New Blog location

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Thinking about Social Justice, anti-intellectualism and the gospel.

I was directed by a friend recently to read a series of blog posts by Kevin DeYoung on his blog at the gospel coalition. Kevin is a guy who from what I can tell has jumped to a wide audience in the "I'm not emergent" crowd because of his books. His intent as a young pastor to take the gospel and the reformed faith in general seriously is something I respect. . . and while I don't live or interact with folks in a context where I have to tell anyone that I'm not "emergent". . . I'm not.

Kevin decided to do a series of posts this year about the careless way that passages of scripture are regularly used by those that are activist-oriented among the growing "social justice" movement among young evangelicals. 3 Cheers from me! Let's be careful with the word of God!

I am a huge fan of CCDA, regularly attend the conference for the past decade and regard myself as enormously influenced by John Perkins. I am also concerned about the direction of the movement theologically once Dr. Perkins passes away. I sincerely hope that the theological commitments of Dr. Perkins are retained within the larger body of the movement after his passing. With Kevin, I too am concerned about the way scripture is used by many coming into the movement of CCDA and/or "social justice".

The current generation of young believers is simultaneously doing 2 things -- taking social justice, racial reconciliation and beloved community seriously and . . . . leaving the church in hoards. I don't believe that this is sustainable. So while I cheer on those who want to wade into the deep waters of social justice, I don't think they are gonna last long. . . unless they hold on to the core truths of the Christian faith, particularly as it understands the nature of the Atonement and the message of the gospel. . . writ not just "large" or "wholistic" but with specificity, care and thoughtfulness. . . a theological rigor if you will.

The current movement of many who use the term "social justice" is in fact all to often careless, even reckless with scripture and theology. Too often what is now making up the Christian left is just mimicking the Christian right and moving to re-write scripture to assume that through the blood of the Cross Jesus isn't "making all things new" but rather making all things political!

So I'm with Kev D on this: we need to use scripture carefully. Much more carefully in fact.

But that said, his series has initially struck me as an comfort for folks who already agree with him. Is his church and primary audience really using scripture recklessly in THIS regard?

I sense that his audience (in part based on my own Reformed/Evangelical heritage) already revolts against "social justice" first and foremost due to political philosophy. Is Kevin's goal to give careful thought to what the bible says about justice? Or is it to add theological/scriptural ammo to political convictions already established? I would say that he would have to work hard to not do the latter. . . more to come.

Check out his series here.

To Change the World?

This year is the 20th anniversary of The Christian CommunityDevelopment Association. CCDA is one of many Christian groups of folks working to "change our world".

Those of us in the movement have been inspired by John Perkins and Wayne Gordon and many others to address injustice in our society as Christians, motivated by what is often called a Christian worldview. . . . we sense a call to leave the world different than we found it.

So how's it going?

James Davison Hunter, who wrote a book that impacted a lot of us about 20 years ago (Culture Wars) has a new book that raises important questions about what it means to effect change in our world. His new book is called "To Change the World, the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World".

For many of us (whether we admit it or not) "worldview" thinking that has been advocated for by folks like Chuck Colson and James Dobson has shaped our approach. We think that if we can just get enough people to think the right thing, we can effect change.

Now I realize that these 2 guys are not often called upon within CCDA as role models. . . but we have clearly absorbed some of their approach in what might be called a "hearts and minds" campaign. Hunter argues for new ways of thinking about culture, institutions and the nature of power. He then constructs a response that he calls "faithful presence".

Whether we agree with Hunter or not, it's pretty clear to me that we at CCDA believe in what a guy named Wolterstorff calls "World-formative Christianity". We think we can and should change the world at CCDA. . . and for us it's grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In a conversation with my friend Rudy Carrasco this week, we chopped it up about engaging a bunch of CCDA folks to reflect on the book and to present posts here on the City Grace blog.

Our goal is to spark a conversation and healthy debate about who we as a CCDA movement are trying to influence, what we could be doing differently, where we are falling short and where Dr. Hunter's book helps us or falls short.

We are also scheduled to have a workshop at the conference this year, hosted in Chicago, at Sunshine Gospel Ministries to discuss the book and the ideas that come out of our blog entries this summer. We've invited Dr. Hunter to join us for a conference call to interact with some of our feedback. . . as of now, his office has him set to join us.

Rudy and I are in agreement that we ought to be thinking carefully about what we do and how we do it at CCDA. We should be open to (and bringing) critique and healthy debate to this movement. There are many sub-topics we can debate such as the nature of justice, power, equity, and freedom . . . and of course what programs, advocacy, congregational life and other "practical" elements can/should be done.

But how do we actually effect this change? let's talk about it!

High Standards and Diversity

Leaders within Evangelical institutions often say to me things like "we want to be more racially diverse, but we just find that our high standards won't allow us to do so. . .". Denominations looking for pastors and schools looking for students are among the most common.

