Tag: Embody the Gospel

Jesus & the YMCA

The Y decided long ago, wisely, not to make religion an expectation or requirement of membership or employment.

Loyalty to Jesus Christ is always about grace, about gifts and blessing, not about coercion.

George Williams and his eleven friends – and later Anthony Bowen, John Mott, MLK, Paul Limbert, Harold Smith, Carlos Sanvee – are evidence of what happens to men who do believe Jesus, who take a leap of faith and pledge their loyalty to the Kingdom of God.

And that is how Jesus is alive and well in the YMCA today, when Y staff and members show up desiring to embody the love and loyalty of Christ to whoever comes across their path.

“I first learned in Bridgewater”, said Williams, “to love my dear Lord and Saviour for what He had done for me…I was on the downward road…I said, ‘Cannot I escape? Is there no escape’ They told me in this town of Bridgewater how to escape—Confess your sins, accept Christ, trust in Him, yield your heart to the Saviour. I cannot describe to you the joy and peace that flowed into my soul when I first saw that the Lord Jesus had died for my sins, and that they were all forgiven.”(7)

Sir George Williams, quote taken from edhird.com

It is undeniable, the role of Jesus in the origins, heart and purpose of the YMCA.

George Williams and the eleven Christian friends who founded the Y in 1844 did so out of their love and loyalty to the Lord Jesus.

As an Association it’s impetus for action was Christian love and loyalty to the Young Men in their factories and neighborhoods who were facing crushing inequities, overwhelming temptations to vice, loneliness and purposelessness.

Our history is centered on the real presence of Christ Jesus, a man who figures in the background of the Y and the foreground of our leaders throughout the many generations.

The Y logos since 1881

The “X” and “P” in the background of the original Y logo are Greek letters, religious symbols for the name of Christ in the New Testament, written in Greek and spelled XRIST – Chi Rho Iota Sigma Tau.

Was the simplification of the logo in 1897 a secularist removal of Christ from the Y or rather a pragmatic marketing move?

Considering the Christians leading the Y in those days, men like John Mott, Luther Wishard, etc, their work and words, attitude and lifestyle was the real embodiment of the “C” in the YMCA.

The reality is that Christ is present in the Y irregardless of what the logo looks like, for it is through people that Jesus does his reconciling work, not marketing materials.

It is undeniable, though, that the role of the “C” – of Jesus – has become more complicated and conflicting in the YMCA.

The 1960’s seemed to have changed everything. One could make the case that the Great War of 1914 broke the ecumenical Christian Spirit of the world, that the Holocaust and atom bomb of WW2 poisoned the global Christian Spirit, and that it took decades for these reverberations to unsettle and upheave Christianity in our American culture; the 1960’s were the unveiling of the brewing chaos.

In post-war 1940’s elderly John Mott is noticing the waning of the Christian mission of the Y; in the 1950’s the famous Christian theologian and Y advocate Emil Brunner is calling the Y back to Christ; in 1989 the revered 101-old Paul Limbert laments the lack of awareness of Christian principles and legacy in the Y.

The YMCA was affected by the 1960’s, and all that led up to it, and since then; in some ways the Y embodies the culture of its communities and countries – in other ways we influence it.

One example: The diversity of Christianity in the USA is found in our YMCA staff and members.

This religious inclusion was intentional, hard-fought, often resisted, but crucial to us living out our name.

What the Y learned through religious inclusion has been seeds for greater inclusion amongst our increased dimensions of diversity – not without struggle, obviously.

Christians have always been part of the push for inclusion in the Y; they are also ones who resist it.

That’s been the history of Christianity, it’s attempt to live out Jesus’ prayer recorded in the New Testament Gospel according to John “that they may all be one.”

As Christ’s gospel encountered different tribes and nations, the diversity of the Faith increased, and so did the complexity and conflicts amongst the Body of Christ.

