The Need for More Theological Reflection

I love talking about theology and I think it is especially important at this time in the life of the church to engage in theological discussions. I define theology as the application of God's word by persons in every area of life.

We develop theology in our context. The urban context generates an urban theology. Being in the urban environment and living in a community with a high level of poverty has led me toward a theology that has taken on more of the language of God caring for the poor and the marginalized and Jesus as the suffering servant who understands pain and rejection. I am learning the language of the Exodus that is so prominant in the African American church and I am noticing more than ever the multiplicity of Scriptural passages that reference justice for the oppressed. Christian praxis in the city requires theologial reflection. I think that is done best in community.

I have been wanting to start something like a L'Abri in the city. Those of us who are old enough to remember will recall that during the 60's and 70's Francis Shaffer would invite people who were seeking to make sense of God and culture, to join him in a chalet in the Swiss Alps to sit around the fireplace and talk about the intersection of theology and contemporary thought. I think we are in a similar place in the church right now and we need to have lots of theological discussion and reflection. I am sensing that many younger people don't have a container to put theological thoughts into and some who have learned a "systematic" theology are finding their theological framework being dismantled and they're not sure how or if to reconstruct it. Now is a great time for us to have more conversations about God.

I think the emerging church movement is bringing good conversation, but I am also concerned that some are moving away from Jesus and the power of His death and resurrection. I was listening to Doug Pagitt from Soloman's Porch on the Emergent Podcast yesterday. They were talking about the "Centered Sets" approach to understanding the Church. I have used the concept in my Wheaton classes because I like the notion that we don't always know who is in or out (of the faith). What is important is that we love people where they are and point them toward the Center, which is Christ, to urge people to turn toward and to be in the process of moving toward Christ wherever they may be in their journey. The gospel is good news. Jesus laid down his life to buy us freedom,freedom from the bondage of sin and freedom to live a new, vibrant, abundant life. So we urge people to come toward the center where they find love, peace and freedom in Christ.

Anyway, in the podcast, they suggested it would be better to consider the importance of "Relational Sets". I have also heard it labeled as "Network Sets". Basically, what I heard them saying is that we are all connected and it is the love that matters. There was no mention of Jesus or of Christ being the center. While I enjoy "out of the box" discussion and I don't feel I have to agree with everything someone says to learn from what they have to say, I am concerned that some in the church, in their reaction to certain facets of the traditional church, might actually throw away any faith in "The God Who Is There".

At Breakthrough we talk alot about reweaving the fabric of the community by buiding a network of support around everyone who comes our way and that these relationships are reciprocal and we all grow in the process, but at the heart of that network is faith in Christ. The network/relational approach works to restore people to right relationships with one another when God is lifted up as the head and the one who brings us together in unity.

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Eph 4:16

I think we need to develop space for people to talk about these things. I wish we could get a big house in the city where people who are searching and questioning or who are wanting to learn more about God's concern for the city and the poor and justice, could come for a month or two and stay and we could have guided study and discussions open to the public.

What do you think?

"The Christian message is an embodied message, carried by living witnesses. The clarity and attractiveness of this message is dependent on the quality of our life with Jesus and our willingness to give expression to that life through word, deed, and sign."

From Walking with the Poor by Bryant Myers

Justice and Partial-Birth Abortions

Here's a link to a thoughtful article posted by Stephen Monsma, from Calvin College, on the Center for Public Justice web site about the Supreme Court and partial-birth abortions.

Justice demands that both the unborn or being-born child and the mother be given their due in our nation’s laws. Banning almost all abortions should be balanced by actions that include fixing our health-care system so that everyone has access to health insurance and to basic health care. Public policies should also provide adequate assistance to poor single mothers and their families, as well as job training and supportive services when they have chosen for life and against abortion.

Steps such as these would help assure that our public policies are just—both for the unborn human life and for their mothers.

You can read Justice Anthony Kennedy's horrifying description of the partial-birth abortion process at this link. This is definitely a justice issue.

Brenda Salter McNeil on Commitment to Reconciliation

Creating a Counter Culture for the Common Good

The Gospel and Losing Weight

Lately people have been asking me how I am losing weight. I have lost about 20 pounds since the filming of that embarrassing Willow Creek video. So instead of trying to explain, I decided to write this post, so from now on I can just say, "Hey, if you really want to know, check out my blog"!

First of all, I have to confess that I fell off the wagon throughout most of 2006. I was feeling a lot of stress and I gained weight. I just couldn't get my eating under control. Finally in mid-February after spending some time with friends in Florida, I had a very frank conversation with God in which I acknowledged that I knew I needed to live a more healthy lifestyle but I didn't have the discipline or even the desire to exercise or lose weight.

As I have reflected upon that prayer, I am coming to see that anything that controls me that is not for my good and for the good of the kingdom is really evidence that I am not embracing the gospel. The gospel is the good news that it is not by my effort, but by the power of Christ that I am resurrected to right living. After I admitted my inability to change my behavior I felt God's love for me, just as I was, along with a gentle nudge to start recording everything I ate.

I resurrected an old software program that I had downloaded a few years ago called Fitday. A basic version is available for free online, but I recommend the $30 download Fitday PC version from fitday.com. I entered my desired weight as a goal and the software told me how many calories I needed to cut back in order to achieve my goal. When you enter most food items the software automatically tracks the nutritional value along with the calories, fat and carbs. This helps me decide what foods to eat.

You can also enter your physical exercise. I pulled out an old fitness program that I actually enjoy, the Quick Fit System by Gilad, which is available in VHS format for $40 and DVD for $70. It is a 12 week program that includes aerobics with some punching and kick boxing and body sculting workouts that work every muscle. I also downloaded a Weight Loss audio by Barrie Konicov. He uses subliminal persuasion as you drift off to sleep to help you think positive thoughts about weight loss.

I started fasting one day a week. I really don't like fasting, but I know it is biblical so I do it. Afterward, I am always glad I did and I find I am less controled by food when I do. So, the combination of prayer, fasting, caloric restriction, exercise and positive thinking has made this process actually enjoyable.

I have reached my goal so now I just pray that the Lord will give me the grace to maintain. My tendency is to begin to think I have done this and I don't need God anymore, instead of living and breathing the gospel of the power of Christ's death and resurrection everyday and living in humble gratitude for the gift of new life. For today, my energy is up. I'm feeling much better, and I'm grateful to God for setting this captive free!

Bob Lupton: Gentrification with Justice

Here's an audio file of Lupton on Gentrification and how we should respond. Gentrification is a term referring to the "gentry", people with money, reentering a community that has been run down for years, buying dillapidated properties at low cost, renovating or building new construction. Gentrification is a good thing in that it brings vitality to a community. The propblem is, if it is not done with justice the poor are forced to move. Lupton says we are currently exeriencing a diaspora of the poor being displaced and scatterd to communities outside the city. This brings new challenges to both urban ministries and suburban churches.

