Who Will Break The Legacy?

My family has learned a lot about our neighbors in Homewood since moving into the community. The more we build relationships, the more we are faced with decisions about how to effectively enter into people's pain. My wife, Julie, and I process things differently. Our hearts break together, but we respond differently. We have different outlets for dealing with things. This blog kind of serves as an outlet for me, but my wife often expresses herself through poetry. Julie wrote the following poem. It's called Who Will Break The Legacy. The stories in the poem are all from real people that we have met during this season of living in Homewood.

Drugs were his chance
Breaking the rules
Just to survive

A deal gone wrong
Blood hit the ground
Casings by his side

The bars slammed shut
He'll never see
The light of day

The girlfriend cries
His baby girl
Is on the way

...and God's heart breaks...

It's Holy Ground
Where innocence is stolen
The blood drips down
But God's still holding on to him

His little girl
On the streets
Trying to survive

The hunger gnaws
The weather turns
She must stay alive

So she resolves
At any cost
To find a way

Tremendous choice
No other way
Her body pays

...and God's heart breaks...

It's Holy Ground
Where innocence is stolen
Her clothes slip down
But God's still holding on to her

Walls to protect
She hardened quick
Without a choice

A baby born
Abused, unloved
Without a voice

She could not shake
Addictions hold
For this new life

Can he find a way
Bounced from home to home
Trading love for strife

...and God's heart breaks...

Without hope
One man's life
Left a legacy

Of a daughter lost
A prostitute
Crying on her knees

With no love to give
From none received
She passed on the curse

Now a young boy weeps
Under covers cold
With no where to turn

...and God's heart breaks...

Relationships in the Masculine Journey

Men who follow Christ need to engage in meaningful relationships. That means that our wives are well-loved because we have demonstrated over time how much they mean to us. We are deeply engaged with our children, and they know that they can trust us and have confidence that their daddy will take care of them. Beyond our families, it is important for men to have deep relationships with a few close brothers in Christ who can help us to navigate the difficulties of the masculine journey together. This is crucial for men because we tend to isolate ourselves. Americans tend to value the self-made man, the rugged loner who takes on everything that life throws at him. Old West movies, or the Die Hard movies, are examples of how our culture lifts up men who take on the world by themselves.

Unfortunately, the movies are just the movies. Isolation really is detrimental to the masculine journey. We need other men to stand shoulder to shoulder with us when the battles, seen or unseen, come at us. In this life we must fight, but we cannot fight alone. In my life, I have intentionally set up time with men every week for us to meet and encourage one another along through life. In other words, I intentionally share my life with close friends who speak into my journey regularly. I am not on a solo mission. This difficult adventure requires much more than a solo mission. We must bring others along with us, and that is the only way that we will not only survive but thrive. So, when the rest of the world seems to be withdrawing, we as followers of Christ must engage. That engagement begins with authentic relationships with our family and friends, and it extends out into all of the relationships with people in the world that we might interact with. And it all starts with our relationship with God. If that relationship is not strong, then all of our other relationships will suffer.

Gangster Disciple

While I was in Fresno, I spent time with a guy named Brian King. He grew up in the projects of Chicago, and at one point as a young man he was one of the highest ranking leaders of one of the country's biggest street gangs, the Gangster Disciples (nearly 100,000 members). In the book Street Saints, Brian describes how he was mentored as a kid growing up: "In the process of going to the drug houses we would see all the guys smoking marijuana, so we started to smoke marijuana. These were the only cats that took interest in us, and I think where we got screwed up is that we came from an environment where everybody was out there looking for the same thing. Even the older guys who never had it were trying to give us some type of male role model to set an example. I think all of us were looking for acceptance from our father that wasn't there, and we went out in the streets looking for it and it wasn't there either. So we made up our own concept of what it is to love and respect and mentor the younger guys, which was screwed up."

Brian eventually made it out of the gang life in Chicago, and today he heads a ministry in Fresno that provides mentors for a lot of kids. He writes, "Now I'm working with incarcerated youth and with high-risk kids. We partner with high-risk kids and match them with mentors. We go out into the churches and bring in Christians to come alongside young men and women in the system to help them build a foundation and have an opportunity, instead of going back to the same environment."

I learned a lot in my short time with Brian King. Although LAMP has managed to make a significant amount of mentoring matches in Homewood, we still have a long way to go. Many children in Homewood are still being mentored by gang members and other young adults who want to use them and lead them down a path of destruction. Our model is very comparable to the one in Fresno because we recruit mentors from churches. My goal is to help to find a Christian mentor for every high-risk kid in the city of Pittsburgh. I think it can be done. That's my big dream.

Walking and Praying

I had a great time going for a walk in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh this morning. I paid particularly close attention to everything that I experienced on the walk, from the people we met to the homes, commercial buildings, abandoned houses, beautiful buildings like the library and some churches, to the trash and graffiti. Julie and I had some interesting conversations. Our friend Dave cooks food out in front of a local BBQ restaurant each morning, and he knows pretty much everything that's going on in our neighborhood. We pass strangers, and since we now have a dog with us most of the time the people we pass often stop us to inquire about her. Who would have known that for all of the trouble of having a puppy, that she would be such a huge conversation starter with trying to build new relationships with people in Homewood?