You can see this in the by-laws of the YMCA:

THE YMCA IS UNIVERSALLY REGARDED AS BEING IN ITS ESSENTIAL GENIUS, A WORLDWIDE FELLOWSHIP OF PERSONS UNITED BY A COMMON LOYALTY TO THE PRINCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEVELOPING CHRISTIAN PERSONALITY AND BUILDING A CHRISTIAN SOCIETY. THE YMCA SHALL BE NONDENOMINATIONAL AND SHALL NOT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST ITS STAFF, BOARD, VOLUNTEERS, COMMITTEES, MEMBERS OR RECIPIENTS OF SERVICES BASED ON ANY CHARACTERISTIC OR STATUS PROTECTED BY FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL LAW AND IS COMMITTED TO A CULTURE OF INCLUSION AND UNDERSTANDS, RESPECTS AND VALUES THE DIVERSITY OF OTHERS.

It’s ironic: as Christians strive to bring the peace-full gospel of Jesus to more people, there sometimes ends up being more struggles and even chaos – hence the emphasis by the Y on inclusive fellowship in imitation of Jesus Christ.

The Paris Basis of the YMCA, the original document for framing how different Christians could work together across the globe emphasized “harmonious relations”:

“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.
Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance.”

What could it look like now it for Jesus to still be part of the Y? Challenge 21 is a compelling strategy and framework, developed in 1998 in reflection of 15 decades of YMCA ministry.

The first challenge is: “Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and striving for spiritual, intellectual and physical well-being of individuals and wholeness of communities.” Read more at https://www.ymca.int/about-us/ymca-history/challenge-21-1998/

Sometimes we think too little of Jesus.

Is Jesus like a little Christmas elf, lurking in our buildings to bless people? Is he a ghost that haunts our facilities with nostalgia for the glory days of Christendom?

Is he a severe judge condemning all the sinners who work out at the Y? Is he a cultural critic of the right or left?

Is he wringing his hands at the mission drift of the Y? Is he rolling his eyes at the crazy Christians in the Y? Is he a timidly permissive of whatever people want to do or believe at the Y?

No.

Whatever Jesus is doing in the Y – in our world – in our communities – in our homes – it is with and through people, for all creation.

And whatever Jesus has done, is doing, and will do, it will often be – to be frank – unbelievable.

Why do I say that?

Because that’s the general experience of people as recorded in the New Testament.

It requires a leap of faith, to quote Kierkegaard, to believe Jesus existed and is still who he claims to be.

On the face of it, there is an unbelievability to Jesus.

But George Williams and his eleven friends – and Anthony Bowen, John Mott, MLK, Paul Limbert, Harold Smith, Carlos Sanvee – are evidence of what happens to men who do believe Jesus, who take a leap of faith and pledge their loyalty to the Kingdom of God.

And that is how Jesus is alive and well in the YMCA today, when Y staff and members show up desiring to embody the love and loyalty of Christ to whoever comes across their path.

The Y decided long ago, wisely, not to make religion an expectation or requirement of membership or employment.

Loyalty to Jesus Christ is always about grace, about gifts and blessing, not about coercion.

History shows that Jesus is not bound to our expectations and will not be manipulated or coerced, nor will he require that of us to others.

The grace of Christ grants us an almost unbelievable amount of freedom – which is why St Paul admonishes us to use our freedom for good “all things are permissible but not all are beneficial.”

At almost 180 years old, the relationship the Y has with Jesus is complicated and conflicted, which ought not to be much of a surprise.

But no matter how many decades have elapsed, life with Jesus always require more trust, which means there always more room for doubt.

Our faith only grows when tested, which means we will face more complicated conflicts which give us the opportunity to increase our hope and reveal the resiliency of our love and dependence on God’s Grace.

Are there still Christians still in the Y? Yes.

Is Jesus and the Y still a thing? Of course?

Do we crave more certainty and security about the “C” in the Y? Probably too much.

Did Jesus come to make people comfortable and happy? Not really.

Jesus did come to be the light in the darkness, to rescue us from evil, to call people to join him in a ministry of reconciliation for the restoration of all creation.

That’s what Jesus is doing in the world, in the Y, with and through and for people – people who can be stiff-necked, hard-hearted, stubborn and rebellious.

