always breaks my heart when I hear of another shooting in my city. It especially hurts when I hear Christians deride the neighbourhood where the shooting took place by saying things like “What do you expect from that place? I would never go there. It is a ghetto, an awful community.” Whenever I hear these types of comments from Christians, I cannot help but think of the verse from Proverbs we just read.
Think of what people say about the tough neighbourhoods in your city. Is it any wonder they remain hotspots of evil? Parts of our cities are dangerous simply because they lack our blessing because Christians have abandoned them. And this is to our shame. We hear of the evil that occurs there and we either flee those communities directly (I know of one community in my city that has had over 20 churches shut down and leave within 20 years—the true plight of the inner-city Church), or else we target them as hit-and-run ministry projects. Hit them with a prayer walk or one-day event and then run away as far as possible. Instead, what we need to do is stay in the community, work with the community, and have long-term, practical, relationally-based ministry in the community. When this happens, you see the many good and God things present there, and you cannot help but bless the city.
Notes
1 M. Frost and A. Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come—Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2003, p.128.
~ ~ ~
“Our part is not knowing, but looking, and touching, and loving.”
– Unknown
3. How God Shows Up
Patrick lived in a government housing community that would be labelled the projects or the ’hood. Only a few years ago this neighbourhood was branded a violent community in which drug-related turf wars were common. It was so bad that the community centre located in the neighbourhood used to gauge the success of its programs in accordance with the number of murders that occurred in the community. If there were just a few during the year, it reckoned that it was a successful year. However, if that wasn’t the case, the centre would then have to re-evaluate the effectiveness of its programs. In the previous five years, there hadn’t been one murder, and the reasons for this successful statistic could be accredited to two sources.
First, there was Kwendie, a tough-as-nails African-Canadian youth worker who had put in many years, tears and love into the lives of the youth of Warden Woods. She was both a mother and father figure for the teens in the community and she never had a problem physically confronting the youth when they were out of line. Though small, she is large in heart, and because of this she could confront the toughest young men in the community with confidence, knowing that they would back down under her brooding glare. She was the embodiment of tough love, a proven advocate for her boys in the ’hood. She had gained the right to speak into the lives of the young men in her community simply because she had proven herself a veteran youth worker, willing to tough it out even in the worst of circumstances. When the youth were little children she was always there watching out for them. Now that they had grown into young adults she was still present and available—a living and breathing anchor of stability and hope in the community. Her love for the youth was seen in that she knew every one of them by name. She was the real deal, a genuine, caring and tough guide. In return, the youth listened to her as she was revered by every one of them. She had earned their respect and it was well deserved.
The second factor was the emergence of UrbanPromise. Many people in the community have told me that they have noticed a huge difference in the ethos of the neighbourhood ever since UrbanPromise has been involved. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the end of murders and the start of our program. Since we have been in Warden Woods, no one has been killed there! (This includes Patrick. Though he was from this community, he was gunned down outside of the neighbourhood in another housing project a few miles away.)
Over the years, I have come to understand that positive community change is not the result of any sophisticated children’s or youth after-school or summer camp programs we operate. It is also not because we run a fancy mothers’ program. In fact, our programs are not that fancy at all. We operate a bare-bones program light on the programmatic side, but heavy on the relational and love side. What we lack in ornate bells and whistles and fancy, expensive programming is well made up with loving care from our staff. We, like Kwendie, earn respect through our commitment, dedication and genuine love for our people. Simply stated, our programs are just vehicles that allow loving relationships to take place. To us, they are not the be all and end all, but simply a means to the end, which is to create a loving and gracious environment where God’s power flows. Our task is not to run programs, but to craft an ethos of love and grace. Our goal is to create holy places where the love of God can be experienced. These holy places are safe environments where children, youth and mothers can be real and share their heart struggles with each other without fear of judgement or slander.
It is evident to all those who live in Warden Woods that the community has changed for the better simply because God is present through love. Influences like Kwendie and UrbanPromise have brought so much love into the community. By being instruments of love, God is more present than ever before.
“God is love.” (1 John 4:16, NIV)
It cannot get any simpler. It is not a secret—God shows up when love is present. We are making a difference in these communities simply because God is manifesting Himself in the love that is present through the relationships that take place in our programs. By allowing love to flow from our staff to those we serve, we also are seeing love reciprocated among the children, youth and their mothers. Our community is a tremendous group of people who have the opportunity to break out of the fear so often present in marginalized communities. Love is the antidote to fear.
Though we may have brought love into the community, we have also discovered that there are many wonderful people living there who also have a lot of love to share. Together, through love, we are all experiencing God. The results are astounding as we are seeing entire families transformed. Hope is restored, not only to those we serve, but also from those we serve. God is definitely in the community, and it is His shalom (peace) that is making a difference. This is the secret of ministry. Not more elaborate programs. Not more costly facilities. Not more rules of conduct or more PhDs. Just lots of love.
It is refreshing to know that those of us who cannot afford to build massive buildings or attend prestigious places of higher learning can still have the most powerful transformative tool at our disposal—God’s love. Our mission as Christians is quite simple and that is to unleash God through love. John 3:16 is a loud declaration of God’s mission plan of love when He sent His Son to us:
“For God so loved the world that He gave (or unleashed love) His Son.”
This ministry strategy of love was lived out in the person of Jesus. Everywhere He went, He loved. Contrarily, the religious leaders of His day believed that the way to do ministry was to manipulate and rule with power and fear over the people with all types of religious rules, laws and programs. Jesus shattered their strategies by His loving actions as He boldly declared, “the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 10:9, NIV). How? The answer is simple—look at Jesus. The kingdom manifests itself on two fronts: loving words and loving actions. Jesus preached love through what He said and also by what He did. When you study His life, you discover that His love wasn’t just talk. It was also communicated by His lifestyle.
You can read His loving words as recorded in the Gospels. Better yet, you can see His loving actions concretely through His healings and acceptance of those who were deemed unclean and unacceptable by the religious ruling party of His day. There are many lessons here for how we, as Jesus’ followers, are to speak and live.
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