I have taken some time off this week from my official duties as a pastor of a church community that I love leading in the East End of the city of Pittsburgh. The rest has been wonderful, and I've had the opportunity to spend some great time with my family. We didn't go anywhere on vacation this Christmas, so we've been spending a lot of time at our house in Homewood.
Down time in Homewood is never really down time. My urban neighborhood actually becomes more accessible to me when I slow down the pace of my life. As always, I've experienced the negative emotions that come with gun shots and other crazy stuff that happens in my neighborhood. However, I've also experienced some amazing things that have brought much joy and meaning into my life. God was able to work through me to be a good neighbor to some of my neighbors who desperately needed some support this week.
God is transforming my heart as he allows me to enter into the lives of the some of the most resilient people living in this city. I am so thankful for the opportunity that God has given me to not just run a program in a distressed urban neighborhood, but to become a part of the fabric of the community and to lock arms with people who are navigating through extremely difficult life circumstances. God is showing me new things every day through the eyes of my neighbors.
Showing posts with label incarnational living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label incarnational living. Show all posts
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Locked Out
One of the best things that happened to me yesterday was that I was locked out of my house. That sounds like an unusual thing to say, but I was locked out of my house on a sunny day in Pittsburgh while school was letting out and my neighbors were returning home from work. It gave me the opportunity to hang out in front of my house and talk to my neighbors and friends. The relationships are by far the best part of urban ministry. Sure, there are many sacrifices of living incarnationally in the city. But, the benefits far outweigh any of the downside. And, so, I have started looking forward to the unexpected things that happen to me. It usually means that God had a plan for me that I didn't know about... like getting locked out in my neighborhood with some of Pittsburgh's finest residents.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Boundaries in Incarnational Living
Last night, I plopped myself down on the couch after a long weekend to watch a movie with my daughters. Right at that moment, two boys from the neighborhood stopped over to visit us. I invited them in, they ate dinner with us, we chatted for a while, and then I gave them "the boot" so that I could continue to connect with my daughters for the rest of the evening. The boys wanted to stay and watch the movie, but I made sure to protect the quality time with my daughters on this particular occasion.
This scenario is one of the most challenging parts about urban, incarnational ministry. The people we are trying to reach as a family all live within walking distance of us. The kids can stop past any time they want, and we always welcome them even if it is just to say hello and grab a quick snack. Sometimes kids are in our house for hours at a time, and sometimes they're here for a minute or so. It all depends on where we are at as a family on that particular day. Sometimes we need space, and sometimes we have margin to invite people into whatever we are doing in our lives.
Jesus modeled for all Christians how to engage with people and also how to have boundaries. We cannot be all things to all people at all times. Nobody has that kind of capacity. But we can be good neighbors, and love people well, within the boundaries that provide healthy space to experience community. It's a fine line to walk, but it's worth it to be willing to fulfill the calling that God has given our family.
This scenario is one of the most challenging parts about urban, incarnational ministry. The people we are trying to reach as a family all live within walking distance of us. The kids can stop past any time they want, and we always welcome them even if it is just to say hello and grab a quick snack. Sometimes kids are in our house for hours at a time, and sometimes they're here for a minute or so. It all depends on where we are at as a family on that particular day. Sometimes we need space, and sometimes we have margin to invite people into whatever we are doing in our lives.
Jesus modeled for all Christians how to engage with people and also how to have boundaries. We cannot be all things to all people at all times. Nobody has that kind of capacity. But we can be good neighbors, and love people well, within the boundaries that provide healthy space to experience community. It's a fine line to walk, but it's worth it to be willing to fulfill the calling that God has given our family.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
It's All About God and Relationships
Recently a kid from Homewood asked me, "Mr. B. Why did you move to Homewood?" I found myself kind of fumbling for an anwer. I didn't think that he would understand that I am applying incarnational leadership principles in order to contribute to the process of transformation in Homewood. Urban ministry models raced through my brain, and I could have talked about so many aspects of the calling that God has given our family to reach people in Homewood. Eventually, I just answered "Well, we moved here because of the relationships we have with you guys (our mentees) through LAMP. We wanted to be closer to all of you... to experience what you experience... to be closer to you in case you need us... in short, we just want to be better mentors."