There is simply no substitute for walking around a neighborhood to get a feel for the people and places there. Many people want to start programs or help out in places like Homewood without actually going there to get a feel for what it's like. My walks in Homewood, mixed with the time I spend in people's houses or schools, are extremely beneficial to my work. I also love walking in Homewood because it gives me a chance to pray specifically for issues in a more effective way. I always assume that God is at work here, and that if I have the right prayerful posture before God then he will show me how we wants to work through me to achieve his purposes. Prayer closets and quiet times in peoples' houses are great, but the complexities of urban ministry also require that we contextualize our prayers with what's really happening in the city. Prayer walking is a healthy way to actively immerse ourselves in the transformation of people and places.

With so many crazy things happening in this world, what can we as Christians possibly do? How about we start by taking a walk? Let's start with prayers, and ask the Lord to show us what he wants us to do. Before we search for answers, let's let our hearts break for the brokenness that we can experience by walking through a struggling neighborhood. Let's assume that God is already at work where we are walking, and that he might have a plan for us there. Let's get to know some people before we plan programs. Let's take it to the streets!

We should pray specifically for a movement in our cities, and not just for small pockets of growth. Tim Keller writes, "A city-wide gospel movement is an organic thing. It's an energy unleashed across not only the city but across the different denominations, and therefore, there's no one church, no one organization, no one leader in charge of it all. It's bigger than that. It's the Holy Spirit moving across the whole city and as a result the overall body of Christ is growing faster than the population, and the city is being reached. And there's an impact for Christ made in the whole city." - To Transform a City

Day Six: Fresno Urban Immersion

Today we started by discussing our class projects for this course. Everyone shared what they were planning on writing about. It should lead to a lot of good work in cities all around the world. I am planning to write about transformational mentoring in Pittsburgh based on the eight transformational leadership perspectives of BGU. I will incorporate a lot of what we have learned this week into the project about Pittsburgh.

After our time of discussing projects, we attended the rest of the Fresno City Summit. Noel Castellanos from CCDA shared about what it means to love a city from a Latino theological perspective. It's always great to hear from so many different types of leaders, and Noel's thoughts really helped me to see Christian community development from a different perspective. For the remainder of the day I attended workshops about different methods of community development that should prove to be useful with some of the things I'm involved with in Pittsburgh.

The city summit was good, although a lot of the concepts were pretty basic. That was intentional, however, because the leaders who organized the event wanted to set it up as an onramp for Christians who are interested in reaching people in their city. They wanted to involved a lot of young people in the event, and it looks like they hit their key target audience. I met young people from all over the city of Fresno who had some great ideas about how they could impact their communities and neighborhoods. Randy had told us ahead of time that the material would be pretty basic, but to look at how the event was organized and how we might set up these types of events back in our own cities. I have some good ideas of some things that might work in Pittsburgh.

In terms of application to my context, I was really able to get a good understanding of asset-based community development from the time that I spent in the workshops. That methodology involves building on the assets in troubled communities instead of on needs and problems. For instance, in Homewood there are many needs that I see as I spend time their and interact with kids and their families. But, there are also a lot of assets in Homewood. The kids are resilient and resourceful. Homewood has a great library that is a tremendous resource to the community. The Homewood-Brushton YMCA is a huge asset, and I have already been involved over there with Tuesday night basketball (my wife and I also work out there... it's the best work out facility for the money in Pittsburgh!). The Faison Primary School is a huge asset in Homewood because it is a relatively new building that serves as a hub of activity for the community. I am so thankful for the partnership that North Way has with the Faison Schools through LAMP, and even our mentoring matches serve as assets in the community. There are many, many assets that can be discovered and built upon in Homewood, and I'm looking forward to being involved in that work for a long time.

This course in Fresno has been amazing! I will miss all of my new friends and colleagues, but I am also ready to see my family and friends back in Pittsburgh. God is moving in Fresno, but he is also moving in crazy ways in Pittsburgh. It's honestly a fun thing to be a part of... to watch as God does things in my city that only he can do. I am leaving California refreshed and energized. I'm ready to jump back in to the good work that is going on. I'm ready to love my city!

Day Five: Fresno Urban Immersion

This morning we visited with Dina Gonzales-Pina from Fresno Pacific University. She is the director of spiritual development at the university, and she also is involved in leading a scholarship program that helps the children of undocumented immigrants to attend the school. We met one of those scholars and got to hear about her journey. Then Dina talked to us for a while about the issue of immigration in America. She is a big advocate for helping to find a sensible path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants and their families living in America. Our group discussed comprehensive immigration reform for while, and a lot of the policy changes that were recommended seemed to make sense.

Next we went to the Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministry, or Firm. That organization serves the large refugee population in Fresno that entered the San Joaquin Valley because of the agricultural economic opportunities. A large Hmong and Laotian refugee community of over 30,000 people live in the area. FIRM supports refugees and provides services to help them adjust to life in a new culture. We visited with some refugees at the center who were in an English language class, and I helped a few people with a project they were working on. After that we ate a traditional Laotian meal, and we even participated in a Laotian dance together. I must admit that I just do not have any dance skills.

In the afternoon we went to Evangelicals for Social Action and Love INC. They work in the area to collaborate with churches to help Christians to become involved in transforming their communities by loving the city. Love INC serves as a clearinghouse for churches who have people that come to them to meet material needs. The churches refer individuals to Love INC, where they are screened to make sure the needs are legitimate. They then cooperate with the churches to provide care and aftercare for the individuals. It was a unique way for churches to have a resource that helps them to serve people in need more effectively.

