Community

A pastoral candidate from a nearby state is coming to interview this evening. To avoid driving in rush hour traffic, this individual is coming at 4:00 and two of us are going to take the candidate on a driving tour of the area before the entire committee meets for the interview.

If I were "showing off" our area to a young family, I'd show the wonderful parks, Kohl Childrens' Museum, and many of the schools. If I were trying to sell a house to a wealthy business person, I'd drive through the many high-end neighborhoods and show them Nordstroms and country clubs. What does one show to a potential pastor?

As I think about this sight-seeing tour, I realize that I see my community through my own personal filter.

There are wealthy people--friends--in the congregation who live in McMansions. I rarely visit those folks in their homes and, no matter how gracious they are, I am uncomfortable when I do. By the same token, I am extremely uncomfortable in the local independent grocery store where "everyone" shops. This store is known for its personal service: they will order anything for you, they always load your groceries into your car for you, and they even have people whose job is to take the items out of your cart and put them on the conveyor belt for you! As much as everyone loves this store, my stomach churns when I go there (which I do during the summer because they are the only store that has good deli potato salad) because I am so terribly uncomfortable with the obsequiousness. I guess I just can't get past my ordinary city kid upbringing.

A pastor, of course, will minister to folks who live in McMansions, folks who live in ordinary houses and some folks who live in the trailor park. So we will drive through all those areas.

According to the demographics which are included in our "congregational profile", the great majority of people in Northbrook and Glenview are Christian. I'd like to know how that data was collected, because I know that simply is not true. I would guess that around 50% of Northbrook families have at least one Jewish family member. Many are mixed-religion families, many are not observant, many are also Russian. Many of the Christians are also Korean. There's a large mosque just down the road. I would venture that most folks, however, are simply not religious.

Most of the time I live in sort of a bubble in this multi-religion, multi-cultural town. I hang out with my teacher and church friends...almost all church-going caucasion Christians. A pastor, obviously, would hang out in the same sort of bubble, but he/she needs to be aware of what the community really is, not what the demographics sheet says. So we will drive past the mosque, by the temples, by the many signs indicating Korean churches, as well as the "competition"--the other Christian churches. The candidate needs to know how "ripe the fields" are in this community.

We'll show the pastor some of the schools, but in reality a pastor will spend a lot of time in other neighborhood locations that are not usually advertised by real estate agents. We'll see the hospitals, we'll drive past "Ascension West" - the nearby assisted living establishment, we'll point out "our" funeral home, and maybe drive past the HUD senior apartments and maybe end with Rosewood or another nursing home. Unfortunately, my "bubble" takes me to these places more often than to the upscale shopping malls or clubs.

This candidate knows mid-western weather so we don't have to explain how unusual our current beautiful Spring weather is, but maybe we'll have time to show-off the Botanic Gardens. Maybe in the midst of seeing all the challenges implicit in ministry in this area, the candidate can also see a wonderful place to meditate on God's wonderful creation!