A Full Day of Urban Ministry

What is a day in urban ministry like? Yesterday I started my Monday off with some quiet time and intentionally giving the Lord my day. He took me up on that offer. I had only a little bit of time that morning to handle some administrative responsibilities for LAMP, including a weekly e-newsletter to the mentors and staff at our church. Then came a phone call that a single mom of one of our LAMP kids was desperately in need of some help to move out of her apartment in Homewood. She had nobody else to turn to, so I spent the afternoon helping her and her children move their belongings to a new apartment up the street. Emails and phone calls would have to go unanswered for now. When I arrived back at my house, fifteen minutes before the "official" start time of Monday Night Madness, there were already a dozen kids waiting on my front porch to get in. By 5:30pm we had 25 people squeezed into our main floor. Julie managed to feed everyone (I think God miraculously turned sixteen hamburgers and two boxes of mac and cheese into enough food for everyone). Most of the kids decided to make a dance video to put up on You Tube, so our front porch and Susquehanna Street turned into a makeshift dance studio. After that, we played street football. Kids also played checkers, made bead jewelry, played dart tag, threw the frisbee, played video games, and much more. I had conversations with most of the kids. One boy got hurt playing football and I had to drive him to his house. Three boys who are brothers needed to talk to me about some stressful situations that are going on in their home life. Within a brief period of time, my front porch had been transformed from a front porch into a dance studio, a medical triage area, and a counseling center. After everyone left, I drove over to check on the boy who had been hurt playing football. That visit gave me the chance to meet several new people in Homewood for the first time. I returned home to put my kids to bed and help Julie clean up the mess. Then we finally had some time to use our front porch for its functionally intended purpose, as a place to sit back, relax, soak in the warm summer night, and reflect on the day. When my head finally hit the pillow last night I was asleep within seconds.

Just this one day's description points out some of the things that urban leaders need in their tool boxes: prayer, openness, planning, flexibility, typing skills, presence, muscles (for lifting boxes), dancing skills (sorry for the mental image I just gave you about what my dance skills might look like), athletic ability, gaming skills, counseling skills, medical first-responder training, reliable transportation, cleaning skills, and reflection. Oh, and good sleeping skills are a must. Who knows what God has in store for me today?

Questions About Life in Homewood

I met with a friend yesterday who is strongly considering moving to Homewood with his wife. They are coming to crunch time on their decision, and he had some good questions to ask us. We did our best to answer his questions from our limited experience (we've only been living here fourteen months). I did tell him that they are definitely needed here... I think just about every kid in Homewood dropped in to visit us yesterday. We need help! My conversation with my friend, and the great need for other people to move to Homewood to join arms with us, made me think that maybe I should post my thoughts for others who might be considering a move to Homewood (or living incarnationally in any city in this big world of ours). Here's some next steps for you to consider if you are wrestling with the ramifications of a move to the inner city:

1. Read a book about it. This was the first step I took when the thought first crossed my mind. Many people have written about their experiences of living incarnationally in the city, and we all get to benefit from the risks they took to put their thoughts on paper for others to wrestle with. I would recommend The Urban Christian by Ray Bakke, Journey to the Center of the City by Randy White, or Sub-Merge by John Hayes.

2. Ask lots of questions. This is a tough one. Before we moved to Homewood, I remember thinking that I had lots of questions but I didn't know who to ask. I could not just take my questions to the average upwardly mobile American Christian, because they would probably tell me I was crazy! The world does not like it when you step off the path of the American Dream (the epitome of upward mobility), and many well-meaning Christians in America have put all their eggs in that basket (choosing to live in that smaller story instead of living in God's Story). I was fortunate in my case that I knew both Randy White and Ray Bakke through my DMin program at BGU, so I drilled them both with tons of questions whenever I had the opportunity. In Pittsburgh, I set up some time with Saleem Ghubril. Don't overthink this step, though. The point is to take the step to ask lots of questions of people who have actually done it (not just speculated or studied about it).

3. Is it safe? No, it is not safe. And that's why you should do it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is foolishness to the world, and people will not understand why you would put you and your family at risk. "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him" 1 Corinthians 1:27-29. Everybody asks this question, "Is it safe?" It is not safe. It's utter foolishness. But God says that when we risk everything for him, that is the place where we will find life. I am not advocating for irresponsibility or for people to be blindly naive to the dangers of the city. Julie and I take precautions for our family. I am simply saying that, in my opinion, the route of safety and comfort provides more danger to my family than our choice to live out God's call for us in Homewood.

