One Year After: 9/11's Impact on Church Outreach

One Year After: 9/11's Impact on Church Outreach
What Did We Do Wrong? What Did We Do Right?
And How Can We Be Ready for the Next Tragedy?

by Barbara Curtis / Winter 2002 issue

“You knew something was wrong right away,“ Valerie Harvey says, remembering her arrival at Lifebridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colo., on the morning of September 11.

“Usually, there’s lots of laughter and noise,“ Harvey recalls. “On this particular morning, however, it was so quiet.“ She found the staff transfixed before the TV, trying through tears to absorb the images of loss and destruction.

Almost immediately, their thoughts turned to their community, the 70,000 residents of Longmont. What could they do to help? What was the community’s most pressing need at this dark hour? The staff met, prayed, and made a decision to open the church to the community that evening. Many phone calls later, at 7 p.m., the mayor, fire chief, police chief, several pastors and 1,300 Longmont residents filled Lifebridge to capacity, giving a much-needed sense of community and assurance to those in attendance. The following Sunday, 4,500 people showed up—a whopping 50 percent increase in weekly attendance.

Eight weeks later at Lifebridge, however, attendance was back to normal.

THE RISE AND FALL
Unfortunately, Lifebridge’s story isn’t an isolated one. Christian researcher George Barna confirms that while post-Sept. 11 church attendance shot up by about 25 percent, by November it had flattened to the previous fall’s, with 48 percent of adults nationally reporting that they had attended church the previous weekend. Barna also found no increase in those claiming to have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ during that time.

Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, said, “Religion was in the air after Sept. 11 in a way that it hadn’t been for a time, but I’ve never seen such a dramatic change disappear so quickly.“

And yet, many churches did everything they were “supposed to“ after the attack: community support and counseling; special memorial services; even scrapping prescheduled sermons for new message series on the topic of tragedy.

“That’s what amazed us,“ says Steve Petty, the minister of New Member Development for Lifebridge. “It wasn’t that there weren’t programs being offered and questions being answered. People just stopped coming.“

So what happened? Why didn’t we see more lasting change in our nation?

Barna offers this explanation: “Few Americans experienced anything that was sufficiently life-changing to capture their attention and allegiance. They tended to appreciate the moments of comfort they received, but were unaware of anything sufficiently unique or beneficial as to redesign their lifestyle to integrate a deeper level of spiritual involvement.“

Rabbi Gerald L. Zelizer, a USA Today contributor, agrees with Barna. “Trans-formative religion is rarely born in spontaneous reactions to events such as Sept.11,“ said the rabbi, “because those kinds of cataclysmic happenings are too infrequent and isolated to build permanent and long-lasting faith.“

Part of the problem has nothing to do with the Church itself, says Rick Rusaw, Lifebridge’s senior minister. “We live in a smorgasbord society where people can try church and move on,“ he says. So the question remains: Was there anything the Church could have done differently to facilitate lasting change in our country?

LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE
According to Barna, church leaders failed to understand why they had so many new visitors. “Outsiders did not come to any church looking for programs or worship services,“ said Barna. “The events of Sept. 11 caused many people to question the existence of God—but they weren’t ready to start worshiping a God they weren’t sure even existed. Instead, they were searching for evidence of certainty in the lives of church people—distinctive marks that irrefutably shouted ‘I’m different because God has entered my life and radically changed me for the better.’ “

In other words, the unchurched were interested in seeing how Christians handled the horrible events of Sept.11. Why were Christians able to maintain an even keel?

“Only if visitors wander in and find a group of wholly transformed people does the Church have a story to tell and solutions to offer,“ Barna said. “Only then do we have something attractive for the hurting masses.“

This means that churches should strive to establish itself—before tragedy strikes—as a beacon of hope through the evidences of changed lives. “For the Church, the issue is not, ‘How will we respond the day, the week and the month immediately after the next tragedy?’“ Barna said. “The issue is, ‘What are we doing today, prior to those events, to produce Christ-like people?’“

How can a church consistently demonstrate “evidences of faith“ that make a difference to a community? One New York church makes the connection year-round through intentional acts of community service.

BEING THE HANDS AND EARS OF GOD
New York’s East Seventh Baptist Church—affectionately known as “Graffiti“—is located less than a mile from Ground Zero. Since 1974, its members had focused on the down-and-out in their own community, striving to share God’s love in tangible ways through meals, clothing, shelter, recovery, advocacy, job mentoring, and after-school tutoring. But in the aftermath of Sept.11, church leaders sensed a desire to do more than meet physical needs. The church needed to be a listening ear to a hurting community.

Graffiti Pastor Taylor Field, citing the importance of listening before preaching, put it this way: “As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, ‘Before you speak with the words of God, you need to listen with the ears of God.’ “

Field couldn’t help but notice that those living in the shadow of the World Trade Center had an overwhelming urge to talk about what happened to them. “For example,“ said Field, “one man said, “I walked out of the building with my friend. He was hit by a flying chair and killed. Why him and not me?’“

That was a question heard time and time again by Field, who estimates that he and his counseling staff have held more than 800 counseling sessions since Sept. 11. Many of those who came in to talk were open to the Gospel, and that open door has led to hundreds of decisions and recommitments, according to Field.

