Community 4:12

Life story

 Thought this would be a good post to follow the last one . . .I read this today in Donald Miller's new book, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" (chapter 26)

It's like this when you live a story:  The first part happens fast.  You throw yourself into the narrative, and you're finally out in the water; the shore is pushing off behind you and the trees are getting smaller.  The distant shore doesn't seem so far, and you can feel the resolution coming, the feeling of getting out of your boat and walking the distant beach . . .But the truth is, it isn't going to be over soon . . .The reward you get from a story is always less than you thought it would be, and the work is harder than you imagined.  The point of a story is never about the ending, remember.  It's about your character getting molded in the hard work of the middle.  At some point the shore behind you stops getting smaller, and you paddle and wonder why the same strokes that used to move you now only rock the boat . . .The shore you left is just as distant, and there is no going back; there is only the decison to paddle in place or stop . . .You paddle until you no longer believe you can go any farther.  and then suddenly, well after you thought it would happen, the other shore starts to grow, and it grows fast.  The trees get taller and you can make out the crags in the cliffs, and then the shore reaches out to you, to welcome you home, almost pulling your boat onto the sand."

I think as a ministry, and me personally to some extent, are in the "hard work of the middle" of our story.  But we have come way too far to stop paddling.  I'm not sure I believe that the other shore will start to grow fast, but I do believe it will start to grow.  So, we will keep paddling!  I'm just so thankful there are so many people in the boat paddling with me!

75 percent philosophy

Love this quote from A Heart for the Community edited by John Fuder & Noel Castellanos,  A truly diverse congregation where anybody enjoys more than seventy-five percent of what's going on is not thoroughly integrated.  So that if you're going to an integrated church you have to be prepared to think, 'Hey, this is great.  I enjoyed at least seventy-five percent of it,' because twenty-five percent you should grant for somebody's precious liturgical expression that is probably odious to you; otheriwse it's not integrating.

That sure is a different mindset than the typical "church shopper" mentality where we going in looking for the place where I can "get most fed."  Maybe we need to be a little more willing to eat some "spiritual food" that isn't our preferred pizza and chocolate.

By the way, John and Noel will be at our Lighthouse office in Aurora on Saturday, Sept. 26th for a 1/2 day CCDA mini-conference based on this book.  If you're interested in attending, let me know!

Western Cultural Captivity

I'm reading this excellent, but very challenging book by Soong-Chan Rah of North Park Seminary.  If you are white, and particularly a white male, don't read this post or this book if you don't want to be deeply challenged.  Personally, I think it is a challenge we desperately need, but that doesn't mean there is an easy solution to the problem Rah poses.  Here are some particularly poignant quotes from the book:

"The church is not dying in America; it is alive and well, but it is alive and well among the immigrant and ethnic minority communities and not among the majority white church in the United States."

"While the demographics of American Christianity are changing, the perceived and acknowledged leadership of American Christianity remains white."

"So what is the response of the white evangelical community to the changing face of America?  So far, it has been one of conspicuous silence on the issue of immigration. . . I have yet to find a single passage which supports the right to bear arms . . . I have, however, found numerous references (close to one hundred) calling believers to care for the alien among them . . .How much of our view on immigration is driven by a political and social agenda rather than a biblical one?"

"If we define a racially mixed congregation as one in which no one racial group is 80 percent or more of the congregation, just 7.5% of the over 300,000 religious congregations in the United States are racially mixed. . . for Christian congregations . . . the percentage drops to 5.5%"

"When the acknowledged leadership, the noted theologians and the model pastors of American evangelicalism are white, then American evangelicalism is captive to white culture."

"I personally find the use of the term "emerging church" to be offensive.  I believe that the real emerging church is the church in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that continues to grow by leaps and bounds.  I believe the real emerging church is the hip-hop church, the English speaking  Latino congregation, the second-generation Asian American church, the Haitian immigrant church, the Spanish-speaking store-front churches and so forth.  For a small group of white Americans to usurp the term "emerging" reflects a significant arrogance.  Is there recognition of the reality of the changing demographics of American Christianity?  Is there willingness to move beyond the Western, white captivity of the church to a more multiethnic leadership?"

America the Empire?

Our small group is discussing Rob Bell's book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians and what a tough and passionate talk we had tonight.  I'll leave the commentary out, and let a few lines from chapter 5 speak for themselves . . .

America is an empire.  And the Bible has a lot to say about empires.  Most of the Bible is a history told by people living in lands occupied by conquering superpowers...This can make the Bible a very difficult book to understand if you are reading it as a citizen of the most powerful empire the world has ever seen.

In an empire of entitlement . . .luxuries can begin to seem like necessities.  Excess can become normal.  And it can be very easy to lose perspective on just how much we have.

The US accounts for 48 percent of global military spending . . .In 2008, the US spent more on defense than the next forty-five countries combined. 

If you have the power, it can be hard to understand the voice of those who have no power.

How do kids who are surrounded by more abundance than in any other generation in the history of humanity take seriously a Messiah who said, "I have been anointed to preach good news to the poor?"  How do they fathom that half the world is too poor to feed its kids when their church just spent two years raising money to build an addition to their building? . . .This is the revolution?  This is what Jesus had in mind?

What do you think?  Is America an empire?  If so, what does that mean for those of us living in the empire who call ourselves Christ-followers?

Fans or Numbers?

I'm reading this book, and it's giving me some good things to think about regarding leading groups of people.  But my favorite take-away so far can be found not far into the book on page 33, where Godin writes, "Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans . . .What they're missing is the depth of commitment and interconnection that true fans deliver.  Instead of always being on the hunt for one more set of eyeballs, true leaders have figured out that the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one."

In my last post, I commented on the large number of people who have "signed on" to the Neighborhood Team.  I wonder how many of those are currently merely "eyeballs" and how many are truly "fans."  My challenge as a leader is to move every single one of them into being fans who are passionate and sold-out to the mission of "Uniting People to Restore Communities," so that we have a prayer of truly fighting poverty and injustice.

Thought for the Day

I am reading The Shack by Wm Paul Young.  I am not much of a fiction reader--especially Christian fiction--but if you haven't read this one, I would highly recommend it.  It's inspired a lot of "thoughts for the day."  But this morning's is a thought that I hope I don't quickly move on from. In the book God is talking to the main character, Mack, and S/He describes responsibility as the ability to respond.  I give you an ability to respond and your response is to be free to love and serve in every situation, and therefore each moment is different and unique and wonderful.  Because I am your ability to respond, I have to be present in you.  If I simply gave you a responsibility, I would not have to be with you at all.  It would now be a task to perform, an obligation to be met, something to fail.

That brings a whole new meaning to me about what it means to be responsible.  A new meaning I want to . . .  need to . . . embrace.

Peppermint Filled Pinatas

What a great name for a book!  I loved the description about the time the author, Eric Bryant, tried to save some money by buying peppermints to fill his kids' birthday pinata.  NOT a cool thing.  Mom came to the rescue and got some REAL candy, and he learned the important lesson that if you want kids to come to your party, don't put peppermints in the pinata.   How many of us Christ-followers Eric asks, "offer peppermints, when the world wants Gobstoppers, Airheads, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?"  How many of us approach this incredibly diverse and multi-faceted world through our own limited experiences and view points?  How many of us work with people of different races, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds, yet never really get to know the people behind the label?  How long is it going to take the Church to stop loving people from a distance?

Eric's book is a light-hearted, fun, and yet very challenging and convicting read.  This is a definite read for people looking to move beyond "doing ministry" to really loving people.  Click here to order your copy!

Putting a Human Face on the Immigration Debate

Just finished an incredible and heart-breaking book about a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable obstacles and pain to reuinte with his mother in the United States, 11 years after she left to "make a better life."  It is based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes and illustrates the plight of thousands of children like Enrique who yearn so desperately for their mothers that they will do anything---literally anything--to find them.   With the changing demographics of our country, I feel like this should be a "required book" in all high school literature classes.  Click here to order a copy!

Just don't give up . . .

One of my great joys this year has been leading two Enrichment Groups at Bardwell Elementary School on Mondays ---one for 6 third graders from Brian's class and one for 5 fourth graders from Erik's class.  We have done everything from writing a short story to submit to a Scholastic Book competition to learning about web search engines and internet research to studying endangered animals and historical people, places, and events.   It has been a real thrill for me to watch young minds expand over the year.

To wrap up the year, the kids in both groups really wanted to take an educational field trip somewhere.  Not being an official teacher of the school, getting transportation and approval to take the kids out of the building was a challenge, so I decided to bring the field trip to them instead.  So today, children's author and illustrater, Kevin Luthardt, came and did a two hour workshop for the 11 children I have been working with all year.  He talked about the process of writing a picture book from idea to publishing, and he shared some of his own story of becoming a writer (he even pulled out a big stack of rejection letters that he got before publishing his first book).  He taught the kids how to draw a cartoon elephant and then asked each of them to start a story by using the "story board" process.

All of the kids did a great job, but there are a couple in the group that I see brimming with potential to be writers or artists or both.  I can only pray that they are going to have some strong people in their lives encouraging them them not to give up . . . because sometimes all it takes is a couple of rejection letters or comments and potential never becomes anything more than that.

All Kids Are Our Kids

Have been reading this fascinating book.  My friend (I think I can call him that) and innovative real estate developer, Perry Bigelow gave me this book and said it would be foundational as we think about creating a community center for youth.  I think he may be right.  I'm not far into it, but it has already got me thinking about a lot of things . . . both from a ministry standpoint AND a parenting perspective.   It reveals the 40 Developmental Assets  all kids need (according to Search Institute findings) in order to thrive and be able to resist the barage of peer pressure to engage in "high risk" behaviors such as sex, drugs, alcohol, and crime.

Many of the 40 are things I would have predicted, or at least expected based on my psychology background.  But there are two so far that have really struck me.  The first is that all young people should have a regular, positive and supportive relationship with at least three adults outside of their parents.  And these relationships should be long-term.  That of course screams for the need for more mentoring programs in at-risk communities.   But, it also got me thinking about whether my own kids have that.  Since we've moved to Aurora, we spend so much of our time trying to provide that "positive adult influence" for kids in the neighborhood.  And of course our boys are involved in all those things, but that's not doing much to foster relationships with OTHER adults!  It is not as easy or automatic to find those influences in our neighborhood.  Maybe we better find some mentors for our own kids!

The second asset that struck me was that youth should be involved in 3 or more hours/week of Creative (arts, music, drama, etc.) practice or activity.  Search has also found that of the 40 developmental assets, this is the one that the highest percentage of kids lack.  That just totally reinforces my feeling that we have to get some School for the Arts programming going around here, because the kids around here are certainly not getting that at school or through private lessons!

If you work with youth, or have kids of your own, I would highly recommend this book!