Building Remembrance - by Doug Hartman
Over the past couple years I have begun to learn the difference between needs and extravagances or luxuries. This distinction is not easy to make, because the purpose of the advertising industry is to make us buy things, and they do so by convincing us that indulgence and luxury are necessities. That they have been successful is an understatement. A new Lexus for Christmas? The distinction is downplayed in our consuming culture to such an extent that "need" and "luxury" are practically indistinguishable, and the church is as guilty of this as anyone else. With that understanding in mind, I have identified three needs that I feel the American church must understand and address: (1) to rediscover our identity in Christ, (2) to live and function as a community in Christ, and (3) to engage our society and world as a community in a way that is distinct because of its identity in Christ. This is not a call for revival in the popular sense, but a call for genuine commitment and allegiance to Christ.
Such allegiance starts with remembrance, that is, keeping in mind what we're a part of. Throughout the Scriptures, God places great importance on remembrance, or the act of remembering. Perhaps the most popular passage on the subject of remembrance for evangelicals is from 1 Corinthians 11. Already steeped in the tradition of the Passover and the Exodus, Jesus gave the bread and the wine new and added meaning. The Passover meal no longer was to be associated only with God's deliverance of Israel, but should now be eaten it "in remembrance of him." Why did Jesus make a point about us remembering him? Why is remembrance so important?
In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Allen Verhey explains the importance of biblical remembrance. Verhey says that remembering is "constitutive of identity and community and determinative of character and conduct." Biblical remembrance is not the opposite of forgetfulness or absentmindedness; nor is it about conjuring up some vague sentimentality unrelated to the real world. Rather, it is a powerful process by which we engage the person and work of Jesus the Christ and he in turn engages us. In this process, our identity is changed, our understanding of and relationship with those around us is changed, and our behavior patterns are changed. Displayed prominently in media and commercial imagery, the world both offers and thrives on instant gratification, portraying it as the essence of life. Culture in the form of commercials teaches us that true fulfillment is found in obeying our impulses and desires, that life is about pleasure and indulgence; in the process all else is pushed aside. So, remembering the words, desires, and will of God is difficult in this country. It lacks glamour. There is no instantaneous reward. Given time, however, biblical remembrance will ground us in him who is eternal and lasting, not in that which is instant and temporal.
As biblical communities and as individual members of those communities, we need to establish our priorities: we must commit ourselves to following Christ with our whole heart and life-either that or we should stop bothering to go through the motions. If we want to be "in Christ," then remembering the life and the death of Jesus must be elevated in our thinking and behavior. Willful, conscious remembrance of Jesus the Christ is no easy thing. It requires persistence and sacrifice. Radical action might be necessary. As Jesus advised his followers, "if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away...And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away." (Matt. 5:29-30). The "surgical cure" is not just for those who want to be super-spiritual or for professional clergy. Jesus intended for everyone to follow this principle: if something hinders us from following God, we need to deal with it firmly and decisively. This is the incarnation-the "fleshing out"-of self-denial. All people must pass through the door of death to experience the life of God.
Human beings have fixed amounts of time, energy and other resources, and according to the Scriptures, all of these are supposed to be focused on God (cf. Deut. 6:4-9). Realistically, though, what fills our lives? Between TV, movies, the internet, music, magazines, sports, and the news, God is systematically squeezed out of our lives. The impact of entertainment goes beyond issues of content, because we remember what we have watched on TV, we remember the music we listen to, and we remember the sports games that we've watched. We have limited capacities of memory and yet we fill them with all this other junk. If we want to be his followers, we need to make the effort and be willing to sacrifice so that we can focus our limited resources, memories, and energies on Christ. This will require radical, decisive action. It is difficult to live completely for God, but it is not impossible.
