Starting Something in the 'Hood - by Doug Hartman
"You know I don't like to read, Doug, " he said, his face turned away. The deal was that this late-comer to the tutoring program would read for 15 minutes and then he could play pool. He shifted the basketball in his hands slightly, considering his options. "C'mon," I encouraged him, "just sit down here for a minute and read anything you'd like, and then we can play pool." The arrangement still didn't strike him as a good deal. That was no surprise to me, because I have helped him read before. Midway through his 9th grade year, he has a reading level perhaps that of a second grader. Is he literate? Well sort of. Somehow he has slid through the cracks of our educational system, and he will almost certainly continue to do so unless someone stubbornly steps in, intent on altering his course. Assuming he makes it to the end of his high school "education", he will likely be handed a certificate of attendance, and he maybe even a congratulatory pat on the back. Then what? His older brother is in prison right now, serving a couple-year sentence for drug trafficking or possession. Suspended more often than not and told at home that he better shape up or he will end up in jail just like his no-good brother, this kid faces a hard future, encumbered more than many of us can even comprehend. What kind of life do we honestly expect him to make for himself?
"Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'." In the movie Men In Black, Will Smith ("J") spoke these words, taunting a giant alien cockroach. In light of myriad situations like this kid's, I repeat them as a challenge to the Christian community. That people like him "won't be nothin'" is a forgone conclusion, if-and only if-we as followers of Christ sit idly by, pointing fingers. Perhaps he and the many others could be something, if we would just be willing to start it.
This story is grim, but unfortunately it is not unique. A majority of the students we work with are at least a couple grades behind in their learning skills, despite being in the appropriate grade for their age. But the issue is not simply one of education. In a study of developmental assets, 40 different characteristics were identified, ranging from behavioral boundaries at school, to self-esteem and a sense of purpose, to safety and participation in spiritual activities. The study found that if children have more than 30 of these assets present in their lives as they grow up, it is almost guaranteed that they will become productive members of society. If, however, there are less than 10, they will almost as certainly end up in prison, have some sort of chemical addiction, and/or living in poverty as adults. I would conservatively estimate that, of the kids we work with, only 1 in 10 have 30 or more of these positive developmental assets in their lives. A more thorough evaluation might find that the home/community environments meet the criterion for only one or two of the 50 to 75 kids. It is no exaggeration to say that their futures and their lives hang in the balance.
Despite the political mantra of "no child being left behind" and the incessant jabbering about improved education, I am here to tell you that there are children being left behind. Plenty of them. And forgive me, but I don't think it is an unintentional nor accidental phenomenon. Is it because we are unable to effect change or because we are unwilling? Is it that we are paralyzed or that we are blind? I know well the disdain and fear associated by our society with the "hood," despite the cheery and brotherly sentiment often doled out on the news. Many of us think scornfully about the inner-city: the crime, the poverty, the poor schools, the drugs, the violence and the general uncleanness are easy stereotypes, quickly endorsed and used to justify our distancing. Oh, outwardly we don't do anything. Heaven forbid. But we'd surely prefer to take I-270 around town than risk driving down Main St. at night, never mind the back alleys. People actually live on those back alleys, though, and they don't have the luxury of taking a different route. We think it's terrible that those people down there have bad schools and drug activity on every corner. "Somebody ought to do something about that," we may even say, as long as it is understood that that somebody is somebody else. If we will be honest with ourselves, I think we will admit that we are displeased with the "ugliness" of the inner-city. But, we think nothing of the neglect and disregard that has been sown here. The avoidance and contempt is no great surprise to me from the unbelieving, pagan society. But the degree to which this perception has described the church is both incomprehensible and unacceptable.
Philip Yancey, in talking about the mission and message of Jesus Christ, comments on the "great reversal" that is foundational to his teaching-and, I might add, his person.
"Normally in this world we look up to the rich, the beautiful, the successful. Grace, however, introduces a world of new logic. Because God loves the poor, the suffering, the persecuted, so should we. Because God sees no undesirables, neither should we."

What a world of difference there would be if we, the body of Christ, would admit our blunders and sin in this area, allow the grace of God to heal our eyes and attitudes, and then start something in the vein of this "new logic."
There is hope. In many of these kids' lives, something indeed has been started. A few examples: two relatively new girls named their first day "at tutoring" in their list of the five most important events in 2000. They've come almost every day since. Before a meal on a Tuesday evening last November, I asked if anybody remembered what we had talked about during the camping trip which was last June. They proceeded to rattle off all three points. We have been working on multiplication tables, because nobody knew them. Now, our kids tell us that they have beaten all their classmates in school two or three times before missing just one. Looking at the Gospels, we see that "Jesus gravitated toward the poor and the rejected ones, the riffraff;" he noticed them and was not afraid to push aside other obligations in his life to meet their needs. In doing so he started something revolutionary in their lives. Perhaps then we can, too.

Chucking the Bean Counter - by Doug Hartman
Rarely, if ever, do we hear someone championing the worth of a given ministry by relating all the ways in which they have been unsuccessful. It is simply unheard of. A street evangelism team does not brag about all the people who laughed at the gospel presentation and walked away. Gideons do not mention the hundreds or thousands of copies of the Scriptures that sit unused in the desk drawer of a motel room or are rolled into cigarettes by the prison inmates. Instead, we are presented with flashy statistics or testimonies about the success of that particular ministry. Ministry presentations, then, become interesting animals, because far more people reject the gospel than those who accept it and follow Christ with reckless abandon. Determined to put a positive bent on things, we may cast such unsuccessful experiences in the realm of seed planting. Or (even worse) we may redefine the goals so that our results prove furiously upbeat: two hundred copies of the Jesus Video were distributed, ninety-two gospel presentations were made, and three thousand tracks were dropped over the jungles of Africa. My point is not necessarily to diminish the worth of these forms of Christian ministry, but simply to draw attention to the fact that we are obsessed with victory and results, often to the detriment of the actual goal. The simple fact is that what we may think of as success and failure are not juxtaposed to each other-they walk hand in hand.
Perhaps unduly influenced by the business world mentality, Christian ministry is often relegated to what amounts to bean counting. If you as the leader of a given ministry want to keep supporters and your retirement, you had better make sure you have some sort of cheery-sounding statistical information, presumably proving the worth of your ministry (and paycheck). Without it, we assume failure and a waste of your God-given finances. I think we need to exercise great caution here, because in this process the failures are by default relegated to a place of insignificance or even evil. Is this the only way of approaching ministry? More importantly, is this the correct way?
Two years ago I was preparing the first newsletter for Morning Glory, so I wrote a friend of mine in Chicago and asked for his advice on what to include. John Green, the director of Emmaus Ministries, leads a group of Christians who work exclusively with male prostitutes, trying to reach them with the gospel and transition them off the streets. As one might imagine, his line of work is quite difficult: sometimes years go by before a person will even agree to listen to the gospel. The men they work with suffer from chemical addictions. Many undergo physical and social abuse. They come from broken families. They are homeless. There are even some who have had partial sex changes. They have absolutely no concept of a stable relationship. And there is no telling the amount or degree of spiritual bondage involved. Many men who manage to complete the transitional program later relapse into their old lifestyles, despite what we may classify as a dreadful, repugnant life. Tellingly, John advised me not to relate success stories but to share the failures and hardships. The difficulties and problems you experience, he said, are more realistic, more believable. The more I am involved with Urban Connections and the more deeply I become immersed in the neighborhood, the more I have appreciated and understood John's advice.
Though different than what is experienced by those at Emmaus Ministries, everyday life in the inner city often proves to be difficult. And being used by God to affect another person so that they may eventually become an authentic follower of Christ is just plain hard. There are positive elements to what we do, but a very hard neighborhood that produces very hard little kids certainly has a sobering affect on those cheery sounding statistics. At most times it seems that American Christianity wants positive results so much that the reality of the negative ones must be redirected, hidden, or camouflaged. In urban ministry, though, we learn to accept failures and setbacks because they happen constantly. Moreover, we learn that failures are not always the evil "skeletons in the closet" that we might make them out to be. God uses failures. Obviously, failure is not the goal, but God can use them as a seedbed for his purposes.
Here in the inner city, a bizarre mixture of failures and successes is a daily reality. Have we held tutoring sessions four days a week for this entire school year? Yes. Have we noticed improvement? Yes, very much so. Are there children who come to tutoring almost every day who are still failing several subjects and proficiency exams? Yes. Have we held Bible Clubs here for the past two years? Yes. Are the kids learning about the gospel and the people of the Scriptures? Yes, to an extent that is almost bewildering to us. Do the very same children still get suspended for mouthing off to a teacher? Do they get into fights and swear at the top of their lungs walking down the alley right after leaving a Bible club? Yes.
We could share the statistics and go on with life as if it were not human beings we were involved with, but does not this do a disservice to them? To the supporters of this ministry? To the workers and volunteers? I think the problem is not so much with the ministry, the workers, or even the inner city. The problem is the false expectations we bring to situations like this. Not only do we insist on "victory," but we are also impatient. We cannot expect to fly over downtown Columbus, drop some tracts out the plane window and expect all the problems to magically disappear. Problems that took considerable time and energy to create are going to take even more considerable time and energy to redeem. There are no short cuts, and there are no simple solutions. We live in a country where fixing dinner involves punching three buttons on a microwave and patience is defined as the time it actually takes that microwave to cook the food. There is no more destructive attitude to bring to ministry in the inner city. We threw the bean counters out the window at Urban Connections. Success will not be approached, defined nor reported in this manner. We labor towards a deeper end.

Being Defined - by Doug Hartman
The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word culture as follows: "The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought." Every human being is cultural, as culture is the expression of our thoughts about ourselves, what we value, and what we think is worthy of our time and energy. More simply, it is our interpretation of life put into practice. Though the word is not in the Scriptures, much of what God has to say must be set against the backdrop of culture. The relationship between culture and Jesus Christ then becomes one of the most radical, pertinent issues before humanity. What do we live for? How do we relate to other people? Why do we associate with this group or hold this belief and not that? What do we value and why? Ultimately these questions come down to: Who defines us?
Our answer to that question determines everything from how we drive to how we respond when a crisis comes. There is a struggle here, a testing of sorts. Both Jesus Christ and culture attempt to be the ultimate influence and authority over us-in essence, to define us. The struggle is inevitable when viewed from a divine perspective. Cultural systems reflect their members, of course, and when sinful humanity defines itself and sets its own boundaries, then there is indeed a great conflict. The reason why is simple: God seeks to define us and determine our boundaries, the exact same realm of influence in which culture exerts itself. The prerequisite for following Christ is to turn away from culture's influences and to relinquishing that power to God (see Luke 9:23).
Culture may not champion itself as the defining force in our lives, but God certainly recognizes the formidable, persuasive powers it possesses. Paul's exhortation to avoid conforming to the pattern of this world and to be transformed by God (Rom. 12:1-2) assumes the powerful influences of culture. If we remove cultural systems from the world that we are to thrust aside in view of the person and claims of Christ, then we have completely stripped away the meaning and power of Paul's challenge. God wants us to step from under the influences of culture so that we can be a sacrifice dedicated to him.
Though at some levels inanimate, culture nevertheless has the ability to exert tremendous pressure on its members. Despite the opposition and difficulty, God mercifully determines to make something different of us than what we make of ourselves. The cultural definitions of success, failure, personal sacrifice, worth, devotion, and a "balanced life" are completely different than those of God. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord" (Isa. 55:8). So, God calls us out of culture and seeks to redefine us, a process so powerful and extensive that the Bible likens it to being born all over again (Jn. 3:3) and being reconstituted-a completely new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). According to the Scriptures, the old ways and influences being replaced by the new creation of God is the basic meaning of someone being "in Christ". Though we know these things and would probably claim them to be a part of our lives, I think a divine appraisal would reveal people who are characterized much more by the term American than Christ-follower.
That culture and Christ can somehow coexist in the life of the believer is nonsense, but this is our practice. We mix and match, compromising in the effort to produce harmony. What we do not realize is that in compromising we put ourselves back in the position of authority. In compromising, we take defiant steps away from Christ that prove fatal, if they go unchecked. Compromise between sinful human culture and a life wholly devoted to Christ is impossible. God demands the uncompromised allegiance of his followers. Have we forgotten this basic precept of Christianity or do we just find it convenient to ignore?
Cultural systems are incredibly dangerous in that they draw us in and then lull us into a semi-conscious state. We do not scream in protest at the influence of culture. Instead, we sinners actually howl in protest when God questions our association with it. When God critiques our lives and culture in ways that are actually important, he is seen as an intrusion on our "God-given" rights and freedoms. And despite all the nationalistic bluster and "God bless America" sentimentality recently, our culture is no more in line with Jesus Christ than Afghanistan or South Africa during apartheid. All human culture is corrupt. Ours is no innocent bystander. Like the others, it is an aggressive system that subtly positions itself to rule and define people. Our synthesis of Christianity and culture is incongruent and unacceptable. We need repentance and conversion. Specifically, we need conversion to God, allowing him to define us.
All of us will eventually have to give an accounting to God concerning culture. Contrary to how we may think, the testing does not occur at the end of time before the judgment seat of Christ. Instead, the final judgment could aptly be described as an awards ceremony, or-maybe better-an awards banquet. The Scriptures speak of it not as a final exam, but a sifting or separating of the righteous from the unrighteous (see Matt. 25:31-46). The time of testing, then, is not in the future but in the present. We must decide whether we follow Christ or American culture now. Jesus told the people 2000 years ago, "Whoever believes in him [the Son God sent into the world] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, " (Jn. 3:18, italics added). Who defines us? It may seem extreme to say that we must choose one or the other, but it is the truth. "The LORD your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God" (Deut. 6:15). He demands undivided allegiance. It is past time for those of us who bear his Name to set aside our cultural idolatry and superficial religious devotion and submit to Christ. Then we may truly say it is he who defines us.