Guest Post: "Mostly Somewhere Else"

This guest post comes from Rev. Steve Neal, a fellow American Baptist pastor.

Guest posts are for the purpose of sparking discussion and hearing from diverse viewpoints on topics that interest me, and do not necessarily reflect my own views.

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A disciple asked her teacher, "Where shall I look for enlightenment?"

“Here,” said the teacher. 

"When will it happen?"

“It is happening now,” the teacher said.

"Then why don’t I experience it?"

“Because you do not look,” said the teacher. 

"What should I look for?"

“Nothing,” the teacher said, “Just look.” 

"At what?"

“Anything your eyes light upon,” the teacher said. 

"Must I look in a special kind of way?"

“No,” the teacher said, “The ordinary way will do.”

"But don’t I always look in the ordinary way?"

“No,” said the teacher, “You don’t.” 

“Well, why not,” the disciple asked. 

“Because to look you must be here,” the teacher said. “You’re mostly somewhere else.”

One morning, as I headed for the church building, I was mostly somewhere else. You know what I’m talking about; my mind was racing through all the stuff I needed to do that day. I was rehearsing the day’s schedule in my mind. I had my morning all planned out because my afternoon was already full. I was ready to get busy and get my list of things done. As I made my way across the yard to the church building, I noticed a blanket-covered lump lying on the front steps of the church. My first thought was, "I don’t have time for this, not this morning." I was tempted to back away - slip into the back door of the church - and hope the lump disappeared.  But, my second thought was, "You can’t do that! This is what you do! This is what you’re about!" So I stepped in closer and said, “Hello?” And the lump moved. And a muffled voice answered. And the adventure began....

In the 33rd chapter of Exodus, Moses asks God a most audacious thing. He says, "Show me Your glory, I pray." In this passage, Moses prays for three different things:  he prays to be shown God’s ways, he prays to experience God’s presence, and he prays to see God’s glory - God’s very essence! And after each request, God answers, “I will...” Moses’ desire was to be shown God’s way. It was his desire to experience God’s presence. It was his desire to see God’s glory. What's your desire? Are you here, or are you mostly somewhere else?

...a muffled voice answered and a scraggly-bearded, wild-haired man emerged from the blankets. He said, “Are you the pastor here?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Someone told me you were friendly.” I said, “Well, I try to be....” I asked if he’d like some coffee and we went into the building and the coffee began to brew as I scrounged up something for breakfast. As we sat there, he began to tell me about his relationship with Jesus Christ. He expressed his desire for revival. He expressed his concern for our neighborhood. He said, “If I was here, I would see every house as a soul in need of Jesus Christ!" He reminded me that we aren’t battling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of darkness. He said, “You've got pray a hedge of protection around this place and you’ve got to tell Satan, ‘No! You can’t have these souls!’” Now, not all his talk was that clear. At times I thought to myself, "This guy is pretty strange." And a still small voice would say, "Yeah, a lot of people thought John the Baptist was strange." I thought, "I don’t understand half of what this guy is saying." And that still small voice would say, "Well, a lot of people didn’t understand half of what Jesus was saying."

His name was Duffy - Brother Duffy. He was trying to get to Denver. He’d been all over the country in the last 20 years - living on the streets, passing out tracts, and telling people about Jesus. He asked if I could take him to the edge of town where it would be a little easier to catch a ride.  So we piled into my truck and started out. Along the way we continued to talk. When we were almost there he reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder, and he began to pray. When he began to pray, I could feel the power of the Holy Spirit fill the cab of that pickup. He prayed for my protection. He prayed that people in the area could be released from the bonds of Satan. He prayed and prayed and prayed! He prayed like Jesus was right there with him. I pulled in and parked and he continued you pray. When he finished, I placed my hand on his head and blessed him. I prayed for his protection. I finished praying and we reached out to one another and hugged one another. As he got out of the truck he turned and said, “I love you.” I said, “I love you too,” and he walked away. My morning was gone, but you know what?  I had been shown God’s way. I had experienced God’s presence. I had seen God’s glory!

A Pastor friend from the Ukraine gave me a little card, with a picture of a fishbowl, and a gold fish jumping out of the water. I translated the Russian caption. It said, "If you want to see something you’ve never seen, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done!" Let me ask you: Do you want to be shown God’s way? Do you want to experience God’s power? Do you want to see God’s glory? Then do something you may have never done...just look! The ordinary way will do! Be here, in the moment, instead of mostly somewhere else.

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If you are interested in submitting a piece, please visit the Guest Posts section.

Healing (a parable)

Leah was getting burned out. She didn't know if she could continue at this pace. The solutions were more draining than the problem.