I have talked about remembrance, because I am convinced that as we remember Christ our attitudes towards other people and the world around us will change. Barriers between us that we have painstakingly built over decades and sometimes centuries will begin to crumble. The Civil Rights movement started thirty years ago, yet racism remains every bit as prominent in our country today. Our society (like others) is divided by class as the rich and the poor, the white collar worker and the bum on the street, occupy different areas of the landscape; this happens by design. Our society has double standards when it comes to things like drug possession for those in the mostly black urban centers then for those in the mostly white suburbs. Perhaps we can expect no more from society at large, but here again the church is not distinct. The church is not an innocent bystander in our wicked culture; Christians are part of the problem! Michael Emerson, in his new book Divided By Faith, shows that (statistically) an "evangelical Christian" is more likely to be against racial, sexual, judicial, and class equality and reconciliation than for it. Is this what Jesus died to create? How in the world are professed Christians characterized by elitism and bigotry when God said that in Christ "there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female" (Gal. 3:28)? How can professed Christians drive around in $100,000 cars and live in $300,000 homes when Christian brothers and sisters are dying around the world due to starvation? We have been taught to ignore others in American society and to indulge ourselves. Some of us have even rationalized this lifestyle through the misuse of Scripture and sitting under teaching that acquiesces to the society at large-or as Paul puts it, we want to be scratched only where and when our itchy ears desire. I am convinced that if we will put off the old self and clothe ourselves anew in Christ as we remember and obey him, these attitudes, prejudices, and barriers will fall. But this all hinges on the church coming together to remember Jesus the Christ.

Wholistic Ministry 1 - by Doug Hartman
When the topic of "wholistic ministry" is mentioned, it is usually meant in the sense of ministering to the whole person. For example, a genuine Christ-follower would not approach a starving homeless woman with the Four Spiritual Laws, lead her through a "sinner's prayer," and then drive home, feeling as if everything God could have wanted him or her to do was accomplished that day. Such hypocrisy is identified in the Scriptures and is sternly denounced, probably to a degree that would make most church-attendees squirm in their pews if it were ever actually confronted. We live in such self-centered, hedonistic society that I seriously doubt if anyone in the American church will not be guilty on this account. There will be a reckoning. We will return to that discussion in future newsletters, but for now I want to explore a different understanding of wholistic ministry: ministry by the whole Christian community.
If we were to ask the average person about their understanding of "church," we would most certainly get a variety of answers. The answers might range anywhere from "that thing you do Sunday morning before football," to "conservative people who are against abortion, gay rights and gun-control," to "religious hypocrites and bigots," to "sinners saved by grace." Regardless of the validity of these understandings, what is absent is most significant and conspicuous: the metaphor of the church as Christ' body, repeated over and over by Paul in the New Testament.
That the body metaphor is foreign to and unrealized in western Christianity is not really surprising, because our culture is built upon values that are very different from the purposes and implications of this teaching. American values include individualism, privacy, self-reliance, independence, freedom (not from socio-political oppression but personal freedom to act decadently), comfort, wealth, pleasure, personal happiness, over-indulgence, selfishness, and greed. It may sound like an overly harsh analysis, but think of our holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Superbowl Sunday, Halloween, Valentine's Day, New Years, and the 4th of July are little more than elaborate excuses to eat too much, drink too much, party, be wasteful, and feed our own lavish desires. The church functioning as a body, however, generates relationships and function that are organic (i.e., living, vibrant, &; natural in growth and function), Christ-centered, unstructured (institutionally), mutually interdependent, communal, diverse &; manifold yet unified, and-above all-selfless. Our understandings and practices of Christianity are dictated and molded by worldly (American) values to such a degree that the church as Christ's body simply makes no sense to our ears.
That we miss out on the nature and meaning of the church as Christ's body is no small oversight. A shift in our understanding of the church as a mutually dependent community under the Lordship of Christ to a collection of individual attendees of a building on the corner (or worse yet, the building on the corner) has an incredible crippling (if not lethal) effect on the church herself. Paul's vision of the church is that of an organic community in which every single member has a specific function ("ministry"), all of which are critical for survival and existence. Why is this so important? According to Ephesians 4:12-13, God in Christ has provided specific abilities or giftings of the Holy Spirit to every individual member, so that the entire body may be built up and "become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Maturity in Christ (or "spiritual health") is not possible for an individual person to do, no matter how pious, dedicated or faithful that person may be. Just as in the physical human body, the individual members derive their meaning and function only in relation to the rest of the body. Muscle is useless if it is not attached to the bone. Similarly, a woman gifted in mercy and administration cannot function as God equipped her to do if she is not given the chance to exercise her giftedness. She suffers because she is prevented from being who God made her to be, and the whole community suffers because she is not allowed to exercise the vital function God has given her.
