Tag: Love Care Serve Like Jesus

Defining YMCA Christian Principles For All?

Did you know a Christian YMCA member used the phrase “for all” when he crafted the Pledge of Allegiance?

Walking through a YMCA during the busy part of the day includes sounds of clanking metal, thuds and grunts, but also laughing children, chattering adults, maybe announcements on the loudspeaker about child-watch, sneakers squeaking in the gym and depending on if the door is open lots of squealing and splashing from the pool.

It can be easy to take this kind of inclusion for granted: how many other spaces in a community have this variety of services to such a diverse collection of individuals?

How did the Y get to this point where they provide such a wide array of programs to a community?

By being “for all.”

These days “for all” is a volatile word, it’s easy to be uncertain about what it means, trying to put it into practice is complex, and definitions end up being ambiguous.

But it’s a crucial phrase.

Did you know a Christian YMCA member used the phrase “for all” when he crafted the Pledge of Allegiance?

American Pastor Francis Bellamy committed his young life and ministry to “liberty and justice for all” – a calling influenced by his leadership in the Little Falls NY YMCA, and he inadvertently inspired our nation to it as well.

When Bellamy looked around his community and church and saw actions and attitudes that were not right he spoke up and tried to make a difference; that’s a very dynamic interpretation of being “for all.”

The mission of the YMCA is to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

The Y doesn’t wait around for things to go downhill before we step up – we try to be for all at the beginning, providing healthy programs for all the little children who come to us, their families and everyone else who wants to join us in spirit, mind and body: it’s a vital triad amidst our national epidemic of loneliness and heart disease, cancer and diabetes, etc.

But why is the Y for all? Why was Bellamy for all?

We state it as “Christian principles” in our mission; our YMCA Constitution phrases it as: “a common loyalty to Jesus Christ”.

The Young Men’s Christian Association we regard as being in its essential genius a worldwide fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of developing Christian personality and building a Christian society.

This all flows from the original purpose statement of the YMCA crafted in 1855: “The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life and to associate their efforts for the extension of His Kingdom amongst young men.”

Why does this matter?

Does your being “for all” create more freedom and liberty in homes and communities to love care and serve? What can motivate you to do this everyday? Sacrificially?

The obvious tension comes when we get weary of doing good and our liberties clash, hence the crucial commitment to justice for all.

Here’s how Saint Peter put it: “live as free people, but do not use your liberty as a cover up for injustice; live as God’s servants, for all.” [adapted from 1Peter 2:16].

For Christians in the Y and our country we seek to imitate Jesus who called us to walk with him, learn from him, serve with his heart, embodying his liberty and justice for all – here’s how Christ put it to his hometown:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty and justice for all the prisoners,
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor for the broken-hearted.” [adapted from Luke 4:18-19]

We don’t have to make up from scratch a definition of “Christian principles” and “for all” in the YMCA, we have a rich history to draw on, a strong foundation upon which we stand to shape our imagination for our context today.

If you were going to make up your own definition of “Christian principles” and being “for all” in the YMCA, you certainly have the liberty to do so!

But we invite you to use that liberty unto justice for all, not just in the Y but our whole community in spirit, mind and body using Christian principles on the way towards healing for the broken-hearted.

If you were going to try and start defining “Christian principles” and being “for all” it’d be wise to start with the context of our brand mission statement, Constitution preamble and goals, and the original Paris Basis.

A few reflections to empower the defining work:

  • “Christian” indicates someone who’s been observed in faith and life as a “little Christ” – not just through their own confession of Jesus as Lord but that others could vouch for them.
  • “Principles” indicates (via online Oxford Dictionary): a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.
  • So: following Jesus Christ in faith and life is a fundamental truth and foundation of the existence and purpose of the YMCA. It creates programs for youth development, healthy living, social responsibility, gyms and swims in order to “put Christian principles into practice” – not the other way around.
  • But: Jesus makes it complicated – just as he attracted “non-followers”, so does the YMCA; just as Jesus welcomed, healed, loved, served anybody who came close, so does the Y; just as Jesus chose proximity with the world in joy and suffering (Christmas & Crucifixion), so too the YMCA.
  • If: the Y was about “holy huddles” or “God Squads” we’d have drifted into irreverence ; but when the Y forgets or rejects our fundamental foundation, we drift into irrelevance. We see in George Williams and Anthony Bowen, John Mott and Fred Hoshiyama beautiful and compelling experiences of the YMCA defining “Christian principles” and being “for all” in their generation: not irreverent nor irrelevant.
  • Defining both “Christian principles” and “for all” include intertwined themes of hospitality and welcome, sacrificial love and generous justice, freedom and responsibility, faithfulness and hope. They are not two separate ideas in our YMCA, they are they mutually inclusive reality, as seen in Jesus and the best of our YMCA leaders.
  • Should we have concrete definitions for “Christian principles” and “for all”? Depends on your context and rationale: is it to infuse them with living dynamic energy to fuel your service or to control the narrative and put them in a box to guarantee compliance?
  • What I’ve learned along the way: keep the conversation going! Keep experimenting in grace and peace regarding Christian principles and for all. Lean in to the dialogue in good faith and a hopeful heart. Be quick to listen, open to healing, empowered to love, serve and care for all whom God brings into your life.