In the evening the Fresno City Summit started, and we had the opportunity to hear from Noel Castallenos who is the president of a national organization called the Christian Community Development Association. He was a very dynamic speaker who motiviated the audience to get involved in development work in their communities. He used a lot of Scripture to provide a biblical foundation for Christians to become active in reaching people outside the walls of their churches. We also networked with Christian leaders from all over Fresno who are interested in making a difference in Fresno.

The immigration discussion at Fresno Pacific was probably one of the most compelling parts of this day. The immigration issue is very polarizing politically in the United States. My position is that I think that our demonstration of the love of God trumps any government policies that are currently in place. In other words, even if people have come to the United States illegally, they still deserve to be loved as neighbors and children of God. Then, when it comes to policy, I am a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship that makes sense. I am not an advocate of amnesty, nor am I an advocate of mass deportation of millions of people or building a bigger wall between the United States and Mexico. Comprehensive immigration reform understands that the current immigration system is broken and has been broken for a long time. In this class, we reviewed a document from the Immigration Policy Center that serves as a primer for comprehensive immigration reform. The document says that "Comprehensive immigration reform is a systematic overhaul of the country's immigration laws that focuses on building checks and balances into our immigration framework." The key elements of the proposal are:

1. Solving the law enforcement and humanitarian dilemma posed by roughly 12 million people living and working in the United States without legal status.
2. Ensuring that immigration enforcement enhances national security and community safety without undermining due process protections.
3. Ensuring that the pull of jobs does not lead to new illegal immigration.
4. Ensuring that immigration policy supports families and American values.
5. Integration and naturalization of immigrants.

The immigration issue is not a neutral issue for churches in America. We should get involved to help to bring about solutions to the modern complexities involving all stakeholders. The important thing for me is that we don't lose sight of the stories of how families are being impacted by the brokenness of the current system. Actually meeting and spending time with an undocumented person helped me to really understand how important action is on this issue.

Besides advocating for comprehensive immigration reform when I return to Pittsburgh, there were other things that I will apply from what I learned today. For instance, the Love INC concept would really be a helpful tool for churches in the Pittsburgh area. I do not know if a clearinghouse exists in Pittsburgh or not. If something like that does exist, I would love to connect North Way with that resource. If it does not exist, it would be great to get some churches on board and get something like that going in the area.

Day Four: Fresno Urban Immersion

Today we spent most of the morning with relocators, or what Randy White calls strategic neighbors. These are folks who have moved into the Lowell Neighborhood here in Fresno over the past twenty years. Each of them moved to the neighborhood for different reasons, but they all share the same common bond of seeking God's shalom in the city. They meet together as neighbors each week in order to develop community with one another. They work on improving the neighborhood together. I enjoyed hearing so many different perspectives on incarnational ministry. It was encouraging for me to hear about how other people seem to handle crazy neighborhood situations and boundaries with kids and people who stop by to visit all the time.

This afternoon we ate lunch at the No Name Fellowship, a gathering of Christian leaders from all over the city of Fresno. The police chief gave a great presentation about how the church and faith-based community can support and work with the police. After that, we visited a pastor named Jeff Harrington who leads a multicultural church in Fresno that is also doing many great things to impact the community. Around 35% of the people attending the church are hispanic, 35% are white, 15% are African-American, and 15% are Asian-American. He talked to us for a while about how to be intentional about diversity in the church. For our last stop in the day we visited the mayor of Fresno, Ashley Swearengin. She is a strong Christian, and she shared with us about how God works through her to steward resources and influence on behalf of the people living in the city. It was a great opportunity to hear about faith and power in the public square.

One of the unique things about BGU is that they intentionally expose students to many different types of people in many different types of positions in society. The stories of the incarnational leaders we met this morning were very powerful, and I also learned a great deal from the police chief and mayor. No matter what position God has placed us in in life, we all have the ability to either be good stewards or poor stewards. The work that the mayor is doing in "powerful" places is just as valuable as the work that relocators are doing in "powerless" places. Transformational leaders are able to build bridges between the powerless and the powerful, and I met several significant transformational leaders today.

In terms of some things that were unexpected, the No Name Fellowship was not quite as collaborative as I had expected. The police chief gave an inspiring speech, and a passionate appeal for the faith community to become more involved with the underresourced police, but his invitation to help was largely open ended. Randy explained to us afterward that the No Name Fellowship meetings are generally much more collaborative and productive than that, but that on this particular occasion we got to see how sometimes meetings can be well-intentioned without the results that could have been achieved. Also, this morning at Youth For Christ we heard a presentation about the model that they have for reaching urban kids in Fresno. They were doing some great programming to reach kids, but some of the programs seemed to be a bit manipulative in terms of evangelizing. For instance, every Saturday morning they do a youth sports outreach that is informal and open to any kids from the neighborhood. Lots of kids show up, and they play games for about an hour or so. Then, they tell the kids that if they want to eat lunch then they have to stay and sit through gospel message. The kids have the option to leave before the message is given, but they are not permitted to eat lunch. I have no problem with sharing Christ with kids, but there was just something about that particular strategy that seemed overly manipulative to me when they tied it to lunch. Then again, maybe that's just me.

