A Heart for the City
Ever since my heart was captured by the Gospel of Luke and the companion volume called Acts, I have been convicted that God had a special heart for the city.
“Which city?” you might ask.
My answer, “Any city, but especially the big cities!”
Jesus’ ministry was focused on the key cities — Capernaum and Jerusalem especially — and the book of Acts revolves around key cities — Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, and Rome.
I recently received a message in my inbox that spoke so powerfully about this focus and something that has been on my heart lately. This message came in a regular email update called The Bronx Prayer Letter. In it, Jared Looney powerfully speaks about a love for the city, especially the people in the city. As I preach on Jesus’ call for us to be an “ALL” focused people today — something I will discuss more with you in my Heartlight.org article tomorrow — I can’t think of a more powerful way to demonstrate the love necessary to do this than Jared’s letter. Be blessed: but even more, be convicted. I have been!
Dear Friends,
Lying in bed last night, I kept thinking about the faces, the names, the situations, and dramas unfolding. It is easy to look at the city, calculate its toughness and spiritual despair, and decide that “it’s not for me.”
Like the rest of us, people in the Bronx are deeply flawed. While part of our society wrestles with the violent sins of neglect, places like the Bronx are flawed in more obvious ways. There is a rawness to life and to relationships, and life is desperate for many. For missionaries from the burbs, it is easy to appreciate the poor when they are new and their stories inspiring, when there is a certain admiration or intrigue,when we are entering an experience that stimulates our sense of adventure. That is, before the glit and glamour of urban messiness becomes actually… messy.
In theological discussions around the country, many are renewing conversations about Incarnational ministry. That is, the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us as a (or THE) model for ministry. However, I wonder if short term missions has sometimes skewed our view of this practical doctrine. For all the discussions of incarnational ministry, they are only discussions until the glamour rubs off and we’re sharing life with other (and perhaps differently) flawed people. When Jesus repeatedly sat at the table with “sinners and tax collectors” or called fishermen who thought of children as an annoyance, Jesus shared life with them — and at the same time he was life for them. He sought their transformation, and when necesary he released them to their choices. And I’m sure with a sensitivity to sin that shadows even the holiest of consciences, he journeyed with them as their friend.
Early in this journey, the Lord impressed upon me to love the city. I knew what that meant more & more over time. The city is the people, and I love the city.
Jared Looney
This is the first time I’ve responded to one of your articles, etc. First of all, let me say thank you. The messages I receive each day are an integral part of my morning. Moreover, I’m thrilled to see that there are others out there that look beyond the comfort of the suburban middle class churches and are willing to walk in the all-to-often “messiness” of the inner city.
I placed membership with a wonderful suburban “megachurch”, Richland Hills Church of Christ over twenty years ago when I returned to Texas following my divorce. While I’ve always found RHCC to be a supportive, caring place throughout my years of struggle as a single parent and with my drug addiction, I’ve also found it difficult to fit into a Christian community that is predominantly white, middle-class, and overwhelmingly “Republican” (for lack of a better word). Even though that’s my family background, my path led me into those dark places in the city I was always warned about.
Even though I eventually surrendered and God chose to lift the obsession of my addiction from me, I’ve had to face the consequences of bad choices – felony convictions, living wih AIDS, and having at one time been homeless, jobless, and penniless. I’ve also received the blessings that come with putting one foot in front of the other and following my Lord and Savior the best I can on a daily basis. I have a small landscape business and I’m able to employ others who have journeyed along a similar path and share a little of God’s beauty in my work. I now live in a “transitional neighborhood” on the near southside of Fort Worth. Within three blocks of my apartment are multi-million dollar condo projects and a homeless shanty camp strewn with broken liquor bottles and sometimes used needles.
It’s been all too easy to swing from one extreme to the other in my ambitions as well as my judgements of others. Even as a reovering addict and ex-con I can still find myself slipping into self-rigteousness. After all, I “got out”, why can’t they? On occassion, I still act on the flawed belief of my upbringing and what I often hear among suburban Christians that somehow the urban poor, the homeless, and the chronically unemployed are there as a result of choice (and God please forgive for those lapses and flaws!).
However, the more God reveals His Son to me and the more I pray and seek to see my little part of the world through Jesus’ eyes the more I see the failure of myself and the church to treat the needs of the poor, the disenfranchised, and the hopeless as holy. It becomes more and more difficult for me to rush off to a “worship service” in the burbs and be reminded that I’m continuing to participate in an economic, social, and political system that continues to neglect urban human blight.
I pray continually that God will bring me to a place of balance where I can love the way Jesus loved and bring light to the dark places. Urban ministry is not for the fainthearted. As I’ve learned to love more and judge less I often find more tears than joy for there’s much pain in my neighborhood. Disappointment is frequent and victories are rare. Sometimes it’s hard to just love people. I don’t have all the answers but one thing I do know is that people here feel loved when someone becomes part of the community and not just an occasional “service project” or “outreach effort”. What’s needed is the presence of a christian community IN THIS community and that calls for a radical transformation in the way we look at urban ministry.
The good news is that when I made the commitment to be part of this community I’m finding othrs of like minds and heart. Please pray that God will continue to transform our hearts and minds and bring His presence to the Southside.
Gregory Joel
31 Mar 08 at 11:03 pm