Bob Lupton to speak at Park Community Church

I have been with Bob Lupton today at Mars Hill Bible Church. He spoke tonight and we got to hang out throughout the day. He told us he has been diagnosed with cancer and asked for prayers for his healing. Please join me to pray for his complete healing and that he can carry on his work in the city of Atlanta. He has devoted his life to Christian community development.

Those of you who live in Chicago can catch Bob at Park Community Church at 9:00 and 11:00 Sunday morning. Park meets at the Francis Parker School at 2233 N. Clark (at Webster).

I am also with Daniel Hill, the pastor of the River City Community Church, at this conference in Michigan and Daniel gave me an overview of the sermon he will preach this Sunday about Cornelius and Peter. You don't want to miss it. So I suggest, Park at 9:00 and River City at 11:00!

American Idol Gives Back

Lots of people were talking yesterday about the Wednesday night American Idol charity performance. I noticed today that it is available to download through iTunes for $9.99. It was a very inspiring show in which lots of celebrities and musicians joined to raise money to help fight poverty in the US and Africa. All proceeds from the iTunes sales go to the cause as well.

Going to Mars Hill

Since I am one of the 50,000+ who listen to Rob Bell's sermons through the Mars Hill Bible Church Podcast, I am especially excited to be taking off for Grand Rapids today to join a group of CCDA leaders for a conference at the church. The Mars Hill leadership is encouraging members to engage with the community in holistic ministry and has invited the CCDA in to help them learn the principles of Christian community development. I will be sharing about how listening to the community has influenced how we minister at Breakthrough. We are meeting with the staff for three hours this afternoon, so I am looking forward to some stimulating interaction. Please pray that God will use me to add something meaningful to the discussion.

Midday Connection Think Tank

Yesterday I joined a group of about fifteen women to brainstorm ideas with Anita Lustrea and Melinda Schmidt, the hosts of the Moody Network Midday Connection program. The program will be going to two hours instead of one next year and they are trying to decide how to structure the program for that. It was great to meet such a powerful group of women in leadership and to hear what media they read, watch and listen to. I wrote down a list of good books they suggested and got lots of ideas for sermons and articles. It reinforced for me the benefit of focus groups to generate good ideas. Thanks for inviting me Anita!

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me

I was talking with a friend today whose wife teaches sixth grade at a middle school. He said the new principal has a hard time making firm decisions about discipline and consequently the students are increasingly out of control. Last week while reading through Psalm 23, I reflected on the words, "your rod and your staff, they comfort me" and thought about how important and actually comforting it is to have people in our lives who love us enough to stop us when we are out of control. Kids, especially, need to know that someone will push back when they exceed the limit of acceptable behavior. Without the comfort of the rod and staff, we actually feel unloved. I am thankful for friends who confront me when they think I need correction. I don't always receive it well at the time, but I am learning to treasure God's discipline through trusted friends. I have not been a good disciplinarian of others so it helps me to recognize the value of discipline in my own life so I can become better about challenging people around me to grow, and to do it lovingly.

The Police

I walked out of my apartment this morning to see a Chicago police car double parked beside my neighbor's car? "You live by these ignorant people?" a female police officer asked me with a snarl.

"Excuse me?" I replied.

"Do you live above these ignorant people?"

I know my neighbors and they are not ignorant. I felt my temper rising. "Why are you calling them ignorant?" I asked.

"Well we are writing him a ticket for an expired licence plate and he went off."

I felt my neighbor's pain. When you struggle to make rent with no margin for anything extra, when you can't even afford the $78 to renew your licence plate sticker, getting a ticket is not a good way to start the day. And then to be treated with such disrespect, to have your neighbor told you are ignorant. Please, is that necessary?

"We need to do a lot of work on police relationships in this neighborhood," I said. "My neighbors are not ignorant".

"I'm sorry you have to live by them." She growled.

"I love living here. And I like my neighbors." I replied. I am beginning to understand more personally why there is such animosity toward the police in my community. It's the unnecessary roughness.

More on race and the VA Tech Tragedy

Ed Gilbreath wrote some great thoughts about this on his Reconciliation Blog. Let's join him in his prayer that "there will be no backlash in the Korean American community and that our Asian brothers and sisters will feel loved and welcomed in this country." Thanks Ed.

20% rise in reading scores for Breakthrough kids

It has been a good year so far for students in Breakthrough’s Nettie Bailey Student Achievement Program. “It is exciting to see then dig in and push themselves,” says Academic Coordinator, Seth El-Jamal. “Everyone is making progress in one way or the other.”

A large focus of the after-school program is to increase reading scores. In addition to valuable time spent with tutors, students use a learning software called Orchard Gold Star Targeted Educational Software. The cumulative effect makes a difference. Seth says, “By the second quarter, 43% of the students were reading at or above their grade level, a 20% jump from the first quarter.” Students will be tested again this spring.

Seth also discussed how Breakthrough assists students by helping them recognize their unique learning styles. “Many school systems use the left-brain, analytical model,” he explains. “But some students learn better through right-brain methods.”

“For instance, some students respond better to math by seeing the problems from a spatial perspective,” he says. “When they can touch and manipulate pieces of a puzzle, it can make learning easier.”

The learning style assessment has worked well for some struggling students at Breakthrough. “It’s not an issue of whether or not they are smart,” he says. “It’s more about them knowing their own best way to learn. They need to know that.”

The New Hate Crime: Violence Against the Homeless

Click twice in the frame below to watch the latest "Breakthrough Stories" podcast. Jonathan Choe investigates an upsurge in violence against the homeless and why we should be concerned.

Let It Be Some Other Asian

In case you don't read comments on blogs (I rarely do), I want to highlight an interesting string of comments on my Tuesday post about the Virginia Tech shootings regarding race. Kindra Morelock referred us to this article written by Andrew Lam, a Vietnamese American who says...

"As the country waited to learn the identity of the killer at Virginia Tech, all ethnic Americans held their breath, waiting to see if they would shoulder the spillover of blame for the acts of an individual. To be a minority in America, even in the 21st century, is to be always on trial. An evil act by one indicts the entire community. Whoever doubts this need only look at the spike in hate crimes against Muslims and South Asian communities after 9/11."

Crime's Invisible Victims

Here's a link to the Chicago Reporter, a periodical produced by the Community Renewal Society. The article is entitled Uncounted and Unseen, about the tragic consequences to children when parents are incarcerated. It really affirms the importance of what we are trying to do at Breakthrough to minister to men and women when they come out of prison, so that they don't ever go back. Lots of kids are counting on us to be there for their parents.

Children need wraparound services from time of arrest through the sentencing and the incarceration period. As one of the incarcerated parents put it, "When you sentence the parents to three years, five years and life, … the child has been sentenced, also." As the number of people in our prisons rises, so does the number of children left behind, creating a population far more likely - some estimates go as high as 70 percent - to end up in prison themselves. More often than not, these young people, who are overwhelmingly poor and black or Hispanic - and their caregivers lack access to the resources that could keep them out of the system.