I learned several things that I would like to apply in Pittsburgh. For instance, many people who know me know that I am very interested in cross-cultural church. I think that the church should be out in front of culture when it comes to figuring out how to be more racially and socioeconomically diverse. Instead, the church is usually dragging their feet and seemingly remaining segregated without much thought to how churches could be more diverse. Jeff Harrington's church inspired me because it is an example that it can be done. If Christian leaders are intentional about reaching diverse groups of people, then it can be accomplished. Of course, there is much more to it than that, and each context is different. Still, I will keep trying to figure all of this out in the urban lab of Pittsburgh.

Also, in the No Name Fellowship I saw an example of how Christian leaders across many different sectors and institutions in a big city can come together with the commonality of Christ to work toward the holistic transformation of the community. In Pittsburgh, I am going to be much more intentional about joining with other Christians to work toward the shalom of my city. Collaboration and partnership is key when it comes to change, but leadership is required for those things to happen. Perhaps God is calling me to become more involved in leadership in mobilizing city leaders in Pittsburgh. We'll have to see where all of this leads!

Day Three: Fresno Urban Immersion

This morning we started the day by debriefing about the previous day's experiences. We talked for a while about the concept of mission drift, which occurs when people involved in missional activity begin to lose their focus because the needs in communities become so overwhelming. It could also happen when organizations pursue funding that might not be related to their mission, but they go after it anyway because they need the resources so desperately. Collaboration with other organizations helps us to avoid mission draft. Partnerships are also important because often silos develop in Christian ministry. It happens because a passionate leader builds an organization around a cause, they begin to compete with other organizations for resources, and suddenly all of those organizations isolate themselves from others in order to survive. The silo philosophy is unhealthy in organizations and churches.

The issue of desperation came up multiple times today. The basic thinking there is that in cities, the problems are often hidden to people. City and church leaders are often unwilling to act until they have reached a point of desperation, which generates the passion needed to mobilize help. For instance, the issue of urban blight is not an issue to many business owners until the blight starts moving toward their businesses. Suddenly, they have a new interest in how to deal with complex urban issues. For people like me who are charged with coming alongside Christians to encourage them to get involved in the city, a big part of my role involves helping people to see how desperate things are in Homewood and in other parts of the city. Our hearts must break before we can act.

We spent some time today with the director of planning and revitalization of the city of Fresno, Keith Bergthold, a pastor named Eli Loera who heads up a pastors cluster that organizes nearly 200 pastors, the F.U.N.D. organization that works on housing in Fresno, and Hope Now For Youth which is an organization that reaches out to youth gangs to provide jobs. We also stopped by the house of H Spees, vice president of Leadership Foundations of America, who lectured for a little while and shared a lot from his experiences regarding why, when, and how Fresno has made positive changes.

All of the site visits today were valuable. I was probably most impacted by the visit to Hope Now For Youth. We heard several testimonies of staff members working there about how they were able to escape the gang life and join mainstream society as productive workers with solid family lives. I would have liked to have stayed there to learn more about what they are doing, but perhaps I will have to contact them at some point down the road.

The time spent with Keith Bergthold was extremely insightful. He spoke a lot about how much the world is changing, and how Christians should be prepared to respond to the new complexities associated with a urbanization and globalization. He feels that most of the systems, or institutions, in America have become too big and slow moving, so they are less and less able to meet peoples' needs. If we would have had some more time there, I would have asked him to unpack that statement a little bit. For instance, many parts of the federal, state, and local governments have experienced financial distress recently and they are having to cut services. How can the church step in effectively to fill in where the government services were cut? Is that an opportunity for the church, or will people view those issues as burdens that churches who are struggling themselves might not be able to have the capacity to take on?

I have seen how mission drift has impacted my work in Homewood. Our central focus should be on mentoring, but the kids and families have so many needs sometimes that I often end up getting pulled into many different unexpected directions. While a certain degree of flexibility is probably to be admired in urban ministry, it should not take us off of the mission that we have been called to.

When I return to Pittsburgh, I need to learn more about what networks of Christian leaders are gathering together regularly so that I could possibly join in with them. I know that there is a legacy of pastors and Christian leaders gathering together through organizations such as Serving Leaders and Pittsburgh Youth Network. I'm sure I'll be able to find some leads. One thing that the leader of the pastors clusters shared with us today was that they don't just pray and socialize when they gather together. They all have issues that they bring to the table, and they work hard at taking on those issues together. I've been to "collaborative" gatherings of leaders in Pittsburgh before where I basically showed up and the person who organized the meeting talked for the whole time while we all sat and listened to their vision. Those types of meetings are not really sustainable over a very long period of time. For that matter, I need to examine how I structure collaborative gatherings when I pull leaders together. There is a fine line between between providing solid leadership and bogging people down with my own agenda.

Day Two: Fresno Urban Immersion

Wow! What a day! This morning started out at Randy White's home. From there, we walked all around the Lowell neighborhood. We met people that he calls strategic neighbors. They are folks who have moved to Lowell to help to transform the community while living in Christian community with one another. Our walking tour of the neighborhood was encouraging and discouraging at the same time. I saw many signs of hope and also many signs of need. Many Christian community developers have been working in Lowell for the past twenty years or so, and there is still so much to be done. That's why it is so important for people working in inner city communities to understand the nature of the process, and not necessarily landing on an obsession with outcomes. It's important to learn from mistakes, and plenty of mistakes are made. It's also important to learn from what is working, and do our best to replicate those efforts. Still, the work takes time.