Leah had a troubled past. Having been abused by her father, rejected and used by other men, and lost a child during pregnancy,  Leah hated what she saw in the mirror. She was caught in a spiral of self-hate and destructive behavior.

At first, Leah thought her friend Tom had some good ideas. She was trying it all:  praying and meditating, journaling, reading self-help books, going out with friends to have fun, even taking a vacation. But she quickly found all of these things draining and it seemed like doing them took more effort than just wallowing in her depression. So to that she returned.

Tom tried to persuade her back into the therapeutic activities, but to no avail. On days she worked, she was like a zombie. On the other days, she never even got out of bed.

One day, while watching TV, Leah saw a story about a local shelter that was for women and children, many of whom were escaping the kind of hurt and pain that had been real in her life. She heard stories of abuse that were worse than her own. Her eyes welled up with tears and her heart with anger. 'No one should have to go through what I have.' But she quickly felt her rage morph into something else, something she couldn't explain at the time...

Leah called Tom and told him that she was going to go volunteer at this shelter. Tom became indignant and expressed his concern.  'There's no way she can go there,' Tom thought. 'It will hit too close to home. The abused women; the children she wasn't able to have. It will only reopen old wounds.' But try as he might, Tom couldn't dissuade her.

After not hearing from Leah for weeks, Tom was beyond worried.  He called and stopped by, but she was never home. Finally, Tom saw Leah at a local coffee shop. He didn't recognize her at first. She was sitting, talking to a younger woman. Leah's face had a vitality to it that Tom had not seen for some time. Her eyes were bright. Her frown and lackadaisical demeanor had turned into an attentive posture, focused intently on this young woman.

Finally, they made eye contact. "Tom!" Leah exclaimed. "Excuse me a second," she said to the other woman as she got up and ran to hug him.

"Leah, I've been so worried about you," Tom said in a hushed voice. "I haven't been able to contact you. I was concerned about what you were getting into. You need to be focusing on yourself right now."

Leah straightened and looked at him, not quite smiling. "But I was, Tom," she said. "I was deep within that dark place. I'm not going back."

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"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." 
- Matthew 16:25

Guest Post: "Please Stop Serving!"

For my first guest post, I'm pleased to share a piece from Wendy McCaig, founder and executive director of Embrace Richmond, whose mission is "to strengthen under-resourced communities by empowering community-based leaders and engaging people of faith in works of service."

Guest posts are for the purpose of sparking discussion and hearing from diverse viewpoints on topics that interest me, and do not necessarily reflect my own views.

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Today we participated in a wonderful community day event that was hosted by Richmond City Police Chief Norwood’s Faith Leaders Roundtable. Congregations, faith based groups and non-profits banded together to bring resources, food and fellowship into the Hillside Court community. I love seeing the body of Christ working together!

This morning I asked my daughter to bring her camera and take pictures at the event. When we arrived, there was a long line of little children wanting to get their faces painted. Since Caitlin is a far better face painter than I am, I offered to do the pictures. Caitlin has a very nice, sophisticated camera. I took the camera and I got some great shots. I got kids hula hooping, blowing bubbles, and playing basketball. I even got 65 year old Lois playing soccer with 64 year old Mildred, who by the way was wearing cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. It was a great photo opportunity and I was so glad I had the camera so I could capture that moment!

I got home and could not wait to see all my pictures. I asked Caitlin to pull the pictures up and my stomach fell to the floor when she said, “Mom, you had the camera on “manual” setting and you should have had it set for the sunshine.” Needless to say, all my pictures were completely washed out. My daughter then asked me, “Why didn’t you ask me to show you how to use it?” The answer was of course that, “I thought I knew how to do it.” I take great pictures, like the one above, with my iPhone and I thought it was the same thing. I was very wrong.

All across this country, the church is emerging from its walls and is becoming a force for change. This week I read an article in Leadership Network’s newsletter about a movement in Denver that has mobilized dozens of congregations and is transforming lives and communities. The brilliance of this movement in Denver was its simplicity. Mayor Bob Frie sparked this movement when he shared with a group of faith leaders that the social issues facing their community would be drastically reduced if we could just learn how to become a community of great neighbors.

According to the Leadership Network article,

“After hearing from Frie, the pastors realized that their mayor had just invited them to get their people to actually live out the second half of the Great Commandment. Fueled by Frie’s comment, the pastors launched the “Building Blocks” initiative. Their goal is to challenge and equip the people in their churches to be intentional about building relationships with their neighbors. The goal is to see people move from strangers to friends. To accomplish this they have asked people to commit to two things: first, learning the names in eight households closest to theirs and second, partnering to throw a great block party.”

