In 1894, William Stead, wrote the essay, If Christ Came to Chicago. It is quite critical of the activities of the church, or lack there of. Talking of the Archbishop in Chicago, “He sees things going from bad to worse under the very shadow of the spires of his churches but has he ever said a word or done a deed to rally the forces under his command in support of the cause of honesty, justice and fair dealing with the poor?” Then contrasts that attitude with that of Gregory the Great. “When Gregory the Great, was told one day that a solitary unknown beggar had been found dead from starvation in the streets of Rome, he excom- municated himself for having allowed such a thing to happen in a city under his rule. For days he abstained from communion, shutting himself up in his silent cell, to make atonement by tears and penance for his sin of omission towards that poor starveling.”
Offering a smack down on more than the Catholic church, Stead writes, “If Christ came to Chicago would He find a greater disappointment anywhere than the spectacle the greatest of all His churches doing ecclesiastical goose step in the parade ground, but refusing to go forth to battle against the powers of wickedness in high places, and against all the tyrannies which oppress the poor, because, forsooth! — it might endanger the church and create difficulties even with some of its own members.”
He goes on to say that Christ would find his church in city and county administration. Wait. What?
Hear him out, “the City government recognizes as does no other organization in Chicago, the great truth that the community is one body of which we are all members and that if one member suffers, all the other members suffer likewise. Those who doubt this should compare for the moment the different way in which a material evil is handled by the municipality and a moral evil by the various churches. Nothing is more inspiring than to see the way in which the conception of the unity of the social organism operates under the city government. It is tested by the outbreak of a fire. A drunken tramp drops a match in the outhouse of some miserable shanty in the outskirts of Chicago. The straw alights and the fire blazes up. The nearest patrolman who sees it hastens to his patrol box and sends in a fire alarm. Instantly in every police station, and newspaper office throughout the 190 square miles within the city limits that alarm is reproduced and almost before the patrolman has quitted the patrol box the fire engines are clattering along the streets from the nearest stations to extinguish the fire. Should the wind be high and the flames baffle the efforts of the local force, fresh alarms are sent in and instantly more fire-engines and firemen are dispatched, until in case of need the whole resources of the city in apparatus and in men will be concentrated upon the point of danger. There is no question as to rich and poor, no discussing in police stations or at the fire department as to whether or not the locality was a long way off or what might be its ratable value or anything else. There is fire and there is need and that is enough. The whole machine splendidly equipped in perfect discipline, acts almost automatically on any appeal from any section of the community.”
More than 100 years later, have things changed? What if Christ came to your city? What would be found in the shadows where you are? Author and Mentoring Project founder Donald Miller is getting at some this in his blog entry about church leadership and who was picked as disciples. He also recently tweeted, “Thought this was interesting: In the Bible, the word “church” never refers to a physical structure. You can’t “go” to church.” If there is a more correct way to do things, why don’t we?
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