Know Your Constituency

One of the things we in the OCW group have read a lot about as far as working on connecting with those not attending church is to “know your constituency”—know about those in your community. I just recently read a couple of articles that gave me pause about understanding others and their views about their faith and giving.

The first one provides the results of a couple of surveys about what people pray about and for. I found it interesting what people pray about—the top four choices all being about themselves or their families and friends. Only one item on the list involved other people in trouble—people who have been in natural disasters. The list did not even have anything about praying for people who are poor or have no voice (maybe not even offered by the survey). What does that say about our communities in general, if anything? It seems to imply that our society has a major focus on ourselves, the so-called “Me First” mindset. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/05/american-prayer-survey_n_5920536.html?utm_hp_ref=religion (surveys by Life Way Research)

The second article talks about giving over the past few years by people at various levels of income in the United States. It is troubling to see that giving has decreased among those of higher levels of income, while heartening that those of lesser means are giving more to help others. What does this say about those in our communities? Maybe that those who are more likely to be experiencing challenges in their daily lives around basic needs are those more understanding about helping others in similar difficulties.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/06/wealthy-charity-giving-greedy_n_5937100.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000013&ir=Politics (data provided by Chronicles of Philanthropy report)

For most of us in our churches we believe that Jesus implores us to pray for and help others, and to especially do so for those who have little or nothing and no voice in our society. (Matthew 25:40--‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’) I believe it is important for us to discuss these kinds of surveys and other information as part of our working on how to be faithful in our ministry through Christ to help the poor, and being able to identify what ways will connect with everyone in our communities—both the wealthy and those with not so much.


Jim