We may also say with full assurance that there is no hierarchy of importance within the body. No one function, office, or person is more important than all the others. Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 12 concerning giftings of the Holy Spirit for ministry (commonly ignored or distorted in "charismatic" movements) is precisely the opposite. All members have a central, necessary function, namely that all the members should exercise their individual giftedness for the "building up" of the body. My liver is a great liver. It works wonderfully. But it has a lousy sense of hearing, its sense of smell is downright pathetic, and its ability to think abstractly borders on dreadful. But does this imply that my liver is somehow less apart of the body than my nose or brain? Is my nose more important than my liver? Hardly. I need my liver to function as my liver. If my liver did not carry out its specific function, then my brain or ears could not do theirs. Similarly, when Christian community is properly understood, all members and their specific functions are equally important. As such, the distinctions we make between laity and clergy not only become meaningless, they but can actually hinder the other members of the body from carrying out their functions. As with the physical body, functions are not assigned by the popular vote of the other members. Christian community is not a democracy. God determines each member's function in that Christ distributes the giftings. Paul wrote: "to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it," clearly in reference to giftedness (Eph. 3:7). Therefore, those gifted in organization should organize, those gifted in teaching should teach, and so on. Every person within the body has an equally important, special function received from God.
What we must not miss in this discussion is that everyone is gifted and that every gift is needed for the body to function properly-if at all. Paul makes it clear that there is no special class of believers who are uniquely filled or baptized with the Spirit (and so have spiritual gifts) or a special caste of religious professionals ("clergy") for whom giftedness and the associated "ministry" are reserved. We all have specific ministry functions within the body. No matter how it may infuriate the pew-dweller trying to coast into heaven, the New Testament does not even conceive of Christians who have no ministry or essential role within the body.
In modern society, the church does not function as Christ's body-our current practices of "church" are not even close. The sacrifices that must be made to get there (personal preferences, privacy, relinquishing misconceived notions of church, and maybe even relocation) would be significant, but the church functioning as the body would be nothing short of revolutionary. Our gatherings would be transformed. We would attain to depths of intimacy with Jesus the Christ that would be beyond imagination. And our approach to missions and evangelism would be radically different. The body would not cut off a toe and throw it into the inner-city to do urban ministry or leave a finger in South Africa to work there. Outreach (no matter the form) would be a "wholistic" ministry. Our willingness to sacrifice in these areas and deny (disown, give up our rights to) self will determine whether the people who attend what we call church can ever be the body of Christ.

Wholistic Ministry 2- by Doug Hartman
In the last newsletter we discussed some of the basics of Christian community: namely, (1) all Christ-followers are gifted by the Spirit for the purpose of ministry and (2) the church needs to function as the body of Christ with each member carrying out his or her specific ministry. Despite what may seem like a theological tangent on my part, authentic Christian community has much to do with urban ministry. I think we would do well to explore this subject a bit more, .
"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, Live such good lives among the pagans that, they may see your good deeds and glorify God" (1 Pet. 2:11-12). Peter here seems to indicate that our lifestyle should be clearly and easily distinguishable from all other people to such an extent that we appear as aliens and strangers in this world. Moreover, the way we live is to be such a tremendous testimony that the pagans look at us and start praising God. We would probably be much more comfortable pointing people to Jesus or some heroic saint of old rather than ourselves. This hesitancy could be born of humility, but it may also be because Christians fit in pretty well with everyone else in our country. There is little about our practices of Christianity that has the pagans praising God. These two issues of lacking in-depth Christian community and lacking a lifestyle that is visibly distinct are intricately connected. It is the lack of community that leads to easy conformity to the world's patterns and agendas, and it is that conformity which renders the church impotent. When we Christians are isolated and therefore end up practically indistinguishable from the world, every form of ministry we may engage in suffers, especially ministry that requires us to traverse socio-economic, racial and cultural barriers.
In his book The Call to Conversion, Jim Wallis points out that Christian community is "the great assumption of the New Testament" (pg. 113). No author in the NT Scriptures (or the OT for that matter) ever specifically issues a command for community. However, the few glimpses of the life of the early believers (and the lives of people in OT times) show that they were steeped in community. The shared experience of life together was the backbone of their existence and life in Christ. We may think that our current practices of church are relatively harmonious with that description. After all, most Christians do care for each other and look out for each other. That we have the semblance of community or even a marked degree thereof within the constraints of our modern context is not being disputed. The recent advent of small groups is a positive development, and some function quite well. But the transformational power, interdependence, and organic (like a living organism) nature of Christian community as seen the NT remains foreign to much of American Christianity-for some even within the context of small groups. If authentic Christian community were properly understood and lived out in our modern American context, it would be perceived as some sort of cult or perhaps a resurrection of communist ideals. Neither criticism is true, but genuine Christian community is probably a degree of shared life and faith in Christ that many of us would find difficult to accept.