Why It Takes Faith to See Christian Principles In the YMCA

So when does a life of faith with Christ matter, when does Christian principles matter in a Y, when do you “see” them, when does it become obvious of their presence and reality? When we go through hard times together, as friends and colleagues, members and in a community. So stop avoiding the suffering of others, let’s be healing hands and faith-full hearts in light of our mission.

If you go looking for trouble, you’re going to find it eventually.

An Hebrew rabbi put it this way: “seek and you will find.”

But if you go looking for success, victory, the power to overcome, the strengh to endure, while nothing is guaranteed, the odds will usually be in your favor.

An old Hebrew saint made a big deal about a common principle: “you reap what you sow.”

When it comes to the mission of the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association), here are a couple observations:

If it’s important to you to put Christian principles into practice in your YMCA, then do it, and don’t worry about those who you don’t think about doing it, just do it in your little corner of the Y: you will reap what you sow! (This includes your attitude: hope or resentment, joy or despair, love or indifference, etc.)

If you’re not sure what it means to put Christian principles into practice in your Y, and you’re a little tentative about it, you really want to do it the right way and not offend anyone in the process: “seek and you will find” what you are looking for. (This is shaped by your attitude: expectant or timid, energized or doubtful, expansive or stingy).

If you’re always worried about those who are worried about “Christian principles” in our mission, guess what: you’ll pretty much only notice and get fixated on that and their worries, which only creates more reasons to worry and self-fulfilling prophecies. And if you’re looking to do battle in the Y over the “C”,you’ll find it.

But let’s be honest about Christ’s Presence and Christian Principles in the YMCA: it takes faith to see it (obviously).

What do I mean? Well when Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem, people first saw a man from Nazareth, very few in the crowd could also see he was the Christ. Why would that be different today?

The New Testament Gospels are explicit: Jesus ascended from our sight into the clouds – we literally cannot see the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ in the world or the YMCA.

Apostle Paul explains, however, that those who trust Jesus mystically become part of the Body of Christ in the world. This reality only happens by faith, can only be experienced by faith, can only be seen with eyes of faith. Thus, obviously, it’s hard to see the “C” in the YMCA – it takes faith.

Hence without eyes and attitude of faith, all the actions and commitments of the YMCA can be explained away sociologically, economically, culturally, psychologically, etc.

Christian Principles can easily become “religious principles” which then become “common ethical principles” – but for Christians participating in the YMCA, how to see those same actions as embodied faith, hope and love in Christ?

That’s, frankly, what’s so daunting and divisive about living by God’s grace through faith in Christ: sometimes our everyday lives look like everyone else’s: get up in the morning, get family off to school or yourself to work, do chores at home, serve your community, enjoy a tasty dinner, try and get some good sleep and do it all again tomorrow, hoping for a little fun and relaxation on the weekend.

Apostles Peter and Paul advocate in different ways for this kind of quiet solid peaceful honest way of life for Christ’s little ones wherever they had homes across the Roman Empire.

So when does a life of faith with Christ matter, when does Christian principles matter in a Y, when do you “see” them, when does it become obvious of their presence and reality?

Maybe you won’t like my answer, maybe you’ll come up with a better suggestion, but here’s my take on it from my experience:

When we suffer.

When chaos breaks out.

When the pain crushes our soul.

When the sick and dying are abandoned by the healthy.

When the lonely and broken are overlooked by the strong.

When the violence and the tears seem unstoppable.

This might seem overly dramatic, but it’s how history has played itself out for those that trust Jesus enough to imitate him in life, in sufferings, amidst humanity as it really is.

This has also been the YMCA at its best.

It’s also the source of the YMCA, our foundation, our roots.

So if you’re not seeing Christ’s Presence in the Y, maybe you’re avoiding suffering and the pain of others too much.

If you’re not seeing Christian Principles put into practice in the Y, maybe you are playing it too safe in the Y.

Budgets matter, safety matters, cleanliness matters, but what’s the point of it if not to create a welcoming AND healing place for all – which means being with people in their brokenness, hurt, worries, confusion, sorrow, and despair.

Which is not easy. It can often require faith to see them with eyes of compassion and have a heart full of love to do whatever it takes for them when you are already worn out and a little broken yourself.

