What is the YMCA to you?
Why is there a Y in your community?
How does a local YMCA fit in with the ministry of churches and Christians in a city?
Maybe you’re just dreaming of a cleaner Y with lower membership rates and one that’s not so busy at your preferred hour.
The “C” in the YMCA, however, is central to its origins and compelling global endurance over 175 years.
There is no Young Men’s Christian Association without collaboration of local Christian churches in their community.
Both the Y and churches are participants in the kingdom of God as proclaimed and embodied by Jesus the great healer.
So in the violence of our modern culture, of the past few years, decades and centuries- what is the role of the church and the Y in a community now?
What is Christ our Savior still doing – still calling us to join him in doing? Especially in these days and beyond?
These adapted words of Pope Francis are compelling to me – as conveyed by William Cavanaugh in answering the question, “What kind of church do you dream of?”
What kind of YMCA do you dream of?
I see clearly that the church [and the YMCA] need most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity.
I see the church [and the Y] as a field hospital after battle.
It is useless to ask a serious injured person if he has high cholesterol and about his blood sugars!
You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds.
And you have to start from the ground up.
quotes from Pope Francis, A Big Heart Open to God quoted by William Cavanaugh, Field Hospital: the church’s engagement with a wounded world
In the Y we talk about ways that we are not a church, but sometimes are like a church.
The discussion usually gets caught up in details around programs and practices – we have prayer gatherings but not doctrinally dogmatic – we serve the community but not with a gospel presentation, etc.
As relevant as this kind of conversation and distinction may be for YMCA and church partnerships, it misses a more fundamental reality:
Are we healers or wounders?
Does the community see us as instigators of the battlefield or trusted enough to bind up the wounds of those afflicted?
Is our posture one of nearness and proximity to the injured in our neighborhoods or with those wrecking havoc with their power and privilege?
At the Y our mission puts an emphasis on “building healthy spirit, mind and body.”
That implies a hop and an effort towards bringing healing to the wounded in our midst, particularly in spirit.
When Christians in the YMCA live out their calling through the mission of the Y, they can center their motivation on this truth as stated by Pope Francis: “The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you.”
We believe this by putting it into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body – for all.
What adaptation would happen if Y’s became more intentional in being a field hospital for all the wounded we can see?
The world wounds; who will be the healers willing to see the reality around them?
What can a Y do to become a healing field hospital in the community
One: Answer the question: do you want that for your YMCA and the community?
Two: If yes, pay attention to the culture you are building – nourish the parts that fuel healing, address the parts of your culture that wound.
Three: Look for the wounded in your community, and for the healers, and for ways to bind them together – you find what you are looking for.
Four: Be proximate to the wounded; get healing for your own wounds.
Five: Warm your heart with nearness to the presence of Christ, strive for faithfulness in your spirit, mind and body.
Six: Focus on healing and flourishing for all.
Seven: Let the wounded and the healed tell their stories, let them be part of the culture, the programs, the future of your Y.
What would it look like for this dream to become true in your community YMCA
