IN THEORY:Is community the key?

Matthew Dowd, a political strategist for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bush, recently co-authored a book, “Applebee’s America: How Successful Political, Business and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community.” The book makes the case that churches, temples and mosques can attract new members by applying the same techniques that helped Bush get reelected. He predicts a dire future for religious organizations that don’t cultivate a sense of community. “One of the things we know for sure is that institutions set up in a hierarchical fashion are going to be very unsuccessful in keeping people in the pews and keeping parishioners as part of those ministries.” Do you agree or disagree?Religious institutions engage in a dialectic between their identities as not-for-profit organizations and centers for the cultivation of the human spirit.

While stewardship of an institution must absorb much of our energy, managerial competency is not our reason for being.

Synagogues and churches exist to pursue the sacred dimension of life. While an agenda guides our committee deliberations, our ultimate agenda is to address the high and holy. The test lies not only in our programming, though we pride ourselves on manifold activities and offerings, not only in resolving budgetary issues, though fiscal prudence is imperative. True success lies in faithful application of religious ideals in daily relationships.

Above all, houses of worship must be about religion, where we demonstrate our concern over right and wrong, where we look not as much to the bylaws of an organization as to the commandments of God’s word. At my temple, much discussion was lent to a proposed mission statement. I suggested that we could not improve upon the greatest mission statement of all, the Ten Commandments.

A poor man came to the offices of a house of worship seeking to become a member. His poverty was visible. He was given an application, which he dutifully filled out then and there. But he was told to come back a month later so that the board could approve his application.

When he did, he was told to come back because the board had been pressed by more urgent business. The postponements continued until the poor man understood he was not wanted.

He went out onto the street where God met him and asked, “Why are you so depressed?”

“Because my brethren will not let me into that house of worship,” said the poor man.

“I know how you feel,” God said. “I can’t get in there either.”

Woe to the house that denies God entry; that is distracted from matters of soul and spirit, ethics and morality; that has not elevated as its highest priority the pursuit of faith and partnership with God. Woe to the House that substitutes activity for learning, that focuses on today to the neglect of eternity, that is so swollen with bureaucracy that the pursuit of order replaces a passion for holiness, that allows schematics to marginalize sacred text.

Should houses of worship pander to our consumer mentality, so fickle, so entitled, so petulant, so oriented to the bottom line? Or does seeing people as customers rather than as seekers and souls dilute our millennial message and undermine the very reason for our existence?

Applebee’s may offer “community,” but who is so foolish to think it is a genuine community that dines on their lowest-common-denominator, something-for-everyone menu? What communing takes place in a restaurant other than with those at one’s own table, with a waiter, and with a plate of food?

Yes, we can attract members to my synagogue through “techniques,” but I hope for members who are themselves attracted to my synagogue by Torah.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

For any organization, whether it is a family, a club, an educational institute, etc., if it is not catering to the needs and wants of its members then it will not prosper. I do not see why this would also not apply to a religious organization.

If you do not address and provide for the members of a religious institute’s needs, then they will find them elsewhere. At our mosque, we have always encouraged our members to suggest, direct and assist in all of our functions, programs and sermon themes; it is a collective effort. Our mosque is a place where our members can get assistance and guidance in a variety of ways; socially, spiritually, economically, medically, etc.

As a religious institute, we believe that it is imperative to provide not only religious services but also social services for our community — even more, making our members feel that the mosque belongs to them.

SAYED MOUSTAFA AL-QAZWINI

Imam,

Islamic Educational Center

of Orange County

Costa Mesa

I agree with the statement about community. The word “community” indicates that we have a common unity. Jewish tradition teaches that the Jews became a group by embracing the Torah on Mount Sinai thousands of years ago. This is the classic foundation of Jewish group identity. American Jews seem to follow this tradition. They have come to understand their group identity in religious terms.

However, they arrive at this position not purely from a religious view, but out of fear of anti-Semitism, and also a cultural awareness that they choose to keep on going as a Jewish community. They establish synagogues, day schools and Jewish community centers so that these institutions will outlive themselves and be passed down to future generations of Jews to preserve Jewish life in many forms. Their feelings thrive on surviving as a group.

In America, religion as a whole is viewed as being good, and Jews want to be part of a Jewish community. The Jewish day school and Jewish community center in Newport Beach-Irvine are constantly growing. They are one of the largest Jewish institutions in California by comparison with those out of state, each for its own communal purpose.

Let’s face it, Americans frown on people who do not conform: And this motivates Jews to belong to the Jewish community and our synagogue. This coming week we celebrate Sukkot as a Jewish community in Newport Beach at Temple Isaiah with a Friday night catered Shabbat dinner for the festival of Sukkot. The following week we have a catered Saturday Shabbat luncheon. We do both events as a Jewish community because we share in thanksgiving our gifts from God. The appropriate prayers will be read together. In fact, in all Hebrew prayer books, the prayers are always written in the plural because we pray as a community.

