Tonight’s Prayerwalk

Alright, so I’m in a post-y mood right now. Sue me. Tiffholio will plead my case. And besides, I’ve never been this prolific.

Anyways, so I really can’t escape this night without blogging about our prayer walk. To be quite honest, my group didn’t do much prayer. We did a fair amount of walking at Union Landing, talking also, but not much prayer. We stopped once and prayed for only a few minutes and that was it.

But walking and observing the people around us was very arresting. Chana gave us a prayerwalk handout. On it were a bunch of questions to help us exegete the people. And as I walked around, I was floored. I realized that of every person that I saw, I simply could not imagine any one of those individuals coming to HOC6. That made me really sad.

I told Eve that I feel like you need a college degree to come to HOC6. Now that I think about it, I know that most college grads wouldn’t be able to feel like full participants. People who go to Krispy Kreme, shop at Albertson’s, hangout at Starbucks…would they find a place at HOC6?

One thing I know for sure is that they would feel our love and warmth. That’s one thing I have no doubt about. But I think once we invited them into a discussion, then we alienate them. Heck, I feel alienated most of the time…and I went to Berkeley!

But it’s not just that…I don’t think we bother to wonder what goes on in Union Landing-people’s lives. What do they enjoy doing? What are their families like? What are their fears? What are their beliefs?

Sometimes, I feel like some of us at HOC6 are so caught up in our own angst that we forget that there is a dying world out there…no…not out there…right here. We’re a church on a Mission, not on a retreat.

Alright, now I’m just being cynical. So please take my comments with a gallon of salt.

But it still stands, churches are called to be part of a community. Is a commuter church really even a church? I hope that regardless of our makeup: commuters and community…that we will find a way to step out of our own shoes and see what other people around us are wearing. We gotta stop romanticizing Oakland; we gotta step down from our ivory towers; we gotta make new friends; we gotta see non-Christians from Fremont and Union City join our church.

There I go being cynical again…or am I angrily dreaming happy dreams?…