In the NT, everyone started the same way: a profound, life-altering encounter with Jesus Christ. This began the process of conversion. However, many new Christ-followers were then driven away and rejected by family members, friends, and society in general, just as they are in some parts of the world today. Separated from their old life because of their new faith in Christ, they found an unprecedented degree of acceptance, hospitality, and love as they were immediately immersed into the communal life and fellowship of the Christ-followers. In keeping with Jesus' teaching in Mark 10:29-31, this group, united and defined by their new fundamental identity in Christ, then became the person's family. As Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-35 show, they met together daily to encourage one another, pray, and to celebrate the Lord's death through the breaking of bread. When one individual was in need, other believers would sell some property or some other valuables to meet the need. They shared their possessions, their homes, their food, their hurts, their burdens, and their joy. These instances were not presented as some idealized form of fellowship to be placed on a pedestal and deemed unattainable by later generations. Nor should we dismiss them as primitive and undeveloped. These passages speak plainly of authentic Christian community being lived out and practiced in ways that were altogether distinct-evidence of the new life shared in Christ.
In these brief pictures of the early church, we also see the believers within the context of daily life working together to overcome their selfishness, pride, and prejudices. Christian community is not an alternative form of Christianity; rather, it is fundamental to any form of Christian experience, because it is only through our shared life in Christ that we may "continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). In community, we cannot hide our sinfulness or maintain the pretense of something that is not real. The people that are closest to us know when we are being real and when we are putting on an act. This should be all the more true among the community of Christ-followers. In the love and acceptance of Christian community, we reveal deeply rooted sin both in ourselves and in others-even long-held racial, economic, and social prejudices. In community, we continue the process of conversion to Christ as "we begin to unlearn the old patterns and to learn what the kingdom is all about" (Wallis, pg. 115-116). Through the nurture and guidance of others, those areas of sin are exposed and uprooted. The most carefully hidden and harbored sins can actually be overcome! Together believers can actually die to themselves and begin new lives in Christ that are radically different from the world. "Community is the environment which can enable that conversion, and community is the fruit of that conversion" (Wallis, pg. 123). As we yield ourselves to Christ and open ourselves up to whatever changes he may wish to make in us, such in-depth community and transformation is indeed possible if not inevitable, even in our modern world.
It is this type of visibly distinct lifestyle focused on Christ that Peter later points to in his epistle. "Always be prepared," he says, "to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Pet. 3:15). That we should live in ways that are obviously different from the rest of the world is not optional or reserved for the "super-spiritual." Wallis rightly comments that, "people should be able to look at the way we live and begin to understand what the gospel is all about" (pg. 108). So, Christian community does not exist as an end unto itself. The Spirit of God dwells within us as we unite together and focus on Christ, and so we join God in his work: actively reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:18-19). Thus, "the anointing of the Spirit is not just for our own religious experience; it is for the intentions of God in the world" (Wallis, pg. 113). Community life in Christ, then, is central to any form of evangelism in that it is the means by which we reach out to the world around us. It is through the distinctness and uniqueness of what God has created in Christ (the community of believers) that we point people to God. There is nothing unique about a church with the latest multimedia tools, the greatest choirs, the nicest sanctuary or the most luxurious nursery center. Our consumer-oriented society will always be able to outdo us with higher quality images, more talented singers, nicer buildings and more luxurious nursery centers. However, Christ-followers do have a monopoly on the shared life in Christ. As we practically demonstrate our love for others, including the people and problems no one else wants to even touch, people will start asking questions. This is a life worthy of Christ's calling.