4. What about my children? Moving to the inner city to live incarnationally among the poor people of this world amidst broken systems is the best thing you could ever do for your children. I realize this is a controversial statement, so I'm sure I'll get some comments for my opinion on this. There are many advantages to raising children in the city. I believe that God is rapidly urbanizing the world, and parents who raise their kids in the city are modeling for their children how to navigate complex urban environments and systems. Also, 60% of the world lives on less than $2 a day and the huge gap between rich and poor continues to grow exponentially. God has a huge heart for the poor and marginalized people of this world. Parents who raise their kids among the poor are equipping them in profound ways to be used by God to make a difference with their lives as adults. White, middle class or affluent Americans make up less than 2% of the world's population. Cities are filled will many different ethnicities, types of socioeconomic status, and lifestyles. Kids should not be sheltered from those things, they should be exposed to them as a normal part of their growing up because that is what the world is like. Parents who raise their kids in the city give their kids a global worldview. The twenty-first century will be defined by a mass, global migration to cities, the profound needs of the world's poor, and the rapid expansion of Christianity in third-world countries outside of the US (80% of the world's Christians now live outside of the US, Canada, and Europe). Christian parents are responsible for equipping their kids to thrive in that type of world, and the best place to teach kids about reality is by living in the heart of the inner city.

5. What is God's will for your life? The secret to our ministry in Homewood is that we are being obedient to God's call for our family. God calls people to many different places and functions within the body of Christ. Some people will be called to minister to people in rural or suburban places, with a wide range of needs and cultures around the globe. Nobody should move their family to the inner city apart from God's will for their lives. Seek the face of God. Pray. Seek wise counsel. Work it all out within the context of the body of believers in Christ. But, above all... be obedient to the call of God and the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Find out where God is moving and the Holy Spirit is at work, and go join him there. Globally, God is clearly moving in cities and among the poor who represent the majority of people on this planet. I think it would be a good idea for anyone to live where God is moving.

Street Justice

His fists are clenched and he has an angry look on his face. The tears are streaming and his eyes are fixated on the boy who wronged him. He stares strongly at his opponent over the shoulder of his friend who is holding him back from fighting. He is seven years old. Just moments ago everyone was playing together nicely and having a great time, but instantly the peace broke down and now street justice must be served. The young restrainer loses his grip on his friend, and the corner of Richland and Susquehanna in Homewood is about to turn into the courtroom of the streets. Justice will be served first with words that sting, and then desperate punches will be thrown. I intervene. At first I stand in between the foes. I talk sense that bounces off of them. I negotiate, but it does not work. They slowly edge closer to one another. I ask an older boy to restrain the opponent. I focus my attention on the main character of this story. I face him, get down on one knee, put my hands on his strained shoulders, and I try to make eye contact with him. I can tell his adrenaline is pumping strong, and his breathing is still choked up by his tears. "Let's go in the house" I say softly, even though my first thought was to yell it at him. I do not like to yell at kids, and I can't very well give other people a hard time for yelling at children if I can't model a better way to interact myself. Thankfully, I have found that calm words often speak louder than yelling in escalated situations. My words finally break through, and I can tell because he shifts his eye contact away from his enemy and into my eyes. He slowly starts to climb down from his mountain of rage. I give a soft push to initiate the journey to my living room, and he shows that it's OK by taking a couple of backward steps. He glances back at his opponent and delivers one more verbal blow before turning around to storm into my house. I follow close behind and extend my arm to our sofa when we are inside. "Take a few minutes to calm down and then we'll talk" I say. He does what I ask. The tears slow down. Normal breathing sets in. His shoulders slump, and he stops clenching his fists. He's back to being himself. He's ready to talk. We do. I don't lecture him. I just listen and interject here and there. We talk through what happened. I intentionally shift the conversation towards reconciliation and forgiveness. He understands. I give him some more space to cool off while I go outside to have the same conversation with the other boy. In time I bring them together. Apologies are made. Forgiveness is granted, at least for the time being. I want to overkill the situation, but the boys have already moved on. They start playing together again. They are friends again. Just like that. That comforts me, but I know that this probably won't be a long term truce. And some day, they won't be seven years old any more. They'll be fifteen, or twenty-five, or fifty-one years old. I won't be there to deescalate the situation, or keep them from verbally or physically assaulting one another. Some day they'll have access to more than words or fists with which to enact street justice upon one another. Will the lessons I have been teaching and modeling for them somehow kick in then? I don't know. God knows. God is the one with the plan for their lives, not me. God is in control. I just need to be obedient to follow Jesus, and on this particular day God chose the holy ground on the corner of Richland and Susquehanna as the place where I was called upon to serve. Christians cannot live out God's call to reach people in need if we are unwilling to enter into people's pain.

Power and Money

It is difficult for Christians in America to avoid the temptations of power and money that are so characteristic of the culture. This often leads to a tension for well-meaning people who are honestly struggling to determine where "the line" is. How much stuff is too much stuff? How much money is too much money? How much home is too much home? What should power look like in a nation with an overabundance of power? What does it mean to be an authentic Christian in a culture that celebrates success in terms of power and money accumulated over the course of a lifetime? Most Christians in America wrestle with these issues, no matter what their own particular economic status is.

Oscar Romero offered some interesting insight on this subject. "Do you want to know if your Christianity is genuine? Here is the touchstone: Who do you get along with? Who are those who criticize you? Who are those who do not accept you? Who are those who flatter you? Know from what Christ said once, "I have not come to bring peace, but division." There will be division even in the same family, because some want to live more comfortably by the world's principles, those of power and money. But others have embraced the call of Christ and must reject all that cannot be just in the world."

