Jim Wallis has great big. . .

Ok, let's just say that Jim Wallis is very bold.  Last night a number of leaders of faith communities had the opportunity to ask questions of the democratic candidates during a forum held at Messiah College.  They called it the Compassion Forum.  

Normally when these types of things happen there is no drama.  You know what answer the questioner wants to get.  You know what answer the questioner is going to get.  It's so predictable (and often awkward) that its tough to sit through.  

Most of the questions were "softballs" lobbed out there for the candidates to swing at.  Usually there are a corresponding number of  "high and inside fast balls" designed to make the candidates look dumb. They must have controlled things pretty well because I didn't see too much of these.  

But then Jim Wallis said:

"The year that Dr. King was assassinated he was about to launch a poor peoples campaign. The reality is that since then the poverty rate in our country is virtually unchanged.  Something like 30 million Americans live below the poverty level in the richest country in the history of the world.  Would you be willing to make a commitment tonight, that if you are elected president, you will initiate programs and legislation to to reduce the poverty level in half, over the next 10 years?"  

(My paraphrase!!)

I was shocked.  Talk about putting the guy on the spot.  I was not only astonished by the question and its directness but by Obama's willingness to respond.    He said: "Yes, I will."  He then qualified it slightly by acknowledging the enormity of such a task and the fact that the economics of the country on the whole exacerbate the dilemma (e.g. the mortgage crisis is currently sending hundreds of thousands of Americans' back into poverty).    At any rate, as a guy who believes this is not only possible but must be part of the process of addressing systemic issues of injustice I (my independent, non-partisan self) cheered.  

Here is a caveat:  I am not a huge fan of Jim Wallis to be honest because too often his commitment to social justice is indistinguishable from being anti-republican party.  As with guys like Hannity or Moyers, I find it difficult to listen to them because they can never admit to any virtue across the aisle nor any vice on their side of the aisle.  Clearly there are some aspects to what Wallis has championed (like Campolo) that are centrally aligned with my ministry at Sunshine and our commitment to Mercy, Justice and Discipleship.  So all that to say I am proud of him for how he used that moment.  Let's hope it goes beyond being a moment.  

So what would it actually take?  Is it possible?  What role does the church play?   These are a few of the questions that ensue. 

Opulence and Poverty.

I am in San Diego this week attending a conference, doing some reading and resting. I took these 2 photos near my hotel.  I am absolutely amazed at the wealth here (it's in Chicago too but I don't usually hang out in this kind of area there).  

I am also amazed by the homeless population.  Folks are everywhere!!  I am reading a book that is page for page the book that has taken me longer to read than anything in my life.  I have been carrying this thing around for at least 3 years and still not done.  Mainly this is due to the fact it is over my head and secondarily to the fact that I am a painfully slow reader.  (Just ask my wife!)  

Anyway the book is called "Until Justice and Peace Embrace".   Each chapter has brought serious challenge but the one I have read here is called "The Rich and Poor".   The author concludes that it isn't that we don't know what to do about poverty but that we (the Christian church) refuse to do what must be done.  

Walking around here I have to admit that from my perspective there is clearly enough money here to house, feed, clothe and care for the poor that are walking around here.  Perhaps that's not the American way.  But is it the way of Christ?  

What would it take to actually do something about it?  On the issue of "extreme world poverty" I highly recommend Jeffrey Sachs book "The End of Poverty".  On local poverty I would suggest John Perkin's 3 R's are a good place to start (Reconciliation, Relocation, Redistribution). On personal level how about just taking Christ at his word?

Luke 6:30:  Give to whoever begs from you. 

Luke 14:2-3: 12Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

In the city and in the Word: But did Anything Change?

During the past 3 weeks we've hosted more than 120 college students from around the country here in Chicago.  My M.O. is to get pretty wrapped up in issues that connect a Biblically informed vision of what life should look like and then connect that to the issues facing urban America.   We discuss and explore these topics experientially together in the city and in the Word. 

