I Did It, You Can Too: House Party At Church!

I've been a member of the United Methodist Church my whole life. I grew up with vacation Bible school, the Methodist hymnal, and Welch's grape juice communions. Even when I went to college, I found a home church that felt familiar.

A church in a college town is an interesting thing. There are lots of members who are passing through, and a core group of long term members who belong to the community as residents. At my particular college town UMC, the long term members are really invested in serving the community.

What does this have to do with MomsRising.org? A lot, I realized! A key issue for this community includes health care access for children. Our church is a member of PICO, a national network of churches organizing on behalf of poor people and especially the uninsured. But health care wasn't the only issue folks care about. The economy and issues surrounding the increasing pressures around work/family balance touched so many church members.

I saw that the MOTHERS platform represents a lot of what the church might call "social justice concerns." So I decided to have a house party at the church. I thought people might want to know more about MomsRising.org's work.

It was such a success! People I didn't even know from the community came. We watched the "Motherhood Manifesto," had a potluck (obviously-- it's not a UMC event without a potluck), and had an incredible discussion afterward. People were talking about their work experiences, balancing work and family life, fair pay or lack thereof, health care or lack thereof, and on and on.

The discussion probably could have gone on for hours. People were excited to find out about MomsRising.org and figure out ways to bring this message of work-family balance, which is such a part of so many faith communities, to life. They were excited to have concrete ways to improve wages, health care access, childcare quality, etc.

What's your faith community like? Is there a focus on family life and work balance issues? Have you tried out a MomsRising.org house party there? I found out that it's a great way to get some good conversations going and get people feeling like there's a way to put faith in action.

p.s. if you're in Minneapolis and wondering how to get to be part of the action at the RNC, MomsRising.org will have a fabulous Power of Onesie event Weds at 3 PM. Tell your faith community about it and bring 'em along for the fun!