The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ often runs counter to the message of the American dream, but many Christians in America go to great lengths to figure out how to somehow join the two worldviews together. It can't be done, and that's why American Christians spend so much time living in the tension of "the line." There is no line to straddle. A Christian can not have one foot in both worlds. Christians are set apart to follow Jesus, not to follow the world's principles of overindulgence in power and money. Beware of the Christian preacher or Christian financial guru who claims to have figured out the formula to the marriage of power and money with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Prosperity doctrine is heresy.

Finding Peace Amidst Gun Shots

I tucked the girls into bed tonight and I joined my wife, Julie, on our front porch for "porch time" to debrief our day with one another. The first thing she said to me when I stepped onto the porch, rather nonchalantly, was "You just missed three gun shots." She pointed to the block next to us and said, "They came from right over there by Tioga Street." We did not hear or see any emergency responders to the shots, so we assumed that nobody was injured. Her statements triggered a conversation about our work in Homewood, and our perspectives on the violence in the community. It was not what I would describe as a fearful conversation. When I arrived on our front porch, she wasn't taking cover behind her chair. It was nothing that dramatic. We just had a matter-of-fact conversation about the gun shots that she heard. In fact, she had been writing a poem/song to God in her journal when she first heard the shots. I asked her to read me what she had written, and the mood of her song changed greatly between the lines she had written before the gun shots and the lines written afterward. Julie reflects differently than I do (usually in poetic form), but we both have recognized the importance of daily reflection for people who are involved in urban ministry.

The gun shot conversation is not neutral, though. Somebody got mad enough to fire off some gun shots. What would make somebody arrive at that point in life? What was their background or life story? Was it a 15 year old doing something like that for the first time with a surge of adrenaline, or was it a 33 year old seasoned veteran of the streets who had half-heartedly released some shells just to make a statement into the air? I don't know. All I know is that a quiet night, and my wife's poem to the Lord on our front porch, were interrupted by three gun shots. Have gun shots become "normal" to us? What does that mean?

When we first moved to Homewood, we would have both gone to bed anxious and restless with the thought that gun shots could happen at any time that close to our house. I think that we will rest easy tonight knowing that God is in complete control of our lives, and that he has placed us here in Homewood to proactively do something about the gun shots. Every day we help to cast an alternative vision for the young people here in Homewood. We know that God has a future for each of the young people that we work with here. We will be able to sleep tonight because we know that we are at the center of God's will for our lives. I'm guessing that most married men in Pittsburgh tonight did not start their "porch time" conversations with their wives with the statement, "Hey... I just heard three gun shots." A lot of Christians will not be called to urban ministry, but I do hope that most Christians will be able to go to sleep tonight with the peaceful thought that they are at the center of God's will in how they live their lives. That peace does not necessarily come from the safety that we build up for ourselves. It comes in supernatural ways from the God of the universe who calls us all to embrace risk and live life on the edge for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Courage

Some people have told me that they admire my courage in working with inner city kids and moving my family to Homewood. I never really know what to say when people talk to me about my courage, because I do not believe that the courage comes from me. I believe that I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and hopefully all of my words and actions flow out of that relationship. In fact, every person who follows Jesus should live their lives with profound courage. That does not mean that every person must work and live in the inner city. I am saying that every Christian faces daily choices about what to do with their fear. The life of a Christian requires great courage, the type of courage that flows through us because of our relationship with God. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrated remarkable courage during his lifetime, and he was killed for it. He had a lot to say about courage. Here are some examples:

"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life."

"Courage faces fear and thereby masters it. Cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it. Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear."

"Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion. The tendency of most is to adopt a view that is so ambiguous that it will include everything and so popular that it will include everybody. Not a few men who cherish lofty and noble ideas hide them under a bushel for fear of being called different."

Boundaries

The first time I met Ferby, he was throwing rocks at one of his friends, Amir, in the vacant lot across the street from my house. My wife and I intervened on their rock-throwing fun that day by distracting them with a nerf football, freezie pops, street chalk, and bubble wands. Our short term goal was to get them to stop throwing rocks at each other, but we did not have any long term goals involving relationships with them.

Since that day, Ferby has become good friends with my youngest daughter. He comes over to our house just about every single day. Multiple times. When he is not at our house, I often see him out and about wandering the streets of Homewood looking for something interesting (usually destructive) to do. Recently, he has taken up the hobby of wandering around in places that are within sight line of our front door so that he can run up to greet us every time we arrive at our house. When he started calling my daughters his "sisters," Julie "mom,", and me "dad," we realized that we would need to have a difficult conversation about boundaries with the little guy. I have tried several different approaches with him. Let's just say that the boundary negotiations are still in progress.

