Resting on the Laurels of Giants

On Monday this week, I had an appointment with a neurosurgeon to look at my MRI scans of my neck. He is one of the best neurosurgeons in the country, working at the best hospital in the country, the Clinica Bíblica. Strange name for a hospital, right? My appointment was in the Strachan building. Strachan doesn’t sound very Costa Rican. (By the way, I don’t need surgery. Physical Therapy alone should solve my problem! Thanks for the many thoughts and prayers.)

On Wednesday, I was arriving at the chess club that I help run at Roblealto, a home/shelter for kids who have had to be separated temporarily from their families. Walking in to the administrative building, I walked past a series of old photos including photos of Harry and Susan Strachan. It wasn’t a coincidence.

I walk by these photos once per week for the chess club.

Roble Alto celebrated its 90th anniversary last year. The Clinica Bíblica is now on it’s 93rd anniversary. As it would happen, many notable institutions in Costa Rica were founded 80-100 years ago by the Strachans.

One of the first large Protestant churches was founded downtown San José by the Strachans. The original sanctuary could hold up to a thousand people! The first protestant seminary, now called La Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana was founded by them too. They also co-founded the Latin American Mission (LAM) which is now a part of United World Mission. Then, after Harry died, Susan helped found the primary evangelical radio station, El Faro del Caribe (The Lighthouse of the Caribbean).

Here is a slightly more complete bio of Harry and here is one of Susan. Harry would travel up and down the continent holding evangelistic rallies, and then travel to Europe to raise more funds for projects. Meanwhile, Susan somehow kept everything running locally. They were quite the team!

I’m not particularly interested in producing more hagiography of the Strachans. Nor am I interested in pretending they were perfect. They were human. Every missionary has their faults.

But, I am interested in reflecting on one character trait that I see in them. They were quite skilled at identifying the felt needs of the Costa Rican society, and building institutions that addressed those needs. At a time in which Costa Rica was quite hostile towards Protestantism, the Protestants showed what they had to offer the country.

At a time when there weren’t many options for quality medical care, they built a hospital. At a time when there weren’t many options for taking care of orphans and providing them with holistic care, they built an orphanage.

These institutions have changed over time, out of necessity. Times change as do needs. The hospital was set free and slowly became a private hospital catering largely to the upper classes and medical tourism. There was even a black-market for organ donations operating out of it for a while!

With time, the Costa Rican government put in place a robust foster-care system for orphans. Roblealto transitioned to focus on kids in need of temporary shelter, while working with psychologists and social workers to help the families to the point that they could receive their children once again. Roblealto found its niche and continues to excel.

The seminary that the Strachans started (originally a block away from the hospital) became more liberal with time. Rival institutions sprang up including UNELA, where I have been working for the past 7 years.

Institutions change as the world around them changes.

I’m a millennial. The stereotype is that we don’t like institutions. That might be true for my generation in general. But I personally see quite a bit of value in institutions. What scares me, however, is institutionalism.

An institution is a means to an end. You build it with a purpose… a mission, if you will. But with time, as more money and effort is invested into the institution, it becomes easy to view the means as an end. The thing that helped you achieve a goal becomes the goal in and of itself. Keeping an institution running becomes the mission. You might even forget what the purpose of the institution was in the first place.

One of the ways in which this is most vividly visible is the way that some denominations have taken steps to protect clergy who have been credibly accused of abuse. Ideally, a denomination would help keep churches and pastors/priests accountable. Yet, time and again, we’ve seen institutions protect abusers.

I had a millennial missionary-friend ask me a question a few years back. “What do you do if you really believe in the purpose of [the institution], but you start to see that [the institution] might actually be doing harm to the purpose that it is supposed to be fulfilling?”

What is the purpose of a chess club? What is the purpose of a denomination? What is the purpose of a school devoted to theological education? What is the purpose of a youth group at church? Are our institutions serving these purposes well? Why or why not?

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I’d also like to see Christians work to build new institutions to address 21st century problems. Each person is going to have a different view of what the most pressing problems are. I’ll name two that I see in Costa Rica.

1. Gang activity has been on the rise here. Costa Rica for decades has avoided the sort of violence that has plagued El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Yet the gangs are making in-roads in marginalized communities. These same communities are already filled with churches and NGOs. You would think that these churches would be well placed to offer real hope to a young man who has reluctantly come to the conclusion that gang-participation is his best opportunity to live a decent life. You would think that. But many of the churches focus exclusively on the next life. And the NGOs do good work, but at the end of the day aren’t able to offer much to the kids most likely to end up in jail. What sorts of institutions could be built to meet this need?
2. Loneliness is as real here as elsewhere, resulting in increased rates of suicide and addiction. During the pandemic, the loneliness was felt by all a bit more acutely. Churches worked hard to keep in touch with people. But now that life has returned to normal, much of the loneliness persists. A number of the teens who come to the youth group at my church have been up-front about their intentions. They’re looking for friends. A recent NY Times piece talked about this from a non-religious perspective. (You can read it here without a subscription) Non-religious people are aware of their need for community. But they don’t want to find it in a place where religion will get shoved down their throats. I wonder if this is an opportunity for hospitality. Many churches have gotten used to letting their building space be used for AA meetings and as polling places during elections. Many communities that don’t have a community center do have a church building that sits largely unused for 5-6 days of the week. I see potential here.

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I’m half-way through the term and I’m as energized as ever to see my students learning. I start physical therapy on July 4 for my neck issues. Prayers would be appreciated.