There are many signs of need in Fresno. Today we experienced the ramifications of extreme poverty, prostitutes, boarded up homes, violence, graffiti, spiritual warfare, mental illness, homelessness, drug addiction, gang activity, immigration, and much more. I saw many signs of hope, such as amazing collaboration, strategic partnerships, missional churches, tutoring programs, computer and job training, youth drop in centers, new playgrounds, and community gardens. These BGU courses really do a great job of exposing urban ministry leaders to the realities of the urban lab. I see many similarities with my neighborhood in Pittsburgh, and also a lot of differences.

Christian community development is a process that empowers a community to achieve increasing levels of shalom. Shalom has a broad meaning, and it would be impossible to find a single English language word to describe it. It involves the health of a community on many different levels. Anybody who wants to make a difference in their city must first have their heart break for what is going on there. This happened to Paul in Athens in Acts 17 when he described how he was deeply influenced at the core of his being by what he saw. Just like we did a walking tour of a city today, Paul did a walking tour in Athens and it helped him to understand the dynamics of the city. In my context in Pittsburgh, there are many people who want to try to impact the city without taking the risk to go and walk around in the struggling urban environments. Outsiders can only help so much. People must take the time to enter into the context that they want to impact when it comes to transforming cities.

What are the systems in Pittsburgh that are undermining shalom? There are breakdowns in a lot of systems in Pittsburgh that contribute to cycles of poverty and brokenness. The government does some good things, but they also contribute to problems. Whenever I call the police about incidents in Homewood, they probably only bother to even come out maybe one out of four times. There are some great things about the school district in Pittsburgh, but there are also many problems that they are working very hard on reforming. The steel industry leaving Pittsburgh led to a huge break down in the economic systems that still impact life today. Again, people are working hard to adjust but the process takes time and people in power are not always willing to upset the status quo. There are plenty of slumlords in Homewood, people that are trying to make money on real estate while crushing and taking advantage of the poor. A lot of the slumlords in Homewood actually live in places like New York and California, but they also live in affluent parts of Pittsburgh and the suburbs. I wonder if they go to their churches on Sunday morning and tithe off of the income they make off the backs of the people who they opress in Homewood? And some churches contribute to the systemic break downs in Pittsburgh by avoiding complex urban problems, running away from the issues, or actually endorsing the opressive structures that keep people living in cycles of poverty. Thankfully, there are some churches and Christians in general who care about the shalom of the city and are engaging in meaningful efforts to restore the community to health. Christians sin when they fail to act when it comes to injustices and systemic opression.

We drove to many ministries this afternoon, including the No Name Fellowship, Fresno Intstitute for Urban Leadership (FIFUL), Youth for Christ, Fresno Street Saints, Neighborhood Thrift Store launched by a megachurch called The Well, and a homeless ministry called Stewards, Inc. Each of the site visits presented us with different examples of Christians living out a calling to reach the poor and marginalized people of the city through strategic outreach initiatives. I was most interested in the Fresno Street Saints because their leader, Brian King, was a former gang member in Chicago before accepting Christ and settling in Fresno to reach kids and their families affected by street violence. That ministry is impacting many people, especially a lot of tough kids that are similar to some of the kids in Homewood.

I will apply a lot of what I learned today in Pittsburgh. I got some great ideas from Street Saints with regard to helping parents get involved in the work that is affecting their children. Also, they started a recording studio because so many kids want to rap. But, if the kids want to use the recording studio they are not just allowed to go in there and say anything they want. They have to pick a topic that the leaders give them. They have to write the raps out before they record, and if they can't write then tutors are available to help them. They have to learn how to use a lot of the equipment, and also learn how to take care of it all. In the end, the kids get to rap, but it is also an educational experience that empowers them and teaches them responsibility and the power of positive words. In Homewood, the kids are always asking me to record them rapping. Now, I have a strategy for how to make the experience more transformational for the kids than just mixing beats and trying not to curse in my living room. It's going to be fun to try when I get back.

Today was incredible. To think, the last time I was in Fresno I was in the high places playing professional football at Selland Arena, earning a Masters Degree at Fresno State University, and hanging out with friends in the nice and clean affluent parts of town. For the past couple of days I've intentionally gone to the parts of Fresno that many people try to stay away from. I spent today in parts of the city that experience extreme poverty, and I wouldn't trade the experience for any of the things I experienced when I was here in my twenties. I can't wait to see what's in store for tomorrow!

Day One: Fresno Urban Immersion

Everyone arrived in Fresno today, and we spent most of the day getting to know one another. Dr. Randy White lectured for a while today. He shared about how Christians can be engaged in the process of transformation in complex urban environments. He shared a lot about his personal story where he moved his family into a high crime and high poverty area of Fresno back in the early 1990s. His family had to learn how to work with prostitutes, homeless people, the mentally ill, gang violence, dysfunctional public schools, and a whole host of other issues. A great deal of transformation has occured in the neighborhood since they moved, but Randy does not take credit for it. God is moving here, and many people have contributed to how things are being turned around.