It’s easy to point out the many faults of a local Y, of ways they let members and staff down; those observations and experiences take no faith to see.

What does take faith though, if you’re a Christian in the Y, is how Christ is at work in every volunteer, member and staff bringing good out of every situation.

It takes faith to see God bringing about his will and desires through the individuals and organization, especially when there’s so many things going wrong.

If you want to see stronger Christian Principles put into practice in your Y, first use your eyes of faith to see how you are embodying them there. The temptation to focus on what others are doing (or not) can distract us from acting according to our conscience.

If you want to move beyond just your personal actions in your Y, ensure that what you are doing is with excellence and integrity, exemplary and inviting. If you’re going to be a role model for it, be a good one!

Depending on your role in the Y, you might feel a little helpless about making a difference. Ironically I know Y leaders at every level who feel hampered: a CEO who feels lack of support, a front desk staffer who feels isolated, coordinators and directors who feel on their own. Yet, if every single one of them just started to be a little more intentional, confident in Christ, and open-hearted to all around them, over time they’d see some amazing results.

Faith as small as a seed is still more than enough to start growing!

What are some tangible and productive actions you can take as a step of faith to personally put Christian principles into practice:

  • pray for one or two diffferent people at the Y everyday
  • have a key Scripture verse top of mind as you go about your work each day
  • keep an inspiring praise song/hymn in your heart as you encounter each task and responsibility
  • be prepared in your spirit to truly listen to each person that has something to say: a critique or complaint, a suggestion or improvement, a story or testimony
  • connect with a few Christians each week for encouragement and feedback
  • run your program / department / office / projects with loving excellence, wise competence and faithful consistency
  • see Jesus at work in you, helping you grow in grace and wisdom through hardship and difficulties in the Y and life
  • look for opportunities to give credit to God when sharing about success, overcoming, enduring, and making sacrifices.
  • keep digging deeper into the story of the YMCA, of George Williams and his Christian faith and how it built a foundation for our organization
  • enjoy talking about what “Christian principles” can mean in your Y experience – avoid a “right/wrong” approach; instead pursue an ongoing conversation that both includes a continuing grounding in the life and person of Christ Jesus while also becoming more inclusive and welcoming for all.
  • cultivate personal habits of abiding in Christ, of building awareness of the presence of God in the Y, of becoming attentive to the prompts of the Holy Spirit towards actions of service, caring and leadership.
  • don’t underestimate the powerful influence of one person acting under conviction and with compassion; over time this yields compelling outcomes as it draws in more individuals who together accomplish more good for all in the Spirit of Christ
  • be patient, be kind, don’t be envious of others success and avoid boasting about your achievements; putting Christian principles into practice requires faith, hope and love not coercion, haste or worry
  • have confidence that God will complete what is started in Christ through the Y – I know, I know, sometimes it’s hard to see it or believe it, like we’ve been saying, that’s why it requires faith, hand in hand, together!

What Are You Waiting For?

But my waiting on God in all of this is not passive. Nor frantic. It doesn’t need to be stoic or anxious. It can be a way of participatory readiness, doing what seems to be good, true, just and beautiful while also always cultivating attentiveness to a prompting of the Lord to go, do, say, be, love.

What are you waiting for?

I’ve been waiting fifteen years for my tiny magnolia tree to finally have many beautiful blooms!

Whether it’s our heart’s deepest desires or merely life’s little blessings, what are you waiting for to happen?

Surely it’s obvious our culture has ruined waiting.

Yet here we are, mired in irritating impatience at the impossibly unsolvable situations with no real resources for how to wait.

Waiting sounds weak.

It sounds like you are being passive, lazy, apathetic, indifferent, giving up.

But then considering how many people are tired of being so busy, who feel guilty taking a break, who are being worn down by the incessant demands of work and family and community, etc…

How is waiting a viable option in the face of the evil injustices that plague our world, the sins we commit against each other, and the uncorrected mistakes which exponentially increase unpleasant experiences?

Sure, there is certainly a level of urgency that is required for the crises that come up in our life. It’s just that now there always seems to be a chronic crisis in some part of our life such that we are always “on” to solve, fix, address, stop, improve, restore, etc.

The heart of my ministry in the YMCA is premised on strengthening the presence of Christ in our branches and association with our staff and members.

These past seven years have been an ongoing experiment in how to practically do this, how to explain and invite others into being the presence of Christ in the YMCA.

My doctoral dissertation was rooted in this work, out of all that I learned, the most transformative is the trust that Christ Jesus is already fully present in the Y, already and always at work in the life of each individual, fulfilling the promises made “to be with us always until the very end.”

This posture does a couple of things for me: it encourages me – Christ is alive and at work! Whew!