As I wrote in the previous article, the church functioning as the body would revolutionize the way we do outreach. Unfortunately, many people (and governments) approach the city with a "quick-fix" mentality. In Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Jim Cymbala (pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle) relays the story of a well-known preacher who held a conference in San Francisco. Believers filled the stadium and began to engage in "spiritual warfare," claiming the city for Christ, rebuking devils, demonic powers and principalities. The next day they left San Francisco and went home. "Is San Francisco a more godly place today as a result?" Cymbala asks (pg. 108). Aside from their questionable approach, San Francisco remains unchanged because this group had no foundation for their "outreach" event. They swooped in, did their thing, and left. From my experience in our neighborhood, more damage was probably done in San Francisco than good, and this example is much like the other "kingdom work" done in our inner-cities. Without a visible demonstration of lives transformed by Christ's power, evangelism will remain a game of theological acrobatics as we try to convince people that we have something life-changing which we actually do not have! If that doesn't change, then our inner-cities won't either. What the inner-cities (and the rural areas and the suburbs) need is a network of Christ-followers from all walks of life (black, white, poor, rich, young, old, highly educated and illiterate) who come together determined to make a difference in the world, regardless of the cost. We need community, as it is through community that healing and reconciliation takes place in us so that we can bring healing and reconciliation to the world. If and when we learn to break down all the barriers, we will do so eagerly, because that which we share (Christ) is far more substantial and important than anything that could divide us. May we learn to be what Jesus Christ died to make us.

At Risk - by Cathy Alexander
I grew up very differently than the kids we see on a daily basis. My parents made sure I was at school everyday, helped me with my homework, and kept me from people and places of danger. They took me to a good church and Sunday school every week. They spent time with me. They taught me that I had to work hard and that there were consequences when I made bad decisions. They assured me that they believed I could do anything I wanted to do with my life.
The things I grew up with are the kinds of things that at-risk kids live without. When they get home from school there might be no one to help with homework, no one to make sure they eat well, and no one to keep them from playing in the street. They may see abuse or neglect. Their families deal with poverty and violence. Kids in these situations have no real outlet for energy, frustration or anger. Some young boys have no more encouragement than being told, "You're going to end up in jail just like your brother." In many cases, they change apartments and schools two, three or more times in a single year. Most are separated from one or both parents, siblings, and anything that we might consider "stable."
We have a teen girl who shared with us her concern about her younger sister because of the people that hang out in their alley. It may sound like a hopeless situation, but if we see that the teen is worried, then we see that there is a desire to change the situation. Single moms send their kids to tutoring because they know that we want to help them do well. Where does it leave us if only a few adults are willing to come to be a part of that? When these kids turn to things like drugs, gangs and violence, should we really be surprised?
I say we shouldn't be surprised, unless it's surprise at our lack of empathy and lack of desire to help. Can we sit back and say, "it's a shame" or "what's this world coming to?" if we aren't going to move towards doing something about it? In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells us that at the end of the age He'll recognize us by what we've done, or haven't done, for the least of the brothers. Likewise James 2:15-16 asks what use it is to see someone in need and not help him meet that need. For many of the kids and teens that we work with one of their greatest needs is to spend time with an adult that will stick by them, pray for them, believe in them, and not give up on them. Beginning that relationship is as easy as asking how their day was.
Americans are busy people. We can't give two more hours while we're pressed to find time for work, family, committee meetings, Bible study, and prayer meetings. Pastors ask us to be Sunday school teachers, small group leaders and choir members. On the weekend we have lawns to mow and family to visit. Chances are that if we can get all of that done, there is still more to do. If we could quiet ourselves down for a few minutes and ask God how He wants us to spend our time, He just might tell us to make some time to meet the needs of the needy.
One of the obstacles we hear about most is fear. After all, we don't want to drive into that part of the city. We don't want to park next to the prostitutes, walk past the drug dealers and see the boarded up buildings. We don't want to walk alone when it is dark and dangerous, and we don't want to risk getting hurt. We need to remember that the kids in that part of town are scared, too. The prostitutes are on the street corners the kids walk past to get to school. The drug dealers are on the streets in front of the houses the kids live in. Yet, the greatest danger they face is their lack of hope for a future. Shouldn't we be telling the young man that he can be much more than his brother who is in jail? Have we considered working with the girls, to see them grow and help prevent them from becoming the prostitute? Even more unlikely, have we ever thought of building a relationship with the drug dealer?
When we see that Christ tells His followers to love others in a way that makes them stand out, we must examine how we spend our time, and see whether we love others or serve ourselves.

- by Jill Hartman
Romans 1:28-2:11, NRSV:
"And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die - yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them. Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, "we know that God's judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with the truth." Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one's deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality." (Italics mine)
Our Thursday evening teenagers recently attended a Christian hip-hop/rap concert by (among others) The Cross Movement. Throughout the concert, the groups would stop and make strong statements about the messes in their lives, from where Christ had brought them, and the hope that these teens could have in Christ. Another message came through loud and clear also: sin is wrong! This was more forcefully stated at this concert than anywhere I've been recently. These men really took a stand, and it was impressive. At the end of the concert they invited the teens to respond to the gospel. The man who spoke said that the gospel (good news) maybe wasn't for everyone there, because maybe they didn't think they had that bad of a life. But, he said, there was good news available to those who acknowledged that they had a bad life and wanted a way out.
I have been re-confronted with the enormity of my sin recently. Although I have been a Christ-follower for a while and have been convicted and had victories before, the deeper I go (with God), the deeper (in sin) I realize that I am. A sister who has been following Christ for a many years recently read from Psalm 139: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." She applied this passage to herself and pointed out that no matter how much she has been obedient, there is always more to be done.
The passage we just read in Romans points out some very nitty-gritty ways that I am sinful: I do covet things that other people have, and I am working on that. I do cause strife in my own home and refuse to reconcile with others sometimes. I am more concerned with myself than others most times, which makes me haughty and boastful. I am foolish in my decisions, so that instead of my school work I sit and watch A Bug's Life. I am faithless, because I do not always trust God to get me through med school or to provide the clothing I need (not that I want). I am also faithless - I do not always hold tightly to the "vision" that comes from God, so that I see things from his perspective. I am heartless (and this is the thing that pains me the most), in that I don't always call my friends to encourage them or meet with them when I know they need me. I am heartless because I do things that pain my husband or irritate him without thinking about it. And I am heartless because I don't have much to say to the prostitute who is still on the street-corner when I leave for work in the early morning, and I don't-I'm afraid-always want much to do with this neighborhood when I come home from work at night.
Now here's the kicker: God places these shortcomings in my life on par with murder, being a God-hater and being an inventor of evil. They're in the same list. It sounds kind of scary to have a "hard and impenitent heart" before God and to be "storing up wrath for yourself"! I have to deal seriously with the issues in my life. "God shows no partiality" to me, that is, he doesn't just turn a blind eye because I'm a Christian. I am just as lost (even in the midst of my "salvation") as any other person.
"Being saved" has a lot of theological baggage to it, but it also means simply "being rescued." And I need rescue! I keep being convicted in order to be rescued by a great, loving God who shows the "riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience" by both loving me AND by pointing his lovingly convicting finger in my direction sometimes!
If I don't understand or "get" my lost-ness, then I don't get the greatest gift of all-Jesus the Christ. I don't get what He died to make in me. Salvation becomes blasé, and I become all those bad things all over again: foolish, faithless, haughty, boastful,
The ultimate result of my failed "rescue" is that our kids down here don't really get a clear picture of Jesus the Christ. They end up with an impression of a white woman who sometimes yells at them, sometimes laughs with them, and is really not all that different from anyone else they know. Though God called us to be a part of his work in this neighborhood, I miss the boat. No one's life changes if I don't deal with my sin. Like I said before, it sounds very scary to have a "hard and impenitent heart" before God and to be "storing up wrath for yourself"! So I'm thankful for the grace of God in showing me my faults, and I am doing my best to move forward. "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness , " (2 Peter 1:3).

The Calling of the Poor - by Doug Hartman
It is inevitable, I guess. As a member of the leadership for any given ministry, it is natural to hear people talk of "God's calling" in reference to their participation (or lack thereof) in that ministry. For people who have no intention of participating, a casual reference to God's will (or calling) can be an easy way to escape responsibility. Similar to "I'll pray about it," talk of God's calling is used to avoid things we don't want to do. Such talk is blasphemous and shameful, but we do this all the time and think nothing of it. Our mouths can speak before we know it, voicing culturally induced words without knowledge. For ministry in an urban setting, such responses are probably all the more common, because the ministry is-by design-in an area which many people find uncomfortable and amidst circumstances that can be difficult, indeed. But even when we give honest consideration to God's calling, our understandings of "God's call" vary considerably. This makes an honest search for God's calling both in the larger context (our lifestyle) and on a much smaller scale (next week) more difficult and confusing than it needs to be. For my own sake (and hopefully yours), a deeper consideration of God's calling and how it relates to urban ministry and our response to the poor is in order.
Both in the Scriptures and in our modern usage, there are different ways in which God's "calling" is used. Some references are generic: they can apply to a large group or even to all of humanity. The apostle Paul frequently refers to the turn from sin to faith in Christ as a calling. For instance, he speaks of God "who has called you into fellowship with his Son, " (1 Cor. 1:9). He also wrote, "God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life" (1 Thess. 4:7). In these instances, "call" is meant to be understood in an inclusive sense. God's call for holiness does not apply only to pastors or Billy Graham. The exact opposite is true: God's call for holiness is universal and applies to everyone.
