The following reflection is by Daniel Rutland. Daniel has been a member of the Servants Southall team since 2009 and currently serves as one of the team’s two co-leaders. Southall is a suburb on the west edge of London, about 10 miles from the city centre. In a report published last year, Southall was described as the least English place in England, with just 17.82% of residents being of English ethnic origin. In fact, many refer to Southall as Little India. Read more about the Southall Team here.
For a long time now I’ve been thinking about the needs of the men we’ve gotten to know in Southall. It’s noticeable that most of the relationships we’ve made have been with women and children, and they form the core of the group that comes together for our Thursday night gatherings and other events. Yet it’s equally obvious that there are some very lonely and vulnerable men around, and in an environment that values male strength and success, their situation can feel particularly uncomfortable. Unemployment, debt, relationship breakdown, bereavement, illness and mental health problems are all factors that we’ve seen affecting men’s lives.
At the same time I’ve been thinking about faith and what it means or could mean to some of these people. I’ve watched at least one friend express an interest in church, try it out and drift away again…somehow unable or unwilling to find what they needed there. And then there’s the Bible. “It reads like a horror story to me” said one man I know, attempting to make sense of it for the first time and starting – as you do – at the beginning. “All that pain, judgment and conflict….”
About the same time as I had that conversation I began reading a book by Servants elder Bob Ekblad, with the startling title Reading the Bible with the Damned. People on the margins, he maintains, are used to being put down by others, and don’t expect God to be any different. Difficult relationships and experiences and even “dominant theology” can all get in the way, making it hard to “distinguish between the authentic voice of the Spirit at the core of their being and the external voice of the official transcript, which damns them.” He’d be the first to admit – and I can only agree – that there are also plenty of outwardly successful and religious people who share this struggle.
So, since January the men of our team have been getting together once a fortnight with any other men who are interested to eat, read the Bible, share our needs and stories and pray for one another. It’s a small start and we have a lot to learn, but already there is a sense of being on a journey together – just like Abraham, whose life we’ve been discussing – and we look forward to seeing where it will lead.
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