I wonder what Jesus thinks about my boundary negotiations with Ferby? It's kind of ridiculous to imagine Jesus saying things like, "I'd love to spend time with you, but I only do that on Monday nights from 5-8pm. Come back then and you'll get my full attention." Or, "We are not your family. You don't live here." Or, "We can't feed you every day. You're not in our grocery budget." Instead, Jesus often said things to people like, "Follow me... Love your neighbor as yourself... Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven... Do not worry about what you will eat or wear... give away everything you have." I can't imagine him saying something like, "Don't follow me." Or, "Blessed are those who are responsible and efficient with what they have, for they are the ones who figured out how to create effective boundaries between themselves and people in need." Jesus did model some boundaries for people in ministry, though. He often withdrew from the crowds to rest. He only selected twelve people to be very close to him, and he only invited three of those followers to go into deeper relationships. I know many urban ministry leaders struggle in this area of establishing healthy boundaries, and one thing I know is that there is no magical place of boundaries that one arrives at. Boundaries are an ongoing process. Ferby is a human being, not an urban ministry project to be controlled or manipulated. Jesus loves Ferby, and so we will continue to love Ferby. Love is what defines relationships, not boundaries.

A Tale of Three Friends

Three young men were born and raised in Homewood. They had all of the usual influences of the rough streets to deal with and overcome... the gangs, the drugs, and the entire underground economy. The odds of graduating from the public education system were against them. The political, police, and public works departments in the city largely ignored their neighborhood. Businesses and legitimate jobs definitely avoided their neighborhood. Shady real estate investors plundered their neighborhood. Almost every white, middle class, or affluent resident abandoned their neighborhood when times got tough. Crack-cocaine devasted their community. Violence and poverty were just a part of their lives. All of these negative forces could have defined the type of men they would become. But... that did not happen. These three young men joined forces. They were all each other had, and they held each other accountable. They stayed out of trouble. They graduated from the public school system. They went on to college. They demonstrated remarkable resilience and courage. They made it out.

After college they had many opportunities to become upwardly mobile in American society. They could have done their best to live out the American dream, and most of their friends and family would have encouraged them to go that route. They could leave Homewood and never look back. As the three friends spent time together discussing their futures, it became more and more apparent to them that they had a different calling in life. Instead of moving up the corporate ladder and distancing themselves from Homewood, they would go back to Homewood in order to invest their lives in the community where they grew up. So, once again joining forces of friendship and holding each other accountable, they went back home to tackle the problems in their neighborhood. These three friends had a strong common bond. They loved sports. They decided that the best way to make a difference in Homewood was to start up youth sports programs in the community. Their plans were tough to implement, but it all worked out. They started relationally impacting literally thousands of people with their sports programs. Although they could have coached football in many different places, they decided to coach football at Westinghouse High School in Homewood. They built up a youth football program that kept hundreds of kids off the streets each summer and fall. They launched and coached baseball, basketball, and soccer programs. They were not employed by the youth sports programs, though. That was all volunteer work. To support themselves and their families, they took on whatever work they could find on the east end of the city. Their days were full of work and then volunteering many hours with the people in Homewood. Youth football games became Homewood community parties, where people gathered together to hang out with good music, great fun, and football. For one day each week, neighborhood and family fueds did not matter. Youth sporting events brought everyone together, no matter what street they lived on in Homewood. The three friends convinced many other men in Homewood to get involved in coaching the kids and contributing positively to the community. These three friends had built something special, with virtually no outside funding or even outside support from the powerful people in Pittsburgh who were busy ignoring Homewood. All of their efforts were grass roots. It was all sustained and supported by the Homewood community.

The three friends had sacrificed a lot for the people of Homewood. Marriages suffered because so much time and so many personal resources were invested in the youth in Homewood. Sometimes kids that they worked with ended up making bad choices and landing in jail or even ending up being killed by the violence in the community. This work sometimes broke their hearts when kids went astray or when adults who they invested in let them down. The media cast a constant negative shadow on Homewood, even though their work was a consistent positive force in the comunity. People who were not familiar with Homewood continued to stay away from it, having their perception shaped by the negative stories on the news. Powerful people who came up with bright ideas to turn Homewood around largely ignored the input or participation of these three men who had so deeply immersed themselves in the fabric of this community.

Then, suddenly, these three friends were thrust into the limelight of Pittsburgh. In one brief instance, everything that they had worked so hard for and sacrificed to build for the sake of the Homewood community seemed to come crashing down. On a Sunday afternoon, during the middle of a youth football game, somebody near to the stadium decided to shoot three people on the bridge between the busway and the street that runs parallel to the football field. The community party came to a tense standstill. The youth football game came to a hault as the young players took cover. People shook their heads at the thought that violence would make such an impact in this community on a Sunday afternoon at such a positive event. The police and ambulances showed up. The media showed up, jockeying for position to communicate the latest negative event from this struggling community. It has been a summer filled with violence in Homewood. The next day the chief of police and powerful government officials held a press conference from the field in Homewood to denounce the violence and to give an ultimatum to the Homewood community... give up the names of the shooters or give up the youth football program in Homewood. The most confident communicator of the three friends met with the police and politicians. He gave quotes to the newspaper reporters. He defended the people of Homewood. He defended the youth football program as a positive force in the community, not a negative force. He answered tough questions. In a strange twist of irony, the powerful people who had ignored and neglected him, his two friends, this youth sports program, and even this entire Homewood community for so many years suddenly had a vested interest in what was going on here. Only, this negative attention was not what they had expected.

