Deaf Christian Fellowship

A Deaf church. Can a fellowship of about 15 people be called a church? Is a church without a defined “Mission Statement” still a church? What if pastoral duties are undertaken by a man with a degree in history rather than one who graduated from seminary? What if one of teachers and leaders is a woman? What if...what if the members of the church are Deaf?!

If you had little to no problem answering “Yes” to these questions (I won't insist on unconditional affirmative answers; Feel free to trail qualifiers after each “Yes”) then welcome to to the Deaf church located on the campus of Goshen College. Please note that “Deaf church” contains a capital letter following the format of Deaf Culture's rule regarding written reference to itself.

Wait, what?

“Wait, what” what? Were you unaware that “Deaf” identifies a culture as well as a sensory state? Well, now you know. Anyway, the Deaf church on Goshen College's campus is officially named the “Deaf Christian Fellowship,” although I have not seen that name being used by any of the actual members when referring to it in conversation. I suppose the members and attendees don't feel much need for using a formal name for their fellowship.

According to Phil Harden Jr., the presiding pastor, known churches for the Deaf are rather sparse in the area, the closest being in South Bend and in Fort Wayne, and at least the former of these is “having trouble staying afloat.” Perhaps these churches draw most of the Deaf Christians in the tens of miles range, thus accounting for the small membership of the Deaf Christian Fellowship. Or perhaps the Deaf community close to Goshen is not spiritually inclined towards following Jesus Christ. As the Pastor put it: “You could say that threatening the survival [of the Deaf church] is the Deaf people themselves...if they don't come. Social people will go bowling to basketball tournaments...they'd rather go there. But there are Deaf people who like church.”

So perhaps there are Deaf Christians who don't realize that they can get to a church that they can be edified by more comfortably and personally than some might experience in a Hearing church. From what I have seen of the interactions of this Deaf church's members with each other and with the Hearing members of the church that houses theirs (the Deaf church meets in a room in the building used by College Mennonite Church), the Deaf church members have longer, more informative, and more expressive conversations with people possessing ASL skills than they do with people who can only speak a language (and hope that the Deaf all lip-read proficiently).

Deaf-to-Deaf conversations among members of this fellowship can flow at breakneck speeds between people 10 to 20 feet apart, and someone not used to knowing what pauses, gazes, and glances indicate that someone else is signing can find him-or-herself worrying about whiplash as s/he tries to not lose track of the topic or any new information. If someone who uses ASL but is not a fluent signer is involved, the natural signers usually slow down (somewhat...they could still be too fast for the newbie) or repeat signs when asked. However, this grace necessitates that the Hearing person attempting to be a part of the conversation be accomplished at at least the rudimentary level of ASL. Simply signing “Hello,” “Good Morning,” or “Thank You” is appreciated, but only the bare minimum of engaging members of the Deaf church in their own language.

Lip-reading and speaking are not common skills in this Deaf church, with Pastor Phil being the only Deaf member I noticed regularly using voiced words. This seems to be an extension of his overall welcoming attitude towards visitors, not wanting anyone bold enough to venture into the Deaf World to be alienated. The rest of the fellowship is equally welcoming, and an English-to-ASL interpreter is even available for unskilled signers in order to ensure that visitors are not missing out, which is more praise I can say for this fellowship than for some other church groups' attempts at multilingual provision. However, I hope that, regardless of signing ability, the Hearing visitor gets familiarized enough with American Deaf Culture to be comfortable with behaviors such as frequent touching (including hugging), hand waving (not limited strictly to signing), and table-thumping (strong enough to be felt through the surface). A little knowledge of Deaf Culture would do the mostly-unaware Hearing World some good, and more even more, much like how, to finish with another Phil-quote: "The knowledge of God is good for Deaf people...They just don't know it!"