This past week a member of our Central Branch YMCA passed away, he had been a member of the Y for over 80 years. What changes he must have seen in our organization! It makes my almost six years with the YMCA seem like a drop in the bucket.
When Phil joined the Y as a kid eight decades ago in Fort Wayne, we were much smaller, only in the urban part of the city, and had a very different logo from the one we have now.
Maybe we take for granted how much the world changed in the past eighty years, how tumultuous the eighty years prior to that had been, and even now we feel like the next eighty might be full of even more rapid change.
Somehow through the past seventeen decades of unprecedented historical and global upheavals, the YMCA has endured, adapted, and found ways to survive and serve their community successfully.
But like with any significant institution, there is a regular need to patch up our foundations, to nourish our roots, to remember how we got started, and both celebrate the origins story but also seriously contemplate how we embody it in these days, vigorously reflect on what is the kernel of truth and reality that we hold on to from our past and how does it become a cornerstone for future construction of our mission, how it becomes new seeds for a new harvest of faith, hope and love among millions more members.
Here’s a brief example of how the letters of our name – Y.M.C.A. – demonstrate a way we can honestly and respectfully remember and honor our origins, while at the same time revealing a starting point for how we have come to try – and failed – to responsibly care for all in our community.
Y.M.
Y.M. : Young Men – the origins of our organization in 1844 industrial London is the story of 22 year old George Williams and eleven other young men who felt burdened for the lost and struggling co-workers in their drapery factory and their resolve to do something about it.
C.
C. : George and his friends were Christian young men, British Protestant evangelicals – some from the Anglican tradition and others from the Presbyterian, Methodist and Dissenters – but they all held a common loyalty to Jesus Christ and felt called to not only save the souls of the other men like them in the factory, but to rescue them from dark abodes and illiteracy, from the vice-full saloons and fatherlessness, from despair to a new Christian mission and purpose for their life.
A.
A. : the Association work of Williams and the others was strengthened and nourished by their friendship, their commitment to associate on a regular schedule for each others encouragement and growth in Christian faith and wisdom – this in age of displacement, emigration, urban-industrialism, cultural upheaval, and economic disparity.
Some reflections on what this can mean for today:
Y. : youth-development is a key word for the purpose and existence of our organization – out of all the different ages of people we serve in a community, we know that most branches brag the most about their youth work, that without young people in the Y we’d have a too-quiet place that would feel like its not living up to its calling as the Y.
But, we have also vigorously pursued adults of every age – from the early decades of the Y’s existence – the young men in their twenties who started the Y became seasoned leaders in their 40’s and then 60’s, all along the way adapting the purpose and programs of the Y for older and older men.
And also younger men, eventually – almost literally inventing – teen mentoring and programs for all children.
We are nothing without our youth, we will never be able to live up to our name if we abandon youth-work or falter in our commitment to transform the lives of young-people – but we also know that we must serve adults of every age – especially the ones who directly affect the future of our youth.
M. : it was men laboring in the monotony of the drapery factory, verging on despair, who resolved to help out their fellow man through prayer, friendship, Christian religious activity, and social responsibility.
Even in those first decades Christian women were drawn to this work – of coming alongside men in the dark and helping them see the light, and then also finding ways for lifting up women who were lost and struggling.
The conversation has been ongoing since those early days: the ways that women are an essential part of the YMCA – a companionship and collaboration that has needed constant care, honest reflection, respectful apologies, and responsible maturing.
The YMCA has a legacy it ought to leverage for what it has learned along the way for how men and women can lead, care and serve together – not because it was perfect, but because they allowed critique, they put themselves in a position where the inequities could not be ignored and those with a fire in their bones would not let it drop, and kept the struggle going for more caring and honest mutuality, more respect by men for women who also shared the responsibility of our mission as the Y.
It’s not a surprise that there were/are those in the Y that resist the role of women in our organization, what we ought not to take for granted is those who persevered nonetheless.
C. : it is obvious that if not for the Protestant Christian faith and God’s calling of George Williams and his eleven friends, our Y.M.C.A. organization would have never gotten started.
No amount of downplaying the role of religion in society can undo the foundations that Christianity provides for the YMCA.
It is a massive foundation for what we have been building since 1844; the roots run deep and tenaciously grip the ground for the mighty YMCA tree that has been reaching into the skies these past seventeen decades.
Rather than making religion and Christianity a scapegoat for what ails us as a society, what if we found a way to be more responsibly honest about our evangelical Christian beginnings and foundation, and then respectfully and care-fully critique it while also gleaning the abundant wisdom that is there for the unprecedented challenges we face in the century ahead – a future that will always have vibrant religion- but will it also have Christian peacemakers and religious bridge-builders?
The YMCA has a national and global heritage of forging reconciliation and understanding between the many different kinds of Christian traditions as well as between the global faith-traditions.
If we drop the “C” in our name, if we choose to forget where we came from, we drain ourselves of the energy and identity the world needs from the Y right now – an organization with a Christian legacy and roots that uniquely works for peace among the intensely religious leaders and families of our community – for there will always be those who foment violence and use religion to hurt people – but where will the Y be on this urgent reality?
