Prayer for a Family in Crisis

Last year at about this time a mentee had to flee Pittsburgh with his family in the middle of the night. His older brother had stolen a large amount of money from a drug cartel, and those dealers responded by putting out a "hit" on not only the brother but any member of the family. They moved to a state down south, and the mentee would call me periodically to tell me how he was doing. He asked to come up to Pittsburgh to stay with us this summer, but after talking it through with his mom we decided it was just too dangerous. A few days after that conversation, his brother was murdered. Then his uncle was killed. This family has really experienced a great deal of trauma over the past year.

I am writing about his story because his family really needs prayer. Things are not working out where they live, and they are in the process of moving back to Pittsburgh. They are hoping that the drug dealers are done with their revenge. They are currently searching for a place to live, and a job has been lined up for the mom. A return to their old neighborhood is not an option, so the kids will likely have an adjustment to a new school district. Please pray for this family... for God's guidance and protection.

A Drive Through My Neighborhood

A short drive in my neighborhood can tell quite a story. I invited one of my mentees to church tonight, and he only lives three blocks from my house. On my way to pick him up I first noticed a red plastic cup lying in the middle of the street. We had given that cup to one of the kids who stopped by to visit us, and he hadn't made it twenty feet from our doorstep before he chucked it on the street. It was one small piece in a sea of litter in the streets around my house. I kept driving, right past a crack house. Traffic creeps up to that house at all hours of the day and night... people driving to my neighborhood to buy drugs. I turned right, and drove past a cleared lot with new straw in the place of what used to be a house of prostitution. That building was torn down a couple weeks ago. The prostitutes just moved down to the next block. I kept driving past junkees and dealers as I made my way to the next block. I drove past a few abandoned houses and abandoned businesses. Weeds have overtaken the sidewalks. I arrived at my mentee's house, and I got out of my car to talk to his mom who was smoking a cigarette on her front porch. As I talked to her, about six police cars pulled up and blocked off the street. The dealers and addicts scurried away from their corners. I kept my eyes focused on my mentee's mom, and I kept the conversation going. She became concerned, but she still sent her son out to my car to go to church with me. With mentee in tow, I maneuvered my car past the cop cars and we headed to church. Just another day in Homewood...

Litter. Drug addiction. Prostitution. Abandoned buildings. Vacant lots. All of these things are indicative of the brokenness that has seemingly overtaken my neighborhood. But those things are just the outward signs of brokenness. They don't tell the whole story. Behind those things are people... real human beings who Jesus created and loves so much that he gave his life for them. Jesus didn't focus on outward signs of brokenness during his ministry. He focused on the condition of the hearts of the people who experienced brokenness. That's why Julie and I have been intentional about looking past the physical signs of brokenness in our neighborhood in order to build relationships with people. We are good friends with people who litter. We have friends who are crack addicts. We have friends who are prostitutes. We know people who call abandoned buildings "home." We have friends who use vacant lots as playgrounds. What the enemy desires for evil, God is able to transform. God loves the people in my neighborhood, so we love the people in our neighborhood. God's profound love and grace for the people in my neighborhood are the real story of what goes on here. That is why Christians need to be obedient to God's call to enter into the brokenness of the world... God desires to work through us in order to transform people and places.

The Struggle

Whew! This has been an intense week on the front lines. I'm exhausted. Why does incarnational leadership have to be so difficult? Although the work is tough, and the process of transformation comes with a cost, I know God is working through me in the context that he has called me to. God is moving, and I can tell because the resistance is so strong. This week has been a struggle.

The very nature of my calling requires struggle, but I know I'm in God's will when I experience difficulties. Peter Kuzmic wrote, "... there is no authentic mission from a safe distance. Mission with integrity does not take place in antiseptic conditions... Entering the context is of crucial importance. Jesus did not pick up a heavenly megaphone to shout down to the inhabitants of Planet Earth: 'Repent!' He entered human history and human flesh. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He became a refugee. Contextualization is not just knowledge of the other context, but being willing to identify yourself with the context and become vulnerable."

God... thank you for the struggles this week. Please strengthen and sustain me, Lord, according to your purposes. My prayer is that you would be glorified in all circumstances. Everything in me is yours, Father.