I moved to Homewood for many different reasons. I love the relationships I have with the kids in Homewood. I love Pittsburgh. I love Homewood. I want to be obedient when God asks me to do something. I want to be a more effective leader. I want my life to be real. I want to take risks. I want to give myself away for others. But at the end of the day, my move to Homewood was not about me. I am not a savior, nor do I ever want to try to be or have other people consider me to be one. I'm just an ordinary guy. In fact, I'm nothing without Christ. And so my move to Homewood is all about about Jesus. More than anything, I want my young friend to know that Jesus loves him and has a plan and purpose for his life. And the best way I know how to get that message across to him is by entering his context. After all, Jesus is moving in his neighborhood in many different ways. I have chosen to simply join the work that God is doing in Homewood.
I moved to Homewood for many different reasons. I love the relationships I have with the kids in Homewood. I love Pittsburgh. I love Homewood. I want to be obedient when God asks me to do something. I want to be a more effective leader. I want my life to be real. I want to take risks. I want to give myself away for others. But at the end of the day, my move to Homewood was not about me. I am not a savior, nor do I ever want to try to be or have other people consider me to be one. I'm just an ordinary guy. In fact, I'm nothing without Christ. And so my move to Homewood is all about about Jesus. More than anything, I want my young friend to know that Jesus loves him and has a plan and purpose for his life. And the best way I know how to get that message across to him is by entering his context. After all, Jesus is moving in his neighborhood in many different ways. I have chosen to simply join the work that God is doing in Homewood.
Monday, August 2, 2010
A Summer Night in Homewood
Last night we arrived home from a weekend out of town, and Julie asked me "I wonder how long it will take the kids in our neighborhood to find out we're home? Ten, or maybe fifteen minutes?" Like clockwork, about ten minutes later a group of seven or eight boys and girls stopped at our house to visit. We were still unpacking our car, so we stopped what we were doing and chatted for a while to catch up on everything that had happened in our neighborhood while we were gone. One boy had a birthday, hence the reason he had cake icing smeared on his face. One kid had a new bike, and he had to tell us every detail about it. That group of kids left, and we went inside to put Kyra and Sierra to bed. While I was tucking Sierra in, she said "Dad... I'm so happy to be home. I missed our house and I missed everyone." With the kids snuggled in to their beds, Julie and I settled into our summer evening ritual of sitting on the front porch to reflect on our day. We greeted people as they walked past. We talked to our neighbors. A kid from our Monday night group saw us and stopped by for a freezie pop. The combination of the warm summer breeze, the good conversation, and the unpredictability of who we might meet next made for a fun evening. We were both happy to be back at home and in our neighborood with our community again.
The story I just told is not the picture that most people have in their minds about Homewood. Most people in Pittsburgh think of Homewood as a dangerous place that reasonable people should stay away from at all costs. However, this story captures well the countercultural and radical call of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The message of the world, especially in America, is that we should make our lives more comfortable. Good people distance themselves from the poor by becoming upwardly mobile and living out the American Dream. Success means more money and more power and bigger houses and bigger toys. Meanwhile, that worldly message is crushing people (including many Christians in America who are desperately trying to do whatever it takes to achieve that lifestyle). Authentic community... the kind that we read about in the book of Acts in the Bible... the kind that Jesus Christ modeled for us... is nearly impossible to find if we choose to distance ourselves from the poor and choose to live in a world of individuality and consumerism. Christians around America are moving into gated communities at an alarming rate, doing what they think is best in distancing themselves and their families from brokenness in the world when in fact they are going in the complete opposite direction of Jesus' radical call to live out the gospel in a broken world. In fact, even if a community does not have a gated entrance, many American Christians choose to live in places where the society has been set up so that they do not have to interact with any poor people where they live, where they shop, where they go out to eat, where they go to church, and where they work.
My point is that it is extremely difficult to experience authentic community, the kind that the early Christian church experienced, by living in places that promote individuality, consumerism, racial discrimination, and class discrimination. The interesting thing is, people will go to amazing extremes in order to live in places like that. They'll take on crazy mortgages, work crazy hours, and sacrifice in crazy ways in order to reach the lofty heights of... there being no poor people around them to interact with, everybody having the same skin color and socioeconomic class as them, and intentionally distancing themselves from being able to live out Christ's call to be his hands and feet to people who have been marginalized by this world. My life is not perfect, but I have found that I have experienced greater community in Homewood than I have in any other place I have lived during my lifetime (which has mostly been in the suburbs). I love living in the inner city. I love having people stop over to visit with us all the time. I love knowing my neighbors, and not having to force those relationships. I love that God has put me in a position to be an extension of the body of Christ to meet people's needs as those needs arise in a neighborhood that is largely rejected by the successful and powerful people living in Pittsburgh. There's no place I'd rather be.