Virginia Tech Student Newspaper

Here's the link. The grief I feel is almost overwhelming. I pray for the friends and families and I hold my daughters tighter than ever.

Imus and what lies beneath

I often get new students or new BUILD participants who sincerely believe that racism pretty much died out with the sixties and the civil rights movement. We go to great lengths to read about and discuss the continued disparities in education, income, health care and experiences with the criminal justice system on the basis of race. It seems especially lately what lies beneath is oozing to the surface in even more outrageous incidents with Imus' outlandish statement about the Rutgers Team, Michael Richard's racial rant and Senator Joe Biden referring to Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy". These are just a few of the situations that have hit the press. We hear about these kinds of racial slams often in our community.

Here's a link to a great article by Ed Gilbreath in Christianity Today about the Imus affair. He summarizes it in the quote below...

"Racism is a sin. And sin, despite our best efforts, continues to dog us. Without honesty, without grace, without vulnerability, without humility, without the spirit of Christ from all sides, we cannot rise above our present dysfunction."

Thoughts inspired by BUILD

Joyce Caine is the principal of a new local high school and facilitates our Saturday morning BUILD group. She posted today about their visit with Mary Nelson at Bethel New Life and their group's discussion about whether or not one can have an effective ministry in what she calls "the hood" without actually living there. She always has interesting thoughts.

The Spiritual Formation of Moses

I've been enjoying some great messages from the Zondervan Podcast this week. I listened to Eugene Peterson on Wednesday. He said writing The Message was just a continuation of what he was already doing as a pastor, taking Scripture and putting it into common everyday language. He said he didn't start writing because he had something to say, but because he wanted to discover what there was to say. I like that. That's why I blog. It's in the writing that we find our message.

Today, as I walked around the lagoon, I listened to Ruth Haley Barton speak about the spiritual formation of Moses. It is an outstanding message, especially for leaders. She traces Moses' growth from an undisciplined justice crusader who committed murder, to his place of solitude in the wilderness where he got in touch with his own sense of being an alien in a foreign land tracing back to his roots as an Israelite raised as an Egyptian, and then to being called to leadership and formed by God to the point where his vision for entering the promised land was superceded by his desire to be with God. It's a great message and very well delivered.

Good Fiction

Taunted by Paul Luikart's blog post hinting that I don't read fiction, I picked up a book on Thursday at the University of Chicago bookstore that my friend, Laura Truax, recommended. Laura said she read the book in one day and that it was a read she couldn't stop thinking about. Ditto from me. I started it yesterday and finished it this morning, all 287 pages. It is haunting. The tragic life of a father and son after the world has burned. They scavenge for food and live in fear, mostly of the "bad guys". It made me appreciate the security of my home and the abundance of food, friendship, comfort and beauty in my life.

We need bicycles

Summer is coming and Breakthrough's Youth and Family Program staff has declared an urgent need for girls bicycles, with 24" wheels and either 10 or 18 speed. Some of you have extra bikes hanging in your garages. Here is a practical way for you to make a huge difference in a kid's life.

Speaking up for Asian Americans

Yesterday Today's Christian posted an article about the Youth Specialties skit that was offensive to Asian Americans and North Park University prof, Soong-Chan Rah's action to bring it to their attention. I commend Youth Specialties for their response of issuing an apology and working so expeditiously to remove the skit book from circulation. Here's a link to Soong-Chan Rah's blog.

The Evolution of American Evangelicals

Today on Speaking of Faith, Krista Tippett interviewed Richard Cizik. Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals and editor of Washington Insight. He said in the interview that, "preaching the gospel and being salt and light in society is not an either/or choice". Cizik has become a lightning rod in the NAE because he is advocating that the agenda of evangelicals should include care for the environment and poverty as well as the issues of abortion and gay rights. There is another link on the web site in which Cizik speaks about the 17th and 18th century evangelicals who were revolutionaries who called people to social engagement, not just to a conversion to Christ but to doing something as a result of that faith commitment that would change the world around them. He says the flaw in the 50s and 60s is that the movement didn't call evangelicals to do more than simply maintain a privatized faith. He says we have a greater calling. Amen! I admire his courage.

Care, the Bigger Part of Cure

The picture still burns in my mind. It is a haunting reminder of the energy I spend avoiding the cost of loving others. I establish an emergency relief fund instead of inviting hungry families to sit at my table. I develop a housing program to avoid the turmoil of displaced families living in my home. I create employment projects that distance me from the aggravation of working with undisciplined people. As a counselor I maintain some detachment with a fifty-minute hour and an emphasis on client self-responsibility. And even as I share the gospel with the needy, I secretly hope that God will handle their problems.

Of course I don't allow myself to think this way very often. I choose rather to concentrate on the positive things I am doing for people, helpful things, right things. But when I am honest with myself, I must admit that I cannot fully care for one who is suffering without entering into his pain. The sick must be touched if they are to be healed. The weak must be nourished, the wounded embraced. Care is the bigger part of cure.

Yet I fear contagion. I fear my life will get out of control, and I will be overwhelmed by the urgent affairs of others. I fear for my family. I resist the Christ who beckons his followers to lay down their lives for each other. His talk of a yoke, a cross of bearing one another's burdens and giving one's self away is not attractive to me. The implications of entering this world of suffering as a "Christ-one," as yeast absorbed into the loaf of human need, are as terrifying as death itself. Yet this is the only way to life. The question is, will I choose life?

   From Theirs Is the Kingdom by Robert Lupton

The Visible Power Of The Resurrection In Our Lives

Daniel Hill read the following quote from W. H. Vanstone in his sermon this morning.

"As Jesus moves about, He leaves behind him, a trail of transformed scenes and changed situations: fishermen no longer at their nets, sick people restored to health, critics confounded, a storm stilled, hunger assuaged, a dead girl raised to life. Jesus’ presence is an active and instantly transforming presence. He is never the mere observer of a scene, or the one who waits upon events, but is always the transformer of the scene and the initiator of events."

Daniel asked the questions: “Is there anything in your life that’s happening that can only be called revolutionary? Are there areas in your life that are being killed and resurrected? Are there changes that are taking place in your life that nothing can explain, other than the power of the resurrection? He went on to challenge us that there should be revolutionary things happening in our lives. "May those around us see the power of the resurrection in action in our lives.”

You can download Daniel’s sermon at the link on the right, which will bring you to the River City sermon podcast in iTunes.

Happy Resurrection Day! May we live more fully in the power of the resurrection!

The Advantage of Having a Growth Mindset

Stanford Professor Carol Dweck, author of the book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, explains the difference between fixed and growth mindsets and why it's important for those of us who aspire to be tutors and mentors to challenge students to be able to admit mistakes and overcome them and to believe that they can grow and learn. Here's a link to an article about it in Stanford magazine.

This is important for those of us who work in communities where educational achievement expectations are so low. Beyond just building skills, a large part of what we need to teach involves belief that learning and academic success is possible. “Study skills and learning skills are inert until they’re powered by an active ingredient,” Dweck explains. Students may know how to study, but won’t want to if they believe their efforts are futile. “If you target that belief, you can see more benefit than you have any reason to hope for.”



