more reality in San Francisco

No, this is not a blog about the MLB All star game tonight in the city by the bay... as much as I love baseball - especially my beloved Cardinals - that, my friend, is NOT reality...

A few days ago, I promised more information on my friend Paul Crites and the work he and Paul Fletcher are doing in San Francisco... I admit openly that I do not quite grasp the whole 'project' or its history... but I will take a stab at sharing with you what I believe are the salient details of this God-Blessed effort.

Paul Crites is a former marine who, years ago, became friends with Eric Hudson... Eric and Holly are a couple of the visionary founding members of the Riverside family... so Paul became a 'regular' in the preaching rotation at our Sunday morning assemblies while attending the School of Biblical studies at Harding... He had a vision to serve and live missionally and, upon graduation (as God's time became right), he committed to a 3-year mission effort which had been planned for San Francisco, California. He joined Paul Fletcher in this effort, and they moved (Paul C and Paul F and family) to the bay.

The story (as I understand it) is this: there was once a small church of Christ in the bay area which grew to about 500 members in the years after the second World War. Many soldiers were stationed in that area during and after the war, and those 'church-of-christers' from the midwest's Bible belt needed a church... so this San Francisco church of Christ exploded to be the largest in that part of the world...

Through a series of events, (to make a novel-lengthed story much shorter) this church tragically dwindled to only about a dozen members at the turn of the millennium... Paul and Paul determined to live among them and to try to help the church 'right the ship'... as one can imagine, there was some resistance to outsiders 'coming in' and 'telling them how to do it'...

From the outside looking in (my opinion only), it would seem that this church grew in the 40s and 50s by providing a 'place' for Christians (C/C Christians) to meet on Sunday... while that seems to me to be an important part of church life and development, the growth which was experienced had a shallow foundation, because providing a 'place' is such a small part of developing and growing the Body... Whatever the cause, this church had died (or, at the very least, it was on life support).

(Incidentally, I believe this story is a microcosm of what has gone on in 'churches' - not just churches of christ - across the country... churches which have established the 'doctrine' -intentionally or not - that the BUILDING is the center of church life are faltering and sputtering and not growing... many are, quite simply, dying... more on that in another blog)

Paul and Paul decided quickly that this church needed to be OUTWARD in its focus. They concluded that this church had thrived at one time in its history by meeting the needs of its public (however shallow its foundation)... and would only do so today by, again, meeting the needs of its public.

The problem: the needs of its public had changed - drastically - over the last 60 years... instead of a glut of military families who needed 'a place to meet and worship', the 'public' now largely consisted of a culturally and religiously diverse group of 21st century sinners whose needs were as different as their demographic makeup! And, Paul and Paul surmised, God had this church right where He wanted it!!!

As an example, for the past several years this church has leased some building space to a small private middle-to-high-school-age Christian school... but the relationship had been nothing more than a landlord-tenant arrangement... Paul C immediately became active with that school, teaching Bible classes (as a volunteer), and Paul F essentially became the unpaid youth minister of this impromptu, built-in 'youth group'... (and not without some resistance from the 'members' of the church... 'these are not our kind of people' etc...) the devil is using all sorts of tools to make this part of the ministry very challenging... but these guys are persevering, and God continues to bless their efforts...

They rotate with another man to handle preaching duties on Sunday mornings (where they have had as many as 70 folks in attendance in this wonderful facility which seats almost 600!), and they are devising other ways to truly help the hurting in the community. They are also developing leaders from within the church (as it grows) who are taking on more and more responsibility...

But the main thrust is that this Body be outward... and love 'em like Jesus would...

This is a terrific work, and it is obviously a work in progress... so please pray for the Pauls and the San Francisco church as they endeavor to serve and show Jesus to these precious people in the bay.

Blessings!