If this post is challenging you, I might suggest a few questions for you to ask yourself. Have you chosen to live in a neighborhood that buffers itself from poor people, where the majority of people there are the same as you racially and socioeconomically? How about where you choose to shop, worship, and work... does everyone seem to look the same as you racially and socioeconomically? Is your lifestyle radical, or do your values pretty much look like the values that the world promotes and embraces? Have you, maybe unintentionally, distanced yourself from people in need in order to pursue a more comfortable lifestyle? Are you engaged in deep, meaningful relationships with people in need? If you are struggling with the answers to these questions as I do, my advice would be to go back to the Bible and read the Gospels and Acts through in order to challenge yourself with how countercultural Jesus' life was and how countercultural the lives of early Christians were. Those examples are far greater than anything I could ever share about my own lifestyle. After all, the point is Jesus, not me. The point is that followers of Jesus should be living in ways that are different than the world's measures of success. When we enter a relationship with Jesus, our lives should never be the same. We now live according to biblical values, not worldly values. I hope all Christians can come to experience the joy that is found in living a radical, sold out life for Jesus that does not conform to this world.
The story I just told is not the picture that most people have in their minds about Homewood. Most people in Pittsburgh think of Homewood as a dangerous place that reasonable people should stay away from at all costs. However, this story captures well the countercultural and radical call of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The message of the world, especially in America, is that we should make our lives more comfortable. Good people distance themselves from the poor by becoming upwardly mobile and living out the American Dream. Success means more money and more power and bigger houses and bigger toys. Meanwhile, that worldly message is crushing people (including many Christians in America who are desperately trying to do whatever it takes to achieve that lifestyle). Authentic community... the kind that we read about in the book of Acts in the Bible... the kind that Jesus Christ modeled for us... is nearly impossible to find if we choose to distance ourselves from the poor and choose to live in a world of individuality and consumerism. Christians around America are moving into gated communities at an alarming rate, doing what they think is best in distancing themselves and their families from brokenness in the world when in fact they are going in the complete opposite direction of Jesus' radical call to live out the gospel in a broken world. In fact, even if a community does not have a gated entrance, many American Christians choose to live in places where the society has been set up so that they do not have to interact with any poor people where they live, where they shop, where they go out to eat, where they go to church, and where they work.
My point is that it is extremely difficult to experience authentic community, the kind that the early Christian church experienced, by living in places that promote individuality, consumerism, racial discrimination, and class discrimination. The interesting thing is, people will go to amazing extremes in order to live in places like that. They'll take on crazy mortgages, work crazy hours, and sacrifice in crazy ways in order to reach the lofty heights of... there being no poor people around them to interact with, everybody having the same skin color and socioeconomic class as them, and intentionally distancing themselves from being able to live out Christ's call to be his hands and feet to people who have been marginalized by this world. My life is not perfect, but I have found that I have experienced greater community in Homewood than I have in any other place I have lived during my lifetime (which has mostly been in the suburbs). I love living in the inner city. I love having people stop over to visit with us all the time. I love knowing my neighbors, and not having to force those relationships. I love that God has put me in a position to be an extension of the body of Christ to meet people's needs as those needs arise in a neighborhood that is largely rejected by the successful and powerful people living in Pittsburgh. There's no place I'd rather be.
If this post is challenging you, I might suggest a few questions for you to ask yourself. Have you chosen to live in a neighborhood that buffers itself from poor people, where the majority of people there are the same as you racially and socioeconomically? How about where you choose to shop, worship, and work... does everyone seem to look the same as you racially and socioeconomically? Is your lifestyle radical, or do your values pretty much look like the values that the world promotes and embraces? Have you, maybe unintentionally, distanced yourself from people in need in order to pursue a more comfortable lifestyle? Are you engaged in deep, meaningful relationships with people in need? If you are struggling with the answers to these questions as I do, my advice would be to go back to the Bible and read the Gospels and Acts through in order to challenge yourself with how countercultural Jesus' life was and how countercultural the lives of early Christians were. Those examples are far greater than anything I could ever share about my own lifestyle. After all, the point is Jesus, not me. The point is that followers of Jesus should be living in ways that are different than the world's measures of success. When we enter a relationship with Jesus, our lives should never be the same. We now live according to biblical values, not worldly values. I hope all Christians can come to experience the joy that is found in living a radical, sold out life for Jesus that does not conform to this world.
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