased parking availability, and increased car traffic. It took lawyers hundreds of hours and a state judge to decide that the non-profit was allowed to plant down in the community. It was a painful process.
Emerging communities often have a different ethnicity, economic make-up, religion or no religion, cultural values, or family status than that the visual community. It is uncomfortable and risky to place yourself into an emerging community that looks or acts nothing like your own. Pastors and church leaders are called in to such places as Christ was called into such places. Jesus enter into emerging communities that had Gentiles, Roman officials, soldiers, sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes. His religious contemporaries and those members of the visual community did not approve. However, Jesus often came into the emerging community with no agenda. He sat, ate, and listened. Only when a challenge or injustice arose did Jesus bring in teaching or a guiding moral principle – usually with story. He sought to make relationships rather than fulfill a goal of setting priorities.
Churches, pastors, and church leaders must understand that the way forward for a church is to be in touch with the visual community and the emerging community. The missional nature of the New Testament calls all who claim Christ to be in those times and places of discomfort in order to bridge relationships and connections that yield spiritual fruit down the road. At the end of day, Jesus reserved his sharpest words for his critics and gave grace and space to those in the over-looked emerging community. We Christians must prayerfully discern if we are called to do the same.
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