I have been thinking about institutional power, oppression and issues around social justice that beg the question about what we as believers in Jesus Christ should recognize, and if/how we should respond to them, and how we can call others into the Micah mandate.

I visited Jubilee Youth Ranch this week and had a great time spending time with the staff there. One of their staff members is a young man who grew up at a ministry like ours in Pasadena called Harambee. As we spoke and talked about getting inner-city kids into college we told me his story. He had been the "poster child" for Harambee. He had good grades, didn't get into too much trouble, but still, for him college seemed an impossible and scary thing.

Until he visited Nyack college. He found that this evangelical school had aprox 60% non-anglo student body. They set up a summer program for HS youth, who, even if they hadn't completed their HS diploma, could be admitted to college! Having graduated HS, he thought to himself, "If they'll do that, then they must be really ready to work with me too!" Clearly they were (and are!) serious about providing sound biblically based liberal arts education for the growing non-white world.

If you came up with a line up of Christian Colleges and universities who use the "wish we could be more diverse but must be committed to excellence" mantra you'd find that maybe one or two are schools can compete academically with the top non-Christian schools. Wheaton maybe? All the others are neither competing academically at the highest levels, NOR addressing the fact that the future of the evangelical church is primarily non-anglo by enrolling, educating, equipping our non-white brothers and sisters. Nyack is a rare exception.

Nyack has high standards and will likely effect and equip the future of the US evangelical church far more than the its counterparts that lack this form of commitment to diversity. That is a high standard of excellence in my mind, that comports with the Micah Mandate.

To understand the violence, in part.

Dream Deferred, by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Preaching Social Justice, Requires Preaching Shalom, Requires the Gospel

The Millenials Generation (1982-2002) of Evangelicals are latching on to the the issues of social justice in a way not seen by their forebears, yet are leaving the church in an equally staggering way. This is not sustainable.

In a recent 2 part sermon series at Northwestern University, I was asked to address what Christianity brings to the table on the topics of reconciliation and social justice. I began by talking about how Martin Luther King Jr. came to the table of the justice issues of his day, as an outflowing of his Christian convictions -- his Christian worldview.

The call to social justice is a call to what Dr. King often called "The Beloved Community", something that is effectively a description of the biblical notion of "Shalom", or "the way it's supposed to be". Christianity, in its core commitments, recognizes that in the Creation-Fall-Redemption narrative, things of inherent value lie broken and in need of restoration -- a restoration set in motion in and through the Cross of Jesus Christ.

"For in Him (Jesus), all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross" Col 1:19-20

This recognition that things are broken, in need of restoration (to Shalom), and that Jesus' work on the cross becomes a calling to his followers to respond to injustice. "all things" are being reconciled to Himself. . . to the way they are supposed to be.

As much as Dr. King's Christian worldview brought him to the table of dealing with justice issues of his day head on, it didn't keep him. Jesus did. The personal power of redemption and relationship with Jesus was the thing that allowed Dr. King to preserver through the impossible odds faced in the walk toward social justice. It was the higher calling of Jesus and the gospel that allowed him not just to face insurmountable odds, but even death.

As I reflect on the tendency of the current generation to embrace social justice and yet to leave the church, I realize that there is a great deal of skepticism about the roles of institutions. Yet, this also belies a loss of comprehension of the power of the gospel. We are called to embody the gospel in the broken places and among the broken people of or world in ways that help us shed our American Idols of materialism and individualism. Yet, we will lose both the foundational motivation to justice and the means of being sustained in the insanity of the battle if we lose Christ, his gospel and his church along the way.

This year I'll be preaching around this theme from Gen 1-3; Jeremiah 29; Micah 6; Matt 18 and other passages. Pray that we can continue the encouragement for the millennial generation to act on the need to pursue justice but to recognize that the church and the gospel are the bedrock needed to sustain the call.

(As I write this I received a call that one of my daughters was robbed outside my front gate. What will sustain us?)

A missing girl and resurrection.

The call came to me about 9:00 Tuesday night, still in the wake of celebrating Easter.

"Joel, it's Sarah. . . Sheneka is missing! . . . "

Sarah explained that 6 yr old Sheneka was last seen on her front porch, that her older sister had been watching her and that she was just gone. Sheneka is in our building pretty much every day, too young for our programs, but she sits at Sarah's desk doing her homework.

I asked a few questions. . . asked what we could do. . . we didn't know. I told her we'd pray and hung up the phone.

Paula and I along with 4 older kids gathered to pray. During the prayer we all had the same gut instinct: we had to go look. So, we found flashlights, jackets and car keys and headed out. This began a roughly 24 hour period of intense turmoil, agony, faith, teamwork and learning.

We quickly learned that the Chicago Police are not set up to coordinate this kind of search effort. They can work with each other. . . sort of. . . but not with a team of volunteers who show up to help. The response we got from local cops made me so angry I almost said something to get myself arrested! To be kind, the initial response on the part of CPD was uncoordinated, unprofessional (at least in interaction with me), and uncaring.

