God's House of Many Faces

8th Fire

2012-01-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

Beth here. Just wanted to draw your attention to a new show on CBC profiling the experiences and realities of First Nations people in Canada. It's called "8th Fire." I watched the first episode, and I found it quite visually engaging, educational, challenging, and balanced. Highly recommended by me!

You can watch it on CBC on Thursdays at 9:00 pm, or you can watch it online whenever you want - just click on the photo below to find the links.

A Year in Review

2012-01-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

2011 was evidently not a great year for blogging for us. Sorry about that. We have been busy, and we are still learning which makes it hard sometimes to make sense of what we are learning enough to talk about it. So thanks for your patience with us. We are trying to do better in this area.

Highlights of 2011:
We are celebrating almost one whole year of stable locations for our Sunday gatherings. We continue to meet outside in the warmer weather and consider this our "true home" in many ways. It is such a joy to worship in public space and watch how creative God can be in drawing people in. Mission Possible, a local mission group extended hospitality to us last February and using their space has been an extraordinary gift. We are able to accommodate a wide range of groupings and use of their industrial kitchen has added much to our life together. We have even been able to partner on occasion, including this past Christmas Eve (pic. of Christmas Eve band above).

This Easter on a cold rainy afternoon we celebrated our first baptism.

Our summer was dominated by two themes. First, Red Clover Farm where we had our first year, start to finish, of managing the entirety of the farm. The space continues to be a source of joy, connection, sharing and learning. We are considering how to best steward this gift in the coming year, perhaps looking to generate some income from the farm.

Last spring the children put together an interactive production of the Exodus story to top off our series on that book. This year as we began our preparations to tell a story from Daniel the kids said, "let's make it be 4D like our one last year, cause that was really cool." We did enjoy a dollar store stock of plague-like toys that we could throw at the audience at appropriate times. This year's fiery furnace might prove a little more challenging...unless I can get my neighbour who breathes fire to join us!

In a neighbourhood where time is largely punctuated by the rhythms of welfare distribution days it has been fun to have children and adults alike begin to comment, "hey, we did that last year!" as the rythm of the church year begins to permeate our lives.

Justice: The Final Frontier

2012-01-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

If you have not read the previous two blog entries, please stop, go back, and do so, as these three posts are intended to be read together.

Now that you are back, we turn our thoughts toward justice. What are the just kingdom realities toward which we strive if so much of our current experiences of charity are inadequate and perhaps even harmful?

Often in these conversations I will hear someone throw out Jesus' quote, "the poor you will always have with you." This line is thrown out as though charity is really the best we can hope for anyway. But Jesus himself was quoting Deuteronomy, and the verse in its entire context reads, "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land" (Deuteronomy 15:11). Funny, but we always leave off that later part about therefore care for those in your land. We also miss the quote from earlier in the chapter where it says, "However, there need be no poor people among you" (v.4).

If poverty was supposed to be eradicated in the midst of the people of God how was (how is) that supposed to happen? Spoiler alert, I will not solve this age old question in the following paragraphs. But, how can we keep pressing in to this question?

JUSTICE AS SYSTEMIC REFORM IN SCRIPTURE
The text in Deuteronomy that was quoted speaks to systemic reform. Moses was advocating for an overhaul of how people interacted with one another when there were inequities. First, there was to be a general posture of openhanded generosity as a posture of faith. Faith that there was enough. Faith that God was good and provides in abundance to be shared, not scarcity to be hoarded. From that place of open handed generosity there was then also to be a radical reckoning which was to even the playing field every seven years, at which point debts were cancelled and properties returned to original owners so that the equity with which things were portioned out originally could be the reference point for the whole community.

JUSTICE AS SYSTEMIC REFORM IN THE CHURCH
What might this look like for us today? This radical redistribution of resources is deeper and more thorough-going than our practices of charity, even if we think of charity in terms of redistribution of resources. What does this idea of transferring the means of wealth equitably look like within our churches and between our churches? What might it look like for the offering plate to be not simply a means of income generation for the programs and expenses of the church, but as a mechanism for the radical redistribution of wealth as it seemed to be in the days of the early church? What would it look like for churches, maybe together in a geographical area to commit to ensuring that there was no one who was homeless within the geographical neighbourhood? What would it look like for the church to be at the cutting edge of societal reform around poverty issues because we are motivated by a gospel imperative of love that seeks justice?