(What does God's call to uphold justice have to do with the fact that we have a drop out rate in Woodlawn that exceeds 50%?  What does God's call for us to love mercy have to do with those homeless folks who put us in awkward moments on the el? What does discipleship have to do with our resources beyond our money?  What does an ambassador of Christ have to do with infant mortality, the working poor, or predatory lending?)  

This week I am wrestling with how our work to raise funds connects with this overall vision of seeing  Christians live out Micah 6:8 in relation to the inner-city.   It is critical that those in relationship with Sunshine see the connection as a commitment to the cause of the Kingdom rather than an emotional (short lived) response.  

So for those who have been with us in the past or were here this month,  I just want to ask two questions here and invite you to respond. 

1.  Is it likely that anything actually changed in your life as a result of your week with us?

2.  Our desire is not to lead you to partner with us through pity or emotion but by leading through our values.  Did this happen with you and if so, what values did you perceive we hold most dear?

How just is that coffee?

What's a fair price for a pound of coffee?

1. $6.95
2. $3.45
3. $1.26
   
   

A fair price for coffee isn't what you pay in the grocery store, it's what the coffee farmer is paid. Available in Europe for more than a decade and recently in the United States, "fair-trade" coffee has been purchased directly from coffee farmers for $1.26 per pound, instead of less than 50 cents.

According to Transfair USA (www.transfairusa.org), an agency that certifies fair-trade practices, coffee is the second largest trade commodity in the world, next to oil. An estimated 80 percent of Americans drink coffee.

Ten years ago, the world coffee economy was worth $30 billion, of which producers received $12 billion. Today, it is worth $50 billion, with producers receiving just $8 billion, according to the Fair Trade Coffee Campaign of Global Exchange.

Last year, Starbucks became the first U.S. company to agree to a "code of conduct," promising it would tell its suppliers that in order to sell to Starbucks, they must pay workers a decent wage and respect their rights. Many gourmet coffee companies now offer fair-trade products, too, says Deborah James, fair trade director for Global Exchange, including the Bucks County Coffee Co. in Langhorne (800-523-6163). More are listed on the Global Exchange Web site (www.globalexchange.org).

This entry taken from a social justice quiz.  

The most important book white Christians will read this summer.

Not to go out on a limb or anything. . . but can I suggest that the most important book a white Christian can read or re-read this summer is Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith?

Watching the whole episodes surrounding Barack Obama and his pastor and his speech, and then following the commentary about it, I remember just how isolated from the black community, its concerns, its burdens and its perspective are most of my white friends, families and the wider evangelical community. 

I have gotten to the point where I can predict white answers to black questions and vice versa and watch for the predictable facial expression across the table.  I see this on CNN, Fox and in the community.  Here is an example:  Several months ago I was listening to Moody Radio as a well known black leader was being interviewed by a well known white christian talk radio host.  The white interviewer clearly had very high affirmation for his guest and was talking about how dymanically God was working through his black brother in a poor community.  Then the minister referred to Dr. King in passing.  

Then the interviewer asked this question:  On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you say we are doing in improving race relations in America since Dr. King's life.  I knew in that split second that the interviewer was looking for a much higher number than he was going to get.  He was eagerly anticipating it.  Was it 9?  Maybe 8?  

"5.  Maybe 6 on the whole."  came the answer.  Radio silence is always awkward.  

The reason for the silence?  The reason for the different expectation is simple.  White Christians are on the whole isolated by unrecognized privilege from the ongoing struggles of black America.  It is strictly optional for whites to enter the discussion and since it quickly (usually) becomes uncomfortable -- we don't.  Or we do and then leave as soon as we get our toes stepped on.  

My experience has been that my white friends feel unappreciated very quickly. . . .and my black friends feel used and cheated.  That black minister could easily have interpreted the white guys lack of responsiveness about the plight of black America as indication that he didn't actually care and that the point of the radio show was just that -- its just a show (and his black "friend" will make for a great show).  

