Meal-View

This weekend Pastor Doug Melder taught at North Way Christian Community about a concept that he called "meal-view." In Acts Chapter 11, several of Peter's friends confront him for sharing a meal with uncircumsized people. Jesus often shared meals with people who were not Jewish, scandalous people even, for the sake of advancing the Kingdom of God. Jesus was often criticized by "religous" people for those meals that he shared. There must be something more to sharing a meal than the dangers of simple hospitality. When we invite people into our homes, when we share meals with people, and when we go out of our way to build relationships with people we do not know, then we are actually dramatically advancing the Kingdom of God. Great conversations can be had over meals. We have the opportunity to go deeper with people over meals. For the sake of following Christ, we should all develop a healthy "meal-view."

As basic as this concept seems, many Christians in America really miss the mark. In our society, private Christianity is celebrated. We lift up individuals and often struggle greatly with authentic community. The struggles are apparent within the Christian community, and magnified even more when it comes to sharing meals or building relationships with people who are different than us. We can comfortably arrange our lifestyles so that we do not ever have to share a meal or even come into much contact with people who are not Christians, or the poor, or people who are culturally distant from us. We fill our heads and our time with books and articles and talk radio and TV shows that only serve to reinforce our own limited worldviews while we sacrifice the joy that can be found in stretching and expanding our worldviews for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The biggest indicator that we have about whether or not we are living out authentic Christian community in the stream of God's mission to reach the lost is to take a good look at who we share meals with. I definitely have not "arrived" when it comes to sharing meals in my house, but I know that I am making some good progress in this area. At my dining room table, I have shared meals with good friends, family, my neighbors, Christians, nonChristians, drug dealers, prostitutes, homeless people, single mothers, small group members, pastors, Muslims, wealthy businessmen, and many poor people. I eat frequently with people who are much different than me racially, socioeconomically, and culturally. Every single time I do that I learn more about the world and how God might be able to work through me to advance his Kingdom. If our tables are not frequently known by strangers and people who are different than us, then we fall far short of what God is asking us to do as followers of Jesus. I know I am working on my own limited meal-view. How about you? Who do you share meals with? Do poor and marginalized people know your table, and know it well? Do people who are far from God, and even people who you might consider to be enemies know your table, and know it well? Or is your table only known by family members and close Christian friends? The answer might just be a good determination of whether you are living out God's purposes or not.

"Real"

When I was first getting to know my wife while we were dating (hard to believe that was 15 years ago), she would often tell me that she wanted to live a life that was "real." When our relationship started looking like it might be heading toward marriage, I would often reassure her that a life spent with me would be "real." We both longed for adventure, and getting married at such a young age allowed us to tie our dreams together as we launched into adult life. Right away, early on in our marriage, we adventured together. We moved to a part of California that neither of us had ever been to and where we did not know anybody. Luckily, we made some great friends quickly, we found an awesome church home, our jobs worked out, we bought the starter and the dream home within just a few years, we realized dreams like professional football and grad school, we served together through Young Life, we had our two beautiful daughters, and we explored just about every single part of California. Our life out West was an amazing adventure, and we still have fond memories and some great friendships even though we now live in Pittsburgh.

Even though we had experienced adventure in our twenties, I think that there was still something missing in our lives. We were incredibly successful by worldy standards... Dream home in the suburbs, check. Good jobs with benefits, check. Two kids and a dog, check. Good church and good friends, check. Nice Christian people, check. We were living the American Dream, and we were pretty far along. And then we decided to move from California back east to be closer to our families, and our whole American Dream that we had created for ourselves seemed to fall out from underneath us. Everything that could go wrong with our decision to move did go wrong. We could not find jobs, we lost our house and boat and other toys, we did not have medical insurance nor any income, and we ended up in a place of brokenness. However, I am so thankful for that painful experience of falling flat on our faces. It was the best thing that ever happened to us, because God really met us right there in the midst of those difficult life circumstances. It was at that point, six years ago, that I gave up the American Dream and trying to control life for myself and my family so that I could pursue God's mission to reach the lost in this world with complete abandon. We were stripped of everything so that we would not put our hopes and dreams in man's plans for success. We decided to simply be obedient to go where ever God would ask us to go. We were ready to live the "real" life.

What is "real?" That word is packed with a lot of meaning. Many people kind of wander through life, following the path to success generated by the world, and no matter how successful they become by wordly standards it is never enough to satisfy us or make us think that we are living a life that really matters by any eternal standards. Only relenteless pursuit of God's mission to redeem the world leads us to any level of fulfillment in this short life on Earth. The "real" path to meaning in life has eternal consequences. The "real" path to making an eternal difference with our lives, to reaching the lost for the sake of Christ, is a narrow path. The "real" life requires us to give up all control in exchange for embracing danger, risk, and suffering. The "real" life says that nothing is ours, and we are stewards of everything because it is all God's anyway. Every single material thing associated with the American Dream will eventually pass away over time, but God's eternal purposes last forever. There is no amount of money that we could possibly leave our kids, no house big enough, no job meaningful enough, no car nice enough, no idol significant enough, to exchange for a life of downward mobility for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Are we willing to give away everything for the sake of God's Kingdom?

Do you know that feeling that you get when you go on a mission trip to a third world country? It's that feeling that meaning in life, and God's purposes, can be found when we go all in to join God's mission to reach the lost and the people who are suffering in this world. There are billions of people who are far from God or experiencing tremendous suffering on this planet. We kind of dip our toes in the water on short term mission trips in order to experience something different from the idols of worldy success in America, the nation that has been blessed with four percent of the world's population yet we have over forty percent of the world's wealth and resources. We feel "real" when we go on mission trips. The thing is, that feeling of "real" can be experienced every single day of our lives in our own context in America. God is on a mission to redeem the world, and that happens in Pittsburgh just as much as it happens in Haiti. Some will be called to join that mission abroad, and that is indeed a wonderful calling. However, most of us in America will be called by God to live the "real" life right here in the land of prosperity where we were born. God wants to help us figure out how to do that, but we must first give up the American Dream generated by men in order to embrace the cross generated by Christ, who made himself low and paid the ultimate price in order for us to find life. Now that is "real."

Safety

For some reason of late, when people find out that I'm raising my family in Homewood they have been asking me if it is safe. My wife and I pondered safety issues when we were first discussing whether or not to move to the inner city several years ago. We asked lots of questions in our search to find out if God was indeed calling us to live in Homewood. And over time, we discovered some answers to our safety questions. I think that American Christians are obsessed with safety. We do everything we can to control our lives and our kids' lives so that we can be as safe as possible. We go to great lengths to live in places that isolate us from perceived danger (and, unfortunately, we end up isolating ourselves from lots of good things in the process of distancing ourselves from risk). Often when we pray, we pray for safety. The problem is, I don't think we should pray for safety and comfort. I do not think the goal of being a Christian is to be safe. The goal of being a Christian is to join in God's mission to redeem the world, and that mission almost always involves danger, risk, and an intense calling from the Lord to throw ourselves with all of our hearts into the cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil. That mission has absolutely nothing to do with safety. Sure, we can ask for God's protection in the midst of difficult circumstances, but I do not think we should try to be safe. So, no, Homewood is not safe, but this is where God has called our family to live and the safest place for us to be is right in the center of God's will. Most people will not be called to live and minister in Homewood, but every single one of us should be living out a strong calling while joining in God's mission to reach the lost in all nations. One of the worst things we can do for our kids is shelter them from God's mission to reach people who are hurting and suffering simply for the sake of being safe. When they become adults, they will probably be confused about just exactly what it is that this whole Christianity thing is supposed to be about. When we teach our children to embrace risk as one of the central themes to our lives, then we do them a great favor. And the same holds true for us as adults. Let's choose to live dangerously for Christ every single day of our short lives.

NFL: Entertainment or Idolatry

In an interview with ESPN over the weekend, NFL player Ray Lewis predicted that crime would rise if there was no upcoming NFL football season. He suggested that many people have made NFL football their whole lives, and if that was gone from their lives then they would experience extreme boredom and disorientation to the point that they would just give up on life. In Lewis' own words referring to fans of the NFL, "Do this research if we don't have a season -- watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up, if you take away our game. There's too many people that live through us, people live through us... it takes away from life, itself. There's people who are really struggling for real. There's real struggles out there."

It's easy to point out how outrageous Lewis' comments are, but there is also a lot of sad, ironic truth to what he is saying. Many people in America have made the NFL their idol. Grown men live their lives through the teams they love so much. How sad it is that we would elevate a sport into something that we worship. And in America, we love our idolatry. Although we call ourselves a "Christian nation," many Christians in America are still desperately searching for meaning in their lives because they have no idea about what it means to follow Christ. Human beings are all searching for a transcendent purpose to our lives because that is how God made us. When we miss the point of the transcendent purpose that God provides for us, then we search for other smaller stories to live in and we create little idols for ourselves. Maybe it's the NFL, reality TV shows like Dancing With The Stars or American Idol, technology, shopping, going out to eat, money, work, celebrity gossip, or any other number of ridiculous things that people try to find meaning in. I have nothing against entertainment, but I have everything against idolatry. In America we may not be worshipping golden calves like the ancient Israelites did, but we have made idolatry our own art form in our modern context.

So maybe losing the NFL season might not be such a bad thing after all. Maybe it would force some grown men to look at themselves in the mirror and stop trying to live their lives through other people. Maybe it might force them to give up an idol, and instead find meaning in the transcendent purpose that God has for them in his mission to redeem all of humanity. Or, maybe crime would go up and society would be driven further into despair. Either way, there is a thin line between entertainment and idolatry that all Christians living in America must be aware of on a daily basis. Will we choose to follow Christ or follow our idols?

Priorities

Six potential LAMP mentors went through mentoring training this morning. It was great to see four men in this group of trainees because we have so many boys who having been waiting for a mentor for a long time. From my time spent with these men this morning, I think they are each going to be incredible mentors.

Our culture often sends the message to men that they should take care of a whole bunch of responsibilities first and serve others last if they happen to have any extra time left over (which rarely happens). I think men should prioritize serving others through opportunities like mentoring because they model for their families how to join God's mission to reach the lost. That type of activity should always be prioritized, not neglected. Mentoring is a great way for men to serve others.

Can God Work Through Extra Cheese Eggs?

Yesterday morning I woke up at 4am to the sound of the Allied Waste truck collecting trash from the dumpsters at the elementary school next door. It's illegal to do that in the middle of the night, but that company does not care. They join arms with plenty of other people who don't live here that come to Homewood in the middle of the night to exploit my neighborhood. I could not fall back to sleep so I decided to work on my dissertation for a couple hours. At 6am I felt prompted to cook a big breakfast with pancakes and cheese eggs, but I was not sure why. Usually that means God is up to something. Cooking helps me destress, but that wasn't what God was up to that morning. My wife and daughters enjoyed the food when they woke up, but there was still plenty left over. Of course, right at that moment, the doorbell rang and some kids from the neighborhood stopped by to visit. We invited them in for breakfast and there was just enough food left over to fill them up. One of them was on crutches because he had broken his foot. He had missed breakfast by rushing out the door, and he missed his bus because he was so slow getting to the bus stop. His mom was in the hospital because of her high blood pressure, so there was no way for him to get to school except by going over a mile on crutches. So, on that particular morning God wanted me to help a person in need. That's it. That's the profound life lesson. God wanted us to love our neighbors with breakfast and a ride to school.

Yes, I'm still annoyed that Allied Waste keeps waking me up in the middle of the night, even when I have already complained to them about it. But, life in the inner city is always filled with God's redemption of circumstances. What caused me to wake up early actually helped me to demonstrate Christ's love to some people in need in my neighborhood. I found great joy in serving my neighbors, and that is a feeling that many people in America miss out on. When we isolate ourselves from people in need simply by where we choose to live, then we miss out on God's mission to serve the poor and advance his kingdom. In America's individualistic culture, it is not convenient for us to build relationships with people living in poverty or even with our neighbors. So we don't, and we miss out on the great joy that comes with giving ourselves away to people in need so that Christ can be glorified. When we pursue the upwardly mobile American Dream, we distance ourselves from the poor, from orphans and widows and prostitutes and addicts and homeless people, from our neighbors, and even from our enemies, so that we can elevate ourselves in order to make our own lives more comfortable. That's about as far away from the gospel of Jesus Christ that I can imagine. And besides, who would we share our extra cheese eggs with if we weren't good friends with our close neighbors who live in extreme poverty on one of the worst street corners for drugs, gang activity, and violence in the whole city? There's no place I would rather be than to be available to Christ by living intentionally with my neighbors in need.

Presence in the City

I have carved out most of this weekend to work on a big DMin project that is due next week. I have stayed focused on completing that task, but I also took a couple hours late this morning and early afternoon to go to a couple events that I was invited to here in the city. A friend invited me to check out a soccer outreach that several churches are involved in for kids in the East End of Pittsburgh. While I was there, I had the opportunity to meet some amazing people who are doing incredible work to impact this part of the city. I met a pastor of a church in East Liberty, and we had a good conversation about reaching people for Christ with our churches working together. Also, a good friend had invited me to a cook out at the baseball field here in Homewood. I bumped into several new people there, and I was also able to catch up with some good friends and check in with some kids I had not seen for a while. A couple people even became interested in being LAMP mentors while I was talking to them in the stands while watching the baseball game.

One of the keys to being a pastor in the city is the necessity to get out in the community and build relationships with people. You never know who you are going to cross paths with in the city. There are many different kinds of people who are interested in many different kinds of things. Being present in the community helps pastors to be more effective at ministry while also expanding our own worldview in the process. As a pastor in the city, the city is my parish. I am thankful for the divine appointments that God gave me today. The unexpected visits with new friends were the highlight of my day. Now, back to my DMin project. Almost done!

Hopes and Needs in Pittsburgh

A couple nights ago I had a great meeting with the elders from North Way Oakland and East End. We talked a lot about what it means to be the church in the city. I asked each of the men there to talk about one sign of hope that they see in the city, and one sign of need. The answers varied greatly, which is representative of the fact that cities are complex. Also, there was a strong contrast between the hopes and needs in the city. That is representative of the fact that things are magnified in the city... sometimes things appear to be better than they are, and sometimes all is not lost even though the signs might lead one to think that. God is able to transform people and places. God is always moving and active in the city, even as many Christians are going to great lengths in order to distance themselves and their families from the problems and complexities of the inner city. I believe many American Christians have become caught up in comfortable, cultural Christianity, when God is calling us to go into difficult, complex places in order to advance his mission to reach the lost. We cannot reach the lost by isolating ourselves from the lost. I am NOT saying that every American Christian should be involved in urban outreach, because there is plenty of brokenness in the suburbs and in rural areas. I am saying, though, that brokenness in American society is largely concentrated in inner cities, and many Christians intentionally stay away from those areas for the sake of comfort and self-preservation. The point of being a Christian is not to be safe. Being a Christian should be dangerous. It should cost us everything. The gospel message is not about self preservation, fear, comfort, or isolation. God calls us to run into the arms of the broken, and in America they are living in the inner city experiencing the struggles associated with poverty. Before we go into the city, we must understand that the work is complex. We need to be in it for the long haul. I am hopeful that North Way will be able to love Pittsburgh well, and that we are committed to continuing to advance the gospel in the city even when things get tough. We live in the constant tension between hopes and needs.

A Celebration In Homewood

Over the past couple of years, LAMP has been supported financially by a company in Pittsburgh called Chief Oil and Gas. Today we gathered together with representatives from Chief, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Family Guidance, Homewood-Brushton Community Ministries, and North Way Christian Community to celebrate another year of funding for LAMP. It's hard to believe, but LAMP mentors have impacted the lives of nearly 300 children over the past six years. I'm really looking forward to another year of partnership with all of the amazing organizations involved in LAMP.

Football, Fun, Food, Rap CDs, and Break Ups

I spent most of Saturday with four mentees at my house in Homewood. We had a great time together, tossing the football around, playing Nerf dart tag, stuffing our faces with pizza, and chilling on my front porch for a while. We had some good conversations about life, the weather was amazing, and it felt so peaceful in Homewood at that time. It was one of the best days I've had with these mentees in a while.

Then, on the drive to take them home we decided to stop at a gas station to get some snacks. While I was waiting in a different part of the convenience store for my mentees to make their snack selections, someone walked into the store, saw the four of them standing there, and made his way over to them to try to sell them something. He kind of leaned down on one knee to avoid the attention of the store clerk, and he pulled out some illegal bootlegged rap CDs and who knows what else. He had the full attention of the boys, and I wondered what I should do. I decided to walk right up to him and confront him. With a huge look of shock on his face, he quickly tried to stuff his belongings back into his backpack. He looked at me suspiciously and asked who I was. I told him I was their mentor, and I didn't appreciate what he was trying to do. That conversation caught the eye of the store clerk, and he started yelling at him to leave the store. I was mad at the guy who was trying to sell my mentees illegal stuff, my mentees were mad at me for interrupting and causing a scene, the guy selling the stuff was mad and cursing at the clerk, and the clerk was mad and cursing at the guy selling the stuff. Just like that, my nice, peaceful time with the mentees turned into a tense fiasco. When we finally all got into my car, things were kind of settling down when one of my mentees' answered a phone call from his girlfriend. She broke up with him on the phone, and all of the sudden I had to figure out how to help him navigate through that. The situation caused a big strain in the car as he was pretty angry over what happened. To be honest, I couldn't wait to get them dropped off by that point! One great day of mentoring had turned into a miserable situation in a matter of 30 minutes. I didn't even know what hit me!

Mentoring can be so full of joy, and so challenging all at the same time. Relationships can be messy, and I know that the work I do with high risk youth in Homewood is going to be crazy sometimes. I never know what to expect from one day to the next. I guess that's why I enjoy the work so much, and, yet, my patience is tested often. Thankfully, I know that God has a plan for my mentees' lives. God has equipped me to be able to handle mentoring as long as I am open to the adventure. There is nothing more Christ-like than one person sharing a life with another person, and that is what mentoring is all about. I may not have all of the answers, but that's not the point. The point is to stay with it no matter if the mentoring time together is good or bad by my standards. God has called me to do this no matter the circumstances.

Launching a Campus in the City

Over the past couple of weeks I've been looking at buildings for the church campus that I'll be leading this Fall. It's a strange feeling to be on the front end of a process that will hopefully impact hundreds of lives for Christ some day. It's amazing to experience how God is in control of the process, and the resistance that comes with expansion of God's kingdom. As in any big city, these factors are magnified by the complexities of the urban environment. Starting a church in the city can be initimidating, but it is also a wonderful challenge. I've learned so much about God and cities over the past couple of years. In a time when many people around the United States are running away from or avoiding cities, I am still completely intrigued by the opportunities for the advancement of the gospel message in my city. I know there will be some good outcomes of all of this foundational work, but I'm really just enjoying the journey at the moment. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Every day is a new adventure to be lived, and I wouldn't trade the experience of leading in the city for all of the comfort and predictability in the world!

A Peacemaker in the Inner City

Urban ministry in Homewood is always challenging, and I often look to books for inspiration. Thanksfully there are many good books out about God's call to minister to people in cities. I really like this quote from Mark Gornik in his book To Live in Peace. "To be peacemakers in the American inner city is the opposite of giving in to apathy, of razing neighborhoods, of imploding buildings, of excluding the poor, of insulating oneself from risk. To seek the peace of the city is to have a vision of friendship and community and a commitment to justice, joy, forgiveness, and salvation. It is to engage in kingdom work in the city based on a distinctive understanding of what it means to be the people of God, an understanding that expresses itself in love and sacrifice in service to others, especially the most vulnerable." Yep, that sounds about right! I would love to be able to authentically live those words out here in Homewood.

A Good Weekend in Homewood

This was a great weekend for LAMP. Yesterday was the 5th Annual Homewood Clean Up sponsored by LAMP and Rapha Ministries. Today I spent most of the afternoon with a group of mentees at Dave and Busters. Now I'm chilling at home and my daughters are playing outside in front of my house with some neighborhood kids. I love living in Homewood!