The following week was tough. The people in Pittsburgh who were unfamiliar with Homewood and the youth football program here put pressure on to shut the program down. People in Pittsburgh who were unfamiliar with Homewood cast their judgment on the community based on the latest news reports. Talk radio hosts debated the idea pubicly on their airwaves... interesting that they would debate such a thing without ever having been to a youth football practice or game in Homewood. The powerful people in Pittsburgh debated whether or not to shut the youth football program down because of safety concerns... interesting that they would debate such a thing considering their intentional lack of investment in the safety of the Homewood community for so many years leading up to this unfortunate event last Sunday afternoon. After years of building meaningful relationships with many people in Homewood and sacrificing much behind the scenes in Pittsburgh in order to be a powerful force for positive change in a struggling neighborhood, these three friends were suddenly finding themselves in a position where everything that they had worked so hard to build was being attacked and scrutinized by people who did not know them.

I do not know how the story of these three friends is going to turn out, yet. I have a feeling that the three friends will navigate through it all, though. After all, they've done that their whole lives. They've overcome the odds their whole lives. They've done it because of their resilience and bond of friendship. Soon the powerful people will be gone from Homewood. The powerful people's attention will shift reactively to other parts of the city where problems are going on, and the positive forces in Homewood, including the youth sports programs, will go back to their roles of being ignored by the powerful people in the city. The majority of people in Pittsburgh will shift their attention away from Homewood until the next time something violent pops up on the news. Maybe that negative event will get kicked around pubicly again, but it will eventually go away as well. People will go back to ignoring Homewood again. The odds will continue to be stacked against the young people in Homewood again. And I'm sure that's exactly where you'll find three good friends working, three friends who grew up in Homewood and came back to give themselves away to the people of this community. This tale of three friends is... to be continued.

Violence at a Youth Football Game

In my first official day back from vacation, many people have made comments to me about the violence that occured in Homewood while I was away. Homewood has been in the news because three people were shot on Sunday afternoon near a youth football game, a community event that usually attracts large crowds. The police have been pressing the community, through use of the media and other methods, to help identify the shooters. This particular violent act has drawn much attention because it happened so close to the children who were playing football, and it happened in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon in a crowded public area.

Some folks have threatened to shut down the youth football league in Homewood because of concerns over the safety near that area in Homewood. That is a terrible idea. The kids in Homewood, and the community in general, need the youth football program. It gives everyone something positive to look forward to. Surely the city can work with the youth football coaches, several of whom are my friends, to work out a solution to keep the program going while ensuring the safety of the community. Also, several people from North Way who were potential mentors have suddenly dropped out of the process due to concerns over the violence in Homewood. This concerns me greatly, because mentors are needed now more than ever in Homewood. I understand the fear factor, but things will not improve in Homewood unless people continue to engage and get involved in dealing with the problems head on. That especially includes Christians, the body of Christ that Jesus calls to bring light into places of pain.

I do not want to challenge anyone's courage. I do have a hope, though. I hope that some day, when violence increases in Homewood, that the Christian community in Pittsburgh would contact me to engage instead of avoiding me or pulling away out of fear. My hope is that the Christians in Pittsburgh would willingly and lovingly enter into the pain of struggling communities instead of withdrawing or distancing themselves from people who are hurting. I am excited that there are many Christians in Pittsburgh who are modeling this calling well. There is a great foundation to build on, even in Homewood where many people are doing great work to make a difference. Although there are signs of need in Homewood, there are also many signs of hope. Right now is the perfect time to get involved in mentoring a child in Homewood.

Back in the Burgh

We are officially back from vacation. I had a great time of rest, relaxation, and conversation with good friends along the way. I am so thankful for the rich friendships that God has blessed me with. I did miss home, though, and I am so excited to see what God has in store next for us in Homewood. I'm ready to jump back into urban ministry with all of my heart, passion, and energy. Some people dread the end of their vacations because they don't like their jobs, but I have found that since I started working with LAMP four years ago I have always been chomping at the bit to jump back in. I have that seem feeling of anticipation right now, and that is a very good thing. I love living life as an unpridictable adventure with complete reliance on God to lead the way.

Poetic Intercession

Are you praying for a friend who is struggling with health problems or a chronic illness? My friend and mentor, Randy White, has written an incredible book called Poetic Intercessions: Artful Prayers for a Friend (Harmon Press, 2010). Over the course of a year, he prayed creatively and specifically for a friend who was very sick. I would highly recommend using this book as a resource in your prayer life for your friends who are battling long-term illnesses. Here is one of the prayer-poems from the book:

Blazing Presence,
Singe my friend this day with the
Radiant danger of a life-giving force at his side.
Pump the baffle;
Pick him up gently with the tongs of your Son's hands,
Glowing with the Spirit's fever,
Clutch him lovingly, excruciatingly with your
Burning fingers that touched so many cold and dying;
That hold the frozen universe and warm earth together
All things alive and together,
Surrounding his heart and head to purify and refine.
Move him to your white-hot core,
Blazing Presence,
For the praise of your bright Glory.