The reality is that in that example the white guy asked the question not knowing what answer he was going to get and (I would guess) the black minister provided the answer knowing full well the discomfort that the answer would recieve.  

Why am I saying all of this?  With Obama running for president -- and let's assume he gets the Democratic nod -- the insensitive comments, the unresponsiveness to Obama's explicit Christianity (over against Bush's) will leave our Black brother and sisters even more frustrated with the white church than before -- even if they have no intention of voting for him.  

This will be a record year for the following (offensive) words in the white churches across America which foment division between Black and White Christians:

"I'm not a racist but. . . "

"It's not because he is black. . . "

"I have a black friend . . . and he/she isn't voting for Obama"

"I don't see a race problem in America. .  . it's only because they keep talking about it. .  ." 

"He says he's a Christian but how can any Christian be unapologetically black?  If we had an unapologetically white church they would call us racist!"

If you are a white Christian and have any sense that racial reconciliation is important, please read Divided by Faith.  Read it slowly and thoughtfully.  .  .  

(I have added a summary of this book to my other blog.  Click here). 

Is Colorblindness a virtue or a vice?

There are a number of subjects, dozens actually, that come up during the course of our Bridge Builders weeks at Sunshine, that inevitably deserve extended thought and discussion. One of those subjects is the issue of "colorblindness".  

For anyone interested in seriously addressing racism or racial reconciliation, colorblindness is one of those subjects that is incredibly important to consider. It is a topic that is understood entirely differently within the black and white communities.  

For Whites, Colorblindness is viewed as a virtue.  

For many of us in the white community the term colorblindness was defined and experienced in our growing up as a concept that stood in contrast to racism.  It was the movement of a generation (our parents) away from their parents (our grandparents) in which racist jokes and terminology was done away with.  The assumption was that without explicit racist terminology, racism was done away with and colorblindness was its (virtuous) replacement.

For Blacks, Colorblindness is viewed as racism.  

For most within the black (and other non-anglo) community the term colorblindness is a term that whites use to excuse racism.  To suggest that ones race is not seen in the US when one is Black (or other minority) is preposterous  (unless you are literally blind, and even then awareness is VERY apparent to most).  Further, to suggest that one is not treated differently because of one's race is also absurd.  Finally, to not allow the value of one's identity and culture to be an open discussion or expression is to devalue what is different and to lay claim to the idea that that which is dominant is normative and therefore "best".   So colorblindness is not only not a virtue, but is a nice way of holding onto white privilege, racism, vice.  (Did anyone seriously look at the picture of Jesus above and NOT notice race? or did you not realize it was Jesus because of your attribution of what Jesus' race "really" is? and if you are "taken aback" by a black Jesus are you equally offended by a white Jesus?)

"Double Vision" is the only way to continue the discussion.  In Miroslov Volf's book, The End of Memory, the author describes what he says is "double vision"; imaginatively entering the the experience of another before claiming to understand.  While I believe this is crucial for those committed to learning in general, it is also key for anyone committed to reconciliation.  On the topic of colorblindness it is key for blacks to do this to create space for patience for their white brothers and sisters, giving us time in the dialogue to learn.  For whites, this double vision is important because in it they will find out that black folks are right.  

In my personal experience, the importance of my African-American friends giving me space to understand this has been indescribably important.  I have been blessed by these friends in that they have allowed me this benefit of the doubt:  I was genuinely attempting to move away from racism of earlier family members and oblivious to white privilege (this is another entire topic and something that my black friends have helped me to see).   Many, if not most, blacks (in my experience) believe that any white person claiming to be unaware of the racism of colorblindness and the reality of white privilege is disingenuous at best, and -- more likely--  simply lying.  Those who have chosen to enter in to conversation are often worn out by this process of allowing whites this space and even trying to help us.  Ed Gilbreath's book Reconciliation Blues will help with insight on this topic. 

