Avoiding the Problem

Tonight I was perusing travel books at Barnes and Noble. I suppose I wanted to pick a "fight" because I located the Chicago guidebooks and looked up the area I lived in last spring semester. I found Garfield Park Conservatory, which was just a couple blocks from my apartment and checked out what some of the guides had to say.

The general gist was to forego public transportation and drive yourself to the conservatory because the area around the conservatory was "blighted" and had high crime.

It was hard for me not to be a bit offended. Sure, there is plenty of crime, but there are plenty of amazing people.

Ok, I concede to the point that tourists who don't know where they are going probably shouldn't trapeze through East Garfield Park, but I think it goes further than that.

We live in a culture of avoidance. If it doesn't make us comfortable, we ignore it. I'm going beyond tourism here, I'm going to the heart of acceptance. We can't accept people we will have nothing to do with.

As Christians we are called to minister to the poor. After all, it was a major teaching of Jesus. I know that not everyone is called to the same ministry and there are many other economic classes that need the Gospel too. I don't think everyone is called to move to the inner city. What I am saying is nothing is going to change if we avoid what is difficult for our own safety.

This is a hard blog to write becuase I understand the importance of being smart and cautious, but I think that is so often used as a safety net.

But how do we approach ministry in the inner city? A lot of times we use language such as, "taking God to the city." Through the writings of others (though I wish I could credit this to my own insight) I have come to realize that we don't take God somewhere he isn't already, we are simply helping to show people that he's already there.

No, I don't think tourists should walk through high crime neighborhoods they aren't familiar with (especially if they are anything like the Washington, D.C. tourists I would see whenever I went downtown back home), but I think that Christians need to go against the advice of the rest of the world and "take the public transit."

And when we do so, we must be careful not to confuse ministry with cultural adaptation. I'm a middle class white, but that doesn't mean I'm going to take the ideas used for my youth group and apply them in a context where they won't work. But how does a middle-class white learn what does work? I think sometimes they get a bad rap for trying to make other cultures like them, when in reality, they are doing the best they can. I know when I first received my calling to social ministry I felt like I was looked down on for not knowing what I'd never been taught.

But there are people who are trying to change what suburbanites are being taught. We need people like Tony and Bart Campolo, Jimmy and Janet Dorrell and Arloa Sutter to guide many Christians in this ministry Jesus commanded of his followers.

Ministry is always two-way. After all, if God is already there, there are people who have seen him and they become ministers to us. As I read on a friend's blog once, pride is an easy load to bare when you think you're sent to save the city. Pride must be erased and then relationships can be formed.

I know sometimes I might come across as thinking ministry to the poor is the most biblical form of ministry. I don't mean to be that way. I'd be incredibly mistaken if I overlooked the importance of reaching everyone. It's just that I believe this is the ministry calling God has given me and it is hard for me not to be passionate about it.

If you want to read some provactive thoughts on urban ministry, check out "Their's Is the Kingdom" by Bob Lupton. It has been an incredibly formational book in my own experience. It's a super short book full of super short stories. I have a copy if you want to borrow it. And if you do read a few pages of it, let me know. I'd love to talk about it.