What If the Key to Being Seen, Is Seeing?

A generation or more ago, Disciples would often lament to one another that we were “the best kept secret in town.” In response, we have spent years talking about strategies to become more visible—improving curb appeal, enhancing signage, making our presence known through yard signs and T-shirts.  

What if the key to being seen is seeing? What if the key to being heard is hearing? Brite Divinity School Alum and founder of Community Renewal International, Mack McCarter wrote in a Spring 2023 Newsletter article, "I am totally convinced that the old saying, 'Love is blind' is simply not true. Love is never blind. On the contrary love always sees and perceives. Love sees things in the beloved that those who are not captured by love cannot possibly behold.

I'd like to suggest four ways our Disciples congregations might work at seeing our neighbors, our local community Theyse are the only four ways, but maybe your congregation could adopt one or two and see what unfolds.  

1. Walk and Pray through your neighborhood. When the leaders in Abilene, Texas sought to bring the innovations of Community Renewal International in to town, they began walking every Monday in one of the neighborhoods on the North side of town. They would walk the same time on the same day along the same route.  They greeted people they saw, tried to make eye contact, and if conversation surfaced they engaged.   

2. Participating in community events
   Throughout the Spring and into the Summer, communities around the Texas and New Mexico host annual fairs and festivals that showcase their distinctive community quality. I've seen festivals for peaches, pickles, and green chiles.  Farmers' Markets, Pride Festivals, and smaller community economic development events, health fairs, and back-to-school fairs.  Many of our congregations show up in these spaces to offer the "cup of cold water" in Jesus's name.  

3. Mapping the religious landscapeHarvard University Religion professor, Diana Eck has sustained a decades long process of engaging undergraduates in mapping the religious landscape of their home towns. The "data collection" is simple. Go into places of worship within your community and simply ask for a description of weekly activities. That's it. No surveys, no request for doctrinal commitments. Members of the church I was serving at the time did this as part of my Doctor of Ministry work.  We were amazed at what we learned. If people know that you're asking a nonthreatening, curious question, they will freely tell you more about themselves than you would expect. Congregations can create simple maps of nearby congregations, temples, mosques, and religious centers to understand who shares their neighborhood. This practice invites respect, curiosity, and collaboration, and reminds Christians that they serve Christ amid a richly plural religious landscape. https://pluralism.orgpluralism 

4. Hosting National Night Out
   National Night Out is a national law-enforcement initiatives to create connections between local police departments, other community resources, and neighborhoods.  But, there needs to be a local host.  By hosting a National Night Out gathering, a congregation can offer its parking lot or lawn as a safe, public space for neighbors, law enforcement, and community partners to meet each other.