The unspoken consequences of urban churches

There is an unspoken consequence of urban churches that is not talked about and I came face to face to it today. Recently in Boston there have been a number of incidences where small or not so small urban churches, mainly in Dorchester, have been causing problems. Mostly building code violations, and noise and parking complaints. These problems crop up when church plants try to make a house into a church (building code violations), or when a large existing church moves into a new neighborhood (noise and parking problems).

This dynamic was discusses at a Boston City Council meeting this afternoon that I attended. At first I was going to just watch but I decided to speak up when I discovered that there was no one there to speak on the religious communities behalf.

There were four people from the public their to testify. The other three gave vary discouraging testimony. To be honest I was kind of ashamed to be their after hearing them talk about how churches in their neighborhood had been negatively impacting them. One man, through a series of events, may actually have to sell his house because he can't keep tenets due to the actions of a local church.

My comments were basically as follows:

• I'm saddened and discouraged to hear about the experiences people have had with these local churches.
  
• Most Churches want to impact there neighborhood for the better and they can be a catalyst for change in neighborhoods like Dorchester.
  
• There is a lack of understanding from Church's as to building codes requirements and city regulations.
  
• I suggested that the Building Inspections Department and the Boston Redevelopment Authority work with the Emmanuel Gospel center to help reach out to churches to help them better understand their impact on neighborhoods.
  

In the end I do not know if I should have spoken up or not. I'm afraid that I might have sounded like I was justifying the obviously bad, and sometimes down right mean behavior that these churches have exhibited. This is one of the reasons that I left my church. We sometimes forget to think about the neighborhoods that we are in. We get caught up in getting more people in the seats that we forget how that might effect our neighbors. We let our services go a little longer because the worship is good, or the spirit is present, not thinking that it might be to late to be playing amplified music.
It can be very easy to forget to love your neighbor, while you are busy loving God.