Here's a graphic illustration that describes the two mindsets.

What Would Jesus Really Do?

Here's a link to an article on the CNN web site by Roland Martin, talk-show host on WVON-AM in Chicago, entitled, "What Would Jesus Really Do?"

An African-American pastor I know in the Midwest was asked by a group of mostly white clergy to march in an anti-abortion rally. He was fine with that, but then asked the clergy if they would work with him to fight crack houses in predominantly black neighborhoods.

"That's really your problem," he was told.

They saw abortion as a moral imperative, but not a community ravaged by crack.

CNN TV is going air a discussion about how Jesus might solve modern-day problems in a special report, "What Would Jesus Really Do?" tonight and Sunday night at 8 p.m. Chicago time. It sounds interesting.

Mother-daughter stuff

Last night at about 9:00 my daughter, Teri, called me in a panic. Her car wasn't starting and she wanted to go to Target. So I drove up to the northside and jumped her car which started right away. We thought she had left her inside light on and it had drained the battery so she left for Target and I went home. An hour later she called to say she was at Target and her car wouldn't start again. Since she had the jumper cables with her she found someone to jump the car again. I told her she needed to take the car to a mechanic. Fortunately there is a good one very near where she lives so she could just drop off the keys and call them in the morning.

At 11:15, she called again. She had decided she needed to drive down Lake Shore Drive to recharge the battery and the car had died near Fullerton Avenue. I was a little miffed that she had not listened to me about taking the car right to the garage and of course, she was in a meltdown phase, so when I got to her again we created some drama together. She says I lectured her instead of empathizing. I say she gets mean when she is panicking and there is nothing I could ever do right. I finally told her to call AAA which really ticked her off.

Recognizing the tension between us, I had prayed on the way over, that God would help me with my attitude and teach both of us through this rather stressful experience.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I jumped her car again as cars flew by on the expressway and we hobbled it back to the mechanic and left a note with the keys under the door.

So today, to ease the tension between us, I suggested we go to dinner. We had a nice meal at Charlie's Ale House in Andersonville. As I drove her to her apartment in Uptown she mentioned that my car was low on gas. I nodded that I knew and would take care of it. I dropped her off fifteen minutes before I was supposed to teach a Wheaton in Chicago class a block from her apartment.

Since I was a little early, I decided to review my notes for the class. I let the car run because it was cold outside, and, as you can guess, the car died! I ran it totally out of gas! I can't remember ever running out of gas!!

So I had the wonderful privilege of calling Teri to say, "Please honey, could you come to my rescue and drive me to the gas station?" She lectured me the whole way about how irresponsible I am and I got to show her a more pleasant way to ask for help and of course, we laughed the whole way. God has such a sense of humor!

I love you Teri!

OK, This is cool...

The Bible Experience is downloadable audio of Scripture accompanied by a cinematic musical score, and read dramatically by African-American personalities including Angela Bassett, Common, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and more. You can download The Easter Story for free today and get 12 more stories from The Bible Experience for $3.95 each.

We weep

Last week the bludgeoned body of Christopher Pineda was found in the Cal-Sag Channel. Since my daughter knows one of his cousins we followed the story with interest. He was not a gang banger or a trouble maker. He was a good student and would soon have been the first in his Guatemalan immigrant family to graduate from high school. It seems Chris was the victim of a senseless violent attack by a street gang, probably based upon his ethnicity. He was in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time.

As I let that tragedy sink in I began to weep. I tried to imagine the pain his mother must be experiencing. She waited all week for Christopher to come home without sleep only to learn he would never be home again. Through my tears I heard God’s words speak into my heart, “I too experienced the tragic abusive death of my son. No one feels the pain of that mother with as much understanding as I do. You weep because you feel my heart. I grieve over the injustice in the world.”

And so, we weep. We weep for the sons and daughters whose lives are cut short. We weep for the mothers who cannot feed their children. We weep for the fatherless child, the abandoned baby, the children hit by stray bullets, the victims of hatred and oppression and racism, the uneducated, the unemployed, the unloved. And as we weep we feel the heart of God who, out of love, sent his son to suffer and die in order dismantle the abusers of power and show us the way of humility and service. We long for the day when justice will flow down like a river and righteousness like a never failing stream. (Amos 5:24) But for now, sometimes all we can do is weep.

In the company of giants

"If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants."

                - David Ogilvy

My car was egged today

Of course, my initial thought was, "Hmmm, someone doesn't want me in this neighborhood." It could have been coincidental, but I don't think so. I'm a white person in a black neighborhood. I symbolize the disruption of the neighborhood. The gentry, the rich whites, who could live anywhere, are buying up property that was once affordable, forcing long time residents out. I believe in John Perkin's three R's: relocation, redistribution and reconciliation, but I don't think community members are all that jazzed that I am here. Relocation, gentrification, how do we live with that angst?

Reconciliation Blues

We had a great time with Ed Gilbreath on Saturday. What a great guy! Be sure to check out his blog and the comments people are leaving there. He is opening up some much needed dialogue. Here's a picture of him (in the middle) with our BUILD alumni coordinators, Stephen Nelson and Michael Dawson. Thanks Ed!Click below to hear a recording of the workshop

Real Estate Hot Spots

Oh no! There goes the neighborhood. Check out this link to MSN and scroll down to see the second hottest real estate spot in the country!

Afire with God

Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every bush afire with God
But only he who sees takes off his shoes
The rest sit around it and pick blackberries.

                 Elizabeth Barett-Browning

Don't forget tomorrow's workshop

Love Perseveres

African American men are in deep trouble. In the city of Chicago only 35% of them graduate from high school. Of the few who enter college, only 22% of them actually graduate. A recent study indicates that most of those who do graduate from college are from countries outside of the US. Among those who have dropped out of high school, in 2004, 72% were unemployed and 21% were incarcerated. By their mid-thirties six out of ten high school dropouts have a prison record. This cradle to prison to death pipeline is a disaster that must be stopped.

If my house was on fire and my grandkids were in it, I would have no fear. I would rush in and do all I could to find them and bring them to safety. Isaiah 58:7 urges us to “not to turn away from our own flesh and blood”. When we turn away from the plight of African American men, we fail to recognize them as our flesh and blood. We don’t have the love that will respond in a crisis. I Corinthians 13:7 tells us that “love perseveres”. Love perseveres through danger, through discomfort, through suffering, it overcomes our fear and calls us to action.

I think many of us want to show the love of Christ, but we just don’t know what to do. We stand by helpless while the house is on fire. What are the actions that will bring change? Is there any hope for black men in the city?

Here's what Breakthrough is doing ...

• We are teaching young black boys to read at their grade level
• We are building a peer network around black boys that values educational achievement
• We are preparing young black men for college and helping them with scholarships
• We are creating high expectations and helping black boys live those expectations
• We are ensuring that black boys have a strong spiritual base
• We are providing positive experiences for black boys in an atmosphere of support

How you can help...