The reality is that this posting shouldn't waste time trying to make the argument to blacks to give us space.  The primary argument that I need to present is this:  Blacks are right, colorblindness is tantamount to ignoring discrimination, racism, prejudice and white privilege.  

So to understand the topic, whites need an entire education.  They need an entire experiential set of lessons that are far removed from daily life.  Race is strictly an optional topic for whites.  Racial privilege is not understood.  

Racism is understood in white community as something that is what one person does to another person.  Since they haven't seen their parents enslave someone, or use the N word, or crack jokes, they assume racism doesn't exist. 

In the white evangelical community this is exacerbated by our understanding of sin in the same way:  we understand sin primarily as something one person does to another (or against God).  We basically ignore the biblical concept that groups of people sin against other groups.  Our individualistic notion of sin makes it all the harder to understand racism as experienced regularly by our non-white brothers and sisters.  

The black (and other "minority") experience is totally unfamiliar to most whites.  We either don't know anyone who personally deals with this regularly, or those we know don't talk about it (often because we don't believe it and are therefore unwilling to really listen).  

As W.E.B. Dubois and others have noted, blacks have almost no need to be educated about the white experience.  But whites know almost nothing of the black experience.  So when coming to the topic of colorblindness I can only ask my black brothers and sisters for patience.  I have to ask my white brothers and sisters to become students.  

For all of us interested in reconciliation be have to apply the wisdom of James in being "quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger".  

What does Purdue, Judson, Southern Indiana and Montana have in common?

We are now just over half way through our Bridge Builders week here at Sunshine.  I have been enjoying one of our larger groups (46 folks) spending time learning, listening, experiencing and serving here in the city.  We have colleges from 3 campuses listed above, plus a church from Montana here.

I've been doing most of the teaching but at the moment had to take a night out with a cold that I'm fighting that has been getting worse all week.  For those of you who read this regularly please pray for the health of the group and of my family.  Between colds going around and days that last sometimes from 7am until 1am, the days get a little long!

I am continually amazed at the way I learn each a week a bit more about God's love and patience for us.  I was reminded today about Romans 2:4 which says that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.

Am I a saint or a communist?

When I feed the poor, they call me a saint.  When I ask why the poor are poor, they call me a communist"

Martyred Nicaraguan church Bishop, Oscar Romero as quoted in "Deep Justice in a Broken World".  p17.  

The gospel setting the stage for Justice.

A speaker (I didn't get his name) I listened to recently left me with this paraphrased quote which I found helpful:

The gospel replaces pride with confident teachability and fear with love.  Both are needed to pursue justice.   

A Raisin in the Sun -- P. Diddy & The Hansberry family

Here it is February 29th and I have only now gotten around to a post recognizing Black History month.    I have been encouraging folks to read a book AT LEAST once a year around black history.  A book about the civil rights era, a biography of Fredrick Douglas, or perhaps Dr. King or some other place to start.  

Another great option would be reading or watching "A Raisin in the Sun".   This story has close to home implications for me as the story actually took place between where I live and where I work. 

The neighborhood I live in is called Woodlawn.  In the 40's it was an all white neighborhood.   At this time the community was at the south end of the rapidly expanding and horrendously overcrowded black south side (called the Black Belt or Bronzeville).  The neighboring white neighborhoods made what were called "restrictive housing covenants" to cooperatively agree to keep blacks out of the neighborhood.  

The Hansberry family bought a place at 6140 South Rhodes.  (Our building is on the corner of 61st street and Eberhart -- one block West of Rhodes).   They faced incredible

 neighborhood persecution (terrorism, racism, zealoutry, bigotry. .. whatever you want to call it it was extreme!).  Thier daughter Lorraine Hansberry wrote a play to tell the story of the families expeience mainly leading up to the decision to move in and the play (A Raisin in the Sun) became the first Black written play on Broadway.  

