First Impressions- Summer Reading in the City

Nehemiah challenges us to take an infrastructure project (a wall) and think how God could use the tangible to renew the intangible- the lives of those in our neighborhood. In our case, we have a new platform that gives us the chance to dive into the lives in our community. But as you jump into the pool of need this summer, grab a book along the way. Several resources have educated me for this series, and I hope you will learn from one of these.

Robert Lupton wrote the little exposition of Nehemiah entitled Renewing the City. The first half is narrative explanation of the book. The second contains theological themes. Scattered throughout are fascinating stories from his work renewing the city of Atlanta and his work with his urban renewal group, FCS Urban Ministries.

Another Robert (can there really be too many Bob's in the world?), this time Robert Linthicum, wrote a book about city renewal called Building a People of Power. You might recognize Lithicum; he was the president of World Vision and has done city transformation in Brazil, Chicago, and other places throughout the world. The book is part Bible study, part training manual, and part sermon. Linthicum moves so fast, you're exhausted just reading it. But it's a good tired.

Thirdly, WMU's publishing imprint "New Hope Publishers" has produced a very nice workbook on renewing a city called City Signals. Our staff read this for staff retreat, and we had some very engaging conversations around the themes. Brad Smith is the author, and if you enjoy doing Bible study in a workbook along with your regular reading plan, this is for you. Great for group study as well, and they offer an optional DVD to go with the book. Brad knows about ministry in a city because he lived in a rough neighborhood in Chicago and practiced ministry in the worst kind of conditions.

Fourth, I will do a bit of shameless self-promotion for my little journal that I assist with through Baylor University: Christian Reflection. A few years ago, we published a volume entitled "Cities and Towns." We focused on the changes in cities, the new people moving in, and the role of churches like ours in the cities across the world. Best of all, if you have an internet connection, you can download the entire volume for free from their website. The real credit goes to Robert Kruschwitz (another Bob), Heidi Hornik, and Norman Wirzba who did the bulk of the work. I am just happy to be associated with the group.

Thanks for your responses and questions along the way over the past few weeks. I'm ready to dive in. How about you?

Nehemiah’s Spiritual Formation of People

Spiritual Formation in Nehemiah

1.) Confess sin.
2.) Organize relationships where God has placed you around serving those in authority over you.
3.) Scout the project and reflect.
4.) Rebuild infrastructure first, study later. Get people moving in a project so that they can see the work, have success, and learn where their strengths and weaknesses are.
5.) Confront the powers. Use the project to expose the powers, and name the issues. There is as much danger in doing good as doing nothing.
6.) Bring justice by taking care of little old ladies and orphans. Follow the iron rule: "Never do for others what they can do for themselves."
7.) Let the Bible read you. Commit with new vows of time (Sabbath), generosity (money), and relationships (marriage). Scripture comes after the hands get dirty. Use the lessons learned from the project to guide thinking as you listen to scripture.
8.) Neighbor the city. Use principles you've practiced before to neighbor (as a verb) the city. The Golden Rule with the Iron Rule. Ministry centers on the assets of the community, not the perceived needs.

First Impressions- Diving In

I attended my first swim meet last Monday ever. I missed out on the joy of this kind of controlled chaos as a child. Now we have an ocean full of meets and mania lined up for the summer for our 8-year-old fish named Parker. For many of these second graders, Monday was obviously their first attempt at diving into a pool from a platform. They stood above the troubled waters at their post and chose whether (or not) to take te leap like the rest of their peers. The platform gave them a place from which to jump. But the swimmer had to take the leap.

Like the summer swimmer taking his first leap from the safety of a poolside platform, we are building a platform this summer to prepare ourselves for the next leap. Our platform and complementary media equipment, organ, and expanded choir loft positions us with all the evidence we need to back up the next test of faith. The question asked of our project is, "What kind of leap will we take as a church family?"

In our Reaching Beyond moment, we are expanding our capacity and vision to minister in the center city. We'll always be located downtown; the question for us now is how involved will we be in the assets of our center city community.

Throughout our region we can find all kinds of spiritual pain. Most people (over 30%) who have no faith involvement or significantly decreased their faith involvement in the last year live within a 1 mile radius of our church. Knoxville rates 15% higher than the national average for households touched by divorce or death of a spouse. Most children in our community live in either single-parent households or live in multiple homes. The Knox County school system has 350 homeless children registered for school each day.

Is this the kind of pain we are positioned to respond to? God doesn't ask us to fix every problem or even to address every problem. But could this moment give us the chance to minister to people who are going through these kinds of transitions? The waters indeed are stirring.

Renewing a City with Nehemiah

The book of Nehemiah is a memoir of a construction effort on the walls
of Jerusalem. The story opens with a clever refugee trapped in ancient
Susa who leverages his influence to be appointed as a governor in
his family's homeland. Nehemiah supervises a process that leads to
spiritual renewal in the land. Because the people were reformed, they
read the law (not the other way around.) He was about doing justice
for people who were being mistreated by opponents of change in the
city. He was about setting appropriate boundaries for people. Nehemiah
was about reestablishing identity for a community ruled by outsiders.

This sermon series will guide our thinking as we watch the
reconstruction of our platform. As we replace the platform, we will
get organized with Nehemiah to reorder our lives. We will see our city
as the place that God wants us to do justice. We will look to reform
our lives so we can listen again to God's law. We will establish and
shape our identity rooted in the tradition of ancient Israel.

Because after all, it was never about building a wall. It was about
building a community of people.