April 10, 2008 Leave a comment
Landa Cope’s essay, Biblical Reflections, examines how Christianity should affect the local community. Christians often assume that Christianity brings blessings to the community, looking into this can be eye opening.
Read the essay here: Biblical Reflections by Landa Cope
Filed under Essays, Stories Tagged with Biblical Reflections, Christians, Community, Landa Cope, PDF
December 14, 2007 Leave a comment
Read Amy Sherman’s essay about how churches can be assets to their communities - Church As Community Asset.
Filed under Essays, Stories Tagged with amy sherman, Building Community, church as a community asset, church as preview
October 15, 2007 Leave a comment
by Al Santino, NECT Director
As God’s people we are called to bring relief and hope to those who are suffering under poverty, oppression and all manner of calamity. Now at times this may seem to be a futile mission for in the ebb and flow of history there appears to be no lasting remedy and we can only cry out, “How long Oh Lord!”
So many of the old Negro spirituals speak of a yearning to go to the Promised Land “up yonder.” In their chains, the slaves could envision no earthly restoration to remedy their suffering. The Apostle Peter wrote to Christians who faced imminent torture and death at the hands of Rome, “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed (1 Peter 4:13).” Indeed, when the Lord returns and establishes the new heaven and earth, there will be no more tears and suffering for His people.
Are such notions just “pie in the sky” theology being used to explain away suffering or deny its harsh reality? Yes and no. If we offer pious platitudes about the restoration of all things and neglect to weep with those who weep, render deeds of comfort, and cry out against oppression, then we are certainly being too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. However, if we are also not certain of the hope that the Lord will complete the good work He began in us, then we will spend our days in dissipation; angry and depressed in our travails. We will not be zealous for the Lord and for good works in His name if we do not hold fast to the hope set before us when Christ appears. As we have shared in His suffering, we shall also share in His glory.
Justice will ultimately roll down when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. In the Psalms we hear David crying out to the Lord that there appears to be no justice. The wicked are prospering through their exploitation of the righteous-or so it seems. Reformed theologian D.A. Carson comments, “Assessments of fairness and proportionality based solely on what takes place here and now in this world are bound to be premature at best, entirely misguided at worst.” We do see manifestations of the Lord’s shalom in this present world as the Gospel is restoring people to dignity and fruitfulness as His image bearers. However, our ultimate hope is in our covenant God who has made us the sheep of His pasture to dwell with in Him in eternal joy. The Lord will triumph over every evil and make every path straight and so His people will glory in the triumph of His justice. In Revelation 19:1-2, we hear the multitude in heaven proclaiming, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are His judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of His servants.”
In the New Jerusalem, the City of God, children will play in the streets without the fear of erupting gunfire. Mothers will no longer be lamenting the plight of their young sons given over to drugs and gangs. Children will no longer be ravished by AIDS. Every race and ethnicity will be around God’s throne, worshipping as one, without envy and strife. The promise of this glorious future should give us hope for working out our salvation with fear and trembling her and now. The healing of the poor and oppressed begins as they receive a foretaste of this glory to come. When we pray, “They will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” that is a call for us to do the works of mercy and justice today, albeit in a glass dimly, but still as a reflection of the Gospel and the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus, with its power to transform people, communities, and cultures.
Filed under Essays, Stories Tagged with Al Santino, NECT, Northeast, Northeast Community Transformation, Theology of Development
July 15, 2007 Leave a comment
by Jeff Littlejohn
Recently, I was “pouring” over a recently purchased book, The Great Neighborhood Book, authored by Jay Walljasper. Within contains a storehouse of things—simple and fun—people can do to build trusting and meaningful relationships with each other right where they live.
The subtitle “A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking” suggests it’s not a heavy read. It isn’t. Short snippet ideas like “going to school on a walking bus,” “making a paradise out of a parking lot,” “intersection repair,” “fighting crime is a walk in the park,” etc, keep you wanting more! Who thinks of such cool things!
Delightfully, there at the very end of the book Walljasper concludes with his chapter, “Do Nothing in Particular.” With glee, let me share it with you.
***
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world,” wrote the great American essayist E.B. White. “This makes it hard to plan the day.”
Ah, that’s the dilemma. You live in a nice place. But it could be nicer—if only the park were fixed up or the traffic slowed down, if the schools were better or the business district brighter.
So what to do first? You’d like to plop down on a bench for while, soak up the sunshine, listen to the birds sing and the kids play, or just watch the world go by. But you really ought to be organizing a meeting, handing out flyers, and enlisting volunteers for the big fundraiser.
Actually, it’s important to do both. Without taking time to truly savor your neighborhood, you lose touch with why you love it in the first place. Soon, all you see is what’s wrong. And that quickly diminishes your effectiveness as a community advocate. No one is inspired by harried, humorless leaders who would really rather be doing something else.
On a strategic as well as a personal level it’s smart to take a long stroll every evening, linger at the sidewalk café, stop for a chat with neighbors, and just generally revel in all the great things your community offers. Otherwise, what’s the point of living there?
In the Irish Hill neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, the Professional Porch Sitters Union is coming to order. Crow Hollister, who founded the union, explains …that the organization attracts hard-working activists, professionals, artists, mothers, revolutionaries, and gardeners. “People like you,” he says. “They work hard, volunteer in their community, sit on boards, have schedules to keep and chores that need tending.” An agenda is dutifully handed out for each meeting, but there is nothing written on it. Iced tea is served, followed by beer. Stories begin to flow. Andy describes how his neighbor was visited by the windshield wiper fairy. Mike has the inside scoop on how to get the slabs of concrete they use on public benches for free. Then, Hollister dutifully reports, “a neighbor walking her dog is enticed to join us. A lot is getting accomplished.”
The Professional Porch Sitters Union began on Crow Hollister’s comfy front porch in 1999 and now features chapters across the country. Hollister encourages you to start your own, keeping in mind that the organization is governed by only one rule: “Sit down a spell. That can wait.” He’d like to hear how it goes, but don’t sweat it if you don’t get around to writing him.
The joy of “soaking in” life and life together. Often we are so dang busy we miss much of that laid right before us.
In this work, however we label it: mission, ministry, community development, lets do nothing in particular first, but to smell the roses—even with our neighbors. JL
Filed under Essays, Stories Tagged with Enjoying Community, Great Neighborhood Book, Imagine NW, Jeff Littlejohn, Northwest, Reflection
August 15, 2005 Leave a comment
“Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:7
Some may suggest—that was then, this is now!
There and then Judah had been uprooted from the comfort of their “homeland,” placed directly under the authority of a “heathen” king and commanded to live normal lives in every sense. Normal lives? Living en-mass as kidnapped exiles! Sure…
It could be argued—today is a different matter entirely. History, culture, conditions and the redemptive prelude are 2500 years far removed from present-day Christian witness. Some today suggest, the necessity to separate oneself from the world…”let not it’s evil ways entrap you.” Thus, in many cases we find people who live down the block or even next door, effectively withdrawing from the “public square” of life together. Or, they want to go to war against it.
While striving toward a right mind and heart before the Lord is certainly godly, it does seem though this waiting until the “end” IS a confused final mission.
In this work, which Imagine NW is about providing leadership in all sorts of communities with endless diversities and troubles, we find such fight or flight theologies less than Kingdom-building useful. Our work is to take the “old” call by God and see ourselves as still exiled. Yet this time, we cannot find a place or circumstance where we are NOT exiles…there is no escape…for now. Theologies built on fear, withdrawal, “against” attitudes, anger—effectively and quickly lose the sweet fragrance of the King’s Gospel. Absent the agape love of grace that comes to the world through unlikely messed up vessels like ourselves, “truth” statements simply ring hollow.
There is another block of Christians, dear to my heart, who do not view things so black and white. They, and this is much of our evangelical culture, do indeed go out and reach out. Bless them!
Yet we still find something out-of-balance, as Bob Lupton (FCS Urban Ministries-Atlanta) discovered.
Bob had challenged a church in Atlanta to send its members into a struggling urban community. This relocation effort, by its long-term nature, was designed to be “life together” with those who struggle with very basic life necessities.
Many years had passed where some 250 mostly white families had relocated. Yet Lupton found little evidence for positive change that brought about less crime, better literacy and health, increased ownership of homes, and more just political structures.
Bob was intensely baffled and began asking “WHY?” After looking deeper, he discovered that the mindset of the bulk of people who relocated was centrally one of trying to “get people into the church.” Getting people to come to church, had gotten in the way of the greater Kingdom impact. In this case, seeking the peace and prosperity of the community was reduced to church-centric activity.
My limited read on things today suggest people are not much interested in joining things (clubs or churches), so much as developing real relationships. Transferring people from one cultural box to another—is simply not the bridge people are much interested in anymore. The bridge we should be looking for are lifestyles bringing the whole Gospel (Word & Deed, Hope Now * Future Hope) to those living near us while in our exiled status.
Seeking the peace and prosperity of our communities, means Christians: engaging people and places, being with, sharing with, praying with, struggling—long-term—letting the results shake out according to our Lord’s plan.
Jeff Littlejohn
Filed under Essays, Stories Tagged with Church Involvement, Imagine NW, Jeff Littlejohn, Reflection
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