JUSTICE AS SYSTEMIC REFORM IN SOCIETY
Throughout Scripture there is a clarion call for justice that removes the yoke of oppression. Removing that yoke cannot be done with bandaids and I would argue that it can rarely be done in a generation. The kinds of yokes that oppress in our society today reach deep into the psyche of all of us and touch on our primary ways of interacting with the world. But creating more just systems can create ladders with which we can all move toward more generous and more equal ways of being in the world.

If you live in BC and Canada, let me point you in the direction of Seth Klein and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives for more information on all of these things. While for many of us who are middle to upper income earners or even working to upper class persons these may seem like ideological concepts that are very removed from your every day life, for the poor, who are often working class as well, this touches on daily life and creates the need for charity. Topics for us to get involved with from a justice perspective include:

The Living Wage: because work should lift you out of poverty, not keep you there
Tax Reform because in BC we have had a decade of eroding tax fairness where the richest 20% pay the lowest total tax rate, and middle-income ones pay a lower rate than poor and modest-income households
Welfare Policies: there is a significant need for reforms here. Some information can be found at the website for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives but a summary of the problems include: the fact that welfare in its current form discourages work by deducting dollar for dollar whatever you make from your welfare payments (particularly since welfare does not provide a livable amount month to month). A person on welfare cannot have any money in the bank month to month or else that amount is deducted from their cheque. There are time limits (as of 2004) as to how long you can stay on welfare (2 years out of every 5) while supports for finding work have been radically cut.

WHAT CAN YOU DO????
1. Educate yourself on problems that don't affect you on a day to day basis but that do affect your neighbours.
2. Advocate for change. Consider joining the living wage campaign or the raise the rates campaign.
3. Redistribute wealth by contributing money to an area of need and trust the people there to sort out how to use it. Give them time to be able to respond in a way that is most appropriate to their context.
4. Ask, who are the invisible poor in your neighbourhood and figure out a way that they can help you. Turn the power dynamics upside down, it was something Jesus was very fond of doing!

He has shown you, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you. Do justice. Love mercy. Walk in humility with your God.

Charity: the good, the bad and the ugly

2011-12-13T17:42:00.000-08:00

Following on from the previous post I want to start by saying that I think Charity has gotten a bad name in some circles. I want to re-claim Charity as a term that should mean something good. My friend Jonathan Bird said, "we need to get back to the root of charity, which means love." Indeed, our idea of charity as a biblical concept is the kind of neighbour love that flows from being loved by God, not because we are good, or deserve it or earned it or even have a right to it, but because God loves. That is what God does and it is what we are to do when God lives in us.

That being said, let me move on to the bad name that charity has developed in some circles. In its current form charity (in the forms it takes to care for the poor) has come to mean an organization with charitable purposes who exist to "alleviate" poverty. They do this most commonly through professionalized workers who provide goods and services for needy individuals or families. Charitable organizations often spend a fair amount of time and energy trying to secure funds to do what they do, and sometimes will partner with government in delivering those goods and services through some sort of partnership or grant funding. The power dynamics often involve the professional determining what the needs of the individual are while the person in need has little say in the matter. This is for the sake of efficiency. The bad name comes from the power inequities, and the professionalization of service. Some would say, the need is so great, what else can you do? Charitable groups do important work and they are right, they have developed systems to deal with the overwhelming needs they are confronted with daily.

The ugly part comes in when we stop and think about the situation as a whole. This point was made well by the Carnegie Community Action Project last week during the CBC food drive. They wanted to raise the concern that Food Banks were set up to be a temporary measure, to ensure that people did not starve while a longer term more effective process was set up. It was meant to be a band-aid on a gaping wound that needed stitches, but instead we have taken for granted that we need to give more to the food bank rather than asking why so many people do not have adequate food in one of the most wealthy nations in the world. The wound is growing but we keep assuming more band-aids are all that is required. What makes this particularly ugly is that here in Canada (this is not true in many other countries) a charity is not allowed to spend more than 10% of its resources advocating or lobbying for a change of the system. In other words, charities, who are the best positioned to see the needs on the ground are allowed to put bandaids on the poor and the dying (alleviate poverty) but they are not allowed to work to eradicate poverty if that eradication involves any sort of criticism of government. Government, meanwhile, washes their hands of public responsibility for the entrenchment of poverty in this land by offering capricious funding to charitable groups who do their bidding until said group becomes to political, or falls out of favour.

What are we to do? Is charity lost?

I want to argue that we need to recover charity as loving our neighbours. And we need to push our sense of who our neighbour is, as Jesus encouraged us to do in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Often it is easier to consider the far away neighbour as opposed to the one who actually lives down the street from me who I really don't like very much.

