This week, I was asked to speak to a class from the Mosaic Program here in Columbus. It is an interesting program that clearly produces (and serves) bright children in our area. I was asked to speak as a part of their world religions course, which I very much enjoyed.
One of the most important parts of being an ADF Grove is doing outreach: not proselytizing, but getting out there to inform and educate. Mostly, we have always done this through our community service role, but community service, while it gets your name out there, isn’t about advertising or education; we do service because doing service is right. Outreach, on the other hand, is about these things; outreach is about letting people know that we are there, showing them that we are serious and real, and giving people a chance to engage with us in places where they feel comfortable educating themselves.
I tend to see the community service role as “walking the walk,” while the outreach role is “talking the talk.” Both are a necessary component.
Over the 40 minutes I had each class, though, I was pleased to notice that the kids not only asked good questions, but showed a genuine interest in the discussion. What’s more, they asked informed questions many times.
It was pleasant discussing ritual, belief, history, and (on occasion) the joy of worship with them. I did learn that my general discussion pattern tends to shy away from that last point, mostly because I find (and I think that many of us find) it to be a very personal thing. Still, I hope that I described enough about why it is we do what we do to give them a working knowlege of that, as well as expose them to a new religious movement they may never have heard of before.
In all, it was a joy to spend time doing outreach with them.
-Rev. Michael J Dangler
