... we had a good day at Saanichton Bible Fellowship yesterday, as what I dubbed Mustard Seed Sunday @ the SBF went off really well. Chris Pollock, the seed's youth pastor, spoke in the morning, with a few comments about the tragedy on Victoria's streets this last week. More on that in the next post. We followed up with a Mustard Seed Street Church benefit concert, with the Seed's Praise Band kicking things off, and a variety of Seed artists, poets, musicians contributing. Amazing the tentacles of ministry an intentional street church must develop ... food bank, Hope Healing Farm, youth outreach, back-to-school supplies, counseling, advocacy, social assistance navigation, you name it.
This is may favourite picture of my buddy Jordon Cooper, taken by his almost 9 year old son Mark. One of the smartest people I know, and that's saying something, Jordon is a voracious reader. And a sage football fan, as both of us are Denver Broncos and Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans. Anyhow Coop works these days in a leadership capacity in a Salvation Army shelter in Saskatoon, SK. He just had an article published in NextWave magazine on the complexities of homelessness, and a way faith communities could be part of the solution. Between his intellect, his reading, and his blogging, he's honed quite an articulate voice on things.
Maybe you will find this helpful as you process your locale's homelessness challenge?
dlc
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ps. Ron Cole has weighed in on this as well, spurred on by the Coop's article. Well, maybe catalyzed by it? Ron is always thinking about this stuff, but he wrote some of it down here after reading Jordon's article. And then Randy commented on it, and Ron replied ...
... driving up to the SBF this morning I heard the Eagles' version Joe Walsh's 1979 song In the City on 100.3 the Q. Guess I was thinking about urban ministry as this Sunday morning Chris Pollock, youth pastor @ the Mustard Seed Street Church is speaking, and later on Sunday evening various bands, artists, poets and staff from the Seed and Hope Farm will be sharing at a benefit concert. I also just finished reading Gary Haugen's book Just Courage. He is the founder of International Justice Mission. So maybe, just maybe these guys are getting through ... to me?
... a couple of years ago, as I was trying to think through what Lambrick Park Church's role, as a suburban church, might be in our city, I had a similar experience while driving. Michael McDonald's Taking it to the Streets song on the Doobie Bros album titled Taking it to the Streets ... hit me differently, as more than just background lyrics. I eventually wrote to Michael ( I can call him Michael, right? ) and got some background to why he wrote the song, as he did, when he did. I also invited Tom Oshiro, Executive Director of Mustard Seed Ministries to speak @ Lambrick in July 2006, and he was graciously blunt about what the Lambrick's of Victoria could do as partners-in-ministry with the Seed. If you hit that link you can find your way around to Tom's challenge to LPC.
But I digress ...
... it has been a tough week in the city of Victoria. For people on the streets of this beautiful city. For people who work with, serve and love these folks. Maybe the reminder from Joe Walsh is a bit of what we need ...
Somewhere out there on that horizon Out beyond the neon lights I know there must be somethin' better But there's nowhere else in sight It's survival in the city When you live from day to day City streets don't have much pity When you're down, that's where you'll stay In the city, oh, oh. In the city
I was born here in the city With my back against the wall Nothing grows, and life ain't very pretty No one's there to catch you when you fall Somewhere out on that horizon Faraway from the neon sky I know there must be somethin' better And I can't stay another night In the city, oh, oh. In the city
... over the last few months I've heard all kinds of comments, ideas, questions, endorsements and slams regarding the Shack, which apparently just reached the milestone ( of sorts, I guess? ) of #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for the 36th straight week. Seems there are 3 categories of response: love it, hate it, undecided.
It actually took me two, maybe three tries to get into it, and then to finish it. Not sure why. But I did manage to read it all. Mind you, I think I was sitting at the end of the dock on Shawnigan Lake with a pitcher of lemonaid beside me, and the waverunners zipping across the narrows 150 m out.
Stephen Shields is a 'blogger I respect, who has done a lot of things in ministry and career, and he has posted this review . Might be one of the saner of the handful I've read. Maybe this will help you help one of the many people reading, and asking, about it?
... World Vision Canada brought Tony Campolo into town yesterday, seeing as he ( and everyone else it seems ) is in BC for MissionsFest this weekend. Not going to get into what he said much here, except to say that he pretty much told a fairly conservative evangelical crowd that any dreams, desires, demands and deliberations towards overtaking government with christians was doomed. Why? because that is a power grab, and position comes with very little actual authority. He challenged us to earn authority through intentional step-by-step acts of radical and sacrificial love. That eventually could change structures and systems and governments, but that is the place to start.
Over the past couple of years MTodd and I have been having a related conversation, although Mike claims Bono started it. Maybe the progression away from positional power to getting things done is ... power > authority > influence > currency? Mike's original question to me was ... compare Michael Jordan and Bono. What have they done for good with the incredible wealth, voice, profile and hearing they have? MJ has a basketball team, some gambling debts, a ba-zillion shoes named after him, and a million kids who were wannabe NBA stars. Bono has other stuff ... he gets invited to Presidential prayer breakfasts. If he has plans to be near Italy, he mentions it to the Vatican, and they say "come on over' ... sheesh, Bill Hybels flew across the Atlantic to interview Mr. U2 for a segment at a WillowBack Summit a couple of summers ago.
I am intrigued by trying to understand how real currency is earned, developed and used strategically as a stewardship of the resources any of us has been given. A good palce to start may be back at a much earlier post here on Kipling's poem "IF" ...
... maybe you've seen this ad pop up on your FaceBook page? I had kind of ignored ancestry.ca until yesterday, when the teaser line 'why are you such a control freak?' got my attention, not that it occurred to me that I was a c-freak of course!
... however, I have known a few, worked for a couple ( you never actually work with c-freaks, only for them, especially in their minds :) and I am sure have acted like one on occasion. As usual, I often wonder/ponder what exactly drives a real control freak? what makes them think they know the answers? or that they have the global corner on implementation? or that there is really only one right way to do something ... theirs.
... I was on a staff once with a person who others ( not on staff ) declared was a control freak. I begged to differ ... they might have been a quality control freak, but that's a bit different. Another time I was beyond surprised when someone I had seen lead in a macro manner, big picture and mature, tended to micro-manage a project or event nearly to death ( or was it us that were near death? ). I kept asking myself ... 'what did I miss? why had I never seen those tendencies before?' only to come up lame ... no answers, no insights, no valid reasons.
... my mentor David was probably the one who modelled anti-control-freakness for me back in the early 1990's. He had an amazing ability to accept big projects from 'the boss' and break them down into manageable chunks for his own staff. He delegated appropriately, ran interference when things got off track, was available for consultation almost whenever staff deemed it necessary, and ... I realized many years later, never actually yanked the rope that he gave us to run with things, even when they went sideways. He took responsibility and 'credit' for the messes, as well as the successes. That's a great staff environment.
... Jim Collins has researched and written extensively about the kind of leadership that sets the stage, builds great teams, communicates the reason for whatever your organization is about, then gets out of the way ... he calls it Level 5 leadership ... pretty rare, pretty unique, pretty great to work with.
... the last several years I have been intrigued by what urban, and/or inner-city ministry is supposed to look like, mostly from a suburban church perspective. I think much of my wondering 'jelled' when I was able to visit Ron M in Montreal, a career street minister, and then Greg P in Toronto, founder and pastor of Sanctuary. Then, as Victoria's homeless situation grew more and more desperate, and Vancouver's gained profile in he face of development for the 2010 Olympics ( and a handful of friends working on the DTES ... Down Town East Side ), and a combination of city and provincial politicians landed a proposed shelter next door to a good friend's place of business, well ... there was no escaping it. Not that I wanted to, but I couldn't break it down into manageable, understandable, wrap-my-brain-around-it chunks. All that to say ... while a very, very visual learner/processor, every once in a while something 'audio' rings a bell, gets my attention, makes me sit up and take notice. The last couple of years I have been paying more attention to the lyrics in my generation's songs ... and seeing some kind of social conscience, or some questioning, taking place.
About a year ago I heard the Doobie Bros 1976 hit "Takin' it to the Streets" on the Q100.3 ... and yes, I do have it on a cassette somewhere. However, I heard it very differently this time around, not just Michael McDonald's catchy* tune, but something else. When I got home I downloaded it from iTunes, and listened to it carefully, again and again. Finally I wrote to a MMcD fan site, and actually got a response ( below ) to my query about Michael's motivation in writing "Takin' it to the Streets" ... so here's another challenge, following up on the Desmond Tutu quote below, as we turn the corner into 2009. With both new mayors of Victoria and Vancouver running election campaigns, and winning, on a priority platform of addressing the homelessness issue ... our posture will be critical. McDonald put it this way ... "I ain't blind, and I don't like what I think I see" ... maybe addressing the do-gooder we have the answers for you approach, which is something Canadian Food for the Hungry has beaten out of some of us, in a necessary kind of way.
Here is a YouTube version at some tribute to MMcD by some of his friends. A better one is here, but the YouTube embedding has been disabled, but you decide.
You don't know me but I'm your brother. I was raised here in this living hell. You don't know my kind in your world. Fairly soon the time will tell.
You, telling me the things you're gonna do for me. I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see. Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, no more need for runnin', takin' it to the streets.
Take this message to my brother. You will find him everywhere. Wherever people live together, tied in poverty's despair.
Oh, you, telling me the things you're gonna do for me. I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see. Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, no more need for runnin', takin' it to the streets. Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, no more need for hidin', takin' it to the streets. Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the...
Oh, you, telling me the things you're gonna do for me. I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see. Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, no more need for runnin', takin' it to the streets. Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets.
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Here's the background ...
Hi Don
You are in luck - we do have a bit of insight about "Takin' It To The Streets" from the man himself - Mike told us this one time when we met him for a fanzine interview.
"Takin' it to the Streets" was based on a paper his sister had been writing for college about urban renewal, civil rights, Martin Luther King and equality. These things were very current down in St Louis when Mike was a teenager and it is clear that they affected him deeply. I think he was saying that people - you and I - have the real power to affect change not the politicians ... we just need to take it to the people - take it to the streets.
Mike has also told us that he was moved by Steve Wonder on this subject (on such tracks as Living For The City for example) and also Marvin Gaye's seminal album - "What's Going On". Incidently, Marvin was Mike's main vocal inspiration - the layered vocal technique which Gaye invented - taking all the parts of the harmony himself with 3 or 4 over dubs. You can see this most obviously in Mike's early work for Steely Dan on tracks such as Peg (album: Aja). As a personal aknowledgement of this, Mike has regularly sung What's Goin On during his live gigs for over fifteen years.
... after several years of listening in on, and learning lots from, a handful of 'blogs ... I thought maybe it was time I took the 'blogging idea out for a test drive. We'll just have to see.
... just realized it has been almost exactly two months since i wandered over here to post anything. sorry ...
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