The WRONG answer

This post is about a classic "wrong answer" by an Episcopal Church in Michigan -- the story is here and it's worth reading:

It's absolutely painful to read; I'll warn you of that much.

Here's a summary of the story:
--Young people discover a way to use church property for sports (in this case, building a BMX bicycle track in some church-owned woods and developing it for nearly a decade)
--Church people discover that young people are having FUN on church property
--Church reflexively drives the young people away, replacing the young people with a "prayer walk"

As someone who tries pretty hard to find successful sports and recreation ministries at churches, finding something like this is discouraging.

Why? Citing insurmountable obstacles, the church in question doesn't appear to have even tried to figure out a way to provide some form of ministry to the kids it is displacing.

Okay, insurance companies and zoning boards are not traditionally fond of home-cooked extreme bicycle racing. I'll grant you that much (although we haven't been provided with any evidence that the church really did check to see if an activity like this would be insurable and be permitted as a church activity by their local zoning board). Let's assume the initial answer was "no" and "no" and that no one in the congregation had the gumption to pursue the issue aggressively.

Do we have any evidence that the church made an effort to see what kinds of activity might be of interest to the youth in question (other than perambulating on a "prayer walk")? From my reading of the piece, the church doesn't even appear to have bothered to investigate alternatives sufficiently to see if there was a way that the kids and the church could work together on some kind of more formal BMX bike activity -- or some other recreational activity the church might have found more acceptable.

Ideally there's a solution out that that would have constituted a way where the church was able to add value from the point of view of the kids (and their families).

(Spare me this comment, please: "Oh, but the church needed the 10 acres for a prayer walk." Gimme a break! What selfishness on the part of the church! You don't need 10 acres for a prayer walk. You don't need ONE acre for a prayer walk! You can stick a labyrinth inside most parish halls and still have room to walk around the outside of it. And yes, by the way, I can definitely sympathize with parishes that cannot minister to young people because of lack of space and facilities.)

But why should the church do anything at all for these kids, these trespassers? It appears, after all, that the kids using the BMX track were not parishioners.

The answer should be obvious, and the very question implies that no one in the congregation has been paying attention during the New Testament readings lately. Why has it not occurred to this congregation that they are being called to a ministry to these kids and their families?

This situation is as clear a call to a specific ministry as a church is ever apt to get -- that is no doubt the real reason that the incident merited press coverage. The situation is crying out for a sports or recreation ministry. To be any more obvious we would need to see a Paul on the road to Damascus event, it seems to me.

It is tragic to see this church refusing to listen.