Area 2 detectives showed up by 12:30 and while they were also not prepared to involve volunteers, they were professional and demonstrated concern not seen previously from local cops. I commend Det. Pallapully in particular who not only worked carefully on the case, gave me his contact info and encouraged me to keep in touch, but called me after she was found to see if I had questions.

We worked until about 2am, searching the local park and lagoon, and attempting to get the police to coordinate with us (which never happened). After sitting in the Third District Office for an hour with no one willing to speak with us about our search efforts, I called the 800 # for the national hotline for missing and exploited children. I immediately (about midnight I think) reached a woman there who was helpful, responsive and ultimately called the police. . . triggering a response from the sergeant in charge who would not speak to me.

The next morning we set up a search HQ of sorts at Sunshine. we cleared out a room, began copying detailed block by block maps of the community, got coffee, water and printing "missing" flyers with Shaneka's photo on it. We set up teams to re-search the park, go door to door, down alleys looking in dumpsters (yikes!) and unsecure empty buildings (we have hundreds here) and working busy corners talking to people. all the while thinking. . . is this what we are supposed to do?

We prayed, contacted the press, put up notices on facebook, called our local political officials, and prayed some more.

The press showed up and got the story out. . . for which I am very grateful. But, they also showed their ugly side in that they had "zero" patience for the mother who after giving them some initial information, was not interested in responding to the paprazzi style hoard of clamoring reporters knocking on her door after she (in a state of clear emotional angst) had told them that she had answered their questions. "How are you FEELING???!!!!" the shouted at her.

By 3pm Sheneka was found, alive. Resurrection Wednesday!

She was apparently well, found in a nearby apartment. We have lots of questions about what actually happened, but to respect the process and family I am going to leave out some details here. Suffice to say that (a) the news reports are still showing some clear errors and (b) she is healthy, safe and at home.

The interaction I had with the reporters showed me that this is an ugly business, perhaps just like the role of the late night beat cops. The press had no concern for Shaneka, only for the story. On the part of the press, there was a palpable sense of disappointment in her being found unharmed. Perhaps that says as much about the reading/listening/watching public as it does the reporters, but they were clearly unable to maintain a real concern for real people in the midst of trying to get the scoop.

So what lessons are learned here? Part of this is yet another role in urban ministry that I was unprepared for. I will be meeting with other local leaders to try to capture the process we discovered and have it as an emergency plan for future experiences like this. We have kids go missing around here every year. We have a lot of sex offenders around. We have a memorial near our building where a 16 yr old girl was found in a barrel a few years ago.

But what of the church? I was so blessed by the response we got. the church did show up. we had dozens of people from Christ Bible Church, Chicago Embassy and GRIP outreach come right away. We had others from the community and even the suburbs mobilizing to bring food, to pray and to come and search. Together we celebrate an act of resurrection on the part of God.

For the church to show up in this context, we must not only pray and comfort, but mobilize, organize and work hard together to intervene. Another aspect, however, is that we (the church), at least part of us, must already be there when death stalks the door. Those who were closest to the situation could not have responded without those further away. Yet those around the country and Chicagoland area would have had less resurrection to celebrate being a part of without the close up intimate location and role of the church who live and breath in proximity to suffering.

I know full well this is not just about us, or about Sunshine. This is about the insanity of a missing little girl, the role of the body of Christ in all of its parts, and how together we can celebrate the kingdom work of the cross and the 1000's of acts of resurrection every day. Our call jointly is to enter the suffering of others in the name of Christ.

One other thing for now: the brokenness of the police and of the press and of the entire situation stirred up in me my own anger, insecurity, and weakness. Yet another call occurs in the midst and aftermath of the day: cling to the cross, from where my help comes from!

I think it will take a few more days for the sense of panic to leave my muscles and for me to process this whole thing. Please pray for Sheneka and for her loved ones who are still sorting this whole thing out. Pray that God would be glorified in her safe return. Pray that everyone involved would learn from this in such a way that the lessons would be valuable going forward.

World Formative Christianity

Glenn Beck has grabbed headlines recently by equating social justice with nazism and communism. . . really with socialism on the whole.

In the over-hyped world of talk radio (both on the left and right) demonizing your opponent is the way of the world. Actually listening, showing the fruit of the Spirit, demonstrating love is not. So initially, looking beyond the fact that such a conflation is laughable, I will do what Mr. Beck doesn't do for me (as an advocate of biblically motivated social justice): I'll take him seriously.

Here is the biblical argument for social justice. All men are both created in the image of God (ie. imago dei) and all are depraved (broken in sin). As such, all men are capable of creating great things (work, organizations, systems, rules, art, etc..) yet are incapable of creating anything that does not reflect human brokenness in some way. When we create systems, organizations and societies, none of them will be fully righteous (ie. just). . . because in the Reformational understanding of sin. . . every part of our being and work is affected by the fall. (we are not as bad as we could be, but every part of us does reflect our sin).