Ultimately the Hansberry's fought in court (Hansberry vs. Lee) and went all the way to the supreme court, winning a victory against these racist housing covenants. 

This past Monday night a made-for-TV movie aired staring Phylicia Rashad and Sean (Diddy) Combs.  I thought the performances were extremely compelling and mid way through the show I read aloud to my wife the poem by Langston Hughes called "A Dream Deferred" from which the title comes.  Given the intensity of injustice and hardship permeating the the Black American experience, the Hughes poem drips with a rich texture that rings true.  Combs and the movie also captured this truth in rich imagery -- heartbreakingly so.  

Here is the poem. 

 A 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?

City of . . . immigrants

I need to let everyone know that I took the name of my blog (which may change!) from a Steve Earle song called "City of Immigrants".  I don't know any other song by him.  . .never heard of him before this but love the song. 

It captures the beauty, wonder, complexity and variegated face of the urban world.  

Here are the Lyrics and check out the music on Rhapsody.

Livin’ in a city of immigrants 
I don’t need to go travelin’ 
Open my door and the world walks in 
Livin’ in a city of immigrants 

Livin’ in a city that never sleeps 
My heart keepin’ time to a thousand beats 
Singin’ in languages I don’t speak 
Livin’ in a city of immigrants 

City of black, city of white, city of light, city of innocents 
City of sweat, city of tears, city of prayers, city of immigrants 

Livin’ in a city where the dreams of men 
Reach up to touch the sky and then 
Tumble back down to earth again 
Livin’ in a city that never quits 

Livin’ in a city where the streets are paved 
With good intentions and a people’s faith 
In the sacred promise a statue made 
Livin’ in a city of immigrants 

City of stone, city of steel, city of wheels constantly spinnin’ 
City of bone, city of skin, city of pain, city of immigrants 

[All of us are immigrants 
Every daughter, every son 
Everyone is everyone 
All of us are immigrants
Everyone]

Livin’ in a city of immigrants 
River flows out and the sea rolls in 
Washin’ away nearly all of my sins 
Livin’ in a city of immigrants 

Evil's 2 victories

From The End of Memory, Remembering rightly in a violent world by Miroslov Volf.

"To triumph fully, evil needs two victories, not one.  The first victory happens when an evil deed is perpetrated; the second victory, when evil is returned". 

As I read about and explore the issues of justice this year, I am drawn to consider things surrounding the subject including forgiveness, reconciliation, and grace.  Volf has written among the most compelling work on reconciliation I have ever read in his book Exclusion and Embrace.  

In the book quoted above Volf is exploring what it means for someone to remember who has been hurt while maintaining the goal of neither hating the perpetrator nor disregarding him or the event but of actually doing what Christ has done:  Love your enemy.  

Fredrick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr and others would agree with Volf's premise that we tear the fabric of our own souls and wound ourselves beyond that which has been inflicted on us when we seek retribution.  Volf suggests that it is a "given of the Christian faith" that we must pursue justice but ultimately move beyond it for the sake of love of one's enemy.  

discipleship: what difference does it make?

At the risk of asking a really obvious question, I would like to ask the most important changes in your life as a result of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  

What knowledge, attitude, values and skills would you say are a direct outcome of your walk with Christ?

How do you behave differently?

How has the condition of your life improved?

Can we be Christians first?

I've gotten several emails forwarded to me lately from family and friends that are really troubling. Some of them have come asking for my thoughts, others have asked for my support.

One of the most troubling is about Obama. I've gotten this email several times. . . you know what it says: he is secretly a muslim, he attends a wacky church that is so pro-black and pro-Africa that it is "scary" to imagine him as president. His dad belongs to a sect that is terrorist and his mom is an Atheist.

Another one is about how George Bush is going to sign a document giving all illegal aliens social security benefits. I've gotten this one a few times too.

