Dr. King and Me

When I was in college I began reading more on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I remember being deeply challenged and changed when I read his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." He wrote it, obviously, from jail to several white prominent Alabama clergy who had "published an open letter earlier... that called on King to allow the battle for integration to continue in the local and federal courts, and warned that King's nonviolent resistance whould have the effec tof inciting civli disturbances."

I want to encourage you to take a moment today in honor of Dr. King to read this profound letter.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf

Dr. King challenged the apathetic "white moderate" christians and "white church" who at the time did not participate in the struggle for racial equality and often criticized the non-violent action of Dr. King and those with him. Listen to what he says...

"In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, 'Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern,' and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular."

This quote and many others you will find in this letter began to stir something in my soul and still does. "The church on the sideline" is still too often the norm when it comes to the still existing racial and economic injustice that exists in many impoverished black communities. In Baltimore, where I live, this can still be seen by taking a drive through the city. In any direction you go it won't be long before you will see impoverished communities one after another.

I believe there is a place in the church for a holy prophetic anger that moves us to action and I pray that Dr. King's letter, our own Biblical reflection, and observation of the existing racial and economic disparities that exist today would move us to action!

Please view this brief video a friend of mine, Mike Shive, made in honor of Dr. King
http://www.dvxs.com/video/mlkvideo-wmv.wmv

A blunt and a Conversation

I live in a great neighborhood. It is called Lauraville and is in North East Baltimore near Morgan State University. In a recent article it was referred to as one of Baltimore's more 'undiscovered' communities... meaning you can still get a large single family home for an affordable price.

Anyway, we love it and have enjoyed getting to know our neighbors one of whom is a single mom with several young men/teenagers living in the house. In case you haven't been around young black men in Urban America recently... one goal of these guys is basically to appear hard. So many of them don't know how to respond when their new neighbor does something which many of us consider to be normal... that is act friendly toward them.

I am the guy who yells across the street, "What's up man." I usually get a strange look and if I am lucky a nod and a "whassup" back. However, one of these young cats (slang for young men) has always been extra friendly with me. It seems like anytime we are outside at the same time he makes it a point to holler across the street at me. For some reason he wants to know me and hang out.

On New Years Eve I saw him out front and went across the street to talk with him. I found out I am about 10 years older than him and he recently got fired from his job but had found another one at a local pizza joint. He promised to give me 50% off on pizza. He asked me if I smoked to which I replied "yes" because I thought he was talking about cigars. Then I noticed he was referring to the blunt of marajuana he had in his hand to which I replied, "no." I rarely smoke a cigar and don't smoke weed. He told me of his plans to quit for awhile noting that he was tired of paying for it and that it wasn't helping him much in life. Even still he lit it up and smoked it like it was a cigarette right on the sidewalk in the middle of the afternoon.

I invited him to a new years day party we were having the next day. He didn't show up but promised me he would. I guess I was just glad to get to know this guy and I know somehow a piece of the gospel got through when a 29 year old white family man invites a 19 year old blunt smoking baltimore kid into his home.

One person at a time...

Today as I drove around Baltimore, my heart was burdened for the people here. I kept asking myself and asking God out of a sense of desperation, “How do we reach Baltimore with the good news that Jesus died for them and loves them and is offering forgiveness, joy, and meaning for life now and for eternity?”

The answer is… one person at a time.

This past Tuesday we had a New Year’s Day party. We had 34 adults and 21 kids come by. It was great! They all showed up and left sometime between 2 and 6pm. Many of those who came were from our church and some were a mix of people I know in Baltimore. But we also had some of our neighbors and a friend of Miriam’s from school come with her family. It was great to see a mingling of Christians and those who don’t yet know Christ all in my house watching football and eating food. I was able to have some spiritual conversations with my friends and neighbors but mostly we just enjoyed each other, talked about life, and football. Through Christmas cookies, ham, and noisy kids upstairs I think some gospel seeds were planted.

Last week I found out that one of the fathers I know from Miriam and Samuel’s school… his fiancé had just given birth to a boy. I congratulated him and then brought him a meal. It is hard taking care of dinner when a newborn is around so it is a common practice in many churches that to bring dinners over for the family so they don’t have to deal with cooking. Many new parents who are unchurched don’t have anyone helping out. So it is an easy thing to do to show someone the love of Jesus through a frozen lasagna and bag of salad. He was blessed and very appreciative that we thought of them and even called me later to thank me again. Another seed was planted.

I know we can hold great events that will draw a crowd (like Jesus did) and this is also important when we think about planting churches and reaching people for Christ. However, I think what we need most is an army of Christians living out their lives missionally week in and week out sharing their lives and sharing their homes with those who don’t yet know Jesus. This is how we reach this city… one person at a time.