‘WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHURCH ?’

From creativity and innovation to caution and fear

“What happened to the church?“

That was the question a Duke Business School professor, Greg Dees, asked the former dean of the Duke Divinity School, Greg Jones, one day.

“What do you mean?” Jones replied.

Dees: “The church used to be the source of much of the innovation and entrepreneurial work in the world. But, sometime in the 1970s, the church seems to have stopped trying to be creative and innovative with regard to healthcare, education and poverty. You gave that role up and lost your imagination. You abdicated creative imagination to corporate interests and other non-profits. Now, the church is seen as the yellow light and red light people. Rather than being people who imagine and improvise and encourage progress, the church appears to decelerate progress.”

Dees’ metaphor of traffic lights is suggestive. Being a yellow-light church implies caution as an operating motif. It pays close attention to all the threats and dangers around it the way a driver does when the light is yellow. A red-light church internalizes those fears and hunkers down for survival. It loses its imagination for its role in society.

Yellow light and red light churches are more internally than externally focused. And if they turn outward, it is mostly for the purpose of trying to appeal to outsiders to come and save them.

Churches are under stress these days. Stores and sports no longer defer to our Sunday schedule. Politicians no longer look to us for guidance. Belief is no longer a starting point for intellectual pursuit; the very plausibility of believing is questioned.

Churches with green-light mentality once founded hospitals, schools and benevolent institutions. They didn’t seek to dominate the public sphere so much as serve it.

One sterling example was the late, great pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, George W. Truett. In 1903, at a time when health care was segregated and available mainly to the wealthy, he issued this challenge: “Is it not now time to build a great humanitarian hospital, one to which men of all creeds and those of none may come with equal confidence?”

Baylor Hospital exists today to serve everyone because of that moral and social vision that emanated from the church; likewise, Presbyterian and Methodist hospitals, SMU, the University of Dallas, Dallas Baptist University, to name just a few. Catholic Charities, the Wilkinson Center, Jewish Family Services and a slew of other religiously-inspired organizations to aid the poor were birthed by churches and synagogues.

Just because we have lost social clout doesn’t mean we have lost our mission. We still have enormous power to do good, and should. Recent examples of social entrepreneurism include the remarkable CitySquare organization that addresses poverty and opportunity. Healing Hands Clinic provides medical and dental services for the uninsured and underinsured. Gateway of Grace tends to refugee resettlement. The Stewpot feeds the homeless.

The need is ever present. And the church knows what to do.

Another great preacher, Fred Craddock, died recently. In one of his last interviews, he was asked if he worried that the church in America was dying. No, he said, because the church is founded on a story of dying and rising again. He was more concerned about what we were dying for.

Green-light churches die to self in order to live for others.

Education

The work of a neighborhood student recently was displayed at the Dallas Museum of Art Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts student Vivie Behrens, who lives in Casa Linda, was chosen to participate in the O’Donnell Foundation’s 17th-annual Young Masters Exhibition Her piece, “Above All Else,” “captures the essence of the rural Austrian town of Feldkirch through careful attention to intricate detail, pattern, and texture.”

Lakehill Prep is planning a 15,000-square-foot expansion that will include a new art room, a performing arts space and a foreign-language lab. The school, which is expected to enroll about 425 students in the fall semester, has no plans to expand its student population beyond 500.

Business

The East Dallas-based civil engineering consulting firm Hayden Consultants is celebrating 15 years in business Hayden Consultants was founded in 2000 by East Dallas neighbor Rachel Hayden The firm, which has about 22 employees, provides transportation, water and wastewater design and utility coordination, hydrology and hydraulics, surveying, site development and construction management. Clients include the Texas Department of Transportation, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Fort Worth Transportation Authority, DFW Airport and numerous Texas municipalities.

Nonprofits

Before the White Rock YMCA demolished Trinity Lutheran Church on Gaston to make way for its new facilities, it donated the church’s three-story fused glass windows to the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs The windows, created by artist Octavio Medellin, were restored by East Dallas-based artist Michael van Enter and a team of preservationists. Recently they were installed in the new building at Love Field Airport.

HAVE AN ITEM TO BE FEATURED?

Please submit news items and/or photos concerning neighborhood residents, activities, honors and volunteer opportunities to editor@advocatemag.com. Our deadline is the first of the month prior to the month of publication.

Fun run, big money

Bishop Lynch High School’s third-annual Friar

Frenzy 5k raised $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of Bishop Lynch senior Audrey Vlk Audrey was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2014, but the cancer is in remission, and she will attend Texas Tech University in the fall.