The problem with each of them is the thoughtlessness and lack of any semblance of Christian patterns of thought, spiritual scrutiny or biblical insight. While I could easily wax eloquent about either topic, I hesitate because the more you discuss these topics (especially immigration or political candidates) you are immediately thrust into partisan political debate -- somewhere that I prefer not to go until AFTER I have a strong sense of what a biblical perspective is or at least what biblical categories of consideration ought to be brought to the fore, prior to making strong assertions of a political nature.

It seems to me that contrary to mainstream American values, biblical wisdom indicates that we ought to be slow to speak (i.e. slow to pronouncements about political propositions) and quick to hear (i.e. taking a long time to listen carefully). These are principles that are contrary to the media and political processes. But they are central to our body, community, family! This is particularly true in cross-cultural settings, something that God is taking us toward as a planet in a rapid way.

I'll give you 2 examples from the recent emails I referred to earlier. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian and forwards the Obama email should realize that the scorn heaped on his church is equally heaped on us. We are with him under that scorn. you may think at first that the ridicule is on him for the Black focus and nature of the church, but the the heart of the scorn is that the church actually believes the gospel. (look carefully at their website and you will find that they recommend books by white authors and that affirm people -- not just black people). (Here is an article in CT in which Obama addresses his faith specifically).

The anti-illegal alien email is just as anchored in fear mongering as is the anti-Obama email. there is a phrase in the email that says we should give them "no free services". does this mean, as it suggests, that pregnant women who don't have legal access should not be granted medical care? what about thier children? I think the email means what it says: don't give them ANYTHING.

What is the biblical position on how we are to treat strangers and aliens? I know this sounds radical, but can we please be Christians first in our thinking about these subjects and our examination of political candidates and issues prior to being partisan?

Comments

I have opened the site to comments. . . actually i have tried this about 4 times but think I have finally figured it out. . . so, for those who have been reading and emailing. . . thanks, but feel free to use the comment function if you'd like!!

Camp Illiana

I had a great time this weekend at Camp Illiana. I was privileged to be invited to speak to college groups from around the State of Indiana about God's heart for the poor.

We did 4 sessions:

1. God's heart for the poor (Ps 113) and for the city (Jerm 29)
2. A regular dose of the gospel energizes mercy (and makes Christ visible). (Matt 18 and Luke 6)
3. Remember the gospel. . . Rom 3; Re-evaluate our wealth (1 Tim 6)
4. Reconciliation through the "likemindedness" of Phillipians 2. (a first step in making justice issues personal).

I am grateful that a number of the students will be joining us for a week of Bridge Builders missions experience in Chicago this spring. I was also really encouraged to hear from various members of the group that had attended BB in previous years that through their experience God led them to encourage students to move in the city, take on new majors in school and find other effective ways to remain committed to mercy/justice issues in their ministry and life.

Thanks for allowing me to come and may God grant us a heart that clings to the cross, doesn't shrink from suffering, and pursues justice and mercy out of gratitude.

Not the way its supposed to be. . .

Cornelius Plantinga Jr. wrote a book by the above title on Sin. It is a very helpful book in exploring what sin is, how it functions, how others have understood it. In closing the book (or perhaps I am remembering this from an interview with the author some place) Plantinga suggested that the book longed for a follow up with a book on Grace.

As I am now reading about the subject of Justice and trying to understand it within a biblical framework, the title of Plantinga's book came to my mind. Justice is fundamentally about "The way its supposed to be". Sin and injustice are very closely related and its easy to see that using the question or even "sense" of what is supposed to be.

It should come as little suprise that the root words in the NT for righteousness and justice are interchangeable. The greek word is dikiaos and is translated both as justice and righteousness. Here are some interesting definitions (from crosswalk.com online lexicon):

1. in a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God

2. the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God

3. integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting
in a narrower sense, justice or the virtue which gives each his due

So Justice is (a) the condition acceptable to God and (b) the virtue which gives each his due.