It inspires me with curiosity- I wonder what Jesus is up to today. I wonder what he wants me to see today, and what he wants me to do with what I see.

It fuels confidence and courage: since Jesus cares for all even more than I do (way, way, way more…), I’m already open to how I might be the heart and hands, ears, and tears of Christ to someone – which takes courage to be vulnerable, open, real, and present.

Like anyone else I get busy with stuff, I can end up avoiding people and conflicts and focus on stuff where I can feel high-control, productive, and drama-free.

But what I consider the best days are when amidst whatever is going on that day, whether a long to-do list, back to back to back meetings or complex problems to solve yesterday, underneath it all, through it all is waiting, a readiness, an openness that in every personal encounter I experience there is an attentiveness to what Christ is doing and the invitation on how to participate.

At one level it might just look like being a nice person all day. Of being patient and kind to everyone. Of being caring, honest, respectful and responsible. But then I think we are all quite aware of how this all both seems in short supply these days AND how much effort we individually have to put into being loving ESPECIALLY when we are tired, frustrated, and annoyed at others in the room.

No one ever really can know the work you put into showing up with compassion and diligence. They just know when you don’t.

For Christians in the YMCA we have within us and always around us the real living presence of Jesus to guide us, sustain us, and lead us forward towards what is good, true, just, and beautiful.

It’s not always apparent – usually big decisions get boiled down to budgets, expediency, or strong personalities.

In those meetings, if we can be aware and attentive enough, we can be waiting for the Same Spirit of God that was upon/with Jesus to be upon/with us.

In the mornings we can wait as a way to start the day, purposefully carving out space in our schedules to be still, silent, in solidarity with Jesus and his Word for us, his Will for the moment, his Warmth: it’s all going to be okay.

In the afternoons we can wait. In the evening. As we tuck ourselves into bed.

Waiting becomes a posture, an attitude, a perspective, a form of trust: is God here, is God doing anything, is God going to come through for me, is God good?

We mostly know what life can be like when we are not waiting on God. Or if we do ever wait on God, we know what it’s like to do so impatiently, irritated, angry, frustrated, hurt, feeling abandoned and betrayed.

Jesus had difficulty waiting on God in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night he was handed over to be crucified for trumped up crimes. There were tears of blood as he prayed in silence and solitude, alone in the dark.

What are you waiting for God to do?

Could be a lot of things. Probably mostly big things. Maybe some little things too.

Waiting is not easy. Especially in our culture addicted to busyness and convenience, to immediate satisfaction and next-day delivery.

Waiting is a spiritual practice to be practiced, cultivated, attended to, prayerfully engaged, desired, wanted, courageously embraced.

Waiting is not for the weak-willed and thin-skinned.

What is waiting? I’m still learning. These days I’m reading and meditating and being mentored by Christian leaders such as Kierkegaard and Barth, by Ruth Haley Barton and Henri Nouwen, by Andrew Root and Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil and Albert Camus, St Augustine and St Paul. And others. So much to learn from those who have waited before us, who have wisdom to share with us, who waited amidst greater suffering, maybe more doubt, yet they too learned to wait.

What am I waiting for? What am I waiting for God to do for me, with me, to me, through me.

I used to have lots of preferences and aspirations, hopes and fears that fueled what I wanted God to do. As one gets older and life plays itself out, resignation and despair can creep in, cynicism and grief can harden the heart.

But since I was a teenager I’ve always prayed for wisdom and to be full of the Holy Spirit. To be honest, I feel like I’m still waiting on God to answer that prayer.

And there are other personal and professional aspirations I am waiting for God to address, do something about, fix, heal, bless, etc.

But my waiting on God in all of this is not passive. Nor frantic. It doesn’t need to be stoic or anxious. It can be a way of participatory readiness, doing what seems to be good, true, just, and beautiful while also always cultivating attentiveness to a prompting of the Lord to go, do, say, be, and love.

So much more could be said, so I will close with this encouragement to the YMCA and the Church: it’s all about being with people, that is our “why” so go patiently and kindly be with the real people in your midst (real annoying, real stupid, real genius, real amazing, etc).

As you go be with all the people you find yourself surrounded by or sent to, put into practice all that Jesus has taught you about his way of being in the world.

Always be open and ready with whoever you are with to what new and beautiful and refreshing act of transformation God might be cultivating, the waiting is part of your transformation, which prepares you for nourishing it ever so gently and grace-fully in others.

Do all of this in trust of our good Father, the Son who saves and heals and rescues, and the Same Spirit through which we can bear fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and temperance.

And for those who will wait and trust, you will end up being the heart and hands, the ears and tears of Jesus who is always with us to the very end.

So what are you waiting for!

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