Personal unrighteousness (sin) is any violation of our covenant to live as we should before our God ("should" is always defined by properly reflecting God's character). But the things we create (including systems, corporations, societies, nations and more) also are capable of violating the covenant calling to always reflect God's character. In the US we routinely assume that God always deals withs us as individuals and never corporately, yet throughout the scripture we see nations and groups of people indicted for their neglect of the ways of God. Any violation by a society of the ways of God (including caring for those who are weak, broken, marginalized, cheated, young, old, fatherless, etc..) is a violation of God's righteousness (justice).

Social Justice would be anything in which a nation, society or group of people abide by the covenant to reflect God's character in truth. This is a far cry for arguing that the means of production should be held by the state and distributed "evenly" among all people (as if this were possible).

World-formative Christianity (in the descriptive words of Nicolas Wolterstorff) suggests that as Christians we are called to reform not only our lives to be in keeping with the character of God, but our societies, institutions, systems, organizations and more. That is the call of social justice.

Biblical Christianity, and this world-formative stuff, is not actually ever about being sure people lose their ability to creatively, freely, magnify the God of the universe through work and reformation. And, it is never about bringing "equality" of the socialism type, but it does challenge us to ask what it means to have enough?

Deadly Viper Controversy

In recent days a controversy has arisen around the reckless co-opting of Asian culture within the curriculum, videos and books published by Zondervan publishing house in a series called Deadly Viper.

A guy I consider a friend and mentor by the name of Dr. Soong-Chan Rah has been in contact with the authors of the material as well as the publisher. The event is yet another opportunity to grow as a body. I have written a letter to the authors (posted within the comments of Soong-Chan's blog) and directly to Zondervan. I am positng my letter below.

___________________

I am writing to express my concern for the published materials within the Deadly Viper books, videos, website etc..

As an Christian of Caucasian decent, living in an African American context, I have spent the past decade or so trying to navigate the complexities of how we as Christians ought to understand and approach the issues of race and culture. I have listened, reflected, read, learned and taught extensively around these issues during most of these years.

I have learned much about white privilege over these years and have anguished about the way that this is often entrenched within our evangelical institutions. Ours is a faith of great diversity and, in the words on 1 Cor 12, one part of the body must not say to the other: “I have no need of you”. When editorial board, writers, leaders, reviewers, and decision makers within an institution do not accurately reflect the diversity of the church, they not infer their lack of need for others, but they inevitably make bad mistakes, as is clearly the case with the manner in which Asian culture (mixed up, and randomly co-opted) was done in the case of Deadly Viper.

As has been said by everyone in the conversation among the blogs, the content is not the issue. The packaging and offensive use of another culture is.

I will express my concerns along two lines: Incidental and Institutional.

As to the DV incident, I urge you to take seriously the recommendations made to you by our Asian American brothers as reflected in the open letter written to you by Dr. Soong Chan Rah.

As to the Institution: I cannot say strongly enough that institutional changes must be made at Zondervon (as with most of our Evangelical institutions). I have had the opportunity to express my concerns with leadership at a number of Christian colleges and universities, let me share with you my own reflections for change:

1. Institutional Leadership. The Zondervan leadership, reviewers, editors and others must reflect the broader church (not just your readership).
2. Institutional Knowledge. You must think about how Zondervan learns as an institution, and communicates that knowledge to all the divisions, partners, staff and other aspects of the organization. Specifically to this point, you must think about how you learn and transmit this information about race and ethnicity (this is different that individual learning). This will require ongoing learning and that ongoing pattern needs to be a part of the fabric of the organization.
3. A posture of humility and learning. Please, I urge you, that you communicate to the church, readers, Asian American community, authors and others a posture a humility and learning.
4. Cultural Interpreters. This process of learning about and understanding what has happened with the DV books will require internal and external cultural interpreters. This means that some of your staff will need to be “white people who get it” and others will need to be non-whites who can articulate (as Dr. Rah and others have done) what you need to hear in an ongoing ways. These voices must be invited to the table, with patience, both INSIDE and OUTSIDE the institution. Those inside will often, if not always be more reticent to speak clearly on these topics (its human nature, their ability to feed their families may be on the line). Those outside may sometimes overstate the case because they don’t have “skin in the game”. So this balance of cultural interpreters for you is critical.
   

I will tell you that if you learn well from this episode, it could be among the most amazing ways in which God is at work through and in you in a long time. Don’t learn from it and it could easily be your undoing. Please. . . Learn well, listen well.

The church caused (and could undo) big government.

This is a developing thought process for me. It does seem inevitable to me that the government will continue to grow. I don't think there is an example of a democracy that has un-done growth. The conservatives say it as "doomsday coming" and proof of societal decline, the liberals as "it ought to be". Here is another take:

The unabated growth of the United States government has corresponded directly to the disengagement from society of the American church. The removal of the active role of the church among the poor, the broken, the illiterate, the oppressed has also paralleled the astronomical increase of wealth among middle class Christians in America. This increase in accumulated personal and institutional wealth, along with the absence of engagement with the poor in our country, has been a critical factor in the growth of the government.