I've written a lot about urban ministry on this blog over the past couple of years, but I did learn some new things today. There are no experts when it comes to urban ministry. The problems are just too complex, and things change all the time in cities. Leaders may be able to develop some effective strategies that work in certain situations, but anyone who says that they have community development all figured out really doesn't know what they're talking about. Urban ministers must consistently reinvent themselves and learn new skill sets to take on a wide variety of complex issues. To be an effective urban ministry leader, you have to commit to three things. You commit to a feeling of being in over your head and off balance most of the time because that is your new normal. Second, you commit to bringing what you do have, and not being paralyzed by what you don't have. Third, you commit to learning what you don't know. Urban ministry leaders face many situations and tasks that they know nothing about, but they must have the willingness to learn about those things so that the good work can continue.

Tonight I'm spending the night with one of the thirty families who have moved here to the Lowell Neighborhood of Fresno. It would be amazing if that many families ever moved to Homewood. But the work of community transformation is not just about outsiders moving in. It's also about insiders, the people who already live in the neighborhood, also working together to improve everything. My roommate for the week is named Kieth, and he is a pastor from Florida. We have had a good time getting to know one another. I'm looking forward to a great week.

Churches on Mission

I read an article this morning in USA Today about how churches in America are starting to get involved in their communities by serving others, especially the poor, homeless, orphans, widows, and older adults.  The article also described how many churches have chosen not to get involved in those areas.  There seems to be a certain amount of tension in many American churches and denominations when it comes to taking on social issues individually and systemically.

Being missional, or externally focused, by serving people in need is not an optional thing for Christians.  Serving others is not just a spiritual discipline that we get to pick and choose from, like praying or reading our Bibles more.  Building relationships with people in need or giving generously to charity is not something that we tack on to the end of our long days when we have very little energy left or a check that we write if we happen to have a little bit left over in our budgets.  God is on mission to redeem the world, and God wants to work through us to fulfill that mission.  Churches choose whether or not they want to get involved in reaching the lost and hurting people in this world because it comes with a cost.  It stretches us and makes us uncomfortable, and so many Christians choose to stay on the sidelines.  The social problems in this world are many and they are complex, and many churches remain crippled and inactive without having the first idea about where to even begin.

Fortunately, many American churches are starting to blaze a path forward.  They are setting examples, or showing the way, to churches that are confused about their mission.  The mission of the church is not to build better programs inside the walls of the church, or develop healthy Christian country club atmospheres.  The mission of the church is to join into God's mission to reach the lost.  We are in relationship with God, we worship God, and our worship impacts the world by how we love others.  Jesus modeled for us what perfect love looks like, and if the church has become confused about just what it is that we are supposed to be doing with this life, then we should look to Jesus for his perfect example.  I have high hopes and great expectations for the church, and wake up every day with the expectation that God is going to move powerfully in amazing ways to reach those that are hurting.

Fresno

I spent most of the day today in Fresno, California.  I could have done a lot of things with my day today, but I had a little bit of time before my class officially begins tomorrow and I chose to visit a few spots that hold some memories for me.  When I first arrived in town, I drove out to Fresno State University.  The last time I was there, I attended a graduation ceremony for the Master of Arts in Education Administration program.  That place brought up a lot of old memories from the days when I was studying so much because I thought I was going to be a school principal.  Next, I drove to the River Park in Fresno to shop for a couple of things that I needed for my time out here.  Back in the day, I use to drive to River Park with some of my best friends to share meals, go shopping, or just hang out.  It was a good escape from where I was living in Visalia to one of the nicest and newly developed parts of Fresno.  Finally, tonight I am staying the night right next to Selland Arena.  The last time I was at Selland Arena, in 2002, I was playing professional arena football.  I had aspirations of playing in the NFL some day.  Now, when I look at the arena, I can close my eyes and still picture what that whole experience was like (all of the ups and downs).

It's kind of amazing how far God has brought me since my days in Fresno.  I know that those experiences back then helped to shape me, and, yet, still I am loving what I am doing in Pittsburgh right now.  I had no idea about urban ministry in my twenties.  Back then, I was focused on achieving some things in life that society really seems to value:  professional football player, or school principal, or spending time in the "nicest" and "safest" parts of town with good friends and good food.  Now, at this point in my life, my goals in life have completely changed.  Like back then, I still want to follow Christ as best as I know how, work hard at developing a great relationship with my wife, be a good father to the two girls that God has blessed me with, find joy in solid friendships, and work hard at my job and on higher education.  Unlike back in my Fresno days, I spend most of my time intentionally going into places that most people in America want to stay away from.  I am a very different person, and my values have really changed.  Where previously I may have valued what the American culture highly values (professional athelete, making more money at my job, higher education, living in a nice home in the suburbs, living out the American Dream), I am now completely sold out to go where ever God calls me to go on a daily basis.  I live in a high poverty and high crime area, and I place a high value on being friends with at-risk youth and hurting people.  I look at the broken things of this world, the things that mainstream American society does not value, and I find value in immersing myself in those things.  In Pittsburgh, I intentionally go to the placest that are perceived by mainstream society to be "dangerous" and "unsafe" because I have also learned that those are the types of places where God is present and he works through me and my family the most.

