In the Christian faith, the word ‘church’ means a place of worship and a community of worshippers. During the pandemic, when many people weren’t able to go to a physical building, they still belonged to a church…a community of people with similar ideas about faith and usually a commitment to help each other. A church community can often be a lifeline for people at various times of challenge or isolation.
But, when we use the word ‘school’, we are almost always talking about a place.
During the height of the pandemic, and still now in some cases, kids could attend ‘school’ online, so the definition began to adapt itself in that sense. There were also teachers who came around to drop materials off at kids’ houses and wave to them from the street. Such great stories, and yet also out of the ordinary. Not the typical way a school operates.
Work too, is somewhere you go, or a thing you do. It’s not really defined as a community. Of course, you can have friends at work, and most people do, and some workplaces are very team-oriented, but we don’t define work as both a place and a community. It’s not necessarily built in to our concept of work.
As a result of the pandemic, we are redefining how we we work, how we ‘school’, and how we worship, but while the church has no need to broaden its definition to encompass a way of acting and thinking that isn’t dependent on going to a building, perhaps other institutions do. Caring for its community is built into the purpose of a church, but the same is not necessarily true for school or work.
Should it be?
How would our experiences differ?
What if we have a moment here, forced on us by the pandemic, to reimagine not just the nuts and bolts of how we do a job, where we do a job, and how much we get paid for it - but where and how we find community and what role work should play in our very human need to connect, care, and be cared for.
For example, what if we considered ourselves not just an employee of a company, but a member of a company (like you are a member of a church community, not just a worshipper). What if some of our paid work time was spent checking on recent retirees and making sure they still felt socially connected, or on unwell colleagues, or new Moms/Dads. What if, in addition to a 401(k), we could contribute a sort of ‘tithe’ to help colleagues in need, or to help students looking to enter our field, or to help pay for wellness coaches, or career counselors, or mental health professionals for all employees to use. What if we hosted exchange workers from other countries, or got the option to travel together to see how our work is done elsewhere and share our own skills (like mission trips). So many possibilities.
Of course, many companies have rec league softball teams, or yoga classes. Some have childcare options (very few in the US), and even chili cook-offs and so on. There are definitely instances of workplaces that are supporting their employees in many ways. But, we tend to think of that as a bonus, or even sometimes, a distraction, instead of simply, part of an expected work community.
I am not suggesting that work or school take the place of church, only that church might not be the only institution that has responsibility for supporting its community broadly.
Even the examples I’ve provided in here don’t get to the heart of what I really mean by ‘community’, so I think it requires some really out-of-the-box thinking. We seem desperate for connection, and yet….where can we reliably expect to get that in our every day lives that isn’t church?
Or maybe the solution is simply church - including robust options for non-religious people.
I’m not sure, but I hope we can use this moment to consider how to recreate and redefine what we need - as humans - and where we get it.
My husband and I have had conversations about where "non-religious" folks go to find the community that many find within their churches. Including the organized outreach they're able to offer the greater communities they're a part of. As more and more people describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious" and at the same time feel a growing lack of connection overall, I think this is definitely worthy of some thought.