And the only way back, that I can see, from immense and inevitably larger government, is for the Church in America to change. The average Christian tithes about 3%, and has no sense of “cap” on one’s personal wealth or lifestyle. I have only met one Christian who has made it clear that they tithe on all income: capital gains, salaries, even student loans/grants.

Before you assume I am a communist, let me be clear. I believe that limited regulation within free-market economies is the best way for individuals created in the image of God to appropriately live out what they were designed to be. Regulation is always necessary in some forms because of the fallenness of man. Yet all regulation has unintended consequences and always impinges on human freedoms.

But markets allow people to work, and working is clearly the fastest way out of poverty. A massive number of people in so-called 3^rd world countries have risen out of the depths of poverty, largely due to a growth in the economies of India and China. People have been put to work productively and poverty has decreased.

Entrepreneurialism, allows individuals to work, freely and creatively. These are each key parts of the imago dei.

I also assume that there are, as the Dutch theologians would like to say, appropriate spheres of sovereignty. . . family, church/local organizations, markets, governments. Each has appropriate roles to play. When one abdicates its appropriate role, we should expect to see others (a) pick it up and (b) not do as good of a job as the appropriate entity/sphere would have done.

“If you talk and act as a Christian should, the world will love you for what you do, and hate you for what your say”. Tim Keller (my paraphrase).

In the early 1900s the conservative, largely white church in America stopped doing what Christians should do. She removed herself from engaging with society and being an active part of addressing issues such as caring for the sick, the illiterate, the destitute, and those experiencing injustice.

During a period known as the fundamentalist-modernist controversy, virtually all of the fundamentalist churches and leaders, the heritage to what is now called the evangelical church, engaged in a theological battle over the meaning of the gospel. Out of a fear in what had become known as the social gospel, the church removed itself from actively engaging with society and took on a separatist, individualistic, and culture-war posture.
The church created her own schools, magazines, radio stations, art (sort of), literature (sort of) and more. She continued to proclaim a gospel of Jesus and Him crucified, (saying the things she should say) but became virtually irrelevant to the larger society in terms of mercy, justice and cultural engagement (thus not doing the things she is called to do).

This removal from society and the active disengagement with those on the margins of society coincided with the years leading up to the great depression, during which the government grew by leaps and bounds. Who would feed the hungry, retrain workers, fill them with dignity and purpose, educate them, speak up for those unjustly kept out of the economy? The answer became the government.

We have continued on this path for a century. The government continues to fill in roles that ought to be cared for, in my estimation, by small local organizations who are able to work with much greater accountability, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability.

But, I hear the objections now, “the government is taxing us to death!” “We can’t afford to do this until the government stops competing with the church.” “We can’t stand it when the government wades into issues like unemployment, education, health care and more. Stop the socialism!”

But I am increasingly convinced this is backwards. The church has the moral responsibility, through its manifold small organizational representations, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. To love the unlovable, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, speak up against injustice and of course, preach the gospel. Yet the church has ceded this responsibility away. . . and the federal government will inevitably continue to grow until we “do the things we should do”.

“But we can’t. we don’t have the money” . . . we say. What if every Christian in American gave 20% of our income? What if Christians who are well off capped their net worth at say $2,000,000? What sort of revolution would unfold? We would not only have enough to pay for our (ridiculously) large church buildings, we could fund (Christian) schools that would revolutionize our inner-cities.

We could transform our health care system. We could easily address our homelessness and housing issues. It would allow us to do approach the development of economic systems in urban communities through micro-enterprise, entrepreneurialism, job training and more. All of this would allow us to do it with the kind of close to home accountability, efficiency and effectiveness that cannot be accomplished through large bureaucracies.

I am not suggesting that this would replace the federal government, but I propose that this is what it will take to undo the growth of the federal government in America. I believe that if we did this, that is if we lived sacrificially and loved our neighbor as ourselves, along with proclaiming an unapologetic gospel, we would have immense credibility. In other words we could more effectively “say what we should say while we do what we should do”.

It is our materialism and individualism that has caused the government to grow. Rather than rail against our government, which will inevitably continue to grow unless something radical is done, we would do something radical. Should we wait for the government that most of us don’t trust to somehow do the right thing? No, we should stop it by doing what we ought to do.

Looking for Glory

Check this out. . .

When Helping Hurts, a review

Of the few books I've read recently, one of the most important ones is "When Helping Hurts, How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor . . . and yourself" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

Corbett and Fikkert are scholars based at the Chalmers Insitute at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA. These guys know their stuff about international economic development and have been at it a while. I was interested to see that the book was published by Moody Press.

The premise of the book is that much of what Christians do in the way of ministry among the poor (they call it poverty alleviation) is actually harmful to both parties (those "reached", those "reaching"). I agree.