This week, in Fresno, I will be spending time with urban ministry leaders from around the world who God has called to minister in complex, urban, pluralistic, and seemingly broken environments.  I will learn a great deal from them, and from the experience of building relationships with other people who are learning to share God's heart for reaching the marginalized people in this world.  And I am thankful.  I am thankful that, as a young man, God has given me a new lens with which to view the world.  I still value the experiences from my twenties in Fresno.  I wouldn't trade them in for anything.  But I am thankful that God has opened my eyes to the suffering of billions of people around the world, and he has shown me how he can work through ordinary people like me to change the world.  I am truly blessed by that.  This is going to be quite a week in Fresno... I am bringing my old lens, and God will give me a new lens... from aspiring professional athlete to involvement in sports outreach in the inner city... from the ivory tower of higher education to getting my hands dirty in the urban lab... from the "safe" places of Fresno to the "dangerous" places of Fresno.  I can't wait to find out what my Creator has in store for me this week.

A Trip to California

I'm back in California for an urban immersion course in Fresno.  I love it out west!  I flew into the LA area where I have many great memories, and today I'm driving up to Visalia where I lived for six years so that I can visit with some good friends.  Even though I love Pittsburgh and I'm hoping to be there for a long time to invest in that city, it still feels like a big part of my heart is in California.  I spent most of my twenties here, those years that were so formative to the man I am today.  I look back on the good moments, and I even look back on the painful moments as experiences that helped to shape me.

I think that it is important to reflect on our lives... often.  We should not try to live in the past, or recapture those magical things that brought us joy at one point in our lives, because life doesn't work like that.  Every day is a new adventure, and a new opportunity to create new memories and experience the joy in life that God gives us.  Still, reflection encourages us because it allows us to see how God worked through circumstances when at the time we may have had no idea what was going on.  God works things out for his purposes, as long as we are obedient, whether we get the job or not, whether the relationship worked out or not, whether the house worked out or not, whether the church worked out or not, and on and on.  Life is full of seemingly endless possibilities, and we must yield to God every single day if we are to navigate through uncharted waters.  And when we reflect, we get to see how our Creator charted the course for us.  God has our best interests in mind, even if we don't realize it all the time.

It's About God, Not Us

It's March and relatively few mentoring matches have been made so far this year.  Even though that has been disappointing, I have learned after five years of working with LAMP that God is in control and I am not.  I struggle when I focus on numbers and trying to force growth when God is always moving in his purposes.  As it turns out, God was stirring many hearts in the first two months of this year.  Over twenty people have signed up to mentor in the past couple of weeks, and I am in conversations with several other people about their mentoring interest.  Leadership and obedience do matter, but in this particular case I did not really do anything differently to recruit new mentors than I've been doing over the past couple of years.  God is just up to something right now, and I'm going with it.

It is so important in urban ministry to be Spirit-led.  God moves, and we follow... not the other way around.  Too many times ministry leaders design programs or make key strategic decisions first, and then we ask God to bless what we've done.  That takes all of the focus off of God and puts it on us.  That is always doomed to fail, but it is one of the enemy's best tricks.  He gets us to focus on ourselves or our programs instead of keeping our focus on God.  This is why, as Christians, we must first and foremost focus on a healthy relationship with Jesus Christ.  When we truly follow God, then anything that we might do, no matter how big or small, will be about glorifying our Maker.

Christians Living in America

As Christians living in America, every day when we wake up we are faced with the decision to either die to our selves and actively enter into God's mission to redeem all of humanity or choose to embrace the idolatry that is all around us serving as a constant temptation.  We can so easily deviate from God's path for our lives, which leads to life.  Instead we often choose death, and we destroy ourselves by trying to be upwardly mobile and achieve the American Dream.  The American Dream is all about us, as individuals, advancing ourselves.  God's plan for our lives is all about him, and we give up control of our lives.  The idols in America are right there, all the time, waiting to numb us, or help us escape and distance ourselves from the hard realities of life.  God's path, the narrow path, can be difficult to find and it involves unbridled release of control and giving ourselves away to others on a daily basis.  The great irony of all of this is, the very things that we think will actually bring is life in the American Dream actually lead us down a path to self destruction.  The very things that look like they could bring us struggle and pain through following Christ at all costs are actually the things that will bring us life.  This is why life can be so difficult living in an American society with seemingly unlimited individual opportunities, resources, and idols masked as the latest and greatest thing that might help to improve our lives.

The path to finding life is through downward mobility, by dying to our selves because Christ died for us.  The great joy is found in entering God's mission, through giving ourselves away to others... especially including the people in this world who are struggling like orphans, widows, and the poor.  Alan Doswald writes, "James 1:27 is interesting. If you asked most people what true religion is, they would not give this answer. 'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.'  If we're not caring for widows and orphans, we're already polluted by the world, because the world doesn't care either.  The church's very nature, though, is to care.  The church has demonstrated this many times over.  The vital role of the church is to love our neighbors the way Jesus loved them."

We cannot look after orphans or widows in their distress if we have intentionally distanced ourselves from them while desperately trying to pursue the American Dream.  Caring for the poor and marginalized people in this world is all about relationships, and we cannot be in relationships with people when we are afraid to go where they are and spend time with them.  That is the great harm of upward mobility that is encouraged by the world: the more upwardly mobile we are, the farther we get from living out Christ's call to be downwardly mobile.  The more we elevate ourselves, the more we distance ourselves from people in need.  The more we spend hours watching television obsessing over Charlie Sheen's celebrity meltdown or worshipping Ameican Idol contestants, the more the work of the Church to reach hurting people in this world goes undone.  The more our hobbies and habits become consuming addictions, the farther we go from being able to give ourselves away to others.  The more we choose to comfort ourselves and arrange for a better life for ourselves, that's just all the more that we distance ourselves from the life that is found in giving control over to Christ.

