Fitchburg churches work together to define community

James Morgan from Madison-area Urban Ministry talks with participants at an Oct. 15 meeting of Fitchburg Faith/City Leaders.

By Jimmy Bero
Collaboration Project Story Team

What defines the identity of a city? 

When you picture a typical town or suburb, maybe you see the community rallying their support for the school, whether at a sports competition, concert, or other school event. 

Or perhaps you picture a quaint downtown or city center with local businesses that define the flavors and services that are so beloved by their neighbors. These central staples of a city build a bond between citizens across age and racial lines. 

Well, Fitchburg is not your typical Madison suburb. Though its population is just about thousand shy of Middleton and Verona combined, there is no Fitchburg school district. Its students are divided among Madison, Verona and Oregon. And despite many thriving businesses and constant development in the city, there’s no central downtown area. 

To complicate the already spread out and split up nature of Fitchburg, the city, while beautifully diverse racially, remains extremely segregated.

So when the Fitchburg Faith Network & City Leaders meetings began in January of 2013, one of the formative questions facing the group was: “What is Fitchburg’s identity? Who are we as a city?”

It was also a question for the churches involved. What was their role in helping shape the identity of the city, building links between the diverse communities and finding ways to serve the needs of the people there? The group brought together congregations that moved beyond their denominational identities to explore new ways of collaboration.

Because the truth is, who we believe we are will shape our motivation about how we live. 

So when it comes to the city of Fitchburg and the Faith Network & City leaders meetings, how are their collaborative efforts shaping the city’s identity? 

Well, let’s start by saying that there hasn’t been a full on Christian revival or great awakening to the reality of Jesus sweeping the city. But that’s not really the goal. The goal is to join what may seem like opposites – religious groups and local government along with social service agencies – in collaboration with one another to create a more compassionate and unified city. 

Over many years of gathering together, real relationships and true partnerships have been formed between various entities and organizations to make Fitchburg a better place for ALL its residents. 

Elsa Gumm, on staff at The Church at Christ Memorial and co-leader of the Fitchburg Faith Network & City Leaders meeting, puts it like this, “When we build relationships, we share ownership of, and accountability for, positive outcomes for residents. We flourish when we put our bodies and minds together in the same public spaces, listen to one another, and cooperate toward a goal.”

Jesus embodies this way of life, of putting himself in proximity to those who are most vulnerable. He doesn’t stay at a distance from the hurting and outcast, he draws near to them and identifies with them. In Dane county there’s a lot of citizens who know the issues, and care deeply about the issues, but don’t know the people affected by those issues. Our identity as a community is more knowledge than practice when it comes to loving our neighbor.

But let’s play “What if?”

What if Fitchburg became the kind of city that rooted its identity in the kind of compassionate, neighborly love that broke down the stark racial and economic barriers that exist in the city?

What if churches required part of their staff hours to be fully devoted to community service and development? What if the government did too?

What if we all - rather than keeping a safe, comfortable distance -  leaned in and put ourselves in the neighborhoods and communities, in relationship with those who are most vulnerable in our city, and because of those relationships we wouldn’t just fight for a solution to a problem, but instead be advocating on behalf of a friend.

There’s a long way to go, and perhaps creating an identity of compassionate love for each other in Fitchburg is a far off hope. But that won’t stop the Faith Network & City Leaders from continuing to gather to move each other closer to that end. 

An identity rooted in this kind of selfless, Jesus-like service for one another breaks down walls and could create the kind of unity we all desire. And that’s a unity more valuable and more beautiful than a downtown city center or school district.

For more information on the Fitchburg Faith Network, contact Elsa Gumm at The Church at Christ Memorial - egumm@livelifetogether.com or Casey Johnson at Redeemer City Church - cjohnson@redeemercitychurch.org

To read about the origins of the Faith and City Leaders project, here is an article in the Oct. 19, 2014 Fitchburg Star.

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Henry Sanders of Selfless Ambition talks at the Oct. 15 meeting of Fitchburg Faith/City Leaders.