Yet he faithfully, patiently, with great endurance overcomes evil with good, redeeming it all by love, for those that believe it, who trust that this is what God is doing in the world through Jesus.

Sometimes Christ is in the background of our Y, like in that first logo; sometimes you can’t see him in obvious ways, like our current logo.

But since it’s by faith, through grace, that Jesus fulfills God’s will in the world, may we choose to believe that Christ is in the Y, that he is mysteriously present in the background and foreground leading us – the complicated and conflicted people that we are – into his promised future, where there is flourishing for all.

Here is how Carlos Sanvee authentically puts it, our World YMCA Secretary-General, in his 2021 Easter message to the Y:

I also realised how my faith in Jesus aligned with my African understanding of Ubuntu: that a person is a person only through other people; and that I am, because you are.

The YMCA taught me triangles and trinities: of the interlinkage of body, mind and spirit; and the interrelation of me, my neighbour and God.

So my work has always been my faith, and my faith has always been my work.

The core of my faith is to endeavour to accept and understand the unconditional love of God, shown to us at Easter. And my work is to try and share that love.

Jesus poured himself out in love and service. He preached and he lived the social gospel. He bridged the divides in society, and he reconciled us to God and to each other.

We in the YMCA are called to do the same.

Carlos Sanvee, https://www.ymca.int/eastermessage/
Ascension of Jesus

The YMCA & Forgiveness For All

The YMCA & Forgiveness For All :: June 6 is YMCA Founders Day, when we remember Sir George Williams and his 11 Christian friends who prayerfully and courageously started the Y in 1844. We celebrate all who have inspired the Y to be for all, empowered by the life and love of Christ Jesus. In these difficult times, we need the Y more than ever to support and train our members on how to do forgiveness for all. This will deepen our inclusive equity work in our communities. Read for more on this proposal.

The emphasis on inclusion in the YMCA is admirable and crucial.

For Christians in the Y we see inclusion as central to our original purpose, which is why we highlighted the prayer of Jesus “that we all may be one” in our early logo (John 17:21).

The adapting logos of the YMCA since 1881

The religious and social motivations for initiating the Young Men’s Association are an example of what radical inclusion looked like in 1844 industrial London.

On Founders Day, June 6, YMCA’s pause to remember Sir George Williams and his 11 Christian friends who prayerfully launched the Y in order to save young men in spirit, mind and body.

Sir George Williams, London

Here we are, almost 180 years later, benefiting from their religiously and socially inclusive work, still striving to keep living out our mission; remarkable really.

Inclusion in the YMCA and our world has gotten more difficult and complicated, for many reasons which include globalization, technological and proliferation of social media, and cross-cultural human migration.

More diverse people are more uprooted from their traditions and tribes, are more scattered across the globe, and thus more kinds of different people must interact with each other.

It doesn’t always go well.

Which is why the Y is so wise to emphasize inclusion the way it does.

However, one element I have rarely ever seen taught in the YMCA regarding inclusion is the practice of forgiveness.

What happens when people are bigoted and exclusionary? Is this just a misunderstanding? Is it just lack of understanding? Is it at least a character flaw? An area for improvement? Is prejudice wrong or just unpreferred?

Can we call bigotry “sin” in the Young Men’s Christian Association?

If we can, then we open up opportunities to really nurture a transformation in the spirit, mind and body of our fellow members that hold on to ugly stereotypes and bigoted habits.

To be honest, every single Y member has some kind of prejudice that they have to work on. If bigotry and prejudice foment hate and violence, we need a strong word and concept to describe it: sin.

Within the Christian tradition of the Y there are beautiful examples and practices for people to be transformed from sin-full exclusive bigots to grace-full inclusive neighbors.

One example is the life and teachings of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His Christian faith was undeniably central and crucial to his accomplishments for civil rights and a just peace.

When MLK taught about inclusion, it required teaching about and modeling forgiveness.

The Y is at a place in our inclusion work where we need to recover the teaching and practice of forgiveness. Without it we will have slogans with no spirit, policies to embody but no way to recover from hurt hearts and broken promises.

Social responsibility and being for all includes the practice of forgiveness – this is what enables there to be any kind of diverse social cohesion and survive the chronic misunderstandings and human foibles.

If the Y is as serious as we say we are about our inclusive mission, we must utilize our Christian heritage, in particular its tradition on forgiveness.

The brokenness and violence in our communities is more than just poverty of jobs and resources, it’s the sinful spirit of us all without recourse for letting go of grudges and making amends.

If nothing else, for the majority of Y members that identify with a Christian tradition, the Y ought to resurrect specifically Christian teachings on forgiveness so that Christian Y members who are racist or bigoted or holding on to grudges have proximity in the Y to the Jesus of John 17:21.

When it comes to forgiveness for all, where to start for resources and models?

For the many Christians in the Y, we start with Jesus Christ and what he taught and modeled on forgiveness. The Y ought to explicitly endorse and encourage Christian Y members to be more like Christ Jesus. It’s needed, no?

It’d be worth remembering and reflecting on the Christian sermons of Rev. Martin Luther King, especially the collected in the edition Strength To Love in particular his writings on forgiveness for all.

For a fresh and startling Christian perspective on forgiveness for all, I strongly recommend these provocative reflections by Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish Christian who wrote extensively around the time that George Williams was forming the YMCA. Kierkegaard was also a deeply formative influence on MLK. And me, for what it matters.

Take these Christian comments on forgiveness for all by Kierkegaard and reflect on them with a humble, inclusive spirit and mind.

I think they could be a powerful catalyst for Christians in the YMCA to reawaken as a powerful force for radical inclusion and reconciliation, healing and just mercy, inspired by the truth and grace of Christ Jesus.

That Jesus Christ died for my sins certainly shows how great his grace is, but it also shows how great my sins are.

Christ abandoned ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,’ and turned the relationship around. He introduced a different like-for-like: as you relate yourself to others, so God relates himself to you. Forgiveness is to forgive.

To forgive sins is divine not only in the sense that no one is able to do it except God, but also because no one can do it without God.

It is God’s joy to forgive sins. Just as God is almighty in creating out of nothing, so he is almighty in uncreating something; for to forget is to uncreate something.

When I hate someone or deny that God is their Father, it is not they who lose, it is I. It is I who then have no Father. With unforgiveness there is always the reversed echo.

The anguished conscience alone understands Christ.

Is this the test: to love Christ more dearly than mother and father, than gold and goods, than honor and reputation? No, the test is this: to love the Savior more than your sin.

God created out of nothing – marvelous you say. Yes of course but he does something more marvelous- he creates saints out of sinners.

You will get a deep insight into the state of Christianity in each age by seeing how it treats Judas.

Father in heaven! Hold not our sins up against us but hold us up against our sins, so that the thought of you when it wakens in our soul, and each times it wakens, should not remind us of what we have committed but of what you forgave, not of how we went astray, but of how you saved us!

The need for forgiveness is a sign that one loves God. But both parts correspond to one another – when a person does not comprehend what a great sinner he is, he cannot love God; and when he does not love God, he cannot comprehend how great a sinner he is. The consciousness of sin is the very passion of love. Truly the law makes one a sinner, but love makes one a far greater sinner! It is true that the person who fears God and trembles feels himself to be a sinner, but the person who in truth loves feels himself to be an even greater sinner.

You may think that the sin remains just as great whether it is forgiven or not, since forgiveness neither adds nor subtracts. But this is not so. Rather, when you refuse to forgive you increase the sin. Does not your hardness of heart become yet one more sin? Ought not this be brought into the reckoning as well?

All Kierkegaard quotes in this article taken from Provocations, pgs 283-287
For more YMCA resources on forgiveness for all, try out this devotion series called Living Stones developed by Y leaders.

Revolutionary Christianity In The YMCA?

We expect the presence of Christ Jesus to bring about transformation in people and places. But how do we participate in it? Passive? Ambitious? Impatient? Idealistic? Cynical? Violently? Coercively? Profitably? French Christian activist and theologian Jacques Ellul writes brilliantly on a revolutionary Christianity, based on his experiences during and after the resistance to Axis powers in WW2. His reflections have great insight for Christians today, especially those in the YMCA.