As a practitioner myself, and a teacher, this book resonated strongly with me. The challenges that we have in our desire to "serve" others, purportedly under the desire to be like Jesus (who came to serve) is too often done out of an unrecognized desire to keep ourselves in the superior place. The sensibility that develops is a truth that ultimately wounds us: It is better to give than to receive, so we (only) want to give. But we are not Jesus. . . we need to receive too.

Out of this sensibility (appropriately called paternalism by Corbett and Fikkert) we think it's not only best for us always to give/serve, but we think we are the only ones who have something to offer. Acting on this (even when well intended) injures both us by adding to our pride, and others, by affirming them as fundamentally "lacking".

Here are some other highlights for the book:

As westerners we generally understand poverty in material terms. Logically, we then assume that work among the poor is primarily about leveraging resources or skills. Yet they demonstrate that poverty as defined by those in poverty is often primarily understood in fundamentally psychological terms. Terms like "powerless", "shameful", worthless" and others are self-applied.

Poverty must be understood in Creation-Fall-Redemption terms. Poverty is fundamentally the absence of Shalom. Shalom is all about relationships, therefore poverty is fundamentally about the broken relationships (with God, self, others, the creation) and NOT fundamentally about lack of something. Addressing poverty then MUST be part of our understanding of the work of Christ, the gospel, the calling of the church and the Kingdom of God.

All poverty is NOT created equal. Differing levels of distress and poverty require differing levels of response. The 3 levels of response are: relief, rehabilitation, development. Most of the work of the church is in the area of relief, whereas most of the need is for development. As Abraham Kuyper said 100+ years ago, Christians just don't understand economics and so our work and $ is put in the wrong place.

The section detailing a definition of multiple kinds of paternalism was great! It was bold to publish this on Moody Press since MBI is one of the leading senders of missionaries around the world. Yet it is clearly a topic that is important and generally unspoken about (same thing with the STM discussion below).

1/3 of all missionary giving is towards Short Term Missions (STM). Most STMs do more harm than good. I was both challenged and affirmed in reading this (we run a STM program). We have thought very carefully about this and have sought to do things very differently than most STM programs. I was about 90% affirmed in reading this chapter but was still challenged to think about sharpening some aspects of what we do.

My critique of the book is that it is too short and too wide to be a helpful tool practically. The reality is that this is an entry level book that is critical to get people started. I just wish it had more follow up tools.

The section on relief-rehabilitation-development was also so introductory that it lacked any real meat about what each of these three things are. Relief is only appropriate where there is such a crisis that "the bleeding needs to be stopped". I don't know what "bleeding" is in contexts of entrenched poverty. I also came away with NO idea what rehabilitation is in thier model. People around my church aren't getting quality food, are dealing with high rates of violence, are in schools that are a catastrophe. I assume that since it is generational poverty and crime that is at issue that the most appropriate connection is development, yet using this book I didn't know how to actually draw those lines or really define the 3 categories well (especially the first 2).

The connection between Shalom and Poverty was the richest contribution for me personally. I teach on these topics in depth every time we have an STM team here and so think about them alot. Clearly the book is a great help on the whole!

Virtual Dinner, Real Benefit. Sept 14-16.

Why we need one more rule.

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, 2 guys from the Chalmers Center at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain GA have really got me thinking.

At Sunshine we have 3 rules for the kids:

Respect God

Respect Others

Respect the Building

We try to keep it simple and build discernment with the kids rather than a long list of do's and dont's. I was listening to Pastor Pete (or is that "The Father"?) explain our rules for Summer Blast (50 kids in the building for summer VBS type programming all summer). The BB students help run the program. . . anyway, he was explaining this and other concepts for our working with the youth and doing a great job talking about how we share the gospel, love the kids, encourage/challenge them in these 3 areas.

The ironic thing was that I had just finished teaching about "Shalom" and on a dry erase board near the sign with the 3 R's listed above, I had written out that Shalom entails 3 things:

Joy in Relationship to:

God

Self/others

our Environment.

As I sat back listening to Pete I realized that these rules are anchored in a much deeper set of truths than "tell 'em about Jesus and keep 'em in line". Of course I already knew this but sitting back with fresh review of "Shalom" and then hearing The Father speak, it just clicked: even our rules with our kids are anchored in this pursuit of what we as Image Bearers were designed for, the Shalom of God.

Back to Steve and Brian: I am reading their new book "When Helping Hurts" which is a serious critique and overall very insightful book about "alleviating poverty" aka. ministry among the poor.

They made this connection between what poverty is and what Shalom is that got me thinking. As westerners we tend to define poverty in material and financial terms, whereas most of those who are actually poor tend to define poverty in relational and psychological terms of brokkeness.

"Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings." p15, quoting B Myers.

This is a rich and complicated statement but goes to the heart of alleviating poverty that we all suffer under, just in differing ways. The narrative of scripture is Creation, Fall, Redemption. Everything is broken. . . all relationships. . . for poverty to be addressed and shalom to be attained, we need healing in all areas and to add to our list above. When it says Jesus was about restoring "All things" (Col 1) is is consistent with his announcement of his public ministry that was equally all encompassing (Luke 4).

