PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

September 19, 2021

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

The focus for the fall second Saturday breakfasts for the United Methodist Men at the First United Methodist Church is “Who is my neighbor?” Chris Garner, Executive director of the Marshall County neighborhood center, kicked off the series on Saturday, September 11.  She shared with the group the work of the center and gave a picture of those who live in and around downtown Plymouth, Indiana.

Rather than sharing facts and figures, demographics and statistics, Chris described some of the people who are neighbors of First Church.  She shared their challenges and some of the issues they were facing.  Each situation had its own unique characteristics which did not fit nicely into a overall view of the population of downtown Plymouth.  Chris pointed out that we make a mistake when we try to evaluate others from the perspective our own outlook on the world.  What might make sense to those who do not live in downtown Plymouth, might make little sense to those who do and vice versa.

One of the examples Chris gave was of a family who received food from the center’s food pantry.  They bought passes for $100 for their children for the rides at the Blueberry Festival.  At first Chris thought this was an extravagant expense.  Then she delved a little deeper and discovered that the passes for the rides was like a vacation for the family.  They had saved all year to have the money and the children had anticipated the Blueberry event with great excitement.  She and her husband spent a great deal more of their income on their vacation than this family who bought the passes.

Chris suggested that if the church wants to get to know their neighbors in downtown Plymouth they need to get out and meet them.  She picked up on two place attachment behaviors that Melody Warnick makes in her book This Is Where You Belong: walk more and get to know your neighbor (see musingsfromtheheartland.com for June 9th and June 23^rd).  Chris intentionally finds reasons to walk around the neighborhood of the center so that she can get to know her neighbors, discover what is going on with them, and begin to see the world from their perspective.

Two issues facing early missionaries to the African continent were competition and culture.   A group of missionaries would move into an area, convert the residents, start a church and then move on.  Another missionary group would move into the same area, tell the recent converts what was wrong with what they had been taught, establish their own form of Christianity and move on.  Then yet another group of missionaries would move in and tell the people what was wrong with the groups who had been there before.  The end result was that the people lost faith in Christianity because of the conflict between the missionaries.

The missionaries to Africa brought with them a Christianity that was framed by a western perspective.  It was heavily overladen with European and American culture.  The African perspective was much different than the perspective in which the faith was encased.  Therefore, it was not unexpected when it did not have a good reception.  It was only when indigenous drums were included in the services that the people responded.  When the missionaries started to ask “What would Christianity look like from an African perspective?” they found the people became Christians.

Chris Garner’s message to the United Methodist Men on September 11 was a reminder that other people may well look at the world from a different perspective and set of experiences than our own.  To fully understand their choices and decisions we need to see the world as they see it.