Taking risks to heal hurt

"Where does it hurt?” Civil rights activist Ruby Sales learned to ask this question when she was part of traumatic events during the civil rights movement. Years later, she continues to ask it as a social activist. The question inspired Beth Scibienski. In fact, Scibienski started to understand it as the question that the church should be asking about our culture. As a pastor, the question became a driving force for her public theology and practice.

Scibienski walked through her church’s neighborhood and asked, “Where does it hurt?” This led her to other questions. “What is our church’s Christian work? What is God calling us to do in the world? What does the community need? What can we fulfill?” She invited her whole congregation to begin asking and listening.

The congregation at Grace Presbyterian Church in Ken­dall Park, New Jersey, is small and vibrant. Just over a hundred members are on the rolls, and most of the people who attend are between the ages of 26 and 44. In many ways, Scibienski and the congregation reflect the best of Gen­eration X’s entrepreneurial spirit. When one of their renters moved out of the building and the church suddenly had empty rooms, they saw an opportunity. They imagined that the space could be another door through which they could connect with and minister to people in their community. They began to understand it as a place where they could allow God to heal some of those hurts.