To consider our "rules" we have to recognized that part of our poverty is about the broken relationship we have with ourselves. We tend either toward "God complexes" (the rich) or toward "shame" (the poor).

So let's add one important aspect of shalom ruling:

Respect yourself (its part of shalom!)

Friday Night Lights. . . do it on the corner!

Pastor Meeks had a prayer ministry some time ago called "Do it on the corner".  At Sunshine we have been motivated to take specific active steps into areas in which violence, commotion and chaos have ruled the day.  

Together, as a part of The Chicago Peace Campaign (look it up on facebook) we are working for peace in our community.  We've integrated this into our normal youth work and Bridge Builders programs, along with just life in community. 

After going to other "Friday Night Lights" events, we launched ours last week.  We take a corner that normally has a lot of unhealthy interaction, sometimes shooting, usually drug dealing, and we set up shop!  BBQ, Bright Lights, Gospel and Holy Hip Hop on the sound system, kids playing. . . all on the corner from 9pm to 1am.  We gather together for prayer on the hour.  

Mrs. Woods, a neighbor who has rarely made it out of the house this year due to health reasons was the first to arrive.  She set up her lawn chair and talked with me about what "usually" happens outside her window.   She was the first to say, "It is time to pray yet?! I'm not missing that prayer out here!".  The kids played. . . . CW got on the mic and  shared the gospel in song. . . the hot dogs and drinks were a hit.  Dozens of people hung out, heard the gospel, laughed together, tossed the frisbee.  

On one night, on one corner, it was peaceful.  We didn't have to confront anyone selling drugs or fend off anyone carrying guns.  We just "showed up, showed out, and shared Jesus".  

Shalom: a caring, sharing community where there is none to fear.

The words that serve as a title to this post are from Walter Brueggemann, early in his book entitled "Peace".  

It's no small irony that I walked into my home carrying this book tonight.  As I left my car I passed a young african american man who was cutting through the empty lot next to my house.  He walked through the grass, stopped next to the trailer parked in front of the house with the words "Sunshine Gospel Ministries" on it, bent over, placed a metal object on the tire that clanked as it hit the wheel well, and moved on without saying anything to me. 

I knew what it was.  I knew he'd stashed a gun.  

I went in the house, let Jessie, our dog, into the yard, and grabbed a glove.  I recovered the gun and called the cops.  

Soon, another young man (not the first one) came and looked. Seeing me on my porch he said "I just dropped my wallet here. . . .did you see it?"

"No", I said.  Caleb had come out and joined me on the porch.  He saw the gun, retrieved his camera and took a couple photos.  

Shortly later, both the guys came back, looking carefully under the wheel well, this time no without pretense. "Hey, you know what we are looking for. . . let me get my stuff back".   

"look, I'm a pastor"  (the nuance of ministry leader vs. pastor seemed inane to describe at the moment). . . "I can't do it".    "Be safe. . . " they said, and walked away.  

Caleb had gone in the house and come back.  I gave him my phone, told him to call the police again and tell them to get here quickly.  

5 mins later (30 mins gone by from the 911 call, no police) the second guy returned.  

"look, can I talk to you?"  I approached the fence.  

"hey, this is a grown man. . . just like you are a grown man. . . and he needs his gun" #2 says to me.  "well, I'm a pastor" I said, repeating my well intentioned partial obfuscation, "I can't" . 

"there's no need to get the police involved. .. and you don't have to give it to me. .  just put it back where you found it . . . and there doesn't have to be any trouble. . . "

"Look, I am a minister, and there is too much violence out here. .  I just can't. I can tell you about Jesus, but I can't give you the gun back.  The police are on the way."  He tried one more time. .. . "Look, there is no reason for you to remember me or me to remember you.  I just don't want anyone to get hurt. .  just put it back where you found it. . . "

I told him no again and he left.  About 3 or 4 mins later the TAC team arrived (cops in unmarked cars).  The retrieved the 380 out of the flower pot where I had put it.  I'd met these guys before at the site of a shooting a block from here.  "we know you" they told me. . . and then after shining their flashlights on my front door (the 100+ year old glass one) the coughed with some disgust. . . "still haven't changed out that door huh?!"  They took basic descriptions and headed out, the gun in tow.  

I returned to my book. "where there is no one to fear". . . I prayed.  

Our Father, who art in heaven. . . thy kingdom come. . . on earth as it is in heaven. . . where there is no one to fear.  

Exploring urban entrepreneurialism

As Christians we must hold to fundamental economic principles.  Work is good, we were made for it.  Freedom is crucial, it allows us our ability to conduct the work we were intended to do.  Creativity is a must. . . it is an essential part of our expression of the "imago Dei" stored within us from the creation.  