How is justice doing on your block?

Too Hot to Handel. . .

Paula and I went to a jazz and gospel rendition of Handel's Messiah last week. It was quite an experience hearing "unto us a child is born" with scat and swing! The first half was truly remarkable even though we had the sense they were just warming up.

The second half was a disappointment, however, as the arrangements made us think that whoever did them was clearly not a believer. "We all like sheep" was done in a very upbeat jazzy, party style tempo.

The remarkable thing about jazz, blues and gospel is the range of emotion AND content that it can support. This has been a part of my own great appreciation for living in an African American community and learning so much from the culture and tradition. I am still a presbyterian at heart and being in a black Baptist church constantly challenges my own sense of emotion about various messages. (can ya feel it??!!)

So while I likely often appear to be a frozen chosen one amidst a sea of openly celebratory faces, I love the way the message of Christ and His gospel is made viscerally relevant. We should be emotional about God's goodness, His provision, and His glory! Jazz, gospel and the blues has the ability to support this important content and make it live.

But. . . in Too Hot To Handel the song of mourning (we all like sheep have gone astray. . . each of us has turned to our own way) upbeat jazz was just the wrong form. A song of lament could have been carried by either gospel or blues in a way that delivered a crushing sense of truth to this. The repentant and sorrowful voice should have replaced the party-boy that we heard at the show.

Still, it was such a great intersection of Western culture and African American tradition that I was glad we went.

The pain of ministry in transition. . .(a bit more on Sunshine Cove)

Our pastor had the following thing to say yesterday in church:

"Today you are either coming out of a trial, in a trial or about to begin a trial. . . why do I know this is true? Because that is life. . . "

He was teaching about trials and how God uses them in our lives. It was an apt point of consideration for me to think about the process of camping ministry at Sunshine.

12 years ago my wife and I were finishing Moody and had a clear calling into ministry . . . we were headed for a field of ministry called Christian Camping. The main point for me was that I sensed God's leading in my life to teach the scriptures and I wanted to do it in a context that allowed for something beyond what I saw in pastoral ministry . . . something where you really have time to get folks away from their normal context and spend quality time together in God's word. Camping was that context.

After a year in an internship in north-central Wisconsin at Camp Forest Springs, we were called by our home church (Covenant Presbyterian Church of Chicago) to return to the city and investigate the potential for starting a new camp from scratch, somewhere within 2 hours of Chicago. Our conclusion was that most quality camps were (a) full most of the year and (b) a LONG drive from Chicago. Through this process of investigation I met Dana Thomas, Executive Director of Sunshine Gospel Ministries.

I shared with Dana my vision for running a quality camp and a key part of that vision: working with inner-city kids. Dana responded favorably and explained that his organization (Sunshine Gospel Ministries) owned a camp (called Camp Sun-Chi-Win) that the board was debating about how to develop or sell.

Dana loved the idea of camp but his focus was on growing the city ministry. We visited the camp and immediately fell in love with the place. We decided that this was where God was calling us but felt that the camp should really be a separate organization to have the appropriate amount of attention from the board. So we asked Sunshine's board to give it to us.

As a point of discussion we decided it would be good to call it something else. Since we were currently working with Covenant Pres we drafted a proposal and called the new organization "Sunshine Cove". The board turned us down on the idea of giving camp away but Dana encouraged us to consider coming on staff and pursuing the vision of camp under Sunshine's auspices. Over a period of a year or so the Lord led my family to join the staff at Sunshine to essentially restart a property and camp that was all but abandoned. We saw huge potential!

So we packed up our 4 little kids and moved into a frozen, leaking, drafty, wobly old mobile home parked squarely in the middle of camp. I quickly learned a few things about plumbing and tested the limits of existing knowledge about carpentry and caulk. (Can you caulk 1" wide seams??)

The following 2 years are a blur as we ran short camps, fixed things, raised funds, fixed things, networked with new churches, fixed things, got to know the neighbors, fixed things. . . . you get the idea. It was a massive investment in a place God had long been at work with an eye toward many more years of living and working and ministering there. Years earlier one of Sunshine's camp directors died on the property . . . I pretty much expected the same.

Then in the early part of 2001 Dana Thomas resigned his role as Executive Director. By then we'd recruited 7 staff and had a lot of momentum invested in getting camp moving ahead. I felt that it was pretty much my duty to throw my hat in the ring to be the new E.D -- even though I knew that likely meant the end of the dream for me personally and that one day I would need to return to the city.

I commuted for 3 years from camp to the city before arriving at the conclusion that God was calling me and my family back to the city. I was meeting with a local pastor who was not very involved in neighborhood ministry and became very frustrated with his lack of readiness to engage the community. . . I realized he wasn't ready to move and I was. So that night I drove back to Michigan and told my wife Paula, I sensed it was time to return to Chicago. This time to live in the community we were being called to serve.

God had drawn my heart away from camp and back to the city. But my children and my colleagues who remained at camp. . . their sense of calling and their heart for ministry remained at camp. The challenge in this has been that I love camp and my kids and my colleagues. Yet just as when I was interviewed by the board 12 years ago I suggested that the camp would be better off separate from the city ministry, I still believe this is so. Furthermore, now that I have been changed through the fires of urban ministry, racial reconciliation, seeing God's passion for the city, wrestling with issues of mercy and justice. . . I find that the demand for real leadership it takes to run camp actually detracts from the intensity and demand for leadership here in the city.

So I am incredibly torn. I visited camp with the kids about 3 weeks ago and was overcome with emotion at the idea of selling camp. It is just crushing. Yet if I consider the role of our mission in steering our focus of time, prayers, finances, I know that separating the camp from the city ministry is the wise thing to do.

I am glad for Sunshine's highly committed board of directors who have prayed and agonized about various decisions. The current board has wrestled with various options for months. Previous boards have wrestled with the options for camp for decades. I, for one, trust God to work through them and am glad that no one person, myself included, can or would make such monumental decisions.

God has blessed Sunshine with about 50 years of camping ministry which we were blessed to operate ourselves. In recent years the leading and blessing of God has been directed back in the city. We have a new building, an expanding reach, a new community, a growing missions program and outreach and the list could go on. The pain of seeing camp go does not mean that the impact of camp was not meaningful . . . it was life changing for thousands. It also does not mean that camp will not continue to be a transformational tool used by Sunshine.

But it is still exceedingly painful. Fortunately God meets us in our trials and his grace is sufficient to sustain us through the trial.

(For an article explaining what the board decided regarding camp visit the Sunshine Gospel Ministries blog.)

Nope, I'm not dead.

Sorry for the long delay in updating the blog. I have been getting pestered, almost threatened, so I take that as a good sign.

On the family front we have moved in, celebrated 4 birthdays, our anniversary, plus Christmas and New Years! Between Dec 31 and Jan 1 I wired the second floor AC and on Jan 2 I put in my first oak stair way. We will have to push pretty hard during the next 2-3 weeks to wrap up 2 bath installations, finish the exterior siding and lights, detail some of our cabinetry, install about 10 doors and then start on the trim work. . . details are not my strong suit but that is where we are at this point!

On the ministry front I have been loving a new bible sent to me by a friend in the bible biz (thanks BP!). It is an ESV translation that is bound like a journal (hardback with one of those elastic straps that holds it shut) and room to write on all pages, but with no notes. I am going to make this my study bible for the year and concentrate on considering Biblical Justice from front to back.

As I have mentioned earlier, I believe that attention to mercy (something all Christians are wired and called for) inevitably leads to a conversation about justice. So what is justice and what is our role in seeing justice and peace roll down?

Can you have peace (even the peace of Christ) without concern for Justice?

But if anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? (1 John 3:17).