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'Love is our license'

On Wednesday evening, a long-winding caravan and local supporters gathered under the antique tiled ceiling of Fifth Street Christian Church’s basement to partake in a dinner of fruit, beans and rice, and slices of slightly more luxurious chocolate cheesecake. The mixed group of people of various ages and ethnicities — sporting straw hats, beards, curly hair, sandals, skirts and sunburns — chatted amicably. Some of them were fresh-faced; some were travel-worn yet happy-looking. Outside, a painted school bus graced the small street; phrases promoting peace in Spanish and German were splashed across its sides. A passerby stopped to snap a photograph.

The caravan, hosted in Columbia by Centro Latino and the Columbia Peace Coalition, is one of 13 trailing across the United States this week. Most of them began in Canada; this particular caravan had traveled through Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago and Kansas City. The 13 caravans will converge in Texas and enter Mexico next week. But the final stop for the collective — which comprises cars, buses, educational materials, medical materials and other goods — is Cuba. The country, said the Rev. Luis Barrios, is a very intentional choice.

Barrios, an Anglican priest in New York City and professor of criminal justice at John Jay University, is one of many clergy associated with the organization Pastors for Peace/Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization. He has been involved since 1990 with Pastors for Peace and has traveled to Cuba “probably 18 or 19 times,” he said — first from his home country of Puerto Rico and then from New York.

“It’s a poor country with incredible dignity and integrity,” he said, noting Cuba has worked on social investment, including education and medical services, during the U.S. economic blockade, now in its 49th year.

Upon traveling to Cuba, typically “you hear more of the concerns connected to the blockade because it is some kind of economic strangulation,” Barrios said. “It’s a little difficult” for Cuban people “to get the money or to get medication because of the blockade.” This is the 22nd “Friendshipment” caravan initiative that Pastors for Peace has hosted. The organization’s founder, Lucius Walker, began moving goods toward Cuba in 1989. Walker passed away last year. “This is the first time he’s not going to be with us,” Barrios said, “but he always let us know that this is the way he wanted it — not a one-man organization.

Church Shopping Tips From an Ex-Pastor | The High Calling

But that is a phrase that people in our culture use. And honestly, it does describe the process pretty well. You’re new in town or have decided to start going to church. You begin visiting churches, looking for some place that fits you.

For better or for worse, you are in the market for a church.

My story is that I resigned as the pastor of a church in 2010. My family and I are, for the first time in over twenty years, looking for a church. And it’s not an easy thing to do.

For many years I was on the other side of this process. Church leaders and I used to talk a lot about visitors. We wondered what people in our culture were looking for and how we could best welcome them to our church.  We were always looking for a balance between engaging visitors to make them feel welcome and giving them space so they don't feel pressured. We wanted to be friendly but not pushy.

Of course a church can’t spend all its time trying to make visitors happy. If a church tries to become what it thinks people want, then it stops being the Body of Christ and starts becoming something more like Walmart or Disney World.

The danger for those of us who are looking for a spiritual community is that we might slip into a consumer mentality. You can tell this has happened when you sound like a movie critic at lunch on Sunday afternoon.

So I've been doing a lot of thinking about the process of finding a church.

Finally this: You will not find your perfect church. Your perfect church does not exist. You should have a few things in your mind that are most important to you. Look for those things and don’t worry about the rest. Part of the joy of being in a community is learning to live with the faults and frailties of others, just as they learn to live with you and your idiosyncrasies.

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