As an urban ministry we've begun looking carefully at what it means to support, encourage and teach entrepreneurialism and the creation of free, creative work as an element of what it means to bring renewal. . . shalom. . . well-being. . . redemption. . .  to the urban environment. 

Today I had the privilege of listening in as one of our students, Brittany Fisher, competed in a semi-finals business plan competition.  It was great.  Brittany did a classy job of writing and presenting a plan to start her own resume consulting business.  We were and are really proud of her. 

As an organization we are considering plans for a coffee shop, a T-shirt production company, and 3 other businesses.  So this meant that hearing the plans thought through was actually really encouraging.  I mean, what types of businesses would thrive here?  What sort of work in the city would express freedom and creativity?

We got to hear some other ideas as urban kids expressed their visions for businesses.  One was an online music magazine fusing R&B and Funk.  Another was an organic coffee shop.  Then there was the urban clothing line for pregnant teens. . . and the company that creates organic pouches that fit into "any standard sized bra" for those who prefer not to carry a purse.  

These were some true urban perspectives~!

Why we need Caris Pregnancy Centers.

I had a chance to listen to a presentation by the Executive Director of Caris Pregnancy Centers today.  As someone who is strongly pro-life, yet feel like my view of pro-life has widened beyond the normal view held within the evangelical community, I was wondering how I would react.  

My personal tension has been in hearing the discussion about the subject of abortion become one in which a sense of panicked yelling about unborn children is the primary means of communicating about it.  The woman doing the presentation started by saying that our normal discourse in the past few decades has been "if you love the woman your are pro-choice, and if you love the child you are pro-life."  Perhaps an oversimplification yet it did ring true to me.

So she suggested that we start by realizing the God loves them both and so should we.   Our rhetoric, our discourse and our demeanor has often not communicated this in the Christian community public discourse.  (Remember the standard Paul sets up for an elder?  that he is viewed as respectable in the eyes of unbelievers? I think this is an apt comparison for considering how we are viewed as believers on the whole as we interact on this issue.  Does the pregnant teen think we love her, while she is considering ending her pregnancy?)  

She suggested that they worked with about 2500 women last year and 2/3 of them carried their children to term.  There were about 20,000 abortions in cook county last year.    She also indicated that as the economy worsens, abortions tick upward. Their vision is to work with 10,000 women annually by 2011.

Most women who find Caris do so through the internet . . .  people search the internet in response to traumatic news such as unplanned pregnancy.  So normal things like billboards don't really work.  Yet among the highest rates of abortion are lower income communities and they have the least access to technology.  (I suggested they optimize their internet pages for mobile searches).  They indicated they are increasingly counseling via text messages!

Planned parenthood reports that the reasons given for abortion are most often a lack of emotional/social support and lack of practical resources. . . this happens to be exactly what Caris focuses on.  

Their 3 core mission aspects are: Commitment to the woman and her child, Counseling, and Connection to resources.  

One of the most amazing things she said was that virtually every women at some point says "I'd like to keep the child if. . . . ".  that presents great hope for working with women, supporting them and their children. 

Only 1% consider adoption nationally so while we like to talk about that, the reality is that it is almost a non-starter for women considering abortion.  Most women consider abortion in the 8-10 week window, most women opting for adoption don't consider it seriously until the 3rd trimester.  

She framed this as a justice issue which really resonated for me.  Justice for the child, but also for the mother.  I would add that we must frame it as a grace issue.  If we as believers don't love and fully understand the grace of God in our lives we will not be able to tolerate all that it takes to actually love women by providing them the emotional support and practical resources they need.  It is far easier to rant on facebook about our government policies than it is to provide all of the emotional support and practical resources needed to an actual woman and child.

I think we have an interesting crisis of conscience when we agonize over the number of abortions yet have no sense of concern for the mothers.  And that concern means loving sexually promiscuous mothers who are sometimes irresponsible, have other children, have had other abortions and such. In other words grace to the mother is very messy business that I fear we don't want to get caught up with.  

Here is the interesting thing:  the church thinks that Caris needs the churches money to go out and reach out to girls and women of all ages who are in crisis (remember when they were called crisis pregnancy clinics?).  As I listened I couldn't help thinking that it is we the church who need Caris!  We need them to teach us to love the unlovely, the broken and those whose unrighteousness is just like ours. . . except theirs is exposed. (What would I look like if my sin hung on my like a 9 month pregnancy?)

I think we have no business suggesting that we love the child and must speak up on their behalf if we can't love the mother. 

The Rice and Wine (understanding urban ministry)

Twitter and Facebook

Well I just updated to actually use twitter. . . we will see how that works. . . 

or should I say:  wl c how tht wrks. . . ?

I have to learn this new language.  I also began looking at how we use facebook at an organizational level for both Sunshine and Bridge Builders.  I sense that short (twitterish) messages via facebook will be a good way to connect for missions teams as youth leaders are in that next generational communication trend.  

you can follow me (that sounds weird but maybe that makes me old?!) www.twitter.com/joeladamsh

Peace.