Today, the faith leaders in Richmond threw a great block party for the residents of Hillside Court! However, for this effort to grow into a community of great neighbors, we have some work to do. First, we are going to have to live out the second half of the Denver challenge and learn the names of our neighbors.

I will confess, I am really bad with names. I met dozens of new people today but can only remember Lenny the construction guy, Jay the basketball player and Diante the facepainter. I would give myself a D- in the “great neighboring” challenge.

Last weekend Jay Van Groningen, from Communities First, taught us that a “good neighbor” takes care of their own property and looks out for the neighbors immediately around them. However, a “great neighbor” is someone who cares for the condition of the entire community – someone who knows everyone’s name and brings them together to address the issues facing the community. When I think of “great neighbors,” I think of Mrs. Mildred, Patrice, Mrs. Debra and Windell who are all residents of Hillside Court who make a point of getting to know their neighbors and who are working toward making Hillside a better place.

Being a great neighbor sounds like an easy thing. Just like taking a few photos sounded like an easy task this morning. Taking pictures would have been a very easy task for my daughter, because she knows her equipment. I realized after listening to Jay and watching my Hillside friends that in order to be a truly great neighbor, you have to actually know your neighbors. To truly know your neighbor you have to actually live in the neighborhood.

No matter how hard I try, I will never be a “great neighbor” to my friends in Hillside because I do not live there. The best I can hope for is to be a “good friend” who empowers them to be “great neighbors.” Jay taught us all that our role as outsiders is to lead by stepping back. Our job is to harvest and harness the gifts, talents, hopes and dreams of a community and empower community leaders to do all they can with what they have. In other words, we can help the neighbors become great, but we cannot do it for them.

I love Leadership Network’s emphasis on “externally focused churches.” I am excited about the missional church movement’s emphasis on being the body of Christ in the world and I agree with Eric Swanson who sees these trends as a movement of God. However, I am not sure that everyone who is embracing missional church language or who sees their church as “externally focused” really understands that this movement is a movement toward becoming a community of great neighbors.

The goal of the Denver movement was not to “build church membership.” They did not go into the community and “extract” people out of the community to attend church meetings or programs. The congregants left the church to offer themselves to the community as “great neighbors.” There was a releasing that took place. For me the missional church movement is not about “growing the church,” it is about loving our neighbors. In order for that to happen we have to take the focus off the “church” and put it on the “community.”

It is equally important to distinguish between “neighboring” and “serving.” In the side bar of the Leadership Network newsletter there was an article promoting the missional church momement that read, “More churches are pioneering a shift toward community service”. Is community service really the goal here? Is it the same thing as developing a community of great neighbors?

Many of the church groups that came out to Hillside today were there because their pastor encouraged them to come today and “serve the community.” My daughter and her friends were there to do “community service.” Community Service is a good thing but I think we are missing something if we see it as the same thing as “neighboring.”

I watched some of these “service” groups. They tended to stick together, they did their part and they all worked hard. Some cooked, some shared information about their church, some danced and others shared spiritual messages. However, I am not sure they could tell you the names of eight people who live in Hillside court, their gifts or their dreams.

I do not fault people for seeing the goal of today as “community service” or “church recruitment.” We have all heard countless sermons on the importance of “serving” but how many sermons have we heard about “neighboring?” We have all heard hundreds of sermons instructing us to invite people to church, but how many sermons have you heard encouraging us to stay home and hang out with our neighbors?

When my daughter handed me that camera this morning, we both assumed I knew what I was doing. Similarly, I think many church leaders who hear “missional church” language, think they know how to engage in under-resourced communities. I see many well-meaning churches take to the streets to “serve” with the goal of being more missional and often with a hidden agenda to “recruit” church members.

They have overlaid onto community development efforts older paradigms of evangelization and mission. Just like I thought I could operate my daughters camera with the same expertise it takes to operate my iPhone camera, many churches think they can do community development in the same way they have always operated as a church. However, neighboring is a complete paradigm shift for most “service” oriented church groups and most churches offer little or no training to their church members.

Many churches have adopted “missional” language but I wonder how many see the goal as shaping their congregants into a community of great neighbors. I am very thankful that last week Jay Van Groningen was able to come to Richmond and provide us with this type of training. As the Richmond affiliate of Community First Association, Embrace Richmond will begin providing this training to local congregations and faith based groups who are interested in doing more than “serve” the community but who have the desire to shape a community of great neighbors.

So, stop serving and start neighboring!

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Wendy McCaig is the founder and executive director of Embrace Richmond.  Wendy blogs at wendymccaig.com.

This guest post in its original location:  http://wendymccaig.com/2011/06/19/please-stop-serving/

If you are interested in submitting a piece, please visit the Guest Posts section.