• Volunteer to be part of a support network by tutoring or mentoring young black boys
• Provide books and reading materials
• Donate money to the academic program so that Breakthrough can hire a reading specialist
• Donate to Breakthrough's "Earn While You Learn" scholarship fund
• Lead or assist in a Bible study group
• Volunteer to coach in a sports league or assist with an arts program

A Lost Generation of Black Boys

Phillip Jackson, Executive Director of the Black Star Project in Chicago has posted an article with more grim details about the plight of Black boys in America.

There is no longer a need for dire predictions, hand-wringing, or apprehension about losing a generation of black boys. It is too late. In education, employment, economics, incarceration, health, housing, and parenting, we have lost a generation of young black men. The question that remains is will we lose the next two or three generations, or possibly every generation of black boys hereafter to the streets, negative media, gangs, drugs, poor education, unemployment, father absence, crime, violence and death.

Most young black men in the United States don’t graduate from high school. Only 35% of black male students graduated from high school in Chicago and only 26% in New York City, according to a 2006 report by The Schott Foundation for Public Education. Only a few black boys who finish high school actually attend college, and of those few black boys who enter college, nationally, only 22% of them finish college.

He goes on to say some pretty challenging things about how society and the church is failing them and how even the African American community is neglecting them. "Worst of all is the passivity, neglect and disengagement of the black community concerning the future of our black boys. We do little while the future lives of black boys are being destroyed in record numbers."

Here are his suggestions...

Short term

• Teach all black boys to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education.
  
• Provide positive role models for black boys.
  
• Create a stable home environment for black boys that includes contact with their fathers.
  
• Ensure that black boys have a strong spiritual base.
  
• Control the negative media influences on black boys.
  
• Teach black boys to respect all girls and women.

Long term

• Invest as much money in educating black boys as in locking up black men.
• Help connect black boys to a positive vision of themselves in the future.
  
• Create high expectations and help black boys live into those high expectations.
  
• Build a positive peer culture for black boys.
  
• Teach black boys self-discipline, culture and history.
  
• Teach black boys and the communities in which they live to embrace education and life-long learning.
  

The Breakthrough Benefit - Save the Date

The House

Our latest podcast, Breakthrough Stories, featured Phil Jackson from the House in Lawndale. You can click on the picture below to visit their web site.


Here's the podcast...

TIME magazine makes a case for teaching the Bible in school

The cover of TIME magazine caught my eye. Here's a link to the article. The author makes the surprising case that it should be.

"Should the Holy Book be taught in public schools? Yes. It's the bedrock of Western culture. And when taught right, it's even constitutional."

Lightly Made Plans

I wrote some plans down for myself back in January, but was challenged this week through my reading of Scripture to revisit them. Here's why.

Paul asks two penetrating question in 2 Corinthians 1:15. He says, "Did I plan lightly? Did I plan in a worldly manner?"

A quick study of the word "lightly" looks like it is the only place it is used in the New Testament and means, "quickly, lightly, with fickleness of mind". And in a "worldly manner" would mean "of physical origin, without divine influence".

He goes on to make it clear that when our plans are of divine origin, God "guarantees what is to come". (v21)God is faithful and makes us stand firm, anoints us, owns us, and puts the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

I want to know that my plans are inspired by God and that there is no fickleness in my resolve to work toward their fulfillment. I want that seal, that guarantee of the Spirit. I think I may be planning too lightly and in a worldly manner.

Daniel Hill's message on Faithonomics

This is a great message from Daniel Hill of the River City Community Church about the shalom that God wants to bring to our world through us.

Who Jesus Chose

If you haven't read the comments to the post below, make sure you do. They are very interesting. The acknowledgement that we cannot spend equal time with everyone is a good one. Jesus chose to pour himself into a few. But the notion that some people are eights and nines and more worthy of our time than the twos or threes is, as the commenter says, "Hogwash". It brought to mind this letter that leadership consultants would probably have sent to Jesus if they had been asked for advice.

To: Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafter's Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

From: Jordan Management Consultants

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.

As part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew had been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely,

Jordan Management Consultants

Did Jesus have favorites?

Check out this interview with Andy Stanley and John Maxwell on Catalyst TV and tell me what you think. (You can right click on this link and "Save Target As" to download the video file.)

The Fire and Music of Scripture

"By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet."

                               Thomas Merton

Fundraising Ethical Dilemmas

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of money to operate Breakthrough. We have an operating budget of two and a half million each year. Since most of our revenue comes from individuals, we usually don't know for sure what our income will be. We try to get multi-year commitments, but we are dependant on people who believe in our mission and feel moved to give. We are daily counting on the Lord to provide what we need. So far we have never missed a payroll even though we have had to make difficult decisions to cut back on expenses several times. I feel the weight of the nearly fifty staff who depend on Breakthrough to pay their mortgages and rents and put food on their tables, not to mention the $15,000 a month it takes just to provide for their health insurance.

So here's the dilemma. People give for emotional reasons, so we are constantly looking for that emotional hook that will move people to unleash their donations. Many of us care deeply about social justice issues and recognize that there are overarching systemic and institutional forces that are locking our homeless guests in poverty. But talking about those issues is not going to generate the same response that we will get from talking about the transformed lives our our guests and participants. The stories that will get the greatest response in terms of donations are those where we can point to dramatic life change that happens as the result of our work. Of course, for most of our participants, the changes are quite gradual and often take years and involve numerous setbacks that would not "sell well" to donors.

So there is temptation, temptation to say what we know people want to hear for the sake of funding the ministry, temptation to tell the stories with a bit of exageration, temptation to portray our community as desperate for outside help, temptation to settle for emotional appeals rather than to do the hard work of bringing people along on the justice journey.

Anyone else feel this angst? Any suggestions?

Nickelback: If Everyone Cared

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Timothy Keller: Our New Global Culture

Here's a link to an interesting article by Timothy Keller entitled, Our New Global Culture: Ministry in Major City Centers. He says ministries in city centers will be effective if they:

• Hold the historic Christian gospel—orthodox and
  Biblical in doctrine and practice, but are neither
  legalistic nor liberal, neither doctrinalist nor
  pietist, neither individualistic nor collectivistic.
  
  
• Have a positive regard for the city; recognize that it
  is the most strategic possible place for ministry.
  
  
• Neither over or under adapt to the culture of those
  in their surrounding neighborhood and culture.
  
  
• Are intensely, creatively evangelistic and effective
  in reaching not just people who are already
  traditional or conservative but who are very
  secular.
  
  
• Relentlessly emphasize and seek to build strong,
  “thick” counter-cultural Christian community in
  cities, especially through cell groups.
  
  
• Are holistic, ministering in both word and deed to
  their community and the poor in extremely creative
  and generous ways.
  
  
• Have a bias toward being multi-ethnic—seek to be
  at least as multi-ethnic as their neighborhood.
  
  
• Are arts and culture-friendly; both supportive of
  Christian witness in “secular work” and willing to
  train people for cultural leadership, not just church
  leadership.
  