There are other instances, however, where God issues a special call to an individual. Paul refers to his own apostleship in this special way, a word he received directly from God (cf. Acts 9:15). Similarly, many prophets of the OT received a special vision from God in which he called them for specific purposes. And though many a TV preacher would tell us otherwise, God's choosing of Abraham certainly should be understood in this way. We do not all read Genesis 12, throw all our stuff in the car, and start driving in circles, waiting for God to indicate a direction.
Through these examples, we see God creating a distinction in function but not in substance. That God calls someone for a specific purpose does not mean that unique criteria should be applied in understanding his or her relationship with God. James makes this point clearly with the example of Elijah, a prophet called of God to do the extraordinary, and yet he "was a man just like us" (5:17). The devotion of Elijah was not because of his calling but because of his diligence in faith. James' point is that such devotion to God should be present in all followers of Christ.
Determining the type of calling, then, becomes important in understanding it and responding obediently to Christ. In the context of urban ministry, or more specifically Urban Connections, how are we to understand God's calling? Understanding the type is the key. Are all people called to volunteer or work at Urban Connections? Absolutely not! The suggestion itself is completely absurd. But what about our response as Christ-followers to the poor and the "outcasts" of society? Is that a universal calling?
The Scriptures have much to say about that issue. Perhaps the most poignant teaching in all of Scripture is the parable of "the rich man and Lazarus" in Luke 16:19-31. It is a classic picture of biblical justice displayed in the experiences of two men, both in life and after their deaths. There is an unnamed rich, prominent man who obviously had everything he could want in life: he had the best clothes and feasted daily. Outside the gate to his residence was a homeless man whose life can only be described as deplorable: he was sick (covered in puss-filled sores), crippled ("laid" at the gate to beg), starving (longed for scraps of food), and helpless (unable to drive away the dogs that licked at his sores). Interestingly, he-of all people!-is the only person mentioned in all of Jesus' parables that was given a name. The rich and prominent may enjoy instant name recognition in our world, but in God's kingdom this is not necessarily so. In the next scene, their experiences are reversed. After his death, Lazarus is welcomed and comforted in Abraham's bosom with the righteous while the rich man suffers, despairing at the eternal judgment he must soon face and agonizing over the relief he can see but never experience. His conversation with Abraham reveals both his agony and his bewilderment about how he ended up where he was.
To all of us that instinctively plead our own innocence at this point, we need to understand that this rich man never intentionally harmed Lazarus or anyone else. To those who might reach for the "I'm not possessed by my possessions" defense, this man was not necessarily possessed by his either. As Abraham explained to him, he simply enjoyed the many good things in his life while conveniently choosing to ignore those less fortunate than him. He had apparently forgotten that Solomon wrote, "If a man shuts his ear to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered" (Pr. 21:13). The lack of compassion he showed to others was visited back to him. He had a God-given responsibility towards those in need, and his selfish, hard-hearted lifestyle was the source of his ultimate ruin. His story illustrates Jesus' teaching: ", woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort" (Luke 6:24).
And this parable is not alone. Here in Luke 16:31, Abraham speaks of the wealth of biblical material concerning justice and the poor in the writings of Moses and the prophets. The NT treatment of this topic is equally thorough. Jim Wallis, author of Call to Conversion, comments: "Jesus talked more about wealth and poverty than almost any other subject, including heaven and hell, sexual morality, the law, and violence. One out of every ten verses in the Synoptic Gospels is about the rich and the poor; in Luke, the ratio is one out of seven. James treats the subject in one out of every five verses in his epistle. Thus, the subject of money, possessions, and the poor is hardly a casual concern or passing interest to the biblical writers, " (58). Jesus said that a compassionate, intelligent response to the homeless and the poor, the thirsty and the hungry, the naked and the sick would be the defining characteristic of the righteous at God's judgment (Matt. 25:31-46). Obviously, a lifestyle-altering, compassionate response to the poor is not a call to a select few but to everyone. We cannot shun our responsibility to the poor by saying that God has not called us to do so. God calls all of us to love our neighbor as we would ourselves and that surely includes the poor and the homeless. I pray that the body of Christ would hear and respond appropriately to God's calling concerning the poor and the many other people discarded by society that we pass by each day.