new feature added: twitter

I signed up for Twitter today. If you haven’t heard of it go here. I’m not sure how much I’ll use it. I will basically be using it to keep up with my family. But, just in case I have added a Twitter side bar. It keeps the five latest updates that I add to it.

finding the book of luke in hitch

Have you seen the movie Hitch? It’s this romantic comedy with Will Smith. Alex Hitchens, played by Will Smith, is a date-doctor who helps men set up dates with the women of their dreams. Toward the end of the movie, Albert Brennaman, played by Kevin James, comes to Alex to fix the relationship that he set-up. Alex, baffled by his own love life, tells Albert to shut it out and move on. Albert in misery comes back at Alex with: “You’re selling this stuff, but you don’t believe in your own product.”

And this is the line that got me thinking. Much of the tension between Christians and non-Christians (and quite honestly between Christians and Christians) is this sense that as Christians we are trying to live out a life that is holy, loving, merciful, gracious, Christ-like. You get the point. But, we are human. We fail and that comes across as hypocritical.

The hypocritical trail is everywhere. One of the most recent examples is Ted Haggard, a former pastor in Colorado, who was caught soliciting homosexual sex. Ted openly opposed same-sex marriage. One that always stuck out to me was in high school when the same kids who led Sunday school on Sunday were out drunk the Saturday night before. This isn’t about being hypocritical though.

What is it about then? Simply put by Albert, “You’re selling this stuff, but you don’t believe in your own product.” It’s not about saying one thing and doing the other. It’s about saying one thing and not believing what you are saying you believe. As Christians we talk about the amazing grace and love of the triune God. We sell God as the God of love and grace, but do we believe in our own product? When grace should be shown to others, do we? When we are supposed to love those we are to love, do we? Or do we not believe in our own product? Do we instead believe in the product of judgment, condemnation, hate, jealously, etcetera? Do we merely act like the rest of the world? Do we hate the ones we are supposed to hate and love the ones we are supposed to love? What good is this? (Luke 6:27f)

It is easy to judge and condemn. It is easy to turn a head to the poor or be ignorant of the inequality in the world. If we are to believe in our own product we must take up hope, we must take up faith, and we must take up love.

in the midst of a crisis

In them midst of economic crisis there is something strange going on with the Church of the Brethren. Everyday now it seems like thousands of people are losing their jobs. Billion dollar companies are asking to be bailed out. People are losing their jobs, their money, their houses, their lives. Even in the midst of this we hear the stories about CEOs receiving million dollar bonuses with their companies imploding beneath them. There are the crooks on Wall Street swindling away millions of dollars from people and walking away ‘scott free’. What we don’t hear are the stories of giving.

And giving is what congregations of the Church of the Brethren are doing. With people and businesses beginning to think about how to save money and to cut costs, the Church of the Brethren at the beginning of 2009 began a matching grant opportunity for domestic hunger. Through support of two of the Church of the Brethren programs, Global Food Crisis Fund and Emergency Disaster Fund, allocated $50,000 to be matched towards food banks and pantries. Congregations could match up to $500.

Within the first four weeks of the grant the $50,000 has already been matched by over one hundred Church of the Brethren congregations. Congregations have come from large churches along with small churches. Youth groups have gotten involved. It has inspired churches to go beyond their limit for the love of others. Youth have encouraged their church by not leaving the church until $500 was raised to give to their local food bank. In total, congregations in twenty-one states have given over $75,000 with $50,000 that has been matched for a total of over $115,000.

The grant has been so successful and churches continue to send in requests that the Global Food Crisis Fund and Emergency Disaster Fund are working on creating another grant for $50,000 to continue to support local food banks and pantries.

The Church of the Brethren who has over a three-hundred year history continues to be a church rooted and devoted to peace in the United States and around the world. Although most of the denomination’s churches exist in Pennsylvania and Virginia, there are many spotted through the country.

For more info go to: www.brethren.org

the quarter problem: white privilege and the search for missio dei

I learned about the quarter problem today while at work. It’s a problem that plagues many of in the United States. In fact I find myself having the problem as well, and I bet you do too.

I’ve done one international mission trip in my life. I don’t intend to do another. The mission trip was great, don’t get me wrong. The trip was to one of the most beautiful best-kept secrets in Europe – Prague. I remember raising money to go on the two week expedition. Our church was going to help at a family and women’s shelter in Prague. We stayed onsite and during the two weeks there completed numerous projects. Many of the projects involved painting, construction, and renovation. We also did a couple of programs for the families that stayed at the shelter. The second part of the trip involved much sightseeing in Prague and visiting a castle forty-five minutes away. In the end I felt that the mission trip was more of a trip than a mission anything. After the two weeks we left Prague and went back to our normal lives.

Back to the quarter problem. The problem was described like this: My co-worker (let’s call him John) had a friend (let’s call him Jerry) while in seminary. Jerry described that he didn’t know what it felt like to be poor or homeless. So, he decided to leave his cushy apartment with all it’s things and heat, take a train downtown and live on the street for a couple of months. After a couple months on the street Jerry was talking with John and was describing the quarter problem to John. Jerry kept bringing up that he had this quarter problem.

John finally asked Jerry about the quarter problem. Jerry told John that although he was living on the street, at any moment he could pick up a quarter and go back to the life that he had before. He could go back to his warm apartment with its amenities. He could put on a suit, with his educational background, support system, and most importantly, his network and go back to his job. Jerry, although he was living on the street for two months, was not living on the street. He, unlike others, could pick up a quarter and go back to the life he had. He truly did not know what it was like to be homeless living on the streets, to be without an apartment, without support, without a network. Jerry’s invisible knapsack would always be full. And the people that he tried to know about on the street would always have an empty knapsack.

In the same way I learned in short-term missions that I have the quarter problem. After two weeks I can walk away. It’s an amazing idea to go to other countries and help the helpless. But like many of the depleted inner-cities of the Unites States it isn’t about problems, but about the assets in that community. That is why in most situations outside consultants that come into poor communities fail. And also why local asset based community development flourishes in poor communities.

In much of the same way we are saying, “Oh, those poor fill-in-the-blank! They need my help.” In a world where Malaria is easily treatable in Africa, where AIDS rips through the old and young alike, and poverty is poverty, people do need help. However, when I think about going over for a week to help out my fellow brothers and sisters, I have to ask: are they capable of doing the same job that I would go over for? Can they not build the same building? Can they not dig the same well for water? Could my money, my wealth, be put to better use? Are we forgetting about their assets? Is this real community when hierarchy is created between two different people? Is this really community when a power is asserted upon another? In the end there is a quarter problem. In the end I can choose to do or not do, I can choose to listen or not listen, I can choose to be in community or to not be.