  
• See church planting as a ministry as natural and
  important as discipleship, music, education, and
  pastoral care.

The Triumph of Mercy

“Mercy triumphs over judgment” James 2:13

A participant in one of our BUILD groups has moved into the neighborhood near our East Garfield Park campus. He was reflecting on a significant change in attitude he experienced after getting to know the struggles of his neighbors. A fourteen-year-old girl in the community told him she was pregnant and was considering having an abortion. While he is solidly anti-abortion, her situation caused him to have an internal struggle.

“It’s easier to be judgmental,” he said, “because then you can just walk away. My wife and I had to think long and hard before we could say to her that if she would have the baby we would be there to help her to raise it. We knew that would mean a significant long term sacrifice from us. She has had the baby and we are helping her. It’s costing us.”

The word for judgment means “a separating, sundering, separation”. Mercy means “kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them”. It is easier to separate ourselves from others, isn’t it, to dismiss them as lazy, or unworthy sinners, undeserving of our help? Then we can walk away in our self-righteousness and not be bothered by the messiness of broken lives.

God calls us to be merciful, to walk alongside those in trouble so that they can experience God’s mercy in the same way we have. That may cost us something.

Meeting David Wilson

Gotta see this one...

An act of love inspires more

Keri Wyatt Kent wrote an article about the guy who came to Breakthrough who needed a coat. We didn't have a coat for him, but at that moment, someone walked in with a big beautiful down coat and said, "This morning while I was praying God led be to bring this to Breakthrough. Can you use it?"

Keri decided collecting coats was something she could do to help Breakthrough minister to people during these cold winter months. Two weeks ago she started a coat drive at her tennis club and through sending emails to her friends. Today she brought nearly 100 coats to our Breakthrough Joshua Center. That's putting faith into action! Thanks Keri!

"My people owned people"

Here's a link to Mark Brown's column in yesterday's Chicago Sun Times. He writes about his disturbing discovery that his ancestors owned slaves and that as he grows older he realizes how recent that ugly chapter of history really is, that we are only two lifetimes removed from slavery. Robert Wiley, our Men's Services Director gave me the article today. He said he appreciated Brown's desire to take greater responsibility to become more sensitive about racial issues. "We don't want white guilt," he said, "just more sensitivity and opportunity."

Turnaround at Dodge School

The Sun Times ran an article yesterday about the wonderful progress being made at Dodge Renaissance School in East Garfield Park.

A Wheaton College Student Goes Homeless for Spring Break

Some choose to go to South Beach over spring break. Kym Cramer, one of my students during the fall semester of Wheaton in Chicago, spent her spring break sloshing around the streets of Chicago and living in shelters. Here's a link to the article she wrote about her experience.

Article on the CT site

Keri Wyatt Kent wrote a nice article about me and Breakthrough for Today's Christian Woman magazine that has recently been included in the Christianity Today web site. Believe me, I'm no hero, just an unworthy servant doing my duty!

Just unworthy servants

"So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" Luke 17:10

More insights on Shechem

My retreat speaking went very well. It was a great gift from God. The women were very warm and responsive and I had a great time.

On my drive up to Lake Geneva I was reflecting on the fact that Shechem, where Jacob's well is located, was also the spot where God established the covenant with Abram in Genesis 12. "I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

When Abram asked God how he could know that this blessing would happen in chapter 15, God tells him to get a heifer and split it in two. Jeremiah 34:18-19 explains the symbolism. Basically, if you break this covenant, this is what will happen to you, you will be torn in half like this heifer. God walked between the two halves of the heifer as a blazing torch symbolizing his commitment to the covenant.

So I was driving and thinking about the significance of the covenant especially in light of the fact that the woman at the well had experienced five broken marital covenants and must have been experiencing incredible pain. So much so that she had given up on covenants and had decided to live with a guy without marriage. She must have come to the well at noon to avoid having to see anyone because of her shame. There she meets Jesus who loves her enough to go out of his way to be there for her.

Just then Iona came on my car CD player with the song "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" by Isaac Watts.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Suddenly in my mind popped the words of Jesus at the last supper when he took the bread, broke it in half, and said, "Take, eat, this is my body, broken for you."

Wow! Out of love, Jesus was broken in half like the heifer to free us from the brokenness of our severed covenants!

Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

River City Podcast

Heres the link to get to the new podcast for the River City Community Church through iTunes. I highly recommend that you download Daniel's five part series on prayer from January 7th through February 4th. It was some of the most refreshing and practical thoughts I have heard on prayer in a very long time. It made me want to pray!

Bono's Acceptance Speech at the NAACP awards

Isaiah 58: Knowing God

Click below to listen to my message at the River City Community Church in Chicago on February 11, 2007.

Please pray for me!

I am speaking at a women's retreat for the Village Church of Barrington and really need you to pray for me! I have asked you all to pray for me before and I really can tell the difference when there is an army of prayer support around me. I am speaking about "Encounters With Jesus".

The first one Saturday night will be about the woman at the well. I will talk about the relationships forged at wells, Abraham's servant meeting Rebekah, Jacob showing off to Rachel by rolling the stone from the well, Moses drawing water and impressing Zipporah, etc.

This well, Jacob's well, is also where Dinah was violated by Shechem and her brothers had all the men of Shechem circumcized and killed. The well is also in the area where Joseph went to look for his brothers and was thrown into an empty cistern. I will talk about relationships gone bad, the rejection, emptiness, and barrenness this woman must have felt at losing love five times until she finally gave up on commitment and just lived with a guy. Empty cisterns vs. wells of living water. What brings living water into our lives? How do we keep our relationships fresh. We have the awesome opportunity to sit with Jesus at the well and experience the living water that flows out of our innermost being and displaces the guilt and shame of our brokenness.

Then on Sunday morning I will talk about the resurrection of Lazarus. How Mary and Martha didn't understand what Jesus was doing when he waited to come until Lazarus died, but that Jesus waited purposefully so that God would be glorified. Sometimes it seems like God doesn't show up when we call and we have to go through the valley of loss. We get to the end of our hope. The situations in our lives are beyond hope, they are dead, stinking dead. Yet Jesus would come and ask if we still believe, do we believe that God can resurrect any dead thing in our lives? How do we respond to the call of Jesus to "rise up"? What are the cycles of death that we are caught in and what would those situations look like if Jesus raised us to life? Do we really believe?

I am always a bit overwhelmed at the responsibility of speaking and having something meaningful to say to a group of people, but the preparation time is always a time when I learn so much. I am the one who benefits most. This morning God gave me Hebrews 13:15, "Through Jesus therefore, let us continually offer to Gad a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name." The "fruit of lips" seems to imply that the words are the outward evidence of inner growth. My speaking must come from deep within, not just flowery words. And it all comes "through Jesus".

OK, back to my study. Please help me by praying for my focus and clarity and that God would give me the skill to be able to craft a structure that harnesses the thoughts and that God would be glorified through me.