From left to right: Audrey Vlk ; her brother Brandon Vlk , who is a sophomore at Bishop Lynch; and their mom, Terry Hettler Vlk , a 1985 Bishop Lynch graduate.

SUBMIT YOUR PHOTO. Email a jpeg to editor@advocatemag.com.

CLASSES/TUTORING/ LESSONS

ART: Draw/Paint. Adults All Levels. Lake Highlands N. Rec. Ctr. Days: Mon & Wed. Students bring supplies. Nights: 1xt month workshop, supplies furnished. Jane Cross. 214-534-6829,

ARTISTIC GATHERINGS

Casa Linda Plaza. Art Classes & Drop In Pottery Painting For All Ages. 214-821-8383. Tues-Sat 10am-6pm

GUITAR OR PIANO Patient Teacher. Your Home. 12 Yrs Exp. Reasonable rates. UNT Music Grad. Larry 469-358-8784

MAKERS CONNECT Craft Classes & Workshops. Led by & for Local Makers. Check Schedule: makersconnect.org/classes

MATHNASIUM has a new Math Learning Center at 7324 Gaston mathnasium.com/dallaslakewood 214-328-MATH (6284)

Childcare

LOVING, CHRIST-CENTERED CARE SINCE 1982 Lake Highlands Christian Child Enrichment Center Ages 2 mo.-12 yrs. 9919 McCree. 214-348-1123.

Employment

FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES 3108 Seeking Bar Staff. Apply In Person. @ 8500 Arturo Dr. 75228 TABC Cert Reqrd.

PET SITTERS, DOG WALKERS reply to http://www.pcpsi.com/join

Business Opportunities

EARN RESIDUAL INCOME learn how to earn income on Energy and Mobile Service. Call Jay 214-707-9379.

Services For You

AT ODDS WITH YOUR COMPUTER? Easily Learn Essential Skills. Services include Digital Photo Help. Sharon 214-679-9688

CONFUSED? FRUSTRATED? Let A Seasoned Pro Be The Interface Between You & That Pesky Computer. Hardware & Software Installation, Troubleshooting, Training. $60/hr. 1 hr min. Dan 214-660-3733 or stykidan@sbcglobal.net

DISH NETWORK Get More For Less. Starting at $19.99/month (for 12 months) Plus Bundle And Save. (Fast Internet for $15 more/month) 1-800-615-4064

Services For You

FUNCTIONAL ART BY MD SOLIS

Metal & Wood Artworks for the home or office. 214-727-7957

MY OFFICE Offers Mailing, Copying, Shipping, Office & School Supplies. 9660 Audelia Rd. myofficelh.com 214-221-0011

Legal Services

A SIMPLE WILL. Name a Guardian for Children. Katherine Rose, Attorney 214-728-4044. Office Dallas Tx.

A WILL? THERE IS A WAY Estate/Probate matters. Free Consultation. 214-802-6768 MaryGlennAttorney.com

Professional Services

ACCOUNTING, TAXES Small Businesses & Individuals. Chris King, CPA 214-824-5313 www.chriskingcpa.com

BOOKKEEPING NEEDS? Need Help Organizing Finances? No Job Too Small or Big. Call C.A.S. Bookkeeping Services. Cindy 214-821-6903

FARMERS INSURANCE CALL JOSH JORDAN 214-364-8280. Auto, Home, Life Renters.

Prairie companions

Eighth-grade students from St. John’s Episcopal School in East Dallas hosted an information outreach booth at the Native Plants and Prairies day at the Bath House Cultural Center in May. The students are members of a service learning group that for three years has been studying and working to save the Blackland Prairie remnant at White Rock Lake under the guidance of St. John’s science teacher Toni Herrin. From left to right: Moreau Pierson, Kate Agostini, Sarah Buhmann, Vivian Racz, William Turner, Bolton Beck, Hank Parsons and Cedar Maxwell.

Going the extra mile

The Dallas Theater Center’s Project Discovery program won the Dallas Independent School District’s Emmett J. Conrad Extra Mile Award for its “outstanding ongoing support of the district.” The theater program has worked with the district for 29 years, serving some 265,000 students in that time. From left to right: Andy Smith, Rachel Hull and Heather Kitchen of the Dallas Theater Center; Paula Blackmon of DISD; and Dayron Miles and Kelly Groves of the Dallas Theater Center.