The Surprising Quiet of Nature

I am spending some time in nature this week, at a lake in the South. This place is much different than my life in Pittsburgh. And that is a good thing. I love the city, but I also know that God is found in his amazing creation in nature as well. The stars seem brighter out here where there are no other lights around to drown their light out. I am seeing new animals and insects every day. I am taking walks, and taking in the sights. Things are so quiet here. The quiet is surprising after I have become so familiar with the urban soundtrack to my life in Homewood.

There are simple joys to be discovered here. I am proud of my daughter, Kyra, whenever she builds a new relationship with a kid in Homewood. And at the same time, I have been just as proud of her this week as she caught her first fish and she got up on waterskis for the first time. I am proud of my other daughter, Sierra, when she has us all rolling with her jokes in Homewood, and her little personality is just as much a treasure when she has us all cracking up with her jokes out here in nature. I love how my wife loves others well in Homewood, and it's a joy to watch her do that here in nature on vacation as well. God has so richly blessed me with amazing friends and family, and I'm appreciating those things this week.

God. Yes, there's always God. He is ever present in the streets of Homewood as he is in the rolling, tree-lined hills of Dale Hollow Lake. I am in love with Jesus, and he is giving me rest this week. I am in love with my Creator, and he is showing me so many amazing parts of his creation. No matter how much I try to wrap my head around God's unending creativity and grace, I am still blown away by his majesty and love for me. Rest is good. Reflection is good. Telling stories with old friends is good. Reading and writing for fun (and not the DMin) is good. Continuing to fall in love with God is good. Ahhh... vacation.

Fear of Following Jesus

Fear is often what keeps Christians from living a life that actually follows Jesus. Sometimes in American Christianity, it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between a Christian and a nonbeliever. That is because many American Christians have stopped embracing risk, and they have focused on embracing a religion that worships safety and moralism. People have stopped following Jesus, and started following a religion. Think about it. You can call yourself a Christian in America, and that religion will encourage you to live in a place that is devoid of poor people, send your kids to school with only other Christian kids who look and act the same as them, save up a bunch of money for "emergencies" and to retire comfortably on, becoming rich and buying bigger houses, and the list goes on and on just as long as a good, nice Christian doesn't drink or swear or show any signs of sin to anyone else. It is the gospel of sin management and keeping up a nice, clean front for others to see.

People sometimes ask me if I am afraid to live in the inner city because of the high rate of violence and perceived lack of safety. Actually, at this point I am more afraid to live in the suburbs because of the dangers of affluence, comfort, individuality, and complacency. I am terribly afraid of losing sight of following Jesus and focusing instead on the religion of American Christianity. It is fear that keeps Christians from actually following Jesus. Think about it. Jesus was countercultural, radical, a revolutionary. He lived a lifestyle that was exactly opposite of the kingdom of men (at the time it was Caesar) and of the religion of morality and piety (represented so well by the Pharisees in the Bible). Today we have established quite a powerful kingdom of men in America, and we also have a powerful group of religous people in America who represent the religion of morality and piety. Most American Christians align themselves with the kingdom of men and the mainstream religous majority instead of aligning themselves with Jesus Christ. Now that is a scary thought! Soren Kierkegaard writes, "To want to admire, instead of follow, Christ is not an invention of bad people; no it is more an invention of those who spinelessly want to keep themselves detached at a safe distance from Jesus." - From Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of broken people and places, or are you willing to give up everything, including your life, to dive head first into those places as Jesus did in order to be a radical follower of Jesus Christ? Are you a follower of Jesus, or a follower of a moralist religion of comfort, control, and safety? Do people think you are dangerous and radical because you are a Christian, or do they think that you are a really nice, moral, conforming, safe person? Being a follower of Jesus means that you should be living a life that rocks the boat, upsets the comfortable, and cuts right into the heart of anything that is representative of the worship of the kingdom of men or religous piety. It may get your persecuted, or even killed. That's OK... then you'll be getting closer to the point of what it means to actually follow Jesus.

Submarines and Traffic Jams

Yesterday I took my mentee to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. One of the unique features there is an old submarine docked on the river that people can walk through to see what life was like when the sub was active. About half way through the tour, my mentee said "this is where I want to be when the world ends in 2012!" There is enough food to last for a long time in a submarine, and it seems like a good place hide out should it all hit the fan in a couple years. I sensed a theological conversation brewing, but I didn't really have the chance to talk to him about it as we made our way past the nooks and crannies and gadgets in the main hallway of the sub.

It did come up again about an hour later, though, as we were sitting in a major traffic jam. A Pirate game had just let out, rush hour was in full effect, downpours from a major thunderstorm kept visibility to a minimum, my car was overheating from idling so much, I was extremely irritated by the predicament, and my mentee chose that particular time to bring up his questions about how the world is going to end and what happens to us after we die. That's always how it seems to happen... when I am not in control, when the timing seems to be not right... yep... that sounds like God's timing. My mentee and I had a great conversation about how much God loves us, and what heaven will be like, and about God's plans for our lives here on earth now and beyond 2012.

God's timing is not our timing. Also, I've said this many times before, but ministry does not always happen in sterile environments in church buildings on Sunday mornings. God is active in the midst of complex urban environments, when we are not in control, and especially in the context of predicaments. The Holy Spirit is at work in retired submarines and in traffic jams. God is so amazing!