A Morning in Court

A few years ago, one of my mentees was walking around Homewood with a couple of his friends and they decided to go exploring inside an old, abandoned, boarded up home.  A recent study in Homewood found that 48% of the properties in my neighborhood are vacant/abandoned, so it's no big surprise that these kids would have been interested in doing a little urban exploring.  The problem is, all kinds of illegal activity happens in and around abandoned properties in urban environments.  On that particular day, a couple of police officers happened to see the boys go into the building.  The police gave the kids a citation for playing in the building, but after talking to them for a while expressed that they would probably just drop the charges.  My mentee actually forgot about the whole thing, until yesterday he was told to appear in court because there was a warrant out for his arrest due to that incident from 2008.  He called me up and said, "Mr. B., I've been doing so good lately.  I can't believe this is happening to me."  He was very upset.  We prayed about the situation, and I kind of coached him up a little bit about how to take a positive approach to the matter.  What could he learn from the experience?  How should he act in front of the judge?  What should he wear to court?  How much did he remember about the incident from a few years ago?

I went to court with him, and we sat in a big room with probably thirty other people who were there for a whole bunch of incidents.  Our case was scheduled toward the end of the list, so we sat there and watched as each of the people there had their day in court before the judge.  It was very sad... heartbreaking really, to see so many different people facing charges for public intoxication, public urination, open containers of alcohol, fighting, domestic disputes, and a very wide variety other crimes.  It would be impossible to sit through all of that and not think about the evil that is in this world, that so many people would be led astray and make so many bad choices in life.  But, God has conquered evil and there is so much life to be found in following Christ.  The gospel message is not just about sin management or avoiding behavior that could land us in front of a judge.  The gospel is about finding joy, meaning, and purpose in life through the adventure that God has for us in finding life in Him.  When we avoid God and try to arrange for life for ourselves, then we get ourselves into all kinds of trouble.

Finally, my mentee had his turn in front of the judge.  The judge asked him what happened, my mentee explained his actions very well, and he apologized for the incident even though it happened a while ago.  The judge looked at me and said, "Who are you?"  I was wearing a suit, and several people at the courthouse had asked me if I was a police officer, a lawyer, or a probation officer.  To the judge I simply replied, "I'm his mentor."  A follow up question came, "How has he been doing since this incident?"  And from there, I was so thankful for the opportunity to advocate for my mentee and say publicly how well he has been doing in school, in the community, and with life in general.  The judge just looked at him and said, "It sounds like you've learned from your past mistakes.  I'm going to dismiss the charges."  And with that news my mentee cracked a huge smile, thanked the judge, and we went on with our day.  It was a huge learning experience for him, and for me.  I was glad that God allowed me to be able to walk through the experience with my mentee.  Mentoring isn't always about fun and games.  It's also about sticking with our mentees during challenging times.  We are friends and advocates.  Even if the outcome in court had not gone well, I know for sure that I would have stuck by my mentee's side to help him navigate through the consequences.

God has a plan for our lives.  When we live in God's Story, we thrive.  When we reject God and follow the many paths and idols that the world has to offer, we enter a path of destruction.  The thing is, God chose not to design robots.  He gave us free will.  We get to choose.  And God is a God of love.  Even when we mess up, he always lovingly welcomes us back into his arms because he is a God of grace, too.  We have an enemy who wants to destroy us, but we have a God who created us and loves us and wants to guide and mentor us through life.  There is no better choice in this life than to choose to follow the Lord.

Plans

One of the things I have noticed about church programs is that we often make our plans and ask God to bless those plans.  This happens a lot in urban ministry.  We see a need that needs to be met, and we formulate plans about how to meet that need.  The modern era is largely based on the premise that humans can make progress on our own... that we do not need God.  We like to think that we do not believe that as Christians, but how often do our actions reflect that worldview?  It is very common for Christians, individually and coporately, to plan and arrange for things to be the way we want them to be.  When we fail to pay attention to how culture impacts us, then we get lost in the tides of modernism or postmodernism (a common worldview which also sends the message that God is in many ways irrelevant to humans).

So how can we follow Jesus and live out a purposeful life without making a bunch of plans and working hard to achieve goals by our own efforts?  By understanding that all plans are God's plans.  When we become a Christian, we die to our selves and find our everything in Christ.  We must figure out how God is moving, and immerse ourselves in God's Story.  Henry Blackaby writes, "God wants us to align our lives with Him so He will accomplish His divine purposes in and through us.  God is not our servant to bless our plans and desires.  He is our Lord, and we must adjust our lives to what he is doing and to the ways He chooses to accomplish His work.  If we will not submit to God and His ways, He will allow us to follow our own devices.  But be sure of this:  we will miss God's activity, and we will not experience what God wants to do through us to bless others.  As Christians, it is not only important what we do but how we do it." - Experiencing God

When we orient ourselves in God's plans, then we are always on the right track.  When we make our own plans and ask God to bless the plans, then we are off track.  This life is not about us, no matter what message the world may try to put out there.  This life is all about God, and how we can serve Him.  We probably need to remind ourselves of that every single day.  I, for one, can very easily lose sight of why I'm here and just what it is that I'm supposed to be doing day in and day out.