Riley Hiebert was this year’s recipient of The Citizen’s $1,000 graduation bursary. To apply for the award, Niverville Collegiate students must submit an article for our monthly Commentary section. The following article was the winning entry.
For many years, our community has been evolving. Ten years ago, Niverville had only 2,464 people. Since 2006, that figure has nearly doubled to 4,610. No doubt, other towns across Canada only wish they could grow in the way we have.
Interestingly, the number of people attending church does not seem to have kept up with the growth in population. Rather, it seems that, relative to the population growth, our churches have been shrinking.
While church attendance isn’t necessarily an accurate reflection of the health or effectiveness of a church, it does hint at how well that church works within the community. Community has been described as “a group of people interested in each other’s lives” (Jason Kehler, Youth Pastor of Fourth Avenue Bible Church). If that is so, then the only way to reclaim our community is to create relationships, meet, converse, and really get to know people.
For many years, the church was a great facilitator of relationships. The church created food banks and offered help to those who needed it—not because they had to, but because it was a way for them to create relationship.
Overall, the church still has a desire to create relationships, but they seem to have forgotten how.
The church runs many important programs—Helping Hands, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Baby Blessings, just to name a few. These are amazing ministries. Helping Hands, for instance, addresses poverty in Niverville and its surrounding communities. It’s a great organization.
But while programs can be very helpful, if they don’t lead to deeper connection, they are useless. Programs should be the means to reach a goal, not the goal itself. What is the goal then? True, genuine friendship.
Jesus called the church to help the needy, giving them what they need so they don’t starve. However, Jesus didn’t care as much about a person’s physical needs; he cared about their spiritual needs. The Bible tells the story of a paralyzed man being brought to Jesus: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven’” (Matthew 9:2, NIV). Jesus focused on the heart of the man because he knew that a physical body means nothing if the heart cannot be saved.
Many programs in Niverville already do this. They focus on the person. They use their skills to reach people, and out of that comes something deeper. Perhaps the program is merely a stepping stone to guide people towards someone else who can help them—a step in the process of cultivating an honest relationship.
I should clarify: creating relationship does not mean making a convert. Creating relationship merely means that we become truly invested in one another’s lives. Not to preach or force anything down anyone’s throat, but to literally just become friends. Friends invest in other friends, turning mere towns into thriving communities.
What can we as individuals do to help Niverville reclaim its sense of community and relationship? We can get involved. Not only does volunteering help the community, but acts of service lead to the development of great friendships. I believe that if every person who attends church were to help and get involved on some level, it would open the door for something greater.
There are many ways to get involved, and not just within the church building. Helping Hands, community or school sports, the MCC, the YFC drop-in, and the personal care home are just a few places where we could serve. This is not an exhaustive list. If everyone in our town were to volunteer their time, we would have to start going outside of the community because we would have met all the needs here.
It’s not always easy to volunteer. Between school, kids, jobs, and everything else, few find the time to help. But what if we did? What if we found the time and energy to help those in need?
We would be the most caring, loving, friendly community anyone has ever known.