So yes, we must recover charity, and practice loving our neighbours. Loving our neighbours includes coming as equals, listening, caring, sharing what I have and receiving in turn. But, I want to argue that charity is not the answer to poverty. That addressing poverty, which we must do because the poor are also our neighbours but poverty is a power that has trapped our neighbours. Addressing poverty will require engaging in justice. The prophet Micah said, "what the Lord requires of you is to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God." We must put our hands, and our feet, our mouths and our hearts to the work of justice seeking in addition to loving mercy.

Charity and Justice: A view from here

2011-12-12T17:34:00.000-08:00

I have had a lot of conversations in the last month or so about charity and justice. In the next few posts I would like to let you in on some of those conversations, and offer some of my thoughts and reflections. It is an important and complex conversation and I want to invite feedback and interaction. I want to also acknowledge that we are in the most charitable season of the year, and by raising questions I want to invite critical thought and reflection but do not mean to be-little activities that any readers here may be engaged in. Rather, I find myself in a unique social location and want to simply offer, as I said in the title, a view from here. My hope is that as we share our views, our perspectives from our unique places we might see together a little more clearly.

So, what does the view look like from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, now the third poorest postal code in Canada and certainly the site of most charitable activities in the Lower Mainland. Tonight, I can name at least 10 families in my community I know who are attending their 2nd Turkey-Dinner-Christmas-Party of the day and their 5th since Friday (today is Monday). Walking past the intersection of Main and Hastings there has not been a day since the first of December when I have not encountered an impromptu food line formed at the back of a car that pulls up, the trunk is popped and soup or sandwiches are handed out maybe with a scarf and toque as well. The kind people will serve until their pots are empty and then will hop back in their cars and head back to work, or home. There is an abundance of food around right now, but everywhere I know of that offers Safeway cards so you can go shop for your own food has been out since the 8th of December. Hundreds of Christmas baskets will be given out in the next week full of special treats, candy and gifts, but it will be really hard for lots of my friends to find the money to make any vegetables or meat for Christmas dinner with their families. And, come January, the turkey dinners will have come to an end, the sugar rush will have worn off and cupboards will be bare, still.

Does charity keep us from justice? This is a question I have heard posed a few times in the past little while. A friend of mine and resident of the neighbourhood asked, does giving to charity enable us to simply make a "better" consumer choice. I decide for example to buy a Christmas dinner for someone in need (through a $5 donation to UGM) rather than get that afternoon latte from Starbucks. But does that consumer choice then allow me to walk away feeling like I have done something good without changing or challenging the system that allows me to choose between these two options while my neighbour is only able to choose between whether to go stand in line for that dinner with her 5 hungry and rowdy kids (outside for at least 1 hour in order to get a seat) or to stay at home and feed them noodles and butter.

My friend likes to challenge people, for every act of charity you engage in this holiday season, would you commit as well to an ongoing act of justice that carries on beyond the season? Its a good challenge. Let's think more on this together soon.

Blanketted

2011-09-28T09:30:00.001-07:00

The blanket is one of my favorite symbols in west coast culture. "Coming under the blanket" indicates belonging, family, and responsibility in light of that relational tie. Some of us who are not Native have been blanketed as witnesses in ceremonies or as family to mark celebrations of significant events in the lives of families.

This Easter we celebrated the first baptisms in the life of our community. As AJ came up out of the frigid ocean water at the end of Main Street, he was "blanketed" in a white blanket. A symbol that he belongs to God, that he is clothed with Christ, wrapped in white, pure and new with the presence of the Spirit like a mantle upon his shoulders. This is a gift and an honor. It also comes with responsibility. To be a witness. To tell the story of what happened on this day. To live in light of the reality of belonging to God and to God's family.

Good Friday in the Hood

2011-09-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Today is a holiday, the streets are full. The sun shines. Twenty of us, ranging in age from 74 to two months, stand in line outside the mission, waiting for a meal with another 70 of our friends and neighbors. When the doors open we tumble in with the rest jockeying for seats where there is a good ratio of kids to adults, and we tuck in to a beautifully prepared "easter" dinner despite the fact that today is good Friday. But volunteers don't come down to serve meals on Easter Sunday, so it is now or never for the ham and scalloped potatoes, and no one is complaining.

After the meal Beth stands and invites anyone who would like to join us for a walk through the neighborhood, to remember the path that Jesus walked this day many years ago. Some leave, some stay and we walk familiar paths through our neighborhood. The path we walk to accompany a friend to court, familiar and yet more profound as remember Jesus' experience of a kangaroo court where nothing he said would make a difference in the outcome, so he says nothing. We too have sat silent before judges, powerless.