Different Heartbeats

A little over four years ago I drove to Homewood for the first time. That day will probably be etched in my memory forever. I had volunteered to "help get LAMP up and running" at North Way. We did a lot of planning early on, and eventually it became clear that some of us would actually have to go to the school in Homewood to meet with the school representatives in person to discuss the new partnership. I had never been to Homewood before, even though I grew up in the Pittsburgh area. In my mind, it was one of those neighborhoods that people stayed away from because bad things happened there. As I drove through Homewood for the first time, I noticed many abandoned houses and the weeds that had overtaken vacant lots. I noticed graffiti and other signs of neglect. I parked as close as I could to the front entrance to the school, and I remember thinking that the place I parked looked shady (I parked right in front of a boarded-up row home with what appeared to be bullet holes in one of the windows). I made sure to lock my car doors (I remember double-checking to make sure my horn beeped signifying that indeed the doors were locked... just in case I hadn't really heard to horn beep the first time I locked the doors). I remember that my heart was beating fast. I nervously made my way across the street to the main entrance to the school... and my life has not been the same ever since. I met some great people who turned out to be wonderful partners that day at the school. Still, it's the kids I remember. From that day forward, my attention started to shift away from the blight of the neighborhood and I began focusing on the relationships with the people I met. That day, my focus shifted from implementing a program to building relationships with kids.

Fastforward to the present. Last night I was driving back to Homewood, where I now live, and I intentionally chose to take the route on Hamilton Avenue that took me right past the houses of several of the LAMP kids I know. That particular street has a bad reputation for violence and gunshots at night, but I drove there hoping to bump into the kids I know who are usually sitting out on their front porch with their relatives at that time of night. My windows were down and my doors were unlocked... not because I am brave or anything like that... but because I was waiting in joyful anticipation for who I might see and talk to on my drive home. I drove past the place where I parked just over four years ago. My heart was beating fast once again, but this time it was not out of fear or anxiety. My heart was beating fast because I was home. This is where I now belong. This is my community. I value these relationships.

A lot has changed for me over the past four years. I am a different person than I was back then. God has taken me on an amazing journey, and I have exprienced great joy because I was obedient to the calling he placed on my life. Several people have asked me lately if I'm optimistic or cynical about the future of LAMP and the future of the Homewood community. On one hand, many of the same signs of need that were here four years ago are still here today. The community is still struggling in many ways, and I do often become frustrated by the lack of Christians in Pittsburgh who are willing to mentor a child in Homewood. On the other hand, I see many signs of hope in Homewood. I also see many signs of hope in the body of Christ in Pittsburgh. From my perspective, a transformational leader is able to live in that tension between the signs of hope and the signs of need, and be an effective bridge builder. I love Homewood. Specifically, I love the people in Homewood. I want to do everything I can to contribute to the health of my community. Also, I love the church. I love my church. I want to do everything I can to encourage the Christians I know to get involved relationally with the kids in Homewood through LAMP. I know that if God could lead me on a life-changing journey, he can certainly do the same thing for other Christians in Pittsburgh who are willing to risk and live out the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ with people in need. I can't wait to see what's in store for the next four years. Life on the edge with God is an amazing place to be.

Downward Mobility

Author Robert Lupton wrote the following about the concept of downward mobility and what it really means to follow Christ. You will not hear this kind of stuff in the gospel according to Dave Ramsey or Joel Osteen. This is not prosperity doctrine (God wants every good Christian to be a millionaire) or self-help doctrine (God wants to improve your life and make you successful). I think that Lupton captures well the message that I try to get across to people in my blog entries... the gospel according to Jesus Christ. Lupton writes:

A passion for excellence. Diligence. Drive. Efficiency. The competitive edge. These are the values of achievers, the essence of upward mobility and the stuff of which success is made.

Enter Jesus, the Christ. Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. Emptied. Weak. Dependent. Here to show us the way to greatness, heavenly greatness, by becoming least. King turned servant. Downwardly mobile. What sort of ethic is this?

There are those who will find it exceedingly difficult to understand, the Teacher said. Like the wealthy, successful, educated ones. But there will be a few renegades and other out-of-step people who will be given eyes to perceive the kingdom. They will listen to the homeless leader who owned one change of clothes, didn't budget to pay his taxes, and was an affront to self-respecting, responsible believers.

"Take no thought for tomorrow... don't worry about what you will eat or wear... don't lay up treasures here... give your coat... share your bread... lend without expecting a return." Wonderful rhetoric but highly impractical. Suicidal if taken literally - and so the reasonable folks did not take it that way.

Indeed, his teachings are suicidal for the successful. The downward mobility of the kingdom strikes at the very heart of our earthly strivings. It feels like death to let go of our diligent preparations for the next step and the investments that insure our tomorrows. Who in their right mind would gamble away a reasonably predictable and secure future on a high-risk, intangible faith venture like the kingdom of God? A balanced portfolio makes more sense. A good mix of earthly investments with enough heavenly stock to carry us if the bottom falls out of the economy. The best of both worlds, we might say.

