And this was my time. I lost. Let me explain. Back in like April or May of this year, God gave me this vision to help create a network of preachers to address the social problems in Baltimore City. Baltimore is overflowing with societal ills that need attention. From an underfunded school system, to lead in the school’s drinking water, to high levels of homicide, to open air drug markets, to a HIV/AIDS epidemic, to a growing number of syphilis cases amongst teenage girls, to more than 50% of our African American males dropping out of highschool…you get the picture yet? The “problems” list goes on and on and on.
Call me crazy, but in reading the Bible I figured that is the responsibility of Christians to give attention to these problems in some way. Not that we would tackle them all head on, but at least we should be knowledgeable of them and, if possible, lend our resources, expertise, and energy to helping to find a solution. Now I know that there are some Christians reading this who are saying – “We shouldn’t be involved in worldly affairs. Our job is to save souls.” Well, that’s fine if you believe that, but I warn you that if you follow that line of thinking then you aren’t following Jesus Christ and really you’re not following the Bible. Here are a few scriptures that give weight to my opinion on this matter: Proverbs 31:8,9 / Matthew 25:31-46 / Luke 4:18. Let me know if you need more scriptures.
So, anyway – back to the vision. God (or maybe it wasn’t God now that I think about it) pushed me to help to organize this network to address SOME of these problems and for the last 4 or 5 months I’ve been sending emails, scheduling meetings, making phone calls, writing articles, attending meetings, pitching ideas, taking pictures, etc all in the name of this young preacher network. I wasn’t alone. Others participated in this endeavor as well, but the weight of the network fell on my shoulders. When others in the network were asked about the group by interested parties – the member would refer the person to me. When a question came up as to how we would proceed – people had a tendency to look to me. If the network became stagnant and stationary – I was usually the one to send an email or make a call and pick things up again. I didn’t like that because I’m really a fan of what I call the Ella Baker style of leadership. (If you don’t know who Ella Baker is shame on you – do yourself a favor and “google” her name). I wanted for this network to have GROUP or COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP. In other words, I didn’t want any superstars or charismatic leaders in the group chiefly because I believe that everyone has something of value to contribute to the direction of these types of groups, but also because I am a student of history and I know that in many cases where people organized to bring about substantive change against a resistant, often oppressive ruling government – the leader was eliminated in order to stifle the potential of the movement. Think Nat Turner, Marcus Garvey, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin L. King, Malcolm X etc etc etc. Movements that rely on the strength of one leader are too vulnerable to elimination. Nonetheless, this seemed to be the case with the little network that was formed.
We had so many good ideas and a number of projects that we wanted to be a part of, but today was D-day. The end. Or at the very least the day of major transition. Recently, I’ve been frustrated with the network because we seemed to do very well with TALKING, but we hadn’t accomplished much. Our most successful activity was meeting at TGI Fridays to eat and TALK. I’ve been in deep meditation about the group and I’ve confided in a few of them – admittedly, sometimes my frustrations would be apparent in the emails I would send to the group. That was bad. I wasn’t mad at any of them. I just wanted us to DO what we said that we were going to DO. But earlier today, I was talking to one of the members and I really just told him what has been on my mind and he confirmed what I was thinking by reminding me of what we said we were going to do initially. Initially, we said that we were going to spend a year studying, getting to know each other, training, etc. I guess I got a little anxious and tried to push the group too fast too soon. But to be honest, I’m not even sure that the 1 year of training/studying/etc. is going to work either. I’m afraid that I may have dragged folks along who didn’t really want to be on the train. I mean, while I believe that most of them really do have a heart for social justice and really are tired of “church as usual” and really do want to be living, breathing, tangible, ambassadors for Jesus Christ in the ‘hood – there are a couple of them that haven’t shown that being an advocate for social justice is primarily their passion. And that’s fine – we just need to thank them, park the car, and let them out on good terms.
To be brutally honest, this blog isn’t about the shortcomings or failures of others. It’s about my failures and my shortcomings. I was trying to push this group because I see a need here in Baltimore and I saw the potential in our network. But I failed. The network has fallen apart. I’m sure folks are deleting my emails or atleast reading them later because they know I’m just going to be on my YCSC thing again. But I have this FIRE..a PASSION…and an unavoidable and vehement discontentment with CHURCH AS USUAL.
I’m tired of these CHURCH CONFERENCES – we CONFER too much and don’t do MUCH
I’m tired of being in CHURCH every Sunday if all we’re going to do is sing, shout, fall out and go back to the same drug infested, crime ridden neighborhoods
I’m tired of hearing all these “bless ME” sermons and going to the next DIMENSION in God
I’m tired of church folks thinking that they have no responsibility to the rest of the world
I’m tired of $50 dollar and $100 dollar offering lines
I’m tired of preachers driving nice cars, having nice jewelry, living in big houses and their members ride the bus, live in the projects, and order dinner from the Chinese store every night.
I’M TIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No…I’m ANGRY and TIRED….frustrated…..
But anyway…in my attempt to organize a group to address the madness…I pushed too hard and I lost – My fire for these issues burnt those closest to me…maybe – I lost.
So I’m backing off the group thing and I’ll just tour Black churches across America, walk in and start turning tables over and whipping folks. Did you notice that when Jesus did this – he did it by himself.
Maybe he pushed too hard too.
No related posts.
At the risk of sounding like some of the condemning pharisees Mr. Pearson talks about on your radio show, I do want to try to help you out in your frustration.
As nice as it sounds, it isn’t the local churches’ responsibitlity to get together with other churches and do the nice things you are talking about. Scripture makes it pretty clear that the purpose of the local church is the edification, or the building up, of the believers, not the community. If you look at Acts for starters, I believe you will see that Peter, Paul, and the rest engaged in several activities. First, they presented the Gospel to the Jews. Once the main body of Jews rejected them, they presented the Gospel to the Gentiles.
They did not run programs to help the poor temple prostitutes in Corinth, or help the male prostitutes in Rome, or offer twelve step programs to the winos in Athens. They did preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and disciple the men and women who became Christiane in a frightfully hostile environment. They taught the men and women how to live for Christ and, more importantly, how to die for Christ.
Who made a difference in the communities? The individual Christians are the ones who turned the world upside down. The individual, discipled Christians went into the world and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, made a difference.
The churches you are so sick of don’t edify the members of the Church. The leadership in the local churches don’t edify the saints. As such, the Christians who go out into the world simply hide in the corners.
The lack of real live Christians living and working in the community can easily be seen as one of the causes of the troubles you see. High levels of homicide? It goes back to Christians effectively telling others about Jesus Christ. HIV/AIDS epidemic? There are only a couple of ways to spread HIV/AIDS. All of them relate to a lack of morality or even an explanation of how to live a godly life. Instead, from supposed Christians, they are told God understands that we are weak. A growing number of syphillis cases among teenage girls? Ditto. What are the Christian mommas and dad doing? Oh wait. Most of them are just going to church, gettin’ their prayze on, and doing nothing to grow as Christians.
Most of the people who call themselves Christians haven’t a clue as to what it means to be a Christian. These same people have no ability to bring about change in the community because they don’t understand that Christ wants to change hearts, not just circumstances. They have no ability to offer hope and relevence to the girls before they get pregnant or infected, or the black males who have no hope. Why is the Nation of Islam able to draw men from the worst of circumstances? They offer relevance, even if it is false and misguided. Why can’t the churches draw black males? Because most of them offer nothing more than emotion and femininity. Relevance? The concept is unknown in most of the churches.
It is the responsibility of the individual, even the individual working with other Christians to make a difference. The man, who, because of his maturing relationship with Christ, is able to raise a son who understands what it means to be a man and a daughter who has been loved and won’t fall for the baggy pants little thuglet who tells her she’s cute.
Jesus Christ offeres hope. But the Jesus of most of the black churches simply offers membership in the club and an opportunity to make the pastor look good so they can look good.
To summarize – we as indivisuals should certainly be in the world. We as indiviual should be the salt in the world. We as individuals following Christ should be the ones who provide an example with our love for each other. And we, as Christians should be pointed to as those who would turn the world upside down.
Be careful about making the Matthew section as general as you have made it. Notice Jesus says ““The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Unless you are willing to say the unsaved are brothers of Jesus this really does not apply to the local church organization and a supposed obligation it may have to feed the homeless or someother social program. Are these good things to do? Certainly! Is the church organization to spend its time doing them? I don’t think so.
Very thorough comments Jones. I only have a few comments. Here are a few of my observations.
#1 At the beginning of your comments you talk about what the disciples did or did not do. I’m not talking about them. I would prefer to focus on what Jesus did. Throughout the gospels he makes it a point and even goes out of his way at times to touch/heal/speak to the lame, blind, dead, etc. And mind you – the only place in the gospels where it was recorded that Jesus read the Torah is in Luke 4:18. The passage says that Jesus FOUND the place in Isaiah where the prophet addressed the poor, captives, and brokenhearted. To me – Jesus carries more weight than the disciples (they had a tendency to get it wrong over and over again) Just a side note – Dr. Walter Brueggemann has an interesting book on the role of the prophet in the community and he also does good “Jesus work” in the final 3 or 4 chapters. The book is entitled, THE PROPHETIC IMAGINATION. A few other good reads are Escape from the Church Inc (Wagner), Mustard Seed vs. McWorld (Sine), and A Peculiar Prophet (Clap).
#2 I embrace the ideology of Pan-Africanism, thus I employ an African worldview. One of the fundamental clauses of the African worldview is the primary importance of COMMUNITY. I saw this first hand a couple of years ago when I briefly lived in Ghana, West Africa studying African Traditional Religions. Your focus on INDIVIDUALISM rings true with a European (read American) worldview, however, it is a concept that I don’t exalt above COMMUNITY. Leading African Psychologist/Educator, Dr. Na’im Akbar deals with this issue extensively in his book Light from Ancient Africa (pgs. 2-9). You’d also do well to read his books THE COMMUNITY OF SELF, Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery and KNOW THY SELF. If you get tired of Akbar read Dr. Asa Hilliard, THE REAWAKENING OF THE AFRICAN MIND.
Sorry to give the litany of books, but I like to back up my opinions with research and not just pull stuff out of the sky.
Again – nice post.
Wow! The response to this post is very well stated.
I don’t mind the litany of books. It helps me to see where you are coming from. But I need you to make up your mind. Are you going to use various traditions and ideas as sources or are you going to use the Bible as source? You can’t use both simultaneously.
Before I go too much further, I do apologize for the length of this post. I do sometimes like to natter on.
At the risk of sounding like some arrogant American/Western European, traditions don’t hold the same weight as the Bible. To take Jesus’ position: traditions should never be taken over the word of God (Matt 15:2-6; Mk 7:3-13).
I don’t focus on INDIVIDUALISM. I focus on the changed heart in the INDIVIDUAL and his ability (with or without others) to involve himself in the preachng of the Gospel, showing as well as telling of the love of God.
Jesus did not establish a hundred little ministries. He taught the disciples and sent them into the world. He didn’t set up the “Four Palms Substance Abuse Clinic” in the slums of Nazareth, or the “Tamar House for Sexually Abused Women” in Jerusalem. He taught the disciples and, in order to demonstrate His authority (John 10:37, 38) He healed the sick, raised the dead and fed 5000 men with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread. Jesus didn’t do the healing because the was trying to improve society’s lot, at least, not according to Jesus.
When one of the disciples got upset about using expensive perfume instead of selling it and using the money to feed the poor, Jesus said: “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.” (John 12:7,8)
He wasn’t here to present a social gospel. He came to free us from slavery to the ulimate master: sin (Romans 6:13-14). And as we mature in Christ, we are able to present that marvelous message to others rather than simply bringing people to church so the pastor can give them the right hand of fellowship. They simply go from lonely sinners to sinners with a bunch of people to sin with.
As far as your wolrd-view, if you claim to be a Christian, a disciple of Christ, then you should have a Biblical world-view which includes community. Paul writes over and over again about the importance of loving your fellow Christians. James speaks of the worth of a man’s religion being measured by his response to his fellow Christian.
God gave the premier example of love by giving that which is most precious to Him to save a wretch like me. Namely His son.
But none of this argues that the local church organization should be focusing on trying to change society. Again, it is the individual, walking in the power of God’s Spirit, who will effect a change in society- one changed heart at a time – but only as the individuals’ hearts are changed by God. They can work in groups (for instance, you might have had better success in your efforts if the men you selected were real live born again men with a solid hold on what it means to be a Christian – a heart for Christ) rather than someone who has a “heart for social justice.”
I get the impression, from your reading list and comments you have made (leaning toward Liberal Theology) that you are something of a social Christian. Thus the insistence that the church organization address the ills of society, and the false separation between the Apostles and Jesus.
You really should make up your mind. Is all of the Bible good for training in righteousness or just the Gospels and the words of Jesus? Are the words of the Jesus’ disciples (Peter, Paul, John) as inspired as the word of Jesus? If they are, then they are fair game. If you don’t believe they are, we have a bigger problem than whether or not the church organization should be involved in social programs.
Remember, my objection is not to the individuals banding together to impact the world, by objection is the creation of “ministries” for prideful little ministers to cluck and fight over for position, influence, and self-importance.
Here’s a litany of books:
“How Then Should We Liver”, “True Spirituality”, “The Christian Manifesto” all by Francis Scheaffer.
“He Who is Spiritual” by Lewis Sperry Chafer.
“Charity and Its Fruit” by Jonathan Edwards.
Each of these writers helps the Christian to understand how the Bible should guide the beliver in living his life to the glory of God. A church filled with that kind of Christian would make a difference in the worst of cities.
Melvin Jones