Over and over familiar spaces transformed by the memory that the One who loves us spent his final hours, on the wrong side of town, on the wrong side of the law. Forgotten, beaten, another dead body. Just like us. But this Friday we call good. A Friday with the power to transform every day since.

Christmas Eve Pagent

2010-12-24T21:06:00.001-08:00

We spent Christmas Eve wandering through our neighbourhood in the dark and the rain, carrying Mary and Joseph and the light of Christ knocking on doors, asking if anyone had room to take in a pregnant unwed mom and her partner. When we finally found a space, we watched the story unfold as told to us by our kids in this video. Merry Christmas. May you find space to welcome in the Christ to your life this Christmas.

Some pics to accompany Genevieve's post

2010-10-23T00:24:00.000-07:00

Chicago by Genevieve Clarke

2010-10-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

Jodi had come to me and asked if I would like to go to Chicago for a week for a conference , Just me , NO kids , Babies or Terry. I was all over that & it sounded to good to be true. First I had to get a Pass Port, Never had one before so that in it self was exciting. After all the " yes you can go , No you can't go to finally yes you can go (because of the Ministry of Children and Families changing their minds about care of my twin granddaughters who are in my care)" Jodi , Beth , Michelle & I left on September 5th , 2010 , Michelle left before us & Jodi drove us to Seattle & we stayed in this off the side Motel. We go to park Jodi's put put & Beth is holding on for dear life cause Jodi parks on a hill and she was afraid we were going to tip over , That was cute . We get checked in and get to our room & Jodi decides to "check" out the bed & the bouncing begins . If Beth was NOT on the bed at the time Jodi would of bounced right out the window into ??? That was funny :) We had to then get up at like 4 in the morning to go catch the plane (freaking out) , Airports are like tiny cities. I LOVE THE MOVING WALKS , again that was funny , Just how they SHOOT YOU OFF the other side :) I would diffidently make that a field trip . Getting on the first plane will forever be etched in my head. I can honestly say I FACED A FEAR & BOARDED THAT PLANE :) A huge THANKS TO BETH FOR THAT , I was freaking out yelling at GOD & there was Beth asking him to help me & be with me :) I don't remember much after that. Then we had to get off that plane & wait in the airport in Detroit ,we played cards to pass some time & AGAIN I KICKED SOME JODI BUTT :).. Getting on that second plane was/is kind of a blur thanks for gravol . We get to CHICAGO & the first thing was to find "THE PRETZEL" . Hands down best one yet :) Now we are at the train station trying to load the transit cards , weird system down there , same price , I still have my pass & it dose not expire till 2012 with like 2-3$ left :) Well we finally get to our hotel & Michele is there YEAH. We were on the 15th floor & we faced this river that ran through most of the city , If it was not for my fear of heights I would of just sat by the window the whole time :) And again Jodi had to test the bounce in the beds , LMAO. We were there to attend these workshops they had going on & I attended 3 of them , the first one sucked , the other two were awesome. They were lead by the only other 3 Aboriginal people I saw there LOL. I don't wan to talk alot about the workshops I want to focus on the FUN that was had by all. I was amazed by the Beauty I saw in the African America Black People , Men , Women , Children WOW. after we half settled in I went outside & while I was outside waiting for Jodi , Beth & Michelle , there was this bus loading people up to go ??? & this lady kept asking me to board the bus , I was LIKE UH NO thank you :) We ate at different places for lunch and dinner my favorites were the Japanese place ( I think ) & the Pizza place , U need to eat the DEEP DISH PIZZA with a fork & knife .

Another moment for my book is I was outside the hotel waiting to go for lunch ?? & the Bell Hop , an older man , was helping this group of older women into this cab , OMG , this one lady was having a hard time getting up & in so buddy goes and gives her a push up & says to the others waiting to get in " JUST PUSH THE TUSH ". Everyone's mouth drop , including mine & I LAUGHED SO HARD OMG . I still laugh :)

& they have a rat problem as well HOLY . I was again outside smoking and I went & sat across the street at this cement park thing & it was dark out & I was reading my book i brought with me & all of a sudden this "FAMILY OF RATS " came right out from under my feet , HOLLY !!!! Then again the next night I went & sat on the other side were u can see what is coming and going ( so I thought ) & from OUT OF NOWHERE A RAT!!! They also had posters of BED BUGS on the "skytrains" . We got to pick one day a choice of a bunch of tours they had set up at different churches & centers around the area . Jodi & I went on this tour of Lawn dale Community Church & all the different centers & health clinic they have going on. At this old run down fire station they have this whole HIP HOP thing happening .