What kind of “C” are we looking for in the YMCA? A status quo kind of “C” or a revolutionary one?

In focusing more and more on what Christ Jesus taught about the disruptive Kingdom of God, there is some new imagination required for what that would look like in the YMCA and where I live in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Especially when being a pastor in a community organization that seeks to avoid controversy in its striving to be for all.

How to be revolutionary without violence or mimetic rivalry, but also not just struggle in order to get more of the same.

How to think about being a pastor and involved in politics and economic development, with social justice and neighborhood revitalization, without ending up as a pawn or a jerk?

In these days of searching and listening, I turn again to Jacques Ellul.

In my vocation as a pastor with the YMCA, there is some inner questioning on what is the wisest way forward in this complex and volatile context.

I found the following paragraphs to be immensely helpful to me as I seek confirmation of God’s leading in my life’s work:

“The Christian can never regard himself as being on the winning side, nor can he look on with pleasure while everyone else goes to perdition; should he do so, he would be lacking in the Spirit of Christ, and by that very fact he would cease to be a Christian.

Bound up with the lives of other men (be economic and sociological laws, and also by the will of God), he cannot accept the view that they will always remain in their anguish and their disorder, victims of tyranny and overwork, buoyed up only by a hope which seems unfounded.

Thus he must plunge into social and political problems in order to have an influence on the world, not in the hope of making a paradise, but simply in order to make it tolerable – not in order to diminish the opposition between this world and the Kingdom of God, but simply in order to modify the opposition between the disorder of this world and the order of preservation that God wills for it – not in order to ‘bring in’ the Kingdom of God, but in order that the gospel may be proclaimed, that all men may really hear the good news of salvation, through the death and resurrection of Christ.

Thus there are three directions in which the Christian ought to action the world:

First – starting from the point at which God has revealed to him the truth about the human person, he must try to discover the social and political conditions in which this person can live and develop in accordance with God’s order.

Second – this person will develop within a certain framework which God has ordained for him.

This is the order of preservation, without which man lacks his true setting.

Man is not absolutely free in this sphere, any more than he is free in the physical or biological domain.

There are certain limits which he cannot overstep without danger to the society to which he belongs.

Thus the Christian must work, in order that the will of God may be incarnated in actual institutions and organisms.

Third – this order of preservation will have meaning only if it is directed towards the proclamation of salvation.

Therefore, social and political institutions need to be ‘open’: that is, they must not claim to be all, or absolutes.

Thus they must be constituted in such a way that they do not prevent man from hearing the Word of God.

The Christian must be ceaselessly on the watch – intelligent and alert – to see that this ‘order’ is preserved.

But, in doing so, he will find that he is confronted by two possible errors.

The one error consists in believing that by constant progress in this order we shall attain the Kingdom of God.

It is enough to remind ourselves of the Book of Revelation, or of Matthew 24, to condemn this attitude.

The other error arises out of the conviction that by achieving certain reforms we shall have reached this order which God wills.

In reality all solutions – all economic, political, and other achievements – are temporary.

At no moment can the Christian believe either in their perfection or in their permanence.

They are always vitiated by the sin which infects them, by the setting in which they take place.

Thus the Christian is constantly obliged to reiterate the claims of God, to reestablish this God-willed order, in presence of an order that constantly tends towards disorder.

In consequence of the claims which God is always making on the world the Christian finds himself, by that very fact, involved in a state of permanent revolution.

Even when the institutions, the laws, the reforms which he has advocated have been achieved, even if society is reorganized according to his suggestions, he still has to be in opposition, he still must require more, for the claim of God is as infinite as His forgiveness.

Thus the Christian is called to question unceasingly all that man calls progress, discovery, facts, established results, reality, etc.

He can never be satisfied with all this human labor, transcended, or replaced by something else.

In his judgment he is guided by the Holy Spirit – he is making an essentially revolutionary act.

If the Christian is not being revolutionary, then in some way or another he has been unfaithful to his calling in the world.”

Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom, pgs 35-37