"These Streets is Always Gonna Be These Streets"

One of my long-time mentees stopped by to visit us at our house in Homewood yesterday. He came carrying a to-go bag of fried chicken and french fries from a nearby restaurant. I invited him to sit at our dining room table while he ate, and we ended up having a great conversation. We talked about his first week of high school and how proud I was of him for making it that far in school already (some kids from his neighborhood have already dropped out of school before even making it to high school). He told me about his goals, his dreams, and his plan for making it through high school (pay attention to doing the work, and stay away from the streets). He wants to go to college so that he can "get a good job and support a family like you Mr. B." He even told me that he wants to do something to mentor or help kids some day like me. I pressed him just a little further on that point, asking him "Why don't you come back here to Homewood to do all that?" In the midst of a big bite of chicken, he shook his head no, paused, looked out the window at Homewood, and said, "These streets is always gonna be these streets." My translation: If he makes it out, he's not coming back because things are never going to get better in Homewood.

Things got quiet in our conversation while we both paused to let his words sink in. He has every right to want to make it out of Homewood and never look back. He has been basically homeless for the past five years. He bounces around from house to house, between relatives and friends, looking for different places to stay each night. His mom is a drug addict who is in and out of his life. He can stay with his dad sometimes, but their relationship is constantly strained and sometimes abusive. Any time he stops over at his dad's place to ask to stay the night, he has to weigh the cost of how much dysfunction he can endure that evening. He was basically being raised by the streets when I first met him as a ten-year-old... tagging buildings with spray paint, throwing rocks at windows in vacant buildings (48% of the homes in Homewood are abandondoned properties), working the corners with stolen property or for dealers in order to make some cash for his basic needs. He was on the path of the streets, but now he is on the path to the Pittsburgh Promise (a $40,000 college scholarship if he graduates from Pittsburgh Public Schools with good grades and behavior). He has met Christ through our mentoring program. He has much going for him, and he assures me all the time that he is not caught up in the street life anymore.

I'll mentor him for as long as I possibly can so that he can achieve his dreams. He has a lot going for him... resilience, drive, passion, humor, leadership, street smarts, and most of all, God's will for his life. I have helped him to cast a positive vision for his life and establish some stepping stones to get there. Still, I wonder: Will these streets always be these streets? Will transformation occur in Homewood? If LAMP kids go to college and get good jobs and start healthy families, will Homewood ever be a place where they will want to live? It will take a lot more than a mentoring program for transformation to occur over time, but building long term relationships with at-risk kids is as good of a place to start as any I suppose. I love mentoring, but this also explains why I moved my family here to Homewood. Homewood needs systemic reform in such areas as housing, education, businesses, jobs, public safety, political representation, etc. Those things are all extremely important to me now that I live here. Broken systems have a direct result on my family and I. We experience what our neighbors experience. I don't just wish for transformation in Homewood for "those LAMP kids" anymore. This is personal now. I moved to Homewood to be a transformational leader in a complex urban environment. My prayers today are for my young friend who is starting a new journey of high school, and also for the transformation of Homewood (a difficult task that many residents and leaders from organizations are working on at the moment). God, please bring about transformation today... one child at a time... one family at a time... one street at a time... one neighborhood at a time.

Rich or Poor?

My friend Kent Chevalier recently posted an interview between Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, and Joshua Harris on his blog. Please go to Kent's site (a link is on the right side of this page) and watch the interview. Francis Chan, who is a famous author of the books "Crazy Love" and "Forgotten God," has made the decision to walk away from his role as the lead pastor of a megachurch in an affluent part of southern California in order live and minister incarnationally among the poor in inner city Los Angeles. Chan seemed to have it all, in terms of success, from an American cultural Christianity perspective... a popular preacher and leader of a big church in the suburbs and great wealth that could potentially be generated as a famous author and sought after speaker within mainstream evangelical Christianity. So what would make him walk away from that path? He is on a journey to follow Jesus. But, what does it mean for Christians to follow Jesus?

Obviously I admire Chan for what he is doing, but I was very interested in the tough questions that Mark Driscoll asked him. What does it mean to follow Christ in America, a culture that is defined by extreme brokenness found in both affluence and poverty? Is a calling to minister to the rich just as meaningful as a calling to minister to the poor? These questions have "haunted" Christianity for the past 1700 years since the Roman Emporer Constantine endorsed Chistianity as the main religion of the Roman Empire. During the first 300 years of Christianity, the religion grew exponentially among the poor and Christians were persecuted by the rich and powerful people in the world. When Christianity was embraced by the rich and powerful, it caused a great deal of tension. Christianity has not really grown since the 4th century. About 34% of the world's population were Christians when Constantine endorsed Christianity, and today about 34% of the world's population classifies themselves as Christian. Most growth in Christianity over the centuries has been defined by growth in some geographic regions and decline in others, as is happening now with the massive decline of Christianity in America and Europe and the growth of Christianity in the global South (Asia, Africa, and Latin America). These trends show us that Christianity often declines when it is tied too closely to affluence and power, and it grows exponentially among the poor.