Link Day Reflections

I went to Dominick's in Lawndale this evening and was surprised to find the store unusally busy. Then I remembered. It's the first of the month, the day the Link cards get replenished for the month. Link cards are used like debit cards and have replaced food stamps in Illinois. I know people wait anxiously for the beginning of the month, sometimes using the food to pay off debts or win favors with friends, or to sell for cash so they can buy things like toilet paper and diapers, but mostly to replenish barren cupboards and fill hungry children.

Link is an interesting name for the card. It is othen the lack of links, the experience of isolation that keeps people in poverty. I wish they could experience a different kind of link, links to opportunities, links to support networks, links to employment, links to education. Then we could cut up the cards and celebrate the end of poverty with a Link Day holiday.

754,000 homeless people living on the streets

CNN reported today that the HUD (the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development) homeless count in January 2005 found 754,000 people living on the streets or in shelters. We at Breakthrough participate in that count every year by supplying the information about the number of residents in our shelters. Some of us have also gone out to try to find the people living under bridges and in the alleys, etc. The count does not include people who are sleeping on the sofas of there friends and relatives or those who are hidden in abandoned buildings or riding the trains and buses to stay warm all night.

My Enneagram

I took the Enneagram test tonight so I can discuss it with some friends tomorrow. I had never taken the actual test before, but somehow from the descriptions I already knew I would be a 2. I'm also a pretty high 7, which is the Enthusiast, the busy, variety-seeking type: spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, and scattered. The picture below really looks like me, doesn't it? NOT! So what's your type?

Kim McCormick at School of the Prophets

Bob Marsh posted a challenging message delivered to the School of the Prophets by Kim McCormick about her experience as a white suburban woman joining an African American church.

The School of the Prophets is an ecumenical group of men and women from many backgrounds who have been meeting together since January 2000 to worship, share and pray. The group meets monthly on the first Saturday of the month at 7 a.m. at Austin Corinthian Baptist Church at 823 S. Cicero Ave., just 2 blocks south of the Eisenhower Expressway on the east side of the street next to Marvin’s Soul Food Restaurant.

Amazing Grace

Cindy and I went to see the movie, Amazing Grace, tonight. It's definitely worth seeing, a bit slow especially in the beginning, but very inspiring. The theater was packed and their were a few amens throughout the movie. People applauded at the end. I was inspired to keep up the fight for justice. We need to carry the torch.

There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in its global reach—and in the destruction of lives.

Rev. Al Sharpton at Rosa Park's funeral

The Buzz on East Garfield Park

Ryan sent me a link to a YoChicago today site that has been running articles about East Garfield Park where I live. It is interesting to read perspectives on the community from outsiders.

Wealthy, But Impoverished

In the book, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, author Gregg Easterbrook, claims we are experiencing great economic progress. The incomes of Americans have doubled in the last fifty years, he says. Even poor people have air conditioning, televisions and cars, and many middle class Americans actually own more than one home and drive multiple vehicles. Many even own boats and airplanes. The environment is getting cleaner and crime is on the decline.

Yet, he claims, people think they are worse off. They feel poorer and more pessimistic. He attributes this growing pessimism about life to “choice anxiety” and “abundance denial”. He recognizes the existence of extreme global poverty and rightly claims that there is enough wealth in the world right now to eradicate it. If we would just accept that fact that we are indeed wealthy instead of bemoaning what we don’t have, we could put our wealth to work on social ills.

I found myself arguing with Easterbrook throughout much of the book. While some poor people may indeed be better off, the people who come to our shelters and those that I see on the street corners certainly are not, and the conditions I have seen in third world countries are very bleak. The gap between extreme wealth and extreme poverty continues to widen in America and certainly in the world. Those of us who own computers are in the top one percent of the world’s wealthiest people. (Check out the global rich list to see where you stand.) The system is working for us.

I want to be hopeful about progress and would love to be able to embrace the notion that the benevolence of the wealthy will rebuild the world. It would be encouraging to know we are winning the war against poverty, but many of Easterbrook's observations don't ring true in my experience. He clearly writes from a western context where, indeed, things are looking better. Even Chicago is "gentrifying". But he disregards the growth of consumer debt and the fact that there are more Pay Day Loan stores in America than there are McDonalds as people struggle to make ends meet.

I am not ready to celebrate prosperity while there is so much poverty in the world. American consumerism is causing global suffering. We need God's redemptive power to redeem us individually from our selfishness and greed and corporately from the shared structures that perpetuate global poverty while benefiting the wealthy. It will only be when we embrace the way of the cross as the people of God that these structures will become forces of redemption instead of oppression.

I think his observation of the discontent of the wealthy is right on. As we have seen in the tragic lives of some of our wealthy celebraties lately, money does not buy happiness. Vandana Shiva points out in a very thoughtful article in Resurgence , that “people can have immeasurable financial wealth and be socially impoverished – without love and companionship, without solidarity and community, with an empty soul in spite of overflowing bank accounts.”

I am privileged to know people of great wealth through my fundraising endeavors for Breakthrough who have discovered the transforming joy of giving. Deuteronomy 8:18 says that it is the Lord who gives one the ability to produce wealth. When God gifts individuals to give to the work of the kingdom, the world is blessed by their generosity. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 that we are to let our lights shine before men, that they might see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

We need to promote rigorous thinking about economics and the poor. I was challenged by a podcast from wiredparish.com with Greg Horton and Jon Middendorf in which they discuss Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) and Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof and the plausibility of redeeming big business to bring healing and restoration to the world. Here's the iTunes link.

William Wilberforce and Amazing Grace

As evidenced by the slide above created by Glen Kehrein from Circle Urban Ministries, many American evangelical denominations have a history of being on the wrong side of social justice issues. Many of the evangelical denominations in the US split over the issues of segregation and slavery and took stands that we now acknowledge were racist. William Wilberforce (1759-1833) is an example of an evangelical who fought for social justice during that time. He was heavily influenced by John Wesley and the Methodist movement and became an Anglican evangelical. He organized for the abolition of slavery in Great Britain. A month after he died, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act that gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. The movie Amazing Grace which opens Friday, is the story of his life. John Newton, the composer of the song, Amazing Grace, was a slave trader who fell to his knees and found forgiveness in Christ.

Poverty in Illinois

Heartland Alliance has released the seventh annual "Report on Illinois Poverty", which illustrates that Illinois families are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Over 85% of Illinois’ 102 counties had increases in poverty, nearly 1.5 million Illinoisans are poor – almost 700,000 of them live in extreme poverty, below half the poverty line – and over one third of Illinoisans in poverty are children.

The report finds that:

• Economic inequality in Illinois continues to worsen.
  
• Illinois’ future is threatened by poverty and economic disadvantage among young adults.
  
• Illinoisans in extreme poverty face significant hardship in trying to meet their basic needs.
  
• Illinois’ fiscal health crisis jeopardizes the current and future economic well-being of families and communities.
  
• Income support programs, designed to supplement worker’s low wages, are being compromised by inadequate benefit levels, as well as capacity and access issues.
  

