The Hsu’s Views

I dunno. He looked confused, cold, tired and hungry. I didn’t know who he was. It didn’t seem like anyone else knew who he was. But he opened the door, looked in, seemed to see the coffee cart, then walked right in making a beeline for the coffee.

The forty of us sat a bit bewildered, but continued to press into our theological discussion on the meaning of James 2 regarding favoritism for the man that comes to your meeting with a gold ring and fine clothes. We boldly pressed on, not wanting to be distracted or to insult our visitor with a stare. We tell our kids not to stare because it is rude… but some of us were rude that morning.

Ken got up and helped our visitor with some coffee and exchanged a couple of words.

“Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also come in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’…”

Our visitor got his coffee and began to look around the large ring of table that we all sit around. He made his way to the one seat that was unoccupied. Chuck was actually sitting there, but at the moment was at the restroom. Chuck had just returned from a several month absence due to his brush with death. Chuck was moving slowly with a cane due to the paralysis his illness brought on. We had to save Chuck’s seat.

Our visitor was headed to Chuck’s seat. I thought to myself, “Oh please let him see Chuck’s coffee cup, bible and notes. Is there another seat for our visitor? I hope somebody does something.” As our visitor crouched to sit in Chuck’s seat, the only available at our table, he heard, “This seat is taken.”

“…but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him? But you have insulted the poor.”

The only remaining seats were a couple of armchairs off to the side and well below eye level of the rest of the group, so much so, you couldn’t see our visitor. These were not seats of honor.

I thought to myself that if I were the visitor, entering into a room of new people and was told I couldn’t sit at the table with everyone else, I’d be embarassed. I might even want to sit out of view of everyone… besides, they were all staring. How insulting.

Is this really happening? I can convince myself that I don’t go to a wealthy church, and that the expensive cars in the parking lot… aren’t. I can try to tell myself that it is just a coincidence that we didn’t have a single chair at the table for this dazed, homeless (?), I-don’t-know-what-his-story-is man. But did it have to be this passage of preferential treatment that we had to pretend to be so preoccupied with that we could pretend to ignore the profound object lesson that our visitor was teaching us without words?

Wayne whispered to me, “I think he is an angel.”

Like the 40 others in the room, I had no idea what to do. I closed my bible, I couldn’t hear a thing behind the voice in my head that was swimming in that surreal world when something was happening that couldn’t possibly be happening. The whole room had to have felt the palpable presence of God’s Holy Spirit pressing in on our hearts and minds. I was getting ill with my desire to do something, anything. But I was paralyzed. Nothing came to mind.

Eventually I thought about leaving and telling our visitor that he could have my seat, but what if he didn’t want to draw further attention to himself? If I came over to insist that he take my seat, I’d get points for being Jesus-like, but at whose expense? That’s not gonna work. I calmed down but remained quite uneasy.

Next thing I knew, he was gone.

This book is a collection of the knowledge and the approach that Bakke and Sharpe have been espousing after years thinking about cities and how to help unfold the kingdom through the work of the church in those cities. Central to their approach is to recognize where God is already working in any given city to embrace, celebrate and come alongside that work. These signs of God’s working help to point a new direction in urban ministry.

One idea from this book that is particularly useful in my work here in San Diego is viewing the city as one’s parish. During the 2007 wildfires of San Diego, I noticed a difference in how our church, Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church (www.transformedlives.org) seems to approach our community, versus many evangelical churches. The parish mentality allows a church to see an entire geographical region as their area of responsibility. In contrast many evangelical churches see their audience as a subset of this region, namely those who have made a decision for Christ and joins our community to worship.

During the fires, our church identified 70 families from the church who lost their homes to the fire. Many of those 70 are people whose names have made it onto the attendance rolls of the church somehow over the years. Many of those we are seeking to be a blessing to are not involved in the same way we might expect from an evangelical church. Nonetheless, because of our church’s parish mentality, we view a much larger subset of people affected by the fire as our own. In fact, the number of families we are seeking to bless in our community is now 140, fully one-third of the 400 affected homes in our community.

I see firsthand how this parish mentality changed the boundaries of who gets ministered to in the church. The somewhat exclusive category of those who are “in” is much larger with the parish mentality. Those who are “marginally in” but ministered to in a parish mentality church, might be considered “out” in a non-parish mentality church. It seems that we should err on the side of ministering to those on the edges rather than only those clearly “in.” But need to be clear that the parish mentality that we are to develop must include both the immediate community as well as the whole city as the parish. The parish mentality must be coupled with broader sense of the church in the city.

…is what the opposite of leading from the center would be. I resonated with Drew Goodmanson’s post entitled, “You Can’t Program the Gospel.” He comments,

“If church leadership creates a program and tells people they should attend, it is not the gospel.”

Religion thrives on the notion of “oughta.”  At times it can feel as though our churches expect our participation in its various programs.  Our participation in frequency and fervor is an example of our maturity in Christ. The Gospel is more of a “wanta” deal. Our experience of God’s grace drives us wacky with a desire to serve him.

Drew comments that program driven churches lead from the center. And with that approach, you wind up with people that have to execute the “program” that the pastor feels led to do (”oughta”). This can deaden the ability for people to hear and follow the leading of the Spirit in people’s lives. If however, we foster, encourage and support the people who have a passion for a particular ministry, we release them to the ministry that they are burdened with (”wanta”).

I bet church works better this way.

Had a great tour of St. Vincent De Paul’s Villages here in San Diego. My friend Jenny Ho was kind to give us a guided tour of the many buildings that constitute the work of Father Joe here in San Diego. It was truly amazing to see the comprehensive level of services that are provided here. I’m thankful for the blessing that they are to the city of San Diego.