Finally, the ever-present need to explain Jewish identity to our non-Jewish neighbors, has created an additional incentive for affirming religion as the foundation of such an identity based on the Jewish community.

RABBI MARC S. RUBENSTEIN

Temple Isaiah

Newport Beach

I completely agree! Every spiritual organization must cultivate its own community in response to its own values, vision and philosophy.

In our center we don’t think of ourselves as growing a church. Rather, we think of ourselves as growing a family. When people appear at our center the first time, they see posters of people that reflect the values and philosophy we teach. On those posters you will find pictures and quotes from Jesus, Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dr. Ernest Holmes, John Lennon, Maya Angelou, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Theresa and Henry David Thoreau. If you like these people and the kinds of things they stand for you’re going to like our center.

The hierarchy of any group must have some organic sense of itself that allows for input and response. But I find that most churches lack really good leadership. The skill sets required to build and maintain a large church are complex and must be studied constantly.

I praise my colleagues for the work they do and the skills they posses. Being a spiritual leader is like being a target. As one friend of mine put it, “You can tell the successful leader by the arrows in their backs.”

I must admit that the ministry can be stressful at times, but I look at it as an opportunity to prove God’s ability to guide my behavior with love and direct my actions with wisdom. Prayer is my tool, and love is my teacher. With those two, I always accomplish my vision and exceed my reach. I am grateful for the chance to serve and grow.

SENIOR PASTOR JIM TURRELL

Center for Spiritual Discovery

Costa Mesa

People are lonely. Despite having families, successful careers and busy schedules, many people feel disconnected. A church, temple or mosque that can help people to rediscover how they are truly connected to other people and to the wonder of life will be successful.

The importance of small groups is nothing new to teachers, 12-steppers, communists or business gurus. The mega-churches, some of the largest of which are in Orange County, are already successful “cellular churches” using trained volunteers to lead small groups.

According to Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, “Orange County is virtually a desert in social-capital terms. The rate of mobility is really high. It has long and anonymous commutes. It’s a very friendless place, and … church offers serious heavy friendship.”

When people are exploring religious options, at first they may bring consumer attitudes: “What will this product give me?” Later the bond of those who practice, the unique friendships that are formed, and the spiritual transformation they experience will naturally cause them to want to give back. We experience the satisfaction of serving others, contributing time, talents and money to the sustenance of the religious organization and to outreach in the neighborhood and the world. Friendship and joy are inevitable by-products.

Meditation encourages people to listen, to discover “true self” and to take responsibility for their choices and actions. Each person develops his or her abilities to connect with others in a variety of meaningful ways, through leadership, family life, friendship and service activities. Trained leadership, whether clergy or lay, has natural authority through wisdom, selflessness and dedication, rather than by the imposition of hierarchy.

Zen centers tend to be small so there is not much need for sub-groups. After meditation and a formal talk or discussion, tea is served and those who wish continue the discussion or socialize. The emphasis is on the bonding and friendship of people for whom meditation is a way of life.

Yet at the same time, we come to realize the ways in which our true nature is beyond both friendship and loneliness.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

I have eaten at Applebee’s — once. I do remember feeling welcomed well in business-like fashion, but I did not enjoy the food. I have been fed in faith communities — in body, mind and spirit in ways that provide meaning and joy in family-like environments.

Human beings need comfort and challenge, hunger and sustenance, authority and independence, freedom and community. We are prone to being manipulated and deceived, vulnerable to being seduced into wrong choices that destroy, seemingly always under attack, and yet always struggling toward the birth of a higher life. Because this is life as we know it, healthy organizations, religious and otherwise, do their best to meet varieties of such needs along diverse continuum.

Must ways religious organizations have thrived, qualitatively if not quantitatively, for millennia be changed dramatically in our 21st century? The Episcopal-Anglican answer is “Yes!” and “No!”

“Meet people where they are” is a principle easily found in scripture and tradition, and it should be our experience in faith communities. Our message of being humble, childlike, teachable and reverent moves in the opposite direction to the ways Americans usually move where the pattern is becoming expert and gradually exercising more and more power.

In faithful religious organizations, those with authority learn to delegate and share responsibility; worship is liturgy, the work of the people, not a performer-to-audience experience; and the last are first.

In this secular world, faith communities are custodians of an alternative vision. Our structures must reflect that vision.

In a narcissistic culture we proclaim that every person is created in the image of God. In an individualistic culture we recognize that we are called into relationships with God and with one another. In a materialistic, hedonistic culture we discover fulfillment by spending ourselves in service to God and others. In a culture sick from the abuse of power, we see humility as the primary virtue. In a fragmented world and church we affirm possibilities of reconciliation across all divisions and boundaries.

How can there be a simple formula for accomplishing these goals successfully?

(THE VERY REV’D CANON)

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar