Urban Rant

If we want urban ministries to succeed,
we must quit looking at the city as a place of consummate evil, doom and gloom;
a place to bulldozed and created anew.

Instead we must view the city as a place where God is present;
where love, beauty and grace do abound;
a place where the seeds of salvation are already planted and need only to be nourished.

Now I am not naïve.
Poverty and misery do exist in the city.
But to view the city as only a place of evil
is to mis-color our perspective and send us down a ministry path
filled with big budget projects of redemption, which usually fail,
as opposed to a ministry path of planting seeds which can grow and survive.

Traditional downtowns and historic neighborhoods frequently are used or lived in by people of color and immigrants. In most circles of power, including the church, this is often interpreted as “urban decay”. This thinking makes it difficult to recognize the value of a place, and even God’s presence, when the dominant user or resident is not white or middle class. It’s only when the community is gentrified with a new white and/or middle class that the community is now considered worthy, good and even "saved."

So what lies before us
is not an easy task.
What may be new
is that we need to rethink our theological foundations,
challenge the theological foundations of our sisters and brothers,
and as part of that challenge create ministries that refuse to succumb
to data collections, quarterly membership reports, big money, one size fits all big program/building projects.
And instead focus on simple, creative, risky, down home, everyday
ministries that builds relationships with people and in so doing transform
neighborhoods into communities filled with the loving grace and presence
that stands as a witness to our God and Savior.

--taken from- http://urbanejournal.mccormick.edu/current/MinistrySeeding

bad tooth fairy!

yesterday Victoria lost her tooth. I mean literally lost it. We can't find it anywhere. Not good if we want money from the tooth fairy. We sat down and wrote a note to the tooth fairy explaining that she can't find the tooth (she was very sad about it) and then she offered a small rock instead (which was taped to the note paper.) Dad was sure that this would suffice, but no, the tooth fairy was too picky. Victoria woke up and with a tearful and painfully sad face said "she didn't take it." Dad, who had forgotten all about the note said, "she didn't take what?" Then it hit me. The tooth fairy fell asleep and didn't remember to come. Dad said, "oh, I'm sorry. I guess she doesn't take substitutes. We must find that tooth." Well, we didn't find the tooth tonight, but Dad had a solution. He opened the fireplace door so the tooth fairy could get inside the house, because that's probably what happened. We added to the note which was carefully placed at the opening of the fireplace that she should leave the money under Victoria's pillow (follow the map that Victoria drew on the note.)
The tooth fairy better not fall asleep again. bad tooth fairy.

Why Lord?

Rocket's season is over. Things like this make ministry seem like easy to handle.

faith comes through reading

I am humbled every time I speak with Iris. She is always doing ministry in her neighborhood. She said last night in a bible study that she is preparing a youth how to read. He is an eighteen year old on probation, kicked out of HISD and in a gang. He's been ordered to take the GED, but he can't read past 4th or 5th grade level. Everyday he comes to Iris' house and she teaches him through a literacy course that we just got. Since it's based on the Bible, he's now asking spiritual questions. Iris said he's coming to faith right before her eyes. We haven't started our literacy program yet, but since when does God wait for a program to bring people to faith?