High Risk Youth and Orphan Care

Modern children are growing up in a world that is complex. It is a world defined by urban and global realities. Sin and evil occur in individuals, in families, in communities, in cities, and globally. Brokenness has entered into religious, economic, and political systems. Thankfully, we have hope as human beings because God has conquered evil and brokenness through his Son, Jesus Christ. We live in the now, but not yet. The kingdom of God is here, so we have hope. But, we still live in a present evil age. God is working through modern Christians and his Church to accomplish his redemptive mission.

It is in this context that followers of Jesus engage the brokenness of this world. God gives us hope, and we share that hope with others. When it comes to making a difference in the lives of the vulnerable children in this world, including orphans, social orphans, street kids, and high risk youth, it is important for Christians to be deeply engaged in complex responses to complex problems. We must have Christ work through us to accomplish his redemptive mission to kids on the margins of society. It's a biblical mandate that we all must take seriously.

Yes, it is important to develop programs that impact high risk youth. However, it is even more important to develop authentic relationships with kids. Simple programs are not enough. Churches, schools, government organizations, nonprofits, agencies, businesses, and individuals must work together in the process of transformation with our most vulnerable children. The work often requires tremendous sacrifice, but sacrificial love and service are true marks of those who are authentically following Jesus. We make the world a better place when we passionately serve others and when we work together as we serve.

I'm excited to share about these things at tonight's Encountering God in the City class at North Way East End. The topic of the evening is "High Risk Youth and Orphan Care." My hope is that God will continue to break our hearts for the evil in our world, and especially how that evil impacts troubled youth and vulnerable kids. My goal as a pastor is to mobilize as many Christians as possible to make a difference in this world by participating in God's redemptive mission. I still believe that God can do miracles and that God's heart is close to the orphan and the struggling children in our midst.

Empowering Young People

One of the most amazing things about having the privilege of mentoring at-risk youth over the past six years has been the gift of watching the mentees develop into empowered young people who are ready to succeed in life. God has opened the door to be able to mentor kids living in urban poverty, kids who are homeless, kids who are angry, kids who are desperate... the kids who would have normally fallen through the cracks of society. It has been heartbreaking to watch kids struggle through many ups and downs, but it has been remarkable to watch these resilient kids go through a profound process of transformation. Yes, many of the young people I work with face many challenges. However, they are becoming empowered to take on those challenges and overcome them. This is the work of the church in urban environments. Roberth Linthicum writes, "When the church builds networks between the poor and people of power which result in the observable improvement of the life of the poor, the gospel gains a credibility all the preaching by the church cannot provide. When self-confidence and self-respect of the poor are raised by networking to solve their own problems, the gospel gains a new hearing. It is a hearing based upon the respect the church has shown the poor. They are not objects to be ministered to, but people capable of taking charge of their own lives." I know God has big plans in store for the young people that I've had the joy of spending time with in Homewood.

Learning from At-risk Youth

Over the past couple of weeks I've been reviewing all of the interviews that I completed with at-risk young people in Pittsburgh and Honduras for my dissertation. The kids all have a story to tell, and it is a story that needs to be heard by the people in mainstream society who choose to ignore the kids. Many of the youth I talked to told me about the many obstacles in their lives that they have had to overcome, including poverty, abuse, dysfunctional schools, broken families, drugs, gangs, crimes, and isolation. They opened up about their hopes and dreams for the future. I have seen first hand how God is able to intervene in the lives of hurting people in order to redeem them. The stories of the young people I have interviewed have been full of heartbreak and hope, failures and forgiveness, set backs and resilience. I have learned so much from the tough kids I've spent time with over the years. God has given me eyes to see the beauty that comes when the smaller, painful stories being lived out by troubled youth find their place in God's Story. Transformation is a process, and there are many ups and downs in working with high risk youth. Still, the risks are well worth the rewards associated with how God has been able to teach me. Sometimes the streets are the best classrooms, and people suffering through the struggles of poverty are the best teachers in the school of life. I know a doctoral dissertation is supposed to be about me sharing information with the world, but thus far my dissertation has been much more about what God is showing me through the eyes of people who are close to God but rejected by mainstream society.

