The City

I began working with people from the city before I began working in the city itself. At Camp Tall Turf I had spent 10 weeks in the summer taking mostly urban youth who were considered at-risk to a camp in the middle of Michigan on Campbell Lake. Some of those summers, in spite of all the struggles we went through with the kids, were glimpses of what Eden was, fleeting as those glimpses were. We were outdoors under sunny skies next to a beautiful lake and surrounded by a forest and a swamp. What a garden of good times.

A counselor who happened to be black and who I had become good friends with that first summer came the next winter to visit me in college. It was a small Christian College nestled away in a suburb of Chicago. On our way to visit another camp friend who attended DePaul University downtown Chicago, his words struck me. As we saw the lights of the buildings and the immensity of Chicago he exclaimed, "This is what I'm talking about." That's when I began to understand something key about working in the city.

Urban ministry was not about taking kids out of the city, or leading families into the suburbs. People growing up in the city often love the city and have little desire to move out. It seems this may have further implications in the way we perceive eternity. I grew up hoping for Eden, to get back to the ideal utopia where we walked in the garden with God the creator, naked and natural.

But the more I live in, work for and worship with urban people the more I look forward to Jerusalem, the New City where God dwells and there is equality and justice for all people.

The drive into Chicago that late night over a decade ago allowed me to understand that urban ministry was not trying to take the city out of the person, or the person out of the city but to transform the city and the person to better reflect a Kingdom where Jesus Christ is Lord.

Monsters in Miami!

Go Bears. Excited for the big game! All the talk about Dungy and Smith has also been very interesting because it is an important event in our culture. Having black head coaches lead their teams to the Superbowl is a milestone and one that we should acknowledge. It is further evidence that the playing field is increasingly becoming level, even in the positions off of the playing field. I also agree with Lovie Smith. It will be great when it is not about the color of their skin but the content of their character but we are just not there yet. However, as Michael Smith of ESPN wrote, we just might be there today because of the quality of character of Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy.

Excellent article. Read it here.

America and Darfur

In the President’s State if the Union Address last evening he only mentioned Darfur as a subtext. After spending most of the speech on Iraq and the new war plan he briefly discussed AIDS, Malaria and Africa and America’s desire to help them. However, after invoking the scriptural text of Luke 12:48 (From everyone who is given much, much will be demanded) in describing America’s responsibility to the world, the only responsibility in the face of genocide that the American Government feels is to advocate for action but take none ourselves.

America has been given more than that and Darfur deserves more than just marketing and advocacy. It deserves action. Genocide is happening in front of our eyes and if we choose not to take action we will be judged for closing them. savedarfur.org

Humility

There is an Old Testament story about Moses that can be found in Numbers 12 when Mariam and Aaron speak against him because of his Cushite wife. God then commands them to leave the tent of meeting and gives Miriam leprosy for talking against Moses.

I remembered this story feeling attacked by my supervisor and a great sense of calm came over me. "Stay humble, Jeremy," I thought and God will work it out if anyone should come against you.

Stay humble? The problem, looking back, is that I was not being humble and though it felt like an attack from my supervisor, it was an attack I needed. The Lord's message was clear. I was to stay humble. But when I tried to put it into practice, I was finally able to see past my pride and realize that I was more like Aaron and Miriam than I was like Moses.