This past week the Austin City Council heard complaints from a number of local churches. No, these weren’t the typical complaints about libraries having copies of “Heather Has Two Mommies” or about the schools teaching evolution or sex-ed. It was about races – as in people running, biking, skating or whatever through the town.
You see the races are destroying the churches. Austin is a huge race city. It is one of the fittest cities in the U.S. and a mecca for runners and bikers. It seems like nearly every week some other major race is being held on our iconic and decidedly hilly streets. There is something classic about running past major Austin landmarks like 6th street or the State Capital. So when races come to town, streets get shut down downtown as the athletes converge. And of course, so as not to disrupt local businesses, this all occurs on Sunday mornings.
Think about the effect on the downtown churches. The roads to the churches are blocked off. All street parking is banned. No one shows up to church. My friends who work at these churches say that church members don’t even bother trying to come if a race is going on – it is just too much of a hassle to get there. Spiritual issues aside – think about what this does to a church if once or twice a month, every month, no one shows up and therefore no one gives an offering. As churches across the country suffer as giving plummets during the economic crisis, you can see how this is a problem for churches. So they went up against race organizers and running clubs to plead their case to the city. Of course, nothing has yet been decided.
It struck me as a strange dilemma. Most of these churches are older mainline churches that are very culturally involved and provide all sorts of services to the downtown communities already. It took a lot for them to even reach the point where they stood up and made a complaint. I had to wonder what would happen if the city regularly blocked off access to some of the evangelical mega-churches around town. I figure some sort of immediate response about how the city persecutes Christians.
What bothers me is how this raises the question of what the purpose of church is. I don’t think the church is all about the building, or about standing up for its rights, or about fighting those it is called to serve. But these churches can’t gather or collect the resources to allow them to serve unless they do assert themselves. I find the whole situation odd and wonder how it can be resolved for the good of all.