Reaching Social Orphans in Complex Urban Environments

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to lead a break out session at the OrphanCare Expo in Pittsburgh. The event gathers together many organizations and individuals from all over Western Pennsylvania to organize around the ways that the body of Christ can work together to reach orphans and at-risk children locally and globally. My break out session was entitled, "Reaching Social Orphans in Complex Urban Environments." We defined what it means to be a social orphan, we talked about the importance of Christians engaging in complex urban environments, and then we discussed some suggestions for what followers of Jesus can do to make a difference with these types of children locally and globally. These are some of my suggestions:

Be incarnational. Just like Jesus entered into our human context, modern followers of Jesus should go to where the kids are and spend time with them in their context building relationships. Ministry does not happen in antiseptic conditions. We need to go into neighborhoods, into schools, and into many different kinds of places in order to be able to connect with kids.

Build relationships, not programs. 90 percent of people living in cities come to Christ through relationships instead of programs. Relationships are crucial to reaching people in complex urban environments. Before anyone starts a program, they should have tons of relationships with the kids they are trying to serve.

Focus on developmental relationships instead of prescriptive relationships. We need to build assets in high risk youth instead of focusing on fixing their problems. Building developmental assets leads to resilience and empowerment.

Learn from the kids. Transformation goes both ways. Adults working with kids should be good listeners, willing to learn from the kids they are serving. This goes a long way toward effectiveness and contextualization.

Consider living in the city. Most of the world's population lives in cities, and followers of Jesus can be very effective at reaching kids when they live in the city. In my opinion, Christians should be running into the arms of the city instead of running away from the city.

Focus on transformation instead of transaction. Many organizations aimed at reaching social orphans and high risk youth start out with intentions of helping kids, but they end up fundraising and existing so that adults can hold on to their jobs. Organizations focused on transforming the lives of at-risk youth should eventually work themselves out of existence because they are so effective at empowering the young people where they are serving.

Build partnerships. Urban issues are complex, and Christians should work together to come up with complex solutions. No one church or one organization can possibly be effective at reaching at-risk kids alone. We must partner and creatively work together.

Be an advocate. Compassion is the low hanging fruit for evangelical Christians. We line up to give things to help people in need, but few of us do the hard work of focusing on why kids end up being social orphans in the first place. People like lawyers, politicians, and real estate developers can do great harm or great good depending on how much of an advocate they are for people who are impacted by their work. Christians should advocate for justice in addition to being compassionate.

Overcome the jungle mentality. Some people are called to go oversees to jungles to reach hurting children, but most of us have social orphans living right in our own cities in America. Go global, but let's not lose sight of the hurting young people in our own neighborhoods.

Overcome fear. I know many Christians in America who are afraid to get involved in helping kids in our cities because of fear. We are obsessed with safety in America. I believe that God is calling us to much more than complacency or being paralyzed by fear. Followers of Jesus can make a huge impact in the lives of many at-risk youth if we would simply take the first step to go beyond our comfort zones.

NYC Urban Immersion - Day Three

Today was one of the best days I've had in a long time. I can't even begin to describe how the Holy Spirit ministered to me today, and how much God opened my heart to new perspectives on his mission to advance his Kingdom. I am truly blessed to be a part of this doctorate program at BGU. On this day I had the opportunity to spend time with some of the most influential leaders in the body of Christ. This morning Ray Bakke gave one of his classic lectures about how most money that is intended to help poor people is actually filtered out of poor urban neighborhoods to middle class urban or suburban neighborhoods. He provided a biblical foundation for why Christian leaders should care about such issues and become engaged as transformational leaders and stewards. That type of thinking is a big reason why I moved my family to Homewood in Pittsburgh. Any Christian serving the poor should go about it in an empowering way. The gospel is good news, and it is empowering. After Ray's morning lecture we visited Dr. Mark Gornick, the founder of City Seminary, a training school for urban Christian leaders that delivers a curriculum similar to BGU in that cities are the laboratories and theory is all tied in practically. A woman named Dr. Janice McClain, an pastor who immigrated to America from Jamaica when she was a teenager, shared with us about how Harlem is being gentrified and pastors like her are learning how to be effective at ministering in complex urban environments. In the afternoon we all went to Bethel Gospel Assembly, a huge multicultural church in Harlem, where Bishop Dr. Carlton Brown shared with us about how his church is doing amazing things reaching many different types of people for Christ in Harlem, in the greater New York region, and in countries all over the world. It is so amazing and inspiring to see the fruit that God is able to bring forth from churches who are missional to the core. Yesterday I visited a Chinese church that is reaching thousands of people all over the world, and today I visited a church made up mostly of African-American and Latino people who are making a huge difference in the world for the sake of Christ. Vision is a holy discontent for the way things are, and good pastors are able to be visionary. Also, there are many different ways to be effective at urban ministry. Much depends on context and vision. In the late afternoon we visited Brooklyn Tabernacle, another huge multiracial church with over 10,000 members that was started in what was once one of the most violent and dangerous neighorhoods in Brooklyn. The senior pastor, Jim Cymbala, spent several hours with us describing how the church started with only a few members and how through the power of prayer God has done amazing things. He shared with us about the importance of prayer in churches. He told us that the church must be about LOVE, or our message will get lost in all of the craziness associated with the institutional church. He encouraged all of us to be real, and not try to be actors as pastors. He also mentioned that the biggest challenge facing the modern church is at-risk youth, and that all churches should develop strategies for reaching troubled urban youth. That made me feel good that North Way has been doing just that in our city of Pittsburgh through the LAMP mentoring initiative.