There are so many inclusive Christian Y leaders working hard every day to help us fulfill our mission that includes “building healthy spirit, mind and body for all” – rather than focusing on Christians who are perceived or vocal about their resistance to being “for all” what if we focused on all of the inclusive Christians that are doing this hard work everyday – and rather than make the “C” an object of division it became a sign of our humble and noble calling to serve everyone with sacrificial love?
What could Christians in the Y do to help their case?
Instead of pressing for more privileges or complaining about perceived restrictions, just do the best you can to bless everyone you are with in the Y and the community, do it out of your loyalty to Christ Jesus and for the joy of all who are in your sphere of influence.
Christians must learn how to honestly but responsibly live out their faith in public – not only amongst different kinds of Christians (ie Protestants and Catholics, liberals and conservatives, charismatic and liturgical, etc) but also respectfully and caringly with those of of there faith traditions – like our Jewish and Muslim family, our Buddhist and Hindu family, and many more. What could that look like?
A. : for all of our Associations, America is still one of the loneliest countries in the world, we more depressed and isolated than almost any other nation – rugged individualism for too many has become ruts of self-absorption.
Community leaders have been crying out at the lack of volunteers who are needed in our schools and local governments to help ensure safety and sustainability for all – schools are desperate for positive school involvement – youth sports needs coaches – neighbors need each other – but instead of associations that build our communities up we struggle to overcome the temptation of isolation and selfishness.
The A in our name – our ability and actions of associating and organizing can be an asset for constructively and creatively bringing together diverse groups of people that strengthens neighborhoods and friendships – or it can be a way for us to make money off of programs and keep our buildings open, but be cut off from the need in our community for organizations to nourish the coming together of people that empowers flourishing for all.
Many non-profits learn that if you have a money problem, it’s because you have a mission problem – mission drift often results from focusing on how to get more money to do more mission; the solution is spending more time with the people we are serving and serving with and continually adapting our resources to their benefit, their capacity for freedom and empowerment, lifting up their strengths and abilities so that they have the support they need to envision even more ways we can associate that nourishes flourishing for all.
What happens when millions more people associate with the the Y.M.C.A. but don’t cleanly fit in with the Y, with the M, with the C, and with the A?
Every organization that grows rapidly has to continually discuss and adapt how to keep their core while also expanding who they are for – and at the heart of the Y.M.C.A. is a worthy origins story – and legendary heros – that our world needs to benefit from today more than ever – but not in a restrictive way, but in an open way, since that was marked their life too – always reaching out to “take the stranger by the hand” and bring them closer so that they become neigbhors, friends, and co-laborers in our work.
When older members complain about the unruly youth in our branch, though we are tempted to come down hard on those teens, what we know we really ought to do is invite those easily-irritated grown ups to draw closer to these young adults that are acting up in order to get attention – that is why the Y is here – to draw closer to the teens who need it most.
When men in the organization think to highly of themselves, when they are too guarded or prideful, when their competition and work-a-holic attitudes get in the way of the true mission of the YMCA, do we castigate the men and seek to replace them or engage them and confront them and lovingly draw close in order to help them mature?
When men in the Y get pouty and passive-aggressive, when they get easily offended and complaining, when they get self-absorbed or melancholy, does that mean we look down on them or draw closer?
Just as there will always be a central role for youth in the YMCA, so there will always be a central role for men.
What about when Christians in our movement get in the way of equity and inclusion?
What about Christians who you know are bigoted and prejudiced?
What about Christians who seem to resist change and are uncomfortable with diversity?
What about Christians who get on your nerves and easily offend you?
And what about all the inclusive Christians who are quietly doing the work of youth development, healthy living and social responsibility in a caring, honest, respectful and resonsibile way?
What about all the Christians that are at the fore-front of the YMCA becoming an anti-racist and multi-cutulral organization?
There have always been Christians in the YMCA who have resisted change and inclusion; but there have always been Christians who have fomented the change for greater diversity, inclusion and equity – so many of them are among the leaders that have helped us continue not only learn how to be “for all” but more importantly “with all.”
What about branches that have forgotten how to work together?
What about associations that disregard neighboring associations?
What about parts of our movement that seem to be against others?
What happens when there are divisions in our movement between big city associations and small town branches?
What happens when diverse community branches are misunderstood by mono-culture branches?
What happens when financially successful associations and branches turn their back on struggling ones?
As an association, we have so many ways we’ve failed each other – mostly because we are all too human; but we also have amazing stories of resiliency and sacrifice for each other across our country and the world.
What would it look like for more of our alliances in the USA movement to become stronger – not only for our most vulnerable branches and associations, but also for global movements that we are called to love, serve and care? Thank God we already have examples of this happening!
What if our associating efforts not only deepen our ability to engage the most broken communities in our regions, but also connect us to the most hurting places across the world?
What if our associations continued to enter into difficult relationships in order to learn from each other humbly, repenting as often as needed, and demonstrating a sacrificial love that our neighbors and world so desperately need, and that was a model for George Williams and his friends when they started building the foundation of the Y.M.C.A.
Dear Y.M.C.A. :: let’s shine a light on the ways Christians can intentionally and inclusively strengthen the presence of Christ in the Y. How? We can gauge how well we are doing by listening to those who see the world differently than us – and though we might see the world through different cultural lens and experience reality through different dimensions of diversity we can still celebrate the complex and enduring, creative and sacrificial ways we together keep striving towards flourishing for all.
