Thursday, August 30, 2007

The unspoken consequences of urban churches

There is an unspoken consequence of urban churches that is not talked about and I came face to face to it today. Recently in Boston there have been a number of incidences where small or not so small urban churches, mainly in Dorchester, have been causing problems. Mostly building code violations, and noise and parking complaints. These problems crop up when church plants try to make a house into a church (building code violations), or when a large existing church moves into a new neighborhood (noise and parking problems).

This dynamic was discusses at a Boston City Council meeting this afternoon that I attended. At first I was going to just watch but I decided to speak up when I discovered that there was no one there to speak on the religious communities behalf.

There were four people from the public their to testify. The other three gave vary discouraging testimony. To be honest I was kind of ashamed to be their after hearing them talk about how churches in their neighborhood had been negatively impacting them. One man, through a series of events, may actually have to sell his house because he can't keep tenets due to the actions of a local church.

My comments were basically as follows:
  • I'm saddened and discouraged to hear about the experiences people have had with these local churches.
  • Most Churches want to impact there neighborhood for the better and they can be a catalyst for change in neighborhoods like Dorchester.
  • There is a lack of understanding from Church's as to building codes requirements and city regulations.
  • I suggested that the Building Inspections Department and the Boston Redevelopment Authority work with the Emmanuel Gospel center to help reach out to churches to help them better understand their impact on neighborhoods.
In the end I do not know if I should have spoken up or not. I'm afraid that I might have sounded like I was justifying the obviously bad, and sometimes down right mean behavior that these churches have exhibited. This is one of the reasons that I left my church. We sometimes forget to think about the neighborhoods that we are in. We get caught up in getting more people in the seats that we forget how that might effect our neighbors. We let our services go a little longer because the worship is good, or the spirit is present, not thinking that it might be to late to be playing amplified music.
It can be very easy to forget to love your neighbor, while you are busy loving God.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Jim and Casper go to Church: Book Review

Have you ever sat in a church service and thought "That opening song was good I give it a 6", or "Man, that sermon was bad I give it a 2, what was he talking about." If so I would highly suggest picking up Jim and Casper go to Church. In this book Pastor Jim Henderson, no not the Muppet guy, and Matt Casper, the friendly atheist, visit 12 church around the country, from traditional to post-modern to house church's to "critique" the church experience. They have even go as far as to extend this idea on a website called Church Rater.

The strength of this book lies in Casper's frank openness and his understanding of Jesus. I would go so far as to say that Christians could learn a lot from Casper, he understands Jesus mission and the disconnect of Sunday mornings from it. Jim plays a key role too in that he doesn't try to defend what Casper is seeing. He doesn't apologize for that is done in the name of Jesus, in fact many time he agrees with Casper.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Life Lessons #16

This weekend I went camping with two inner city youths. Their ages are 16 and 17, but don't let those numbers fool you, it only represents the years they have spend on this earth. They actually act much younger. When you hang out with two boys who's favorite conversations are about girls, the many ways to start a camp fire, and dogs that look line Arnold Schwarzenegger you learn a couple of things long the way.

1) Always carry a lead pipe with you. When I picked up the boys on Saturday morning. The younger brother had a 2 foot long, inch and a half diameter section of lead pipe sticking out of his bag. I asked him why he felt he needed to bring it along but couldn't get a straight answer out of him. I can only assume that he was just "being prepared."

2) Teenage boys don't like long car rides. I was a little confused while driving to the first trail head, and this resulted in a 15 minute longer car ride. Along our detour we drove past some people swimming in a creek. The older brother, in a rather load and demanding voice, informed me that he would like to go swimming. I politely informed him that today we were going to hike to a waterfall and tomorrow we could go swimming to witch he replied, "I hate you", in the same loud voice. Que awkward pause and I believe that I now know what it feel like to be a father.

3) Attention Deficit Disorder can be a wonderful thing. About five minutes after my first fatherhood experience, we arrived a the trail head. The both brothers jumped out of the car and were talking gleefully about how they were going to break sticks, and throw rocks into the stream, completely forgetting about the "I hate you" incident that took place only 5 minutes earlier.

4) I, and my dog are getting older. In 10 months, 26 days, and 2 hours, I will turn 30, not that I am counting mind you. My dog is 10 years old. I believe that is about 65 in dog years. After arriving home we both enjoyed an aspirin and a nap.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Faith & Action

The following excerpt is from, Jim and Casper go to Church. "What I'm trying to say is I'm hearing a promise of personal happiness through a series of things not do rather than things to do. I guess you'd say that it's a call not to act, rather than to act."

I have been thinking about this idea the past few months. Christians have been known more for what they do not do, instead of for what they do. They don't smoke, they don't drink, they don't have sex outside of marriage. But what are they to do?

How about being know for radically inclusive community, abundant giving, and loving your neighbor. Instead of inspiring people and spurring them on to what Jesus called "The Kingdom of God", we confront them with problems in their lives that they already know exist.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Summer Planting

Yesterday we had the final summer planting in the park near my house. We planted a cherry tree and a Japaneses maple, and a butterfly garden. (Sorry no pictures at this time) In total 14 people from the neighborhood showed up. We more than doubled our numbers from last year! Unfortunately, just like last year the group was mostly white. Try as we might we just can't seam to break down the race barrier.

I did notice something while I walked my dog this afternoon in the park. There were lots of African American neighbors enjoying the park, at the basket ball court, playing with their children in the playground, or just setting talking on the benches. (I even saw a policeman playing basketball with some kids!) It makes me wonder if a project based approch is the right idea. Perhaps a more layed back social approch would work better.

Although, it might be harder to white neighbors to come out of their houses to mingle with their African American Neighbors.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The Jena 6

There has been a very interesting race trial going on in the small town of Jena. I am suprised that it hasn't gotten much attention in the main stream media. Below is part 1 of a 6 part segment. You can watch the rest here on Youtube.



I am shocked at the response from the white community to the actions of the white students. We still have a long way to go to overcome race relations in this country.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Childhood

My childhood felt fairly normal. I grew up in a three bedroom home outside of town. We were surrounded by family, my maternal grandmother lived on a farm at the end of the end of the road, and aunts and uncles lives in the two houses next to us. I have fond summer memories of riding my bike with the other neighborhood kids and playing in the woods out back of my house. When we were older we would drive down to the creak to go swimming.

Nothing ever upset our lives, there was never really any strife. My parents were and still are married. Aside from my sister getting caught smoking, my sister and I didn't get in to trouble. We had some typical family emergency's to deal with, the death of my grandfather, and my father's thyroid cancer, but I would like to believe every family has things like that to deal with.

This morning I read about an other kind of childhood. A childhood that ended in the death of an 8 year old. I have know about this kind of childhood for a while. Sense moving to Dorchester two years ago I have been surrounded by it.

This family has generations of problems, broken relationships, violence and hurt. Some would say that what is needed is "Parental Accountability". When I think back to my childhood I would agree with those people. If I was a troubled youth my parents would straighten me out. On the other hand my parents had steady jobs, owned their own house, and had lots of loving family members surrounding them. They the had the resources, or access to resources, to deal with life's problems.

What does a parent do when they haven't has a steady job in years?
When they didn't graduate from high school?
When they have a criminal record?
When they have their own drug addictions?
How can we claim "Parental Accountability" for a family that looks like this?

While mentoring a young boy in my neighborhood for the past year I have been able to catch a glimpse into his home life. It's not the best, his brother is a drug addict. He spends lots of time unsupervised, and there are few positive role models around him.
I could stand back in judgement and talk to his foster mother about parental responsibility, but every time I talk to her, it is obvious that she loves him, and that she wants the best for him. She also knows that she can't give him everything that he needs.

When I was a child I spend lots of time with my grandfather, every morning before school, and summer vacations too. Actually, I feel more attached to him than to my parents. Sometimes I feel like he really raised me. Not every family has that gift, someone who pick up the slack for you. Maybe the nuclear family is a myth. One father, one mother, and 2.5 children is not all we need. Sometime we need that extra hand to help out. Sometimes it can mean the difference between a healthy childhood and a bad one.

Friday, August 3, 2007

They came from another decade

Tonight I had the pleasure of taking in the sounds of musicians from decades past. George Thorogood and the destroyers, opened up for none other than Brian Adams, at they Boston Pavilion. I actually enjoyed George's set, I knew most of the songs and they were pretty good. Although they forgot that they are in there 60's and that they aren't sex symbols any more, so it's kind of skeevy when they make sexual gestures and innuendos.

As for Brian Adams, I don't really enjoy his music. Really the only reason I went was because my coworkers and I got in for free, and got free drinks and food, with tickets payed for by a corporate sponsor. It actually made me feel kind of sad for the musicians, Rock and Roll is now brought to you by Interface Carpet.

You can't argue with cookies




Here is a fun video that explains how our government spends it's money with cookies!