There is just far too much that happened to me today to describe in this blog. I'll only be able to unpack it all over a good cup of coffee with lots of people back in Pittsburgh. God is so amazing! I honestly cannot think of a better way to learn. We learn deep theories in a classroom, and then we go out into the streets to see how that theology and theory is being applied. I was completely surprised by how authentic and engaged these amazing leaders were today. The Holy Spirit really worked through Jim Cymbala in particular to encourage me that cross-cultural church is not only possible, but essential for the growth of the church in cities in America. He also demonstrated the importance of prayer as the foundation for living out God's purposes.

I was greatly encouraged today in the three things that I am most passionate about in Pittsburgh: working with at-risk youth, missional church, and multiracial church. Today I interacted with pastors who are living out profound callings in all three of those areas, and it is so inspiring to have access to people who have been down the road that I am only beginning to go down in Pittsburgh. My heart is to continue to reach the at-risk young people that I am working with in Homewood, to continue to encourage North Way to get outside the walls of our church buildings in order to build relationships with people who are not Christians, and to remain committed to the dream of leading a multiracial church campus in the East End. All of these things are possible with God, and today my Father blessed me with the gift of encouragement and empowerment. I am ready for the next steps in Pittsburgh!

Literature Review

I recently completed my dissertation literature review.  I read and reviewed fifteen books related to different approaches to transforming the lives of at-risk youth.  For anyone interested in checking out a wide variety of perspectives on impacting kids, here's the list of books:

Reclaiming our Prodigal Sons and Daughters (Larson and Brendtro)
Rethinking Adolescence (D'Ambrosio)
A Fragile Foundation (Search Institute)
Whatever It Takes (Tough)
Standy By Me (Rhodes)
On Your Own Without a Net (Osgood, et.al.)
Managing to Make It (Furstenberg, et.al.)
The Miracles of Mentoring (Dortch)
Hearts and Hands (Rodriguez)
A Framework for Understand Poverty (Payne)
The Way of the Wild Heart (Eldredge)
Youth At Risk (Olsen)
The Least of These (Ruthruff)
To Own a Dragon (Miller)
Code of the Streets (Anderson)

Honduras: Day Two

This morning we went back to the Genesis Center so that I could interview several of the young men who live there and are helping to get the place fixed up. I only had the time to interview two of them, Gerson and Saul. I can't wait to share their stories in my dissertation! They both have troubled pasts involving gangs and crime, and now they have both experienced dramatic transformation and are on the path to become pastors (even at the ages of 19 and 20 years old). They practically preached sermons to me with the stories of their lives and the closeness that they now feel with Jesus thanks to our Lord's grace and redemption. They are leaders, and they are extremely passionate about following Christ and giving themselves away to others. This type of Christianity is a far cry from the comforts of prosperity doctrine and self help gospel that has unfortunately made its way into many churches in the United States. These young men in Honduras, former prisoners, have a profound faith that would inspire any Christian to live a life that is sold out for Jesus. In the afternoon we visited an orphanage called Nueva Esperanza where I was able to interview three boys aged 9, 12, and 13. Nueva Esparanza is a sort of transition home for children in crisis, ranging in age from infants to 15 year olds. Over 160 children live there, and we were really touched by spending time with the children and the staff members. I was also able to interview their executive director and lead child pshychologist, which yielded a lot of insight into the struggles that they face to meet the holistic needs of the children that they are serving. They work very hard, but they face many uphill battles with the young people, particularly boys, who come to them hardened by life on the streets or in slums. I hope that I will be able to share their story well in my dissertation so that more people might be prompted to invest in the lives of the at-risk children there. After that site visit we went back to the Genesis Center so that I could interview a pastor named Harold who is basically serving as the very first LAMP mentoring coordinator in Honduras. He was one of the main people who was responsible for the transformation in Gerson and Saul's lives, so he is a seasoned urban ministry practitioner who I am confident will be great at implementing mentoring in his context.

