Earlier this year, Sun Ministries
hosted three groups of volunteers, consisting of individuals and
student groups from Georgia, Indiana, Texas, and as close as East St.
Louis. They came through a ministry called CityLights, which hosts
groups from all over the country, teaching them and sending them to
churches, ministries, and individuals throughout the city of St.
Louis. They sent us groups three weeks in a row.
We have several ways of engaging
volunteers – from scheduled work days open to anyone, to hosting
groups in our Leadership center for a week or longer. But regardless
of the nature of their time with us, we very much want volunteers
and visitors to understand the motivation behind the labor they're
engaging in. It is borne out of the Gospel of the Kingdom, the
Gospel Jesus preached. Lay down your life, take up your cross, give
up your possessions, share your resources, care for those in need,
live obediently. We feel that God is doing a unique work here to
reform His church and renew the inner cities of America. We've spoken
much of the model of pastoring your community, and we are convinced
it is the thing God has led us in to. It is also a model whose
principles could be taken to other contexts. We do a lot of
“contextualizing” for volunteers in order to communicate the idea
of pastoring your community. We generally start the time off with a
tour of our neighborhood, properties, and businesses, explaining to
them the motivations behind our work and the history of the area.
For longer projects, we break up teaching into strategic points in
our work, using the work to contextualize the teaching, and vice
versa. We want volunteers to know why the work exists, but also to go
home knowing that they participated in the work God is doing here and
helped us care for this neighborhood.
If you are interested in volunteering with us, we have two work days scheduled. Check our
facebook for more info.
I took some time to interview three of
the most engaged students from the first of the three groups. Most
of our visiting volunteers ask questions, but the questions asked by
these groups were incredibly wide ranging, and some were deeper and
harder than most. Here is just a sampling of what we were asked over
the course of the three weeks:
How do you guard against
gentrification?
With all your physical
responsibilities, how do you address spiritual development amongst
yourselves?
How will you raise up managers for your
businesses?
What do you miss most about your former
life?
What is true justice, and how do we
actively engage in that?
How do you stand against internal
pride?
What does recreation look like for you?
Isn't some of this work meaningless?
How do you reconcile things like voting
and engaging politics?
Where are your black ministry partners?
(and this question we'll return to later)
The questions showed us that some
volunteers were yearning and struggling to understand the nature of
our ministry and the lifestyle it requires, but furthermore, in my
opinion, they were longing to understand their faith and discover how
to live that out in the world today, how to resolve Christ's teaching
with their concerns and passions.
I interviewed three of the most engaged
students to get their thoughts on their time with us. The common,
and most prominent, concern of the three students was a lack of
African-American leadership in the ministries they witnessed in St.
Louis. Racism is no throw-away issue. Besides being a centuries-old
problem in the US, it has gained more prominence lately, especially
in the St. Louis area.
Josh's Interview
 |
| This photo was obviously not taken with an iPhone. I forgot to get a shot of Josh. |
The first volunteer I will introduce to
you is Josh Fort. He was the one who asked where our black ministry
partners were. Being a young black man himself, I responded with,
“Well, you're here.” He was not satisfied with that answer, and
likely with good reason. We spent about an hour or so over lunch
discussing that question with the whole group, and you will hear that
concern mentioned in the other two interviews.
Josh had much boldness, asking us
within the first few minutes of meeting us how we avoided becoming
prideful and controlling. His boldness, and desire to understand
himself, his faith, and what he was observing, led him to ask many
solid, probing questions throughout the week.
Josh said, "I appreciate you all's holistic vision
for pastoring the community and seeking to develop the community
through programs that don't just care for the spiritual needs of the
community but also care for the physical needs in tangible and
dignifying ways."
Josh explained how the lack of black
leadership caused him to question his own ability to become that
leader in ministry and elsewhere, dispite a long list of
accomplishments and leadership positions. When asked if there was
anything that could or should be done to address this lack of
diversity, he said yes. “Churches and ministries should seek out
leaders in communities and find other minority leaders in other
organizations and find ways to work together and serve each other.
That racial reconciliation shouldn't look like trying to get other
people to become like you, but to move forward in the unity we both
have in Christ and serve each other.”
Finally, I asked Josh if he's learned
anything. “I've learned that God can work, and accomplish His work
in unlikely ways with unlikely people.”
Bria's Interview
Bria had a lot to say, in my opinion,
because she had a lot of passion. When I asked her about her thoughts on
her time with us, she said, “Context is really important to me.
So, the first day may have seemed really boring to everyone else, but
I absolutely needed that, because we had no context coming in before.
And so I didn't want to come to a place and feel like I was saving
something, you know what I mean? Even though it did take all day, I
needed that.”
She said it was very helpful to see not
just the buildings we own, but the neighborhood as a whole. She
expressed that at other ministries she's been to, there's an
assumption that volunteers haven't experienced poverty, or lived in
neighborhoods like Hyde Park. However, Bria grew up poor, in
Chicago, and has experienced racism. She felt like the expected
audience with many ministries were people who had not experienced
poverty, racism, and hardship. Because of this, there is the risk on
the part of inner-city ministries to assume their audience is
ignorant of the realities of race and poverty, and Bria feels like
she doesn't have a place in what is being presented. I asked her if
there was a way to address this without being belittling or awkward.
At first she said she didn't know, but that some preparation with
groups to find where they're coming from might be helpful. She also
admitted that it might just always be awkward, but it's worth asking.
In our discussion of how God is undoing racism through calling
people to His design, Bria asked how people respond whenever we
discuss topics such as white privilege, noting that the members of
her group were not discussing it.
Throughout our time with Bria, she was
continuously introducing herself to our employees, shaking their
hands, thanking them, asking them questions. This is because she
cares for people and truly wanted to connect with and hear from them.
When I asked if she had learned
anything, her response revealed even more about her passions, stating
that it's okay when you're 100% sure you're doing what you're
supposed to be doing, but people don't like you.
Overall, Bria was probably the most
vocal and interactive student, and her passion reminded me that I
have to be careful to listen to those who have come alongside me to
help in the labor.
Tuesday's interview
Finally, I'd like to introduce you to
Tuesday Whittington. Though Tuesday was quiet and observant
throughout most of the trip, she asked one of the hardest to answer
questions, “What is true justice, and how do we live that out in an
active way?” Her question was in response to Zechariah 7:9-10, and
certainly carried the weight of the pain caused by racism and related
issues that have been coming to light recently.
There seems to have been a recurring
theme, at least with these three volunteers, of a desire to
understand context: to know the motivations behind our work, the way
we approach different problems, and really, the root causes and
hidden effects of the problems themselves. They all seemed to share
a concern for humanity and how best to care for people in the context
of the Gospel. Tuesday felt that causes and effects of poverty are
generally disconnected from how the church ministers to the poor.
Tuesday also returned to the concern
with a lack of black leadership in the ministries she had seen here
in St. Louis. All three volunteers seemed to see black leadership as
vital to ministering in these areas and preaching the Gospel. I
explained to Tuesday how God is using racial tension to bring
humility to us, and to those we work with, and to bring to light the
things that hide behind racism: pain, fear, doubt, pride, protection,
poverty, systemic injustice...and even how cultures affect the gospel
and how it is perceived and communicated. These things are present,
but seldom explicitly expressed.
Tuesday shared how racial division is
close to home for her, as she comes from a racially mixed family.
She has seen that the only way to overcome this obstacle is to come
together.
My thoughts
In the end, I was extremely grateful
for these three young people and their desire to press deeper into
obstacles and motivations of ministry, and of simply living with God
here on earth. At the end of each groups trip, I asked them a couple
questions:
First, What will you do when the
honeymoon is over?
By this I mean that there is prevalent
in America today a romanticized view of ministry, focusing on our
fulfillment, our purpose, our sense of meaning. There is a way to be
put on a pedestal, to be admired, to become a celebrity for making
good sermons, or writing good books, or doing cool things. There is
the even bigger danger of looking to do the thing you really like to
do. That may not be the path God has for you for ministry. So what
happens after the initial excitement of ministry fades, and it become
a daily reality to lay down your life for the sake of others? What
happens when it's you and Jesus sitting across the kitchen table from
each other trying to make sense of this new life together?
The second question is related: If your
church, school, or ministry organization ceased to exist tomorrow,
what would your faith life look like?
Are you reliant upon an outside source
to give you ministry activity, or even a relationship with God?
Why did you come on this trip?
I'm interested in their motivations,
and hope they're aware of them. Perhaps the best answer to that
question I've heard is one student who said that the previous year,
God had told him to go on a mission trip, and he went to myrtle beach
instead. He didn't want to repeat that mistake.
If all you had was the Bible to inform
you, what would you desire in church?
We ask this because our motivations for
ministry are the same the guide and encourage us in our daily walk
with our Lord and fellow Christians. We are looking for God's
design, for His working through the Body of Christ to minister here
on the earth. If your relationship with God and other believers
isn't on a good foundation, then your won't be as effective when you
go out into the world to minister.
The interviews were recorded on March
10, 2016.
This recording contains the songs:
“Satellite Kite” and “A Bridge
Between” by Beautiful Eulogy, from their album, Satellite Kite,
available at humblebeast.com. Used by permission.
“Testimony Song” by Reformation
Sound. Used by permission
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