“Sowing the Seeds of Change”: Community Building and the Church Mission
Freeman Huen
Assistant Professor of Practical Theology (Social Ethics)
For a long time, churches in Hong Kong have been adopting one of two methods of fulfilling its mission to society: working for others (welfare) or being for others (advocacy). But we tend to neglect the method of working with, even to such an extent that we sometimes refuse to co-operate or work alongside non-Christian organizations and unbelievers. Needless to say, we seldomly consciously follow the example of Jesus Christ in attempting the method of being with. Working with and being with non-Christians, however, is not only desirable, but can also serve as a good public witness of the Church. This article posits that in practicing being with, the Church may learn from the practical experience of “grassroots democracy” or “ordinary politics.” I call this three-step process “sowing the seeds of change.”
1. Community Observation and Neighborhood Audits
When planning new initiatives or activities, a church should first find out if there are already similar services in the community. Then we can better identify competitors and potential partners. If a church is to take root in the community, it is essential that she must understand the reality of community life, taking stock of all the tangible and intangible resources, social forces and powers, and social capital that exists in the community, as well as identifying existing lines of fissure and sources of tensions, and discerning what the community truly needs or lacks. In fact, groups and individuals in every community possess at their disposal considerable resources, wisdom, and experience that are often underused. For instance, self-employed individuals, sole proprietors, and small business owners struggling at the margins of large corporations’ monopolistic control, they all enjoy a certain degree of autonomy, economic power, knowledge, expertise and professional skills. There are resources, space and time available in neighborhood centres, estate owners’ corporations, parent-teacher associations in schools, Christian NGOs, local churches, Christian schools and social service centres, etc. all waiting to be shared. All these places could serve as gathering locations and points of connection for community groups.
Churches may also consider starting off with a youth or adult fellowship: for instance, using a Saturday afternoon to bring a whole fellowship to the street, take a stroll through the neighborhood, feeling the street with their own feet, breathing the air of the community, and starting a friendly chat with passers-by, neighbors, shop workers or the owners they come across. They could introduce themselves and get to know their neighbors, and listen to their joys and their problems. For a more systematic understanding of the neighborhood, they may attempt to calculate the expenses in four major areas of material life: health, food, housing, and transportation, and measure the standard of living. For example they can use these kinds of questions as clues:
| Medical Costs: | Is there any public hospital in the area? Where is the nearest emergency room? Are there any private clinics that remain open on public holidays? How much does it cost to go to a clinic? Is there any discount for the elderly? Etc. |
|---|---|
| Food Costs: | Beside supermarkets, are there traditional wet markets? Are street hawkers allowed? How diversified are the choices for dinning out? What are the price levels of local restaurants? Etc. |
| Rental Costs: | Where are the public housing estates, large private housing estates, stand-alone residential buildings and tenement buildings? How densely populated is the area? Are there (illegal) sub-divided flats available in the area? How much is the lowest rent in the market? Are there any homeless people? Etc. |
| Transportation Costs: | What public transport options are there for people to commute to downtown for work? How much do they cost? How long do they have to queue and wait during peak hours? Etc. |
2. Bringing the Community Together and Connecting with Collaborators
Years of citizens organizing in other countries have shown that to have a group of people sharing with each other their worries and problems surrounding a common issue arising from living in the community works much better than letting them state their views and opinions confrontationally. When the focus is on everyday life problems, even people divided by ideologies or conflicts of interest may realize that they share a common bond. They may even develop a sense of belonging in the neighborhood that transcends their apparent differences.
Local churches can and should become the core or the seed to gather together other groups and organizations to join forces. To achieve this, churches can invite various groups and individuals to an open forum discussion, in which the information obtained from the neighborhood audits can serve as the starting point. In such a bottom-up approach, local residents may imagine, plan and put into action their vision for community renewal from the perspective of common good.
3. Community Self-Strengthening
Practitioners of grassroots democracy all advise a key to “saving one’s own community”: when working for change, start with the winnable small issues that are closely related to people’s livelihoods, so that the local residents may have a chance to experience working together to struggle for change.
“Sowing the seeds of change” puts more emphasis on the process than the outcome because what we need to destroy is a myth: if those who are dominant in political or economic spheres really control an absolute monopoly over all power, ordinary citizens cannot but give up and succumb to their complete helplessness and hopelessness. What we have to fight against is this sense of helplessness prevailing in society (and in the Church). We are to create opportunities for neighbors from all walks of life with different convictions and values to realize our civic agency, which will grow through sharing, listening, discussing and acting in concert; in this way, we are empowering each other. The power of the powerless belongs to every one of us, rather than something to be given to us by any authority. Everyone living in the community is a neighbor; this means that there is no stranger or isolated individual in the community.
Having said the above, however, are the churches ready to give up our usual purpose-driven functional mindset and learn to serve by working with others and being with the community?
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* This is an excerpt from the author’s talk on the Spiritual Formation Day (January 16, 2018) of Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary.