A New Year of School-based Mentoring

This afternoon at the Pittsburgh Faison K-5 school I attended a LAMP luncheon for the school staff and school-based mentors. Everyone ate pizza together (donated by a local Pizza Hut restaurant), enjoyed getting to know one another, and learned more about what a successful school-based mentoring partnership looks like. Going into our sixth year of school-based mentoring, we are starting to have a pretty good idea of what it takes to impact some of the most at-risk young people in the city. Meetings like today's luncheon help to build momentum for the program before the kids arrive. If the school staff chooses not to buy in to the idea of mentoring, then the program almost always fails. If the mentors from places like churches and businesses don't buy into the mentoring, then the program fails. Partnerships are hard work sometimes, but they are so worth it. In today's culture, schools can't make it on their own. They need to embrace support from the community in the process of educating their students. Likewise, churches cannot impact the community on their own... their impact is much greater when they leave the safe Christian bubble for the sake of partnering with other institutions in the community. At the end of the day, these types of partnerships are mutually beneficial for both churches and schools. I am looking forward to another year of incredible school-based mentoring in Homewood through LAMP!

God's Mission To Cities

I am really looking forward to leading North Way's East End campus in Pittsburgh because I believe so strongly that the church should be playing a significant role in complex urban environments. God is calling Christians all over the world to join his mission in reaching cities, which currently make up over 50 percent of the world's population. God is equipping ordinary people like me to be able to make a difference with our lives in places that many people avoid due to fear or complacency. God is on mission to redeem cities, so followers of Jesus should be willing to join that mission.

Mark Gornik writes, "If it is the church's mission to speak of and witness to hope and redemption, to life against death, and to peace over the violence of the powers, then the following agenda, while partial and preliminary, is important for the church in our cities. Our frame of reference is a vision of God's new city of peace; our practices are rooted in the gracious demands of God's reign; our sense of what is possible is engendered by the Spirit. And our most basic commitment is than any agenda must meet the demands of reality as experienced by the streets." - To Live In Peace

A Week of Dissertation Writing

This is a big week as I'm writing out as much of my dissertation as I can during this last week of August. I honestly can't wait to finish this project. I have learned a lot in this DMin program over the past several years, but now that I am in the home stretch I am realizing just how much work it has been and how much of a strain it has been on me and my family. It's not that I'm complaining... I brought this on myself! It's just that I am ready to experience life without having to read or write academic material constantly. I can't remember the last time I watched TV or did "normal" things in life because so much of my spare time has been consumed with reading and writing. I'm ready for June 2, 2012 (BGU graduation).

Healthy Relationships

Dating relationships are very important to the young people that I work with in Homewood (as they are with most teenagers in any environment). One of my main objectives in living incarnationally in Homewood has been to model a healthy marriage for the young people that we work with, because it's easy to talk about abstinence and making good choices but it's much more difficult to model certain behaviors consistently over a long period of time. Lots of outsiders come to Homewood to talk to kids about all kinds of different perspectives on dating relationships and sexuality. While I want to be careful not to devalue that type of work that does help some kids, a lot of the "talks" the kids get from outside organizations go in one ear and right out the other. The young people in Homewood face overwhelming pressure to become sexually active at a young age. To overcome those tempations, the kids need adults who will invest in them to help them understand healthy relationships.

This past weekend I was taking a long car ride with a few mentees and they started asking me all kinds of questions about my marriage to Julie. They were fascinated by my marriage! They told me all about their perspectives on dating, and they really wanted to know what I thought about certain issues that they were dealing with. God opened the door for me to be able to speak into issues of dating, sexuality, and marriage for these young people. I am able to speak into my mentees' lives because after six years of building meaningful relationships with them, I have earned the right to be heard and I have modeled a marriage for them. For a long time, some of my mentees called Julie my girlfriend because they didn't have a category for wife. Many of them had never had a marriage modeled for them. By being present in this community for a long time, my hope is that just as there are lots of men willing to speak to the young people in Homewood about unhealthy relationships and doing what feels good, that my presence in Homewood would allow me to be available to young people to talk to them about God's plan for healthy relationships and families. I am thankful for the platform that God has given me, as a pastor, to be able to speak into that area of my mentees' lives so that they at least know about the difference between right and wrong and unhealthy and healthy relationships. I don't take the kind of influence that my presence in the community allows me for granted.

A Weekend of Urban Ministry

It's been another crazy weekend of urban ministry.  Our basement flooded again on Friday during a huge storm in the East End of Pittsburgh, but it turned out to be much less damage than last month because our brand new water heater didn't break and we hadn't started repairing things from last month's damage so we didn't lose much.  We did get to spend a romantic Friday night scrubbing and bleaching our basement floor from the sewage water... always fun!  The weekend got much better after that, though, as yesterday we took three LAMP mentees to the lake to go boating and tubing.  We all had a blast!  Today was the LAMP BBQ after church at North Way Wexford, and we had a great turnout of LAMP mentors and mentees.  The kids all loved playing in the church's youth room, and it was great to connect with the mentors who do so much incredible "behind the scenes" service through mentoring.  Mentoring can sometimes feel lonely because it mostly happens in one on one relationships, so it is good to gather together periodically to support and encourage one another.  Now, I just need to rest and enjoy my family time tonight because tomorrow evening we're taking a bunch of friends and LAMP kids to a Pirates game.  This is shaping up to be a full summer!

Breakfast in the East End

This morning I walked into a restaurant in the East End of Pittsburgh and I saw two men from North Way having breakfast together and discussing the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. These guys were sharing their lives with one another, and that is such a healthy thing for followers of Jesus Christ. The world encourages men to go on solo missions, somehow taking on the world by themselves while destroying themselves along the way. If culture encourages men to isolate, God encourages men to join arms with fellow brothers in Christ for the journey through life. We can't do it alone. It's impossible. One of the reasons I am so excited about launching the East End campus is that I get to have the great privilege of joining arms with some amazing Christians, like the two men meeting this morning, who are passionate about being a church that makes a difference in this city.

Is Every Christian Called to Serve People in Need?

Recently some friends of mine asked me if my calling as a follower of Jesus is difficult. I think that, clearly, my calling is difficult at times. It comes with a cost. However, it is my opinion that God gives all of his followers difficult callings. Many times Christians choose to be disobedient to the difficult callings that God gives them in order to embrace a more comfortable cultural version of American Christianity, but that still doesn't change the fact that when we enter into a relationship with Jesus we are called to become deeply involved in his mission to reach the lost in this world. That is one of our main functions in this life... to reach people who are hurting and in need of a Saviour.

Many Christians will disagree with me, and I'm okay with that, but I think that all believers in God are called to serve the poor in one way or another. Our callings to the poor may look very different, but from my perspective it appears that Jesus wants all of us to be in relationships with people who are struggling in this world. When a Christian who is not involved in caring for the poor becomes "convicted" in their heart after reading a book about serving the poor, watching an inspirational movie about sold-out followers of Jesus giving themselves away to marginalized people, or listening to a speaker passionately describe their work with people in need, that may be the Holy Spirit prompting them to get involved relationally with struggling people. God's church is the hope of the world, and when we fail to live out that function we are being disobedient to our Creator.

The concept of serving the poor, and living out difficult callings, goes much further than giving money to charities. Giving money to the church or charity is simply good stewardship of what God has given us to steward. Also, we must go much further than simply talking about the poor. Everyone seems to have a cause nowadays because that's the cool thing in our affluent culture, but God wants us to give ourselves away to the poor by building meaningful, long term relationships. Don't get me wrong... there are many people who are also called by God to reach middle class and afflent people (I could argue that we are all called to do that as well). However, if we fail to build relationships with marginalized people then there may always be something missing in our hearts and in our faith because we are missing out on a lot of what God wants to do through each of us in this short life that we are given to steward. The best thing to do to overcome that is to listen to what God is asking us to do, and then go and do it. Sometimes we don't need to wait for a program, we just need to go to where hurting people are and start talking with them and listening to their stories. If we remain obedient to Christ, then he will show us what to do from there.

From Ideal to Ordeal and Back Again

Things have been pretty tough in Homewood lately. After living in Homewood for three full summers now, I'm learning that summer is difficult because violence is at its peak and the young people that we work with need us more than ever because they are out of school and often left alone to grind out an existence in the midst of urban poverty. Plus, my wife and I know that we have come under some pretty intense spiritual warfare this summer. I know that we have an enemy that hates that we are following Christ with all of our hearts, and that we are making an impact for the Kingdom of God in this neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Where the enemy has a vision for desperation and destruction, we know that God has a plan for the people in our neighborhood to prosper and overcome their hardships. After six years of working in Homewood, I know that God still wants to work through me and my family to reach people with his profound, life-changing love.

Julie and I had to laugh this morning when we woke up to the news that something bad had happened to us, we prayed about it, and within probably half an hour God had taken the "bad" situation and turned it into a positive so that God would be glorified. Lately, God seems to be working like that every single day! It's almost too much to take. If fact, many incarnational leaders end up quitting after a year or two because this whole incarnational urban ministry thing is almost too much to take. We feel very often like sometimes this is all just a big fiasco, and life would be easier if God would just give us a more comfortable calling in a more stable location. Sometimes Julie and I long for the days when life wasn't so hard on a daily basis... the days when we thought we were safe and secure on the path of the American Dream and God got a hold of us and showed us the calling that he has given us to reach young people in Homewood and people living in poverty in the city of Pittsburgh. This calling is difficult, but we're not about to quit. We know God's up to something... it's just a matter of us staying the course and being obedient.

In his classic book on incarnational urban ministry, Sub-merge, John Hayes describes how incarnational workers among the poor initially experience the jubilation of the "ideal" for a short period of time before struggles begin to make life an "ordeal." When we first start serving the urban poor, "We feel liberated from the 'real world' and its drive to get ahead and we find new purpose in working for eternal results among the most needy. For a few of us, the danger and risk of ministering on the streets adds a glamour that contributes to the ideal. Eventually, the ideal gives way to the ordeal. Typically, the ordeal comes to us in the form of unmet expectations and culture shock... Unfortunately, the ordeal is a season during which many Christian workers among the poor burn out and/or check out."

So, life in Homewood often feels like an ordeal. It just seems like too much to take sometimes. But, we can choose how we respond to the ordeal. When the realities of urban ministry set in, it's important to learn what God wants us to learn in the journey through the desert and come back through the other side ready to make an even bigger difference with our lives. The only other option is to quit and try to run back to life as we knew it... and that's not something that we're planning to do. God desires to work through us in our adversity. That's how he operated all throughout the Scriptures. God works through us best when we endure through tough times. Or, as John Hayes describes it, "The long journey across the desert is His way of starving our last attitudes from Egypt, or in some cases, the hangover of consumer Christianity. He tests us in the desert to see if we will sacrifice our new freedom for security. The ordeal is really the process of hammering our ideal into His ideal." A few years ago, I stopped living the American Dream and I embraced the gospel of message of Jesus Christ without the baggage of cultural Christianity. I am free from cultural captivity, and I wouldn't trade that in for anything that this world has to offer. I know this tough season of urban ministry is simply a matter of the cost that comes with joining God's mission to reach the lost in this world. And, for me, that's what this one short life is all about.

Another Incident in Homewood

My doorbell rang last night at 11:30pm, and I knew right away that something strange was going on. One of the young men from my neighborhood, a seventeen year old senior in high school, stopped by to let me know that his younger brother, a fifteen year old boy who is involved in LAMP, was in the hospital. The mentee had been walking around with some friends in a part of Homewood that they probably shouldn't have been walking around, a feud had escalated, some shots had been fired, and the mentee was hit by a car while he was running away (at least that's the version of the events from the older brother's perspective). The mentee had been taken by ambulance to children's hospital, and his mom was over there with him, leaving the older brother and several other kids that I know to themselves on their block trying to figure out how to respond and wondering how their brother and friend was doing. This is the third shooting in the past week and a half that has impacted kids I'm close to in Homewood. These are the types of things that happen to pastors involved in urban ministry. It's hard to know how to respond. That's why it is important to be connected intimately to the Holy Spirit, because there are no simple solutions on how to respond to complex, urban issues. In the case of last night, I decided to drive my young friend home so that he made it there safely. Then, I drove over to the hospital to visit the mentee and his mom to see if I could find out any additional information about his health status that I might share with his brothers and friends back in Homewood. Once I went back to Homewood, I stopped at several houses to share the information and kind of deescalate their anger a little bit. I stayed for a while to talk about things, and then I went home. I also called the mentor to let him know that his mentee was in the hospital and to pray for the situation. The mentee seems to be doing OK, by the way, but I'll be finding out more information about his status when I visit with him today.

Summer time is a difficult time to minister with the high risk youth that we work with in Homewood. Situations that require pastoral support occur quite often, and for some reason God has chosen to work through me to reach tough kids and their families. It's a calling that I cannot ignore, and I know countless other ministry leaders in Homewood can relate. There are some pastors in Homewood who have been ministering in the midst of people's pain in Homewood for years and years. I honestly don't know how they do it, but I do know that their work is important and needed. When we are called to work with people experiencing the grind of urban poverty, we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to know how to respond to each unique circumstance. My story from last night is not a story about me... it's a story about God and how much he cares about kids in Homewood and how much he wants to demonstrate his love to people in need. God values every life that he creates, and I know God has a positive plan for every young person in Homewood. God wants to work through ordinary people like me to carry that message forward. Because of that, the urban ministry worker must be empowered, equipped, and called by God for this work. We must be ready to engage, even if it is inconvenient. I am thankful that God chooses to work through me sometimes. Please pray for my neighborhood, please pray for the young people in my neighbhorood, and please pray for the pastors, ministry leaders, mentors, volunteers, school leaders and teachers, people from organizations such as Homewood Children's Village, Operation Better Block, YMCA, Rosedale Block Cluster, and other people and organizations that are working together toward the process of transformation in Homewood. No child should have to grow up in fear and despair, and I am praying that a brighter future is coming for the kids in Homewood.

A Block Party in Homewood

A small group made up of young adults from my church wanted to do a service project in Pittsburgh, so I invited them to my house last Wednesday night to throw a block party for kids in Homewood. The kids from my neighborhood had an absolute blast hanging out in our house, playing in the giant inflatable in our back yard, playing with squirt guns and nerf dart tag, playing street football, playing xbox and Wii games, and eating lots of good food. The small group did a great job of connecting with the kids and making the event fun for them, and several of them expressed an interest in becoming a mentor. The evening was a huge hit, both here in my neighborhood with the kids and with the members of the small group. The small group told me that they want to come back to Homewood and do another block party soon. I have to admit, there's nothing quite like a block party in my neighborhood!

Urban ministry has many challenges (for instance I had to help my mentees navigate through two shootings in my neighborhood last week), but it also has many rewards. The level of community that I get to experience sometimes is amazing. I think a lot of people are searching for the "real" life, and I find that "real" life quite often in my experiences in urban ministry. I'm not saying it's for everybody, but sometimes it seems like every day of my life is a new adventure with new friends and new experiences and authentic community. I wouldn't trade it in for anything. And I love to share my calling, my neighborhood and the people in it, with new people who come to visit me. Most people in Pittsburgh only have a negative perception of Homewood because that's all they see on the news, so I love it when people come to Homewood and leave having had a very positive interaction with the real Homewood... not the one characterized by violence and crime, but by good friendships and struggling people who depend on one another to get through each day. God is doing a great work in Homewood.

Calling and Leadership

Today I had the opportunity to attend the videocast in Pittsburgh of The Global Leadership Summit, an international leadership training event sponsored by Willow Creek Church. Leaders from a variety of different fields shared their vision with over 150,000 Christian ministry and business leaders from around the world. The speakers were amazing, including such people as Mama Maggie Cobran (a leader working among the poorest of the poor in the garbage dumps of Cairo, Egypt), Michelle Rhee (a public education reformer and the former superintendent of the Washington DC school district), Dr. Henry Cloud, Bill Hybels, John Dickson, and Erwin McManus. Every one of the speakers was inspirational, and their content was excellent.

It takes a lot of guts to get up in front of a huge worldwide audience and share from the heart about the difficulties of leadership in a complex world. The issue of calling was a theme that ran throughout the course of the day. Some of the speakers had been called by God to work among the poorest of the poor, while others had been called to work with business leaders and CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world. An important distinction to make is that none of the speakers' callings were more important or needed in the world than any of the other speakers. God works through all kinds of people in all kinds of different contexts, from the dirt streets of the poorest communities in the world to the board rooms where millions and sometimes billions of dollars are stewarded.

It was fun to debrief that paradox of calling with a group of leaders from North Way during our lunch break. Sometimes it is great to attend leadership conferences like this because people open up about their unique callings and call all of us to join into something much greater than ourselves and what we personally think we are capable of. It's also difficult to attend leadership conferences like this because we must take a long look at what other leaders are doing around the world and question whether or not we are living up to the callings that God has given us (or sometimes if we have even heard a calling from the Lord at all in the midst of our faith journeys).

A calling is a powerful thing, and someone else communicating the details of their unique calling (whether to the poor, the rich, or anyone in between) is one of the most powerful things that we can experience as adults. We either become disoriented in our lives or inspired to continue on in the work that we are a part of. That is the tension that all Christian leaders live in every single day that we wake up and face the day. If we are real with ourselves, we wonder if we are doing enough to live deeply in the calling that God has given us. If we are living deeply in that calling, we wonder just how it is that we are supposed to sustain ourselves in the midst of the strain, suffering, and difficulties that come with tough callings (God is in the habit of giving us those tough callings if we are really listening to him). At the end of the day, it is important that we take all of our issues to our Heavenly Father. We stand before him, and him alone. We should not gauge success by worldly standards, and as I learned again today, the best leaders are those who are able to live out the calling that God has given them regardless of the costs during this short life on earth. We only have one shot at this life, and we need to live life to the fullest according to God's purposes no matter where he has called us.

Some Perspective

I have a big deadline coming up this week for my dissertation, so I have been writing like crazy lately. I have been stressed out by the project, and about half way through my day today I was throwing a little pity party for myself in my head when the doorbell rang. It was one of my mentees in Homewood. He stopped by to tell me that his mom had been shot, and that she was in the ICU at a hospital in Oakland. He didn't have any way to go visit her, so he asked me if I would give him a ride to go see her. Suddenly, the problems in my head with my little dissertation project didn't seem like such a big deal in the whole scheme of things. I gave him a ride to the hospital and we were able to kind of talk through how he was doing with everything. His mom is going to live, but she will be recovering for a while. It's amazing how the city provides perspective in life. I used to think that my life was difficult, but I know that my mentees and neighbors face suffering in life that I could never possibly understand. The level of resilience and courage in my mentees is absolutely astounding sometimes. I wish the rest of the world could see what I get to see in them. Their resolve to persevere in life is inspiring. So, at the end of my day today, my project deadline still looms on the horizon but it's really no big deal, relatively speaking. It's not life or death. My heart is heavy for my mentee and his mom tonight, and I'm definitely praying for them.

Reaching People for Christ

Yesterday at church I had the opportunity to pray with several people as they accepted Jesus' profound gift of salvation. Of all the adjustments to being a pastor that I am experiencing this year, this was the best role to step into because it's the main calling that all of us have as followers of Jesus Christ. We are all called to build relationships with people so that they might come to know God more deeply. All Christians should learn to become familiar with evangelism, even though evangelism takes on many different forms depending on life situations. God is on mission to redeem the world, and he has a part for every single one of us to play in that grand adventure. That narrative is what defines our life purpose. Most of life will not make sense to us as human beings unless we view it through the lens of God's mission to reach the lost in this world. That narrative clashes with the American Dream narrative, though, because the American Dream narrative that we live in communicates that life is all about us, and our happiness, and gaining more power, money, and influence. We live in a hyperindividualized culture where we are encouraged to make our selves the center of the universe. God's Grand Narrative, which was in place long before our lifetimes and will continue long after we are gone regardless of how culture shifts in the world, should provide the meaning in our lives if we are followers of Jesus. However, instead of breaking that narrative down into small principles to apply to our lives, we should orient ourselves in God's Story by searching for where God is on mission in this world and deeply engaging in that mission in those places. Christians find our meaning in advancing the Kingdom of God, not advancing our selves so that we might somehow be happier by worldly standards. Our purpose in life is to reach others for the sake of Christ.

A Bike Incident

It's amazing how life can change in an instant in my neighborhood. Yesterday somebody offered me tickets to the Pirates baseball game, so I decided to take my family and one of the boys from my neighborhood who has never been to a baseball game before. Our family was excited to have an unexpected night out on the town. We decided to eat dinner before we left our house for the game, and a couple of boys from the neighborhood showed up at our house to visit just as we were about to eat so we invited them to have dinner with us. One of those boys asked to borrow the bike of one of the other boys to go to his house real quick (he only lives about 100 yards from my house). He showed up at our house about ten minutes later, without the bike, frantically ringing our door bell and out of breath with a strange look on his face. When I opened the door he said, "You'll never believe what just happened!" He hurried inside the house and explained what had just happened. He got the story out very well for an eight year old kid, saying "Mr. B... I was almost at my house riding on Amir's bike when a car drove right past me and started shooting. They shot a whole bunch of shots into the house right next to mine, so I ditched my bike and headed into my house to duck for cover. A whole bunch of cops came and they have my whole block closed off. As soon as the cops got there, I went out to get Amir's bike but it was gone. Someone stole it, and some people told me that a teenager running from that house grabbed the bike and rode it to get away from the scene." I was just glad that he was alright, but Amir was very upset that his bike had been stolen. I wasn't sure if my young friend's story was true (bikes exchange owners frequently in Homewood), so I asked him and Amir to jump in my car with me on the one hand so that I could get them home safely if there was still danger and on the other hand to see if we could spot anyone riding the bike. We did not find the bike, but sure enough there were about ten police officers blocking off the streets around where the shooting had occurred. I went right into pastor mode... that is what pastors do in struggling urban environments. We go to where the people are hurting and we pray and help out and just generally minister to our neighbors.

One of the things about incarnational ministry is that when something bad happens in my neighborhood, I feel it. I hate that there are gun shots that close to my house. I hate that eight year old kids can't ride their bikes in the streets around my house without being in constant fear that shooting could break out in broad daylight at any time. I hate that my neighbors, people who I have grown to know and love, have to live in fear of violence. That kind of violence is evil, and it must be stopped. I don't want it to stop because of "those poor people who live in that blighted neighborhood." I want it to stop because it's my neighborhood, and my home, and I don't want that crazy stuff around my family and friends. It's just not right, and it's not the way life is supposed to be. And so my heart breaks, and when I enter into other people's pain I enter into holy ground. God meets people in their pain and in their heartache. There is no better place for me to be, as a follower of Jesus Christ, than ministering to my friends in the aftermath of a shooting in my neighborhood. We cannot minister effectively to people in pain if we are unwilling to go where they are because of fear. My calling as a Christian does not happen in sterile office or church environments between the hours of 9am and 5pm... it happens at all kinds of different hours in all kinds of messy places with all kinds of hurting people. A lot of transformational ministry happens when we least expect it.

When I made sure the boys were alright and returned safely to their mothers, I headed back to my house with the realization that suddenly a Pirate game wasn't that important and that at best we would be late arriving at the stadium because of the drama in my neighborhood. Still, we went to the Pirate game. The enemy wanted to destroy our joy because that's what he is best at doing, but we would not let our joy be destroyed last night. We had a good time together at the game. Sometimes the best thing to do for healing after traumatic events is to do "normal" things, so maybe the Pirate game helped me feel better for a little while. My heart is still burdened for my neighborhood, though. What else can I do to work with my neighbors to continue to try to put an end to the senseless violence in my streets? How else can I help? Where is God moving in Homewood, and how can I join that work each day to contribute my small part in God's plans to redeem the world? These are the questions that keep me awake at night. The faces of my neighbors are on my mind a lot because I so desperately want for there to be a sense of shalom in my neighborhood. I wouldn't trade that calling for anything, although it's not an easy calling. I feel like I need to give up control of the circumstances in my neighborhood every single day, and allow God to enter into the places where my heart breaks for the brokenness that is all around me.

The kids all came back to our house today, and we all celebrated together because Amir found his bike. Someone had given him a hot tip on where it had been spotted, and he was reconciled with his transportation shortly thereafter. We talked about the events from the previous day, and I caught up on how everyone from that street was doing. I was glad to hear that none of my friends were injured by the shooting. And we resumed "normal" life at the McCabe house, whatever normal means anymore. Every day seems like something new, and God is always teaching me things. The streets are my classroom. And that's the tension that God wants us to live in... with one arm outstretched to those in pain in this world, and with one arm outstretched to our Heavenly Father. We are called to use our lifetimes spending ourselves on behalf of vulnerable people in vulnerable places so that our God will be glorified and his purposes will be reached through us.

An Afternoon of Strange Animal Encounters

Raising kids is always an interesting thing.  Yesterday afternoon when I arrived home from work I walked right into something unexpected. One of the kids in my neighborhood had stumbled upon a stray cat who had kittens in an abandoned house on my street. He had somehow managed to get a hold of one of the kittens, he brought it over to our house to show us, and then he used his business instincts to track down one of his friends and sell him the cat for $17 (I'm not sure how he knew the going rate for stray kittens these days, but that's another story). He came back to my house after the sale, shared what had happened with my daughters, and he promptly invited them to join in on his new business venture. Apparently, the offer made was that he would catch the rest of the stray kittens, bring them over to our house, my daughters would give the kittens a bath so that they smelled good going into the business transaction, their friend would then go out into the community and sell the kittens to other kids in Homewood, and then he would come back to our house and share a certain percentage of the profits with my daughters (I'm not sure if they took into consideration the overhead costs of water, soap, and towels involved in bathing kittens, but that's another matter). They had the whole plan worked out, and just as I was figuring out how I should respond to this situation, my wife informed me that our dog, a boxer named Bella, was having a false pregnancy. She had confused several of her squeaky toys for "puppies," and she was carrying them gently around the house while "mothering" them. The thought briefly crossed my mind, wondering if my daughters and their friend from the neighborhood might also be able to sell my fake squeaky toy "grandpuppies" in the underground pet market in Homewood, but I thought that might not be such a good idea. After a tough conversation with my daughters about how they are not allowed to profit from the aiding and then selling of helpless stray animals in our neighborhood, and after trying to explain to my daughters that our dog thinks she has puppies when she actually doesn't, I was ready to chalk up my afternoon as one of the most bizarre afternoons I've ever had. Oh, and I got to drop over $200 at the vet to find out that my dog really was not pregnant but only a mother in her head. I can only imagine how much it costs to take a dog to a pet psychologist! As if I needed more female hormonal issues around my house anyway! I wonder what unexpected adventures await me when I arrive home today?

Christians Engage the World

One of my favorite things to do as a pastor is to encourage followers of Jesus to engage the world and be as involved as possible in many interests and activities outside of the church walls. The church is not a country club where Christians gather to separate from the world. We gather corporately so that we can worship the Lord and grow in order to be equipped to go back out into the world. Most of the life of the person who is following Jesus Christ whole-heartedly is spent giving themselves away to others for the sake of the advancement of the kingdom of God in the world. This is why I moved my family to the inner city... to be closer to the struggling people in this world who are desperately in need of God. I am hoping to model for my children, with my lifestyle, that being a Christians means that we are called to go into the world, not withdraw from the world. We should be concerned if our only friends and relationships are with Christians, because that means we are missing out on God's mission to redeem the world.

William Stringfellow wrote, "The image of Christian action in the world is that of the people of God living in dispersion in the world and in any corner of the world, finding trustworthy God's promise that He cares for all men and for each man. Moreover, Christians are free in their dispersion to intercede for the cause of any man - even one who is said by others to be unworthy - and thereby to represent in the world the intercession of Christ for all men - even though none be worthy. The image of Christian witness in the world is that of a people who have so completely divested themselves of their own individual self-interest that they may intercede - stand in the place of, represent, advocate - the cause of another, any other at all. And then, now and again, the people return from their extraordinarily versatile involvement in the life of the world, to gather as the Church to represent, before God, the world out of which they have come, in all its connectedness and conflict and change, and to celebrate as the Church the presence of the Word of God as they have known it in the world." - A Private and Public Faith

My goal in life as a follower of Jesus is to build relationships with as many "unworthy" people in the world as I possibly can, in as many difficult places as God would lead me to, for the sake of dying to my self and gaining Christ on a daily basis, so that God would be glorified by my sacrifice. Some day when I die and people gather to celebrate my life, I hope that the words used would go something along the lines of, "Bryan so completely divested himself of his own individual self-interest that he spent a lifetime interceding - standing in the place of, representing, advocating - the cause of another, any other at all." Now that would be a legacy!