Encountering God in the City Highlights

Last night I wrapped up teaching another round of Encountering God in the City at the North Way East End ministry center in East Liberty. Last fall at E.G.I.T.C. we built a foundation of why it is so important for followers of Jesus to engage cities in our modern world. This time around we selected a different topic each week, I introduced some concepts on those topics, and then we had some great dialogue. The various topics were:

• History of Urban Ministry
• Calling and Theology of Work
• High Risk Youth and Orphan Care
• Asset-based Christian Community Development
• Reconciliation and Multi-ethnic Church

We learned about the rich history of 2,000 years of Christians mobilizing around the world with various urban ministry models that were uniquely contextualized to different eras and cultures. We learned that each of us has a unique calling to participate in God's redemptive mission, and that we can find joy at work by being stewards of our time and talent while advancing the kingdom of God. We learned about God's heart for children and young people living on the margins of our cities in the U.S. and around the world, and appropriate responses from Christians. We learned how to focus on the assets in urban communities instead of the needs, and how followers of Christ can impact the process of transformation in cities through engagement in real estate development. Finally, we had a meaningful discussion about how Christians should be leading the way in our culture when it comes to reconciliation instead of dragging our feet and lagging behind. 

Last night's class was one of the most open conversations about race and class that I've ever been a part of thanks to the transparency and heart of the group. That has been a theme throughout each of the E.G.I.T.C. sessions... everyone's openness and willingness to learn from one another. The goal isn't just to learn with our heads, though. The goal is to be transformed and mobilized to make a difference in our city. Will Pittsburgh be a better place because of E.G.I.T.C.? Only time will tell. I have high hopes for these passionate followers of Jesus Christ, though. They're a group of world changers. I'm blessed to be around such amazing people in a world class city like Pittsburgh. 

A Safe House in Homewood

Jesus modeled the type of incarnational living where we give ourselves away to others. We find out where marginalized or vulnerable people are in our world, we go to them, we spend time with them, and God takes everyone on a process of transformation as we build relationships with one another. The concept seems simple enough, right?

The problem is that mainstream society, especially in America, does not hold to those types of values. The American Dream actually causes us to distance ourselves from the most marginalized and vulnerable people in our society. Upward mobility, at its very core, involves making our lives more comfortable so that we don't have to deal with as much messiness or discomfort.

To be a follower of Jesus, we should be downwardly mobile. We should be spending time with people in the places where God asks us to go, the very places where he promises us that we will find life if we will only give up control of our lives. We find the Holy Spirit at work in surprising places in our world, the Almighty God giving scandalous amounts of grace away to those who need it most... both the comfortable and those of need find God's grace in the margins.

My friends in Homewood, Pastor Freedom Blackwell and his wife, Freed, live out incarnational ministry like Jesus on a daily basis. This week they led a housing blitz in Homewood where an abandoned home was converted into a safe house for children in the middle of the neighborhood. It will be a place of refuge for kids to get off the streets for a little while. It was rebuilt by residents of Homewood for residents of Homewood.

I am excited to see what God does through the safe house in Homewood. Many of the children who have spent countless hours playing at my house or eating dinner at my dinner table will now have another place to go. The young people who are some of the brightest assets in the community now have a place to go that is an asset in the community.

I know that we will still welcome people into our home in Homewood, Pastor Freedom and Free will, and there are several other people living out incarnational ministry in Homewood who will continue to do so. Still, it is great to have another place for kids to go when we are unable to be there for the kids. I am praying that God raises up many more people in Homewood to live like Jesus in many more houses that are restored by the residents of Homewood in partnership with volunteers located throughout the city of Pittsburgh. God is truly doing an amazing redemptive work in Homewood, and I am privileged to experience that work up close.

Pitcairn Community Ministries

I couple days ago we had the opportunity to spend some time with Gary and Carol Agate from Pitcairn Community Ministries.  Please check out their website through the link on my blog if you get a chance.  God is working through them to do some great things in their community where they intentionally moved last summer to live incarnationally.  A big part of their story is that they are empty nesters, and after raising a big family on a farm in a rural area they decided to move into a very nice townhouse in a good neighborhood.  After just a little while there they started to feel like God was calling them to something a little more radical.  They decided to move to Pitcairn to give themselves away to others in an amazing outreach ministry that they built.  Their website has more details, but as I reflect on our time with them I noticed the following:

1.  It's never too late to stop trying to achieve the American Dream (an unbiblical lifestyle that many American Christians have been deceived into finding their life purposes in).  As followers of Christ who happen to be living in America, we all should give up the American Dream in order to live in God's Story which has been shown to us as the way to live life for thousands of years.  The American version of retirement is just one example of what I'm talking about... it's not biblical, and it doesn't bring retirees the kind of joy that can be found in finishing strong on the edge for Christ instead of comfortably isolated from people in need in this world.

2.  When we take the step to give ourselves away to others for the sake of Christ, it matters how we do it!  That's why it is so important to read books related to the type of ministry that people are called to.  The Agates were reading books like Radical, The Hole in the Gospel, and Crazy Love.  Those are all great books that give a clear biblical foundation for how Christians can choose to live in God's Story.

3.  Another family is already in the process of moving to Pitcairn with them.  The concept here is that it is important to bring other folks along with us in the journey of life.  There are no solo missions in the Kingdom of God.  We were made for community, and our lives should be built around authentic relationships with God, our selves, our family and friends, and with people in the world.

Gary and Carol are in Haiti this week.  Please pray for them, and specifically for the church that they are trying to build there.

Urban Ministry with a Family

People are often curious about how Julie and I raise our family in Homewood, and how we do ministry together as a family.  We do not by any means have family life all figured out, and there are many challenges that come with urban ministry.  But our work together in Homewood has been a tremendous blessing for us as a family, and I know that we are right where God wants us to be.  He may call us to go somewhere else some day, but for now we're really loving where we live and the work with youth that God has called us to.

In his book Restoring At-Risk Communities, John Perkins suggests some key elements of doing ministry as a family. Here they are:

• When God calls you into Christian community development, he calls you as a family.  You cannot separate your ministry from the rest of your life.  If you try, those who share your life will suffer and so will your service.
• A husband and wife must have a unified vision and must support each other in their individual roles.  The two must keep their relationship solid and affirm each other continually in their mutual contribution to the ministry.
• It's great when both spouses hear God's call together, but many times one may hear the call more clearly than the other.  This is when trust and mutual submission become important.
• A home is not a house or a place or anything immovable.  Home is a condition of the spirit.  We must be able to let go of places and property when the Lord calls us and carry our "home" to the next location.
• It may be cliche, but it's still true: the family that prays together stays together.  Teach your children to love God and to serve him, so that they can grow into the same commitment to people and to ministry that drives their parents.
• Relocation is more than moving into a community.  It means taking on the problems and concerns of that community.  My neighbors' needs are my needs, and their struggles are my struggles.
• Suffering for the sake of the gospel is a privilege, and some may be ready and willing to do it.  But parents must also be ready to allow their children to suffer for the gospel, especially if it serves the community.
• Christian community development may present challenges to the health, safety, and emotional well-being of the family.  But by relying on God, families can overcome these obstacles as a unit and reap miraculous benefits.
• The family is at once a defense and a weapon against the very forces that are seeking to break down our communities.
• As you count the costs of community development, don't forget to count the blessings.