What does all of this mean for us as followers of Christ? Should American Christians immerse themselves in the culture of prosperity, materialism, and individualism in order to enact change from within? Or, should American Christians go to the poor in order to minister where Christianity is experiencing exponential growth in places that desperately need the resources and influence of rich and powerful Christians who have been hoarding wealth and power for many years? I loved Chan's answer to these questions... it is not a matter of choosing between rich and poor. It is a matter of love. If God is love, then all Christians should be ministering to one another whether we are rich or poor in this short life on earth. We are all the body of Christ. Affluent and powerful Christians should be engaged in deep, meaningful, authentic, loving relationships with the poor and powerless. And vice versa. We have much to learn from one another. This is not an either/or decision. We are not defined by our economic class. Christians are defined by the body of Christ. We are all one in Christ. The problem is, many Christians do not live like that. Societies in this world are often structured for us to assimilate with people who look and act like us, and reject people who are different than us. Just look at all the divisions in this world between races, classes, and religions. The way the world looks models what the world values. But Christians are called to be set apart from the values of the world. We are the one body of Christ. We are reconcilers and peacemakers. We should be defined by love and grace, not hatred. To be a Christian means that we follow Christ, and we all have different callings within that context. It's refreshing to know that even the heavyweights of American Christianity, people like Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll, wrestle with the implications of their unique callings within the body of Christ.

Friends at the Dinner Table

One of my favorite things about living in Homewood is that we have unexpected visitors all of the time. They are mostly children and teenagers, and they stop by at all different times of day and night. Sometimes they'll come in groups of two or three, but often kids will just stop over to visit with us. They are our friends. We always have food and drinks on hand, and it is a rare occurance when we have just the four of us McCabes at dinner. We share meals with people all of the time, and I love that part of living here. Dinner time is a great relationship building time. It also gives us a chance to share with the kids in our neighborhood about the importance of good nutrition, and the chance to experience the great joy and bonding that comes with sharing a meal regularly with family and friends. We also show them, in some small but tangible way, the profound love of Jesus Christ, their creator who desires to meet their needs when they are hungry and thirsty.

Many Christians in America arrange their lifestyles so that they do not come into contact with poor people who might be hungry or thirsty. Sure, they may pile their family into a minivan and head to the city to serve meals to homeless people at a soup kitchen during the holidays, but rare would be the occurance that an actual person in need from their city would be invited to dine in their home. A Christian may go on a short term mission trip to a foreign country and serve meals to orphans, and then come back to Pittsburgh and somehow not make the connection that there are hungry children living in poverty right in their own city. From a biblical standpoint, we can be sure that God does not appreciate us distancing ourselves from the poor in our midst. God's heart breaks when Christians store up money and food for themselves while others go without.

Bartolome de las Casas wrote, "Can you consider Christian those whose bread has not fed one single hungry person? whose drink has not satiated anyone's thirst? or whose table is not known by any poor person?... Christian are the ones who are merciful to all; who are moved by those who are injured; who do not allow the poor to be oppressed in their presence; those who help the needy; who frequently aid the indigent; those who suffer with those who suffer; who feel the other's pain as their own... Anyone, therefore, who wants to be a friend of the world, becomes the enemy of God (James 4:4)."

The thought that kids are going to bed hungry in Pittsburgh tonight should greatly disturb all Christians in the area. Distancing ourselves from the poor is not going to address the problem. Visiting a soup kitchen during the holidays is not going to address the problem. Giving food and money to kids charities is not going to address the problem. Christians need to go where the kids in need are and start building authentic relationships with them. Christians need to stop storing up money and food for themselves while others go without. When we give ourselves away to others, we fulfill our collective calling as the church to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world. And Julie and I have much, much more that we could do in this area. Around the world hundreds of millions of people lack access to enough food and water, and, yet, I have food and bottled water collecting dust in my house right now. Approximately 25,000 people die from hunger every day. I pray that as God's heart breaks, my heart would also break.

Research Bridge

Today I start my next DMin class called Research Bridge: The Dissertation Journey. This course goes from September 1st through December 31st, and it serves as the launching point for the second half of the DMin program which now becomes extremely specialized. My goal for this course is to come up with a good research question, in 30 words or less, that I will focus my research on.

I have several ideas that I am thinking about for my specialized research, including suburban and urban partnerships, church and school partnerships, racial reconciliation, and of course mentoring. Eric Swanson from the Leadership Network will be advising me and eventually supervising the dissertation, which I hope to complete in June 2012. As I jump into this next phase, does anyone have any ideas for things that I could research?