Clarence Otis, Jr.

Did you know that Clarence Otis Jr., the CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc., one of the largest restaurant chains, Olive Garden and Red Lobster, is an African-American man? Darden Restaurants Inc. is one of the largest casual dining operators in the nation. The firm operates nearly 1,400 company-owned restaurants coast to coast, serving 300 million meals annually. Darden employs 150,000 workers and has annual revenues of $6 billion.

Mr. Otis was born in Vicksburg , Mississippi . His family and he moved to Los Angeles when he was 6 years old. His father was a high school dropout who worked as a janitor. The family lived in Watts at the time of the 1965 riots. As a teenager they moved to Compton.

In the post-Watts period, Mr. Otis recalls being stopped and questioned by police several times a year because of the color of his skin. A high school guidance counselor recommended him for a scholarship at Williams College, the highly selective liberal arts institution in Massachusetts. Otis graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams and went on to earn a law degree at Stanford. Otis landed on Wall Street as a merger and acquisitions attorney for J.P. Morgan Securities. He joined Darden Restaurants in 1995 as corporate treasurer. Clarence Otis Jr. became CEO in 2004.

Akiane Kramarik - Spiritual Young Artist

Holy Ground

Be sure to read Marcie Curry's Valentines Day blog post.

Heading for Florida - I think!

I was supposed to be on the beach today, but couldn't make it out of Chicago yesterday because of the blizzard. We're trying again today. I'll try to blog if I can get internet access.

Let It Out

This Kleenex commercial captures the power of listening. Jesus only directly answered three of the 183 questions that he was asked. That is surprising for those of us who have grown up thinking the function of religion is to give people answers and solve their problems for them. Jesus knew how to ask the right questions to draw people out and get them to think more deeply, more critically. We could learn a lot from Jesus and this Kleenex commercial.

Break forth the dawn!

This is the final paragraph in NT Wright's book, Simply Christian...

Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection. Made for joy, we settle for pleasure. Made for justice, we clamor for vengence. Made for relationship, we insist on our own way. Made for beauty, we settle for sentiment. BUT, new creation has already begun, the sun has begun to rise. Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokeness and incompletness of the broken world. It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role as agents and heralds and stewards of the new day that is dawning. That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian, to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God’s new world, which He has thrown open before us.

I'm speaking at River City on Sunday

I need you to pray for me as I am preparing to speak at River City Community Church on Sunday. It is intimidating for me because Pastor Daniel Hill brings such great messages. Please pray that God will speak through me and touch hearts and if you are in the area come on by!

Homeless Dumping in LA

The Associated Press and MSNBC have reported that the Metropolitan Medical Center in LA has been seen dropping patients off to homeless shelters in poor neighorhoods against their will. This reminds me of the early days of Breakthrough when we used to see white vans from state funded mental hospitals pull up in Uptown and drop people off in front of the churches that host shelters. The present trend of defunding emergency housing will only escalate the problem. Thankfully, God's people are stepping up to provide care for these precious ones.

How should we respond to panhandlers?

Jonathon Choe created a great documentary about panhandlers in Chicago for our latest podcast. Jesus said in Luke 6:30 to "give to everyone who asks of you", yet perhaps giving money to panhandlers might not always be helpful to them or the best use of our donations. What do you do when people ask you for money?

Asian Chicken Salad

Kym Cramer linked to this very funny video of Margaret Cho.

Persistent Racial Inequities

Today I received the 2006 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity, produced by The Applied Research Center. Here are some of their findings.

• For people of color in Illinois, the median household net worth is $18,160; for whites, it is $111,750.
  
• Between 1980 and 2004, the hourly wage gap in Illinois between white workers and Latino workers widened by 24 percent; the gap between whites and Blacks widened by 162 percent.
  
• Blacks and Latinos are 15 and 10 percent, respectively, of the Chicago area workforce, but 30 and 27 percent of the working poor.
  
• Working-age Blacks and Latinos are, respectively, twice and three times as likely as whites to have no health insurance.
  
• Undocumented Latinos are five times as likely as whites to be without health insurance.
  
• Only half of Black and Latino students graduate from high school, compared to 82 percent of whites.
  
• For every Black person in an Illinois college or university, 2.5 are in prison or on parole.
  
• During the 2003 school year, school districts with the fewest students of color spent $1,496 more per student than districts with the most students of color.
  

Ed Gilbreath on Open Line

Ed Gilbreath, author of Reconciliation Blues, was interviewd by Chris Fabry on Moody radio's Open Line last Friday. Here's a link to the iTunes url.

Dead Cats and Darkness

Sometime on Saturday someone evidently ran over a cat in front of my apartment. I felt very sad when I first saw him and grew even more "yucked out" as I watched him grow flatter and flatter every day as more cars ran over him throwing him right beside my usual parking spot. The street lights have been out on my block for the last several days as well. In the darkness last night I stepped on the dead cat!

After a few days I began to wonder whose responsibility it was to move the dead cat off the street. Finally today I decided it must be mine. Fortunately with the temp at 9 degrees he was very frozen and very flat. I put him in the trash can in the alley.

This evening the lights are back on, the dead cat is gone and a beautiful snow is falling. All is at peace on Fulton Boulevard.

Learning to ask for help

It is sooooo cold today. This morning when I turned on my computer my weather bug read -10 degrees. Over the weekend my daughter, Monica, had car problems so I let her borrow my car. I had to get out to the burbs for a super bowl party so I borrowed a friends pickup truck. This morning the pickup truck wouldn't start so I got a jump from another friend. Anyway, I realized how difficult it is for me to ask for help, yet how heartwarming it is when God uses people around me to care for me. I thought about how wealth isolates us because we think we don't need others. Christian community involves interdependence. There is a vulnerability in that.

Keeping our hearts soft

Melba Maggay, in her book Transforming Society, observes, “There is something about the daily exposure to poverty and other ills of society which tends to tear away faith and make agents of change some of the most cynical people around”.

How do we keep our hearts soft and our spirits alive in the face of so many discouraging setbacks and difficult challenges? How can we stay hopeful when we are so often disappointed? Do you have a suggestion you can share?

Tim Wise to speak in Elgin

Tim Wise, an anti-racism activist and speaker hailed as one of the nation's most courageous critics of white privilege, will speak at Elgin Community College on Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Wise will give presentations at 9:30 and 11 a.m., and 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center Auditorium on ECC's Main Campus, at 1700 Spartan Drive. The presentations are free and open to the public.

Wise is the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son and Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White. He also is hailed as "one of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation" by best-selling author and professor Michael Eric Dyson.

Wise also will be featured during a luncheon at 12:30 p.m. in the Fox Valley University and Business Center dining room. Cost of the luncheon is $10 per person and reservations are required. To reserve a seat, call Lonnie Keeler at 847-214-7014.

Wise's visit is sponsored by the college's Multicultural and Global Initiatives Committee (MAGIC), the Black Students' Association (BSA) and the Student Life Office.