“After a disaster, people want to turn to something familiar,“ said Field. “It wasn’t that our church members were great psychiatrists. We found that people just needed someone familiar who could listen.“

Field agrees with Barna that a natural way for a church to demonstrate real evidences of faith during tragedy is to establish itself as a beacon of hope and service before the tragedy. “When disaster came, much of the community service we were already providing dove-tailed into relief efforts,“ he said.

For the Salvation Army, meeting community needs has been a successful method of communicating God’s love for more than 100 years. “Service is the presentation of the Gospel naturally,“ says Major David Dalberg, National Disaster Services Coordinator. By May 2002 the Army had provided 7,000 personnel and 40,000 volunteers at Ground Zero and was still on the job round-the-clock to alleviate physical, emotional and spiritual needs, often to firefighters and workers at the site.

But even for those dealing with the reality of tragedy daily, spiritual transformation can be a gradual process—one that takes months of visualizing God’s love in action. Dalberg recalls the story of a Ground Zero worker who had trudged into the same hydration station month after month for water and supplies. One day he walked in and simply announced, “I’m ready.“ After a long stretch of having his physical needs met, he was able to trust others with his spiritual needs.

BEING THE HANDS AND EARS OF GOD
“Handling the aftermath of more pain isn’t about offering responsive programs and targeted sermons, although these are good,“ Barna said. “Ultimately, however, it’s about showing how Jesus transcends all this nonsense. Non-believers then can realize that they too can get beyond the momentary suffering because they can see, touch and feel the irrefutable evidence of Jesus in the lives of His people.“

“Sept.11 brought many in our direction,“ said Rick Rusaw, Senior Minister of Lifebridge. “We need to ask what we’re doing to go in their direction. We need to build relationships—that’s where the hope for the church lies.“

Spiritual First Aid
When Prayer Is the Best Hope for Rescue
Churches in Somerset, Pa.

Family members of the nine trapped Pennsylvania coal miners and the church leaders who supported them throughout their 77-hour ordeal last July have no doubt that God played a key role in the successful rescue.

“We simply believed that with 300 people praying for their safe rescue, it could happen,“ said Ritenour, pastor of Bethany and St. John’s United Methodist Churches, located about a mile from the rescue site. “As families prayed together, we saw a lot of positive progress towards the rescue.“

Ritenour, along with pastors from at least eight different denominations, met at the Sipesville Volunteers Fire Dept. Hall during the crisis to counsel family members and to gather the community for prayer. “I got there Wednesday night and left Sunday morning at 3 a.m.,“ he said.

On August 4, exactly one week after the last miner was rescued, the nine miners joined hundreds of people at Christ Casebeer Lutheran Church in Somerset to give thanks and to celebrate.

Tom Foy, one miner who said he never believed in God before the crisis, said he now had a reason to believe, according to Ritenour. Others like miner John Unger publicly gave credit to God and the power of prayer as reasons for the safe rescue.

When a School Shooting Ripped a Community Apart
Sonrise Community Church in Santee, Calif.

Q: How can churches be prepared for crises before they happen?

A: We have instituted a plan of action in case of a local or national tragedy. Part of that plan includes pre-written messages of comfort, hope and assurance for various disasters or tragic situations. We also have teams of people networked and ready to respond to everything from child care to security. Our congregation knows that in case of a crisis, they will need to respond to a hurting community.

Q: How had you established the kind of presence required to be
considered a resource in tragedy?

A: We are a very involved “community“ church. We have held just about every kind of community event imaginable at our facility: the Miss Santee pageant, school board and teachers association meetings, school science fairs, etc. We are involved with the local schools, government agencies, Chamber of Commerce, and Human Relations Board. Within minutes of the shooting, the mayor of Santee called me at home. The sheriff’s department called the church office, and someone from the school called as well. We’d like to think that the community connections we’ve made in the past established us as a community resource in times of tragedy.

Q: Any other advice for churches on how they can offer “spiritual first aid“?

A: Win the trust of the community, and the community will come to you when the need arises. One way to do this is by attending city council meetings. Do not attempt to defeat the people of the local government but do your best to win them over. As a result, you become a community voice. Just this week, I met with the superintendent of public schools at his request. Why? He knows that we are partners together in the community.

When Hurricane Andrew Left Its Calling Card
First Baptist Church Cutler Ridge in Dade County, Fla.

In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew ripped through Southern Florida’s Dade County, leaving 15 dead and 250,000 homeless. First Baptist Church Cutler Ridge lost its roof, windows, and electricity, but not its resolve to help others. With the help of the Southern Baptist disaster relief team, the First Baptist Church Cutler Ridge provided 350,000 meals, distributed building materials and offered a listening ear to the community. Free day care was also available so families could get to work rebuilding their homes.

Deacon Dan Chandler recalls the impact of service on the community. “Lots of elderly people left Dade County after the hurricane, but our membership went up because young families joined. They’d say, ‘you fed us and kept us going. We want to be a part of that.’“

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