etcetera:

by Rachel Gates

We’ve gathered in every possible kind of place over the years. In the beginning, we met on the Southside in space kindly loaned to us by ChatHOP.  We would have a potluck every single week after church, slow cookers filled to the brim with whatever we had in our pantries, and somehow it worked — drawing a disparate group of people together again and again over a shared meal. We searched for months for a space in Red Bank to call home. When we finally found it, we spent many more months building walls, building tables, painting bathrooms — we had an extremely limited budget, but a small group of dedicated helpers — and eventually The Meeting House was up and running and Mission Red Bank had a home.

I was newly pregnant with our first child at that first MRB meeting — he is now 11. My children have grown up in The Meeting House, in the family of Mission Red Bank. They’ve been loved on by so many people, and they’ve also seen us fixing MRB toilets or locks on a Saturday, taking meals to families welcoming new babies or going through crises, helping MRB members move, mow their lawns, or navigate tragedy. They’ve seen the body of Christ at work in their community.

The faces have changed over the years, again and again. During the pandemic, we listened online, we gathered in a parking lot, we met in a park. When we were finally able to be back together under the roof of The Meeting House, we found ourselves as an almost entirely new congregation. Personally, we had to ask ourselves, do we stay and rebuild? But people were still coming, and they were still hungry for what we had to offer. We started MRB with a passion to provide a safe space for people in the Red Bank area to live in community and walk with Jesus, and we’re still doing the same thing today.

Members of MRB have come from every possible denominational background, unchurched, formerly churched, deconstructed — but we’ve all found something special here. Many of us had no idea what Anglicanism was before coming here (and some of us still aren’t sure). In every space and place that we’ve occupied, MRB has been a lifeboat for many, a safe space in which to ask questions, to wrestle, to learn how to follow Jesus in real time in a messy and broken world. It’s not always been easy, but we’ve seen God show up again and again as we do the work together.

I’m excited and grateful for the upcoming partnership between MRB and RBUMC. We’ve been a scrappy bunch on a shoestring budget for so long, that I imagine the comparative wealth of space and resources is going to be mind blowing. I look forward to working with and living in community with another church, both of us seeking to be with Jesus and do what he did. And whatever the future holds, I know that lifeboat will continue to hold a safe space for those looking for Jesus.