God is moving in Honduras, and I am so thankful that He has allowed me the opportunity to spend time doing research in this amazing country. This trip is simply reinforcing the fact that Christians who choose not to spend time with the poor, whether in the United States or in other countries around the world, are missing out on so much joy that is found in life in humble circumstances. I've had American Christians tell me that not all Christians are called to minister with the poor because it is one of those "optional" parts of being a Christian. I push back strongly to people who tell me that because I believe that all followers of Jesus have a biblical mandate to care for the poor and other marginalized people in our world. It is not an option, we are simply being disobedient if we fail to act. However, that concept goes much deeper than that. Beyond ommission, neglect, or disobedience, we are truly missing out on the great joy that comes with our own transformation as our own limited worldviews are rocked. We miss out on having God work through other people to minister to us across cultures, races, and classes, through His Holy Spirit. This time in Honduras goes beyond a research project for my dissertation. It goes far beyond helping to get mentoring programs going in a new country. It goes far beyond somehow helping other people in my limited time here. This visit is about how much my Lord loves me, and the great gift that he is giving me this week as I am stretched and as I learn more about Jesus Christ through the eyes of orphans and young men and women who this world writes off as lost causes. Wherever a "lost cause" might be found, that's right were we will find Jesus. Thank you, Father, for this day that you have given me. I will never forget, and I am changed forever day by day because of your grace! Jesus, please help me to be more like the people I spent time with today.

A Restored Relationship

I have shared in blog posts in recent months about a rough stretch that a boy from Homewood has been going through lately. He had been a frequent visitor to our house for about a year, and he was good friends with several boys in the LAMP program. His behavior was crazy when we first met him, but over time he really turned things around and he was a joy to be around. We kept telling him what a huge difference we had seen in him. He asked for a LAMP mentor, and I had actually found a mentor to match with him but his parent would not allow his son to be in the program. My friend was very disappointed that he could not have a LAMP mentor, but we were still able to spend time with him pretty frequently. Then, about two months ago he was expelled from his school in Homewood for discipline problems. He stopped by to visit Julie and I the day after he was expelled, and for some reason he threw rocks at my neighbors house and my neighbor caught him and gave him a stern reprimand. He stopped visiting us after that. In that same week, he was arrested for jumping someone in Homewood with one of his friends. After that, his relationships with his friends in the LAMP program broke down and things were very tense between them for a long time. I spent a lot of time trying to sort all of those issues out. It was so hard to watch this kid go through almost a total meltdown at the age of 13. Julie and I prayed for him a lot during that time. We know God still has a purpose and plan for his life, and we have felt so sad about losing the influence that God had given us in his life.

So... last night Julie was shocked when she pulled her car in front of our house to unload groceries and she heard, "Ms. Julie!!!" She couldn't see the face in the distance, but she knew that voice well. It was our long lost friend. He came strolling up to our house with one of the LAMP boys... one of the relationships that we knew had been previously strained. When we asked them what they were doing together, they said, "Oh... we worked it out. We're cool now." And, just like that, this kid was back in our lives again. The boys came in to our house and we fed them. I got to spend some good time with my long lost friend. It was a joyful reunion. We talked a little bit about where he had been and the trouble that he had been in, but we focused more on the community service he was doing and the ways that he intended to get things turned around. That stuff didn't matter to me, really. I'm glad he is back on track, but we all make mistakes (especially at a young age) and the important thing to me was that our friendship was restored.

My friend has a long path ahead of him, but I know without a doubt that God has a plan for all of the at-risk youth that we work with in Homewood. I know most people in American society probably want to avoid the kids that we work with at all costs, but most people don't see the kids as I see them. I see great potential. I see great hope. And, most of all, I see Jesus in them when I look at them. I know God loves them so much! And so, as a follower of Christ, I should see hope for a future in the eyes of the kids in Homewood instead of a future of death or incarceration. God wants to work through all of us, as Christians, to reach people who are on a path to destruction. It does not matter how nice our American Dream is... our good jobs, our nice houses and cars, our never ending need for more stuff and more success... if we stand by and watch people suffering and hurting when we could be a part of the solution to people's pain. We may not all be called to work with troubled youth in Homewood, but all Christians are called to be deeply engaged in the work of transformation in the lives of people who are hurting in our own cities and around the world.