Jesus the Christ. Mighty God. Destitute. He says we can't have it both ways, that our security is either in God or mammon. He tells us that the servant is not greater than his master, that greatness - his and ours- is found only in servanthood, in choosing the lesser positions while yielding the better places to others. It is only in laying down our privilege, our control, our comfort for the sake of others, he says, that we can know life as he created it to be.

Heavenly hosts burst forth in hallelujahs (not tears) at the sight of their naked, helpless Creator in the straw. Heaven's best lavished on the least of the earth. Glory to God, they exclaimed. The first fruits of a new world order have come, and he has revealed the values of his kingdom: vulnerability, obedience with abandon, lavish giving, faith that defies reason, volitional downward mobility.

Foolishness. God has chosen the weak to lead the strong and the foolish to confound the wise. His end? That all may know his utter dependability to care for those who will risk trusting him.

A Summer Night in Homewood

Last night we arrived home from a weekend out of town, and Julie asked me "I wonder how long it will take the kids in our neighborhood to find out we're home? Ten, or maybe fifteen minutes?" Like clockwork, about ten minutes later a group of seven or eight boys and girls stopped at our house to visit. We were still unpacking our car, so we stopped what we were doing and chatted for a while to catch up on everything that had happened in our neighborhood while we were gone. One boy had a birthday, hence the reason he had cake icing smeared on his face. One kid had a new bike, and he had to tell us every detail about it. That group of kids left, and we went inside to put Kyra and Sierra to bed. While I was tucking Sierra in, she said "Dad... I'm so happy to be home. I missed our house and I missed everyone." With the kids snuggled in to their beds, Julie and I settled into our summer evening ritual of sitting on the front porch to reflect on our day. We greeted people as they walked past. We talked to our neighbors. A kid from our Monday night group saw us and stopped by for a freezie pop. The combination of the warm summer breeze, the good conversation, and the unpredictability of who we might meet next made for a fun evening. We were both happy to be back at home and in our neighborood with our community again.

The story I just told is not the picture that most people have in their minds about Homewood. Most people in Pittsburgh think of Homewood as a dangerous place that reasonable people should stay away from at all costs. However, this story captures well the countercultural and radical call of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The message of the world, especially in America, is that we should make our lives more comfortable. Good people distance themselves from the poor by becoming upwardly mobile and living out the American Dream. Success means more money and more power and bigger houses and bigger toys. Meanwhile, that worldly message is crushing people (including many Christians in America who are desperately trying to do whatever it takes to achieve that lifestyle). Authentic community... the kind that we read about in the book of Acts in the Bible... the kind that Jesus Christ modeled for us... is nearly impossible to find if we choose to distance ourselves from the poor and choose to live in a world of individuality and consumerism. Christians around America are moving into gated communities at an alarming rate, doing what they think is best in distancing themselves and their families from brokenness in the world when in fact they are going in the complete opposite direction of Jesus' radical call to live out the gospel in a broken world. In fact, even if a community does not have a gated entrance, many American Christians choose to live in places where the society has been set up so that they do not have to interact with any poor people where they live, where they shop, where they go out to eat, where they go to church, and where they work.

My point is that it is extremely difficult to experience authentic community, the kind that the early Christian church experienced, by living in places that promote individuality, consumerism, racial discrimination, and class discrimination. The interesting thing is, people will go to amazing extremes in order to live in places like that. They'll take on crazy mortgages, work crazy hours, and sacrifice in crazy ways in order to reach the lofty heights of... there being no poor people around them to interact with, everybody having the same skin color and socioeconomic class as them, and intentionally distancing themselves from being able to live out Christ's call to be his hands and feet to people who have been marginalized by this world. My life is not perfect, but I have found that I have experienced greater community in Homewood than I have in any other place I have lived during my lifetime (which has mostly been in the suburbs). I love living in the inner city. I love having people stop over to visit with us all the time. I love knowing my neighbors, and not having to force those relationships. I love that God has put me in a position to be an extension of the body of Christ to meet people's needs as those needs arise in a neighborhood that is largely rejected by the successful and powerful people living in Pittsburgh. There's no place I'd rather be.

If this post is challenging you, I might suggest a few questions for you to ask yourself. Have you chosen to live in a neighborhood that buffers itself from poor people, where the majority of people there are the same as you racially and socioeconomically? How about where you choose to shop, worship, and work... does everyone seem to look the same as you racially and socioeconomically? Is your lifestyle radical, or do your values pretty much look like the values that the world promotes and embraces? Have you, maybe unintentionally, distanced yourself from people in need in order to pursue a more comfortable lifestyle? Are you engaged in deep, meaningful relationships with people in need? If you are struggling with the answers to these questions as I do, my advice would be to go back to the Bible and read the Gospels and Acts through in order to challenge yourself with how countercultural Jesus' life was and how countercultural the lives of early Christians were. Those examples are far greater than anything I could ever share about my own lifestyle. After all, the point is Jesus, not me. The point is that followers of Jesus should be living in ways that are different than the world's measures of success. When we enter a relationship with Jesus, our lives should never be the same. We now live according to biblical values, not worldly values. I hope all Christians can come to experience the joy that is found in living a radical, sold out life for Jesus that does not conform to this world.