Our trip home was an adventure in itself too. We are almost home after the ONE flight to Seattle YEAH , we run out of gas , LMAO. So again we play cards waiting for HELP :) JODI ALWAYS SAYS " IT IS NOT AN ADVENTURE TILL IT IS A MISS ADVENTURE" Well I think that is all I have to say about that :) I had an AMAZING TIME , If time could be stopped for awhile that would be one time in my life that I could do again. & Jodi says ( well not just Jodi ) " you always leave something undone when u travel so then u have a reason to come back ) & we / I left at least 3 things , First would be a boat tour of the river , Going to the Black Hawks sports store & to find the start of the river :) Jodi & I walked to the pier & It was amazing how big that lake is (lake Michigan).

Again I want to THANK GOD for that wonderful gift of going. I also need to THANK JODI for thinking of me when planning for this trip , A BIG ,OK the BIGGEST THANK YOU TO BETH for NOT HAVING ME TRAVEL ALONE WITH JODI. She tends to be ALOT of WORK when traveling / camping !!! LOL. Then there is my girl Michelle , I have expressed my Love & gratitude for Beth & Jodi over & over & I know we both shared in this experience together But I am just wanting to say the YOU R THE BEST TRAVEL BUDDY/ ROOMMATE ANYONE COULD ASK FOR :) I had a great time with you & can't wait for the next trip :)

In a small nut shell these are my thoughts on "MY TRIP TO CHICAGOOOO!!!!"

gg

The Church Plant.... plants!

2010-08-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. (1 Cor. 3:7-9)

This summer, our church has taken on the responsibility of gardening a plot of land right in the middle of the neighborhood, in the community gardens that Jacob's Well has been gardening for the last few years. We will be taking responsibility for managing and lending out this garden space starting this fall.

It has been exciting to watch together as our tomatoes, potatoes, onions, squash, beets, carrots, corn, zucchini, chard, beans, and cucumbers sprout up. There are also plenty of blackberries to pick and eat! At a recent BBQ in the garden, the kids ran around asking what vegetable each plant was growing, and were delighted when they could sample them. We have loved being able to welcome avid gardeners from the neighborhood to come and help us out, and we've enjoyed hanging with our friends at the Servants Community, who live next door to one of the gardens. We've even made headway at driving out most the rats that have plagued these gardens in past summers.

There is a lot of hope in gardening, and a lot of richness in distributing and enjoying the flavor of food we've planted and watered and weeded and pulled with our own hands, on our own turf. Of course, it's God who's grown it for us, and we're grateful for the sun and the (little bit of) rain and the potential He put in those seeds. We look forward to more chances to connect with friends and neighbors over God's creation. Here's to many, many more harvests!

Many thanks to our friends from Illinois who helped build this tent and teepee for our beans to climb! The kids have enjoyed crawling underneath it.

Jodi is especially proud of the corn, which is taller than her. Now, to keep the rats from eating it...

Some of us like the dirt more than the veggies...

Baby Dedications

2010-05-31T13:54:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things about a church as small as ours is that marker events in people's lives naturally contribute to shaping our times together. For example, the grief that some members of our congregation were experiencing yesterday as a result of the recent deaths of friends and family members led us to scrap our original plans for the service. We spent our time praying, singing, and drumming to express this grief and cry out for God to hold us. We were going to tell the next story from our David series, out of 1 Sam. 24, but instead we read David's song in Psalm 23 and reflected on how God shepherds us, as he shepherded David, through times of darkness.

The intimate character of our congregation also gives us greater flexibility in times of celebration. So when it came time to dedicate the twins last month, instead of inserting 10 minutes of baby dedication in a service (like I'm used to!), we gave the family freedom to help plan and shape the whole service around this marker in their lives. They chose the songs, they chose the location, they invited their friends, and planned the meal that would follow.

This baby dedication service, which we held on the top floor of the family's apartment building, drew the one of the largest crowds we've ever had as a church - around 50 people, I believe. Many residents of the building came, as well as many family members. It was exciting to have so many people there to honor the family and witness the commitments they were making.

We began with a blessing in the form of a First Nations drum song, sung by the twins' step-grandfather, their father, and two of their uncles. We also sang the worship songs the family chose. But my favorite part of the service was being given the opportunity to bless and acknowledge the twins' family: parents, grandparents, uncles, and extended family. So many of them have gone above and beyond what is normally expected of family. I talked about how I have seen the image of God in them as they have helped care for these babies: the image God the Father, God as our Mother, Kinsman Redeemer, Guardian. We also acknowledged the godparents, and called everyone to make commitments to nurture the twins in God's love. The babies' grandmother (and current guardian) wrote a letter to the twins, which was read aloud. The babies were anointed with oil, and passed around so that everyone could touch and bless them. We shared a delicious meal together afterward.

It was a beautiful service, and an important chance to remember that it takes a whole family network, and a whole church community, to raise a child - and even more so when you're raising two at once!

Easter Celebration

2010-05-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

We marched down Main Street on Easter Sunday afternoon. I love walking together to or from our Sunday gatherings, especially if we head down Main Street or Hastings. We are not a typical gathering in this area, a motley crew of kids of all shapes colors and sizes, and various adults fitting the same description. The children are filled with life, and often are careening off of adults or telephone poles on the crowded sidewalks of Chinatown or through the vendors selling their wares on Hastings. On Easter we were especially exuberant and the joy was contagious. The look in people's faces amuses me to no end as you can see them trying to puzzle out how we all know each other or where we are going together and why. If they ask, we tell them, "we are a church, would you like to join us?" which feels a little like we have said, "would you like to join the circus, it's lots of fun!"

On this Easter Sunday, we are aware that the Risen Christ has broken through the barrier walls that separate us from one another. That the Risen Christ conquered the power of sin, death and separation to make a new family of all the people's of the earth. Having walked through the pain and the brokenness of Holy Week (and Lent) having named all the things that could separate us the power of what unites us felt all the more powerful in the bright and shining Son.

Holy Week Schedule

2010-04-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

Hello one and all! Wanted to issue an invitation to join us for Holy Week activities. They are as follows:

Sunday March 28th Palm Sunday Worship Celebration 11am at 389 Main Street

• Friday April 2nd Good Friday Neighbourhood Walk starting at 3 at Union and Gore (green space by the viaduct) and ending with soup at 4:30 at 239 Main Street.

• Saturday April 3rd Holy Saturday 7pm at Crab Park Candlelite Vigil remembering those we have lost in this past year.

• Sunday April 4th 2pm Easter Egg Hunt for the kids and Easter
Celebration at Crab Park.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Go Fast to Fare Well

2010-03-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Rarely does a whole neighborhood have a monthly rhythm to it the way the DTES does. For most residents of the DTES, their entire month is structured around today, welfare Wednesday, or as most residents call it, “cheque day.” If it’s not cheque day, they’re living in the two weeks after it, spending the money, or in the two weeks before it, longing for it to arrive. This is the ebb and flow of the neighborhood.

Many of my friends will stand in line for a cheque today. If they are housed in one of the SROs (the bottom rung of housing in Vancouver), they will receive the little that is left after their rent is deducted. This amounts to about $6-7 a day for a single adult. This doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t. It’s even less when you’re in a cycle of addiction, and every cheque day presents another irresistible opportunity to spend all of your money feeding those cravings and numbing the pain (or paying back the debts you owe to the people who have funded your addiction since last cheque day).

Yes, the welfare system helps many people survive. But it also keeps many people poor, poor in every way. The only social role of someone on welfare is that of a passive recipient. In fact, even if they want to use their skills and gifts to help their communities, unless they are on disability, they cannot earn a dollar without that dollar being removed from their welfare cheque – in other words, a tax of 100% on earned income. BC is the only province in Canada that does not allow welfare recipients to keep some of the money they earn.

So my DTES friends are disempowered from reciprocally contributing to the well-being of the community and the city. They are denied the dignity of offering something. Their gifts and abilities are wasted, and they lose hope. Many of them develop a “taking” mentality, a sense of entitlement that can poison their worldview. And on the other side of the city, working taxpayers develop either a smug satisfaction in “helping the needy” through the welfare system, or a deep resentment toward the “lazy” people who are using their tax dollars to feed their addictions. None of this brings the rich and the poor any closer into relationship with each other, which I believe is the only way both the rich and the poor will feel loved enough and have enough hope to break out of addiction patterns, and to live more whole lives.

The system isn’t working. So today, I’m fasting.

I’m fasting to participate, in a backwards sort of way, in the monthly rhythm of a neighborhood I love, to acknowledge the hard realities and pray about how they are playing out the lives of my friends.

I’m fasting to stand in solidarity and experience a bit of the hunger many of my friends on the DTES have felt and continue to feel, hunger not only for good food, but for love, healing, freedom and belonging – hungers we all share as flesh-and-blood humans.

I’m fasting to remind myself of what it feels like to crave something, to get just a small taste of the cravings of my addicted friends, who face so much temptation today.

I’m fasting to remind myself that I’m only a community and a life-crisis away from being on welfare myself, that I’m only one pain-numbing attempt away from becoming an addict.

I’m fasting to remember that throwing money at people is not the same thing as being in relationship with people and supporting people face-to-face, life-on-life. We are all impoverished when we remain separate from one another.

I’m fasting to ask myself how I can become weak, how I can lay down my power, so that those who are now weak and oppressed can be empowered to take leadership and dream big dreams for their neighborhood.

I’m fasting because the welfare system is not helping anyone “fare” well, and it is a symbol of the ongoing class division and deep injustice in our cities.

I’m fasting to name the systems that keep my friends in bondage, and to pray for their freedom. In sum, I’m fasting to “loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke” (Isaiah 58:6).

If you long for justice, as I do, if you long to see the Kingdom of God break through, both in Kits and the DTES, I invite you to join me in fasting and praying for justice on Welfare Wednesdays. Here are the rest of the dates for 2010:

April 21

May 19

June 23

July 21

August 25

September 22

October 27

November 24

December 22

Let me know if you want to join me in this – it would be good to know we’re in it together, and maybe we can even get together and pray on one of those days.

What to do when God and Jonah are grounded?

2010-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

Through the fall the children in our congregation have been writing songs, building set pieces, making puppets and scripting a puppet show on the story of Jonah. All was coming together for a Saturday practice and Sunday performance, but then God and Jonah got grounded! Or at least the kids playing those two (rather central) characters did. This happens to us around here a fair bit. In fact, because the kids love Sunday School and Kids Night their parents feel like not allowing them to attend is a punishment that will make a point. So, I guess there is an upside?

Anyway, we moved the performance back a week and a great time was had by all. The following Tuesday we were scheduled to perform in the building where the kids live. Again, God and Jonah...grounded. But this time Xavier, an 8 year old who is new to the building exuberantly volunteered. He was so excited by having seen the show the week before that even though he had not been a part of anything so far, he couldn't wait to be able to tell the story too. So Xavier was Jonah, our narrator played God and we played in the story again. It was not a performance that was going to win any Tony nominations, but the biblical story once again became a place where someone was able to find a place of belonging.

God's House of Many Faces

2009-12-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

We have arrived at a name. We shall be known as God's House of Many Faces! What makes me smile about this name is that God's house is not contained in a building in our experience. God's house is as broad as creation and the boundaries lie in many faces, not in walls or roofs.

Here are some photos of this house of many faces.

Celebrating together with Kits Church.

A few pictures!

2009-11-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

An apology - neither Jodi nor I have had a lot of time to write many blog entries in this season of the church's life, but I do want to post some recent pictures, as a peace offering for those of you who continue (in vain) to check the blog! Enjoy.

The newly-formed church drumming group does a call to worship and thanksgiving prayer at Jodi's house.

Some of the kids celebrate a birthday on Kids' Night.

The twins are getting bigger!

What's In A Name?

2009-09-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

For four months a group of us have been "officially" dreaming of church in Strathcona. We have gathered together, we have prayed, worshiped, cared for each other, listened for God and to one another, played and blown bubbles together. We would consider ourselves to be church. You know, the body of Christ, the community of sinners and of saints, the family of God. I don't think that any of us actually doubt that we are a church. The trouble has been that we have not yet settled on a name. So, when we meet people in the neighbourhood and invite them to join us they say, "What's the name of your church?" We usually just refer to it as "Church in the Park". Then we have to explain which park, and since our park has no name, that gets kind of tricky unless you are someone who hunkers under the Georgia Viaduct to get some shelter from the rain or to turn a trick or shoot up lots of people have never really noticed our park. And when we say we have no official name and that we do not meet in a building right now, but under some trees as long as no one is sleeping under the tree we are accustomed to meeting under... well, then we start to get some funny looks and people back away slowly speaking in a soothing voice as though we were a dangerous bear whose irratic religious delusions should be avoided at all costs.

So, we have begun the search for a name in the hopes of lending some outward credibility to what we are experiencing as a beautiful, crazy, unpredictable adventure with the Spirit of the Living God.

Some of us were sent from a church (Kitsilano Christian Community), which has taken it's name from it's neighbourhood. It is a church that seeks to be located in particular geography and is committed to that place and to seeking the peace and welfare of that neighbourhood, not just the well-being of those who participate in the gathered life of that community. They are committed also to the idea of being a community, a fellowship, a people who belong to one another. And their imagination for doing and being these things is rooted in the tradition of Jesus, therefore they call themselves Christian (followers of Christ, a Greek title for Jesus).

But this is tricky for us in this new community because there are lots of different names that tell the story of this neighbourhood. In our 10 blocks by 4 blocks the names Strathcona, the Downtown Eastside, Chinatown, Japantown, The reserve off the reserve, Main and Hastings, or Hogan's Alley all describe aspects of our neighbourhood. What kind of name would speak of this place in ways that welcomes people who would identify with any of those descriptors of our neighbourhood? What name for our gathering communicates our commitment to this geographical space and to our neighbours who live within it? What name says that we are a people who are learning to love God and love our neighbour and that is what we believe it is to be church as opposed to church being the name of the building in which we meet (or not)? What is in a name after all? Footprints of colonization or memories of a history that only remains in place names since the people have moved on?

What is in a name? Stay tuned...

Kids in the middle

2009-09-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

A photo from Kids' Night

When Jodi pitched me the idea about spending a lot of time with kids this summer as part of my role in this new church, I was hesitant, to say the least. Having spent many summers working at a camp in SK, I felt burned out just thinking about doing more kids programming. Surely this was a stage in my life that had ended, and I was ready for more "adult" things.

So it came as a surprise to me when I looked back and realized that some of the most life-giving moments of this summer were spent with children. Some were at the Ray-Cam Community Centre, where, mercifully, the "programming" was done for me, and my only job was to hang out and get to know the kids. I also had some great moments during our weekly Kids' nights at Solheim, as kids of various ages poked their heads out their windows, saw us playing in the courtyard, then came and joined the fun. But most of these great kid moments happened during our Sunday gatherings in the park.

As a church sent to welcome and serve families, we have spent the summer experimenting with "intergenerational" services. I had paid lip service to the idea of intergenerational services for quite a while, but until this summer, I hadn't rightly estimated the cost, or the reward, of doing this.

It is costly. It requires more creativity to think about how kids can best participate in the worship and teaching, a greater investment of energy during the service, and willingness to be flexible when kids are cranky or distracted or when our plans just aren't working.

But the rewards are huge. Adult-oriented worship and teaching times can be inspiring and thought-provoking at the time, but to be honest, I rarely remember them in years to come. But I'm pretty sure I'll never forget the Pentecost service when the kids ran around us with shimmering pieces of red fabric, recreating the wind and the flames of fire that descended on the apostles. Or our refreshing water balloon fight on a hot summer Sunday following our reflection on Jesus as Living Water. Or the kids' entertaining reflections on differences between a "heart of flesh" and a "heart of stone." Also, because the kids join me on bells, maracas, drums and shaky eggs, I'm never the only instrumentalist during worship.

Unforgettable montage of Ezekiel's vision of the four-faced angel (Ezek. 1)

Our series on Ezekiel has been full of "aha" moments as kids pull items out of the "story bag," act out Ezekiel's dreams, and later ask "wondering questions" with the adults. Kids think of questions that adults wouldn't even dream of, and the lessons are so much more memorable when they come through the mouths of children.

Another Vancouver church plant doing intergenerational services posted this quote by John Witvliet on their website recently: "How ironic that children, of all people, should be treated as second-class citizens in the church. Jesus not only welcomed children, but told us that children are our teachers. Children model what true faith is like. When children are cut off or set apart from the worshipping community, both children and adults lose the opportunity to learn from each other."

Calum's drawing of the dry bones being given flesh (Ezek. 37)

It has been a privilege to learn from the kids in our church this summer. We're still experimenting with our liturgy, feeling out what "fits" us as a community, but whatever shape our worship and teaching take in months and years to come, I hope the kids will stay central.

New Members

2009-08-25T21:52:00.001-07:00

I am pleased to announce that our church has grown by two members:

Christal, 4 lb 2 oz.

and Elena, 2 lb 13 oz.

They were born at 8:30 this morning to Chanel and Christopher, in an exciting and unanticipated home birth, aided by several paramedics and firefighters! Mom and babies are doing fine - please pray for them to continue to be healthy. Congratulations to them, and to grandparents Genevieve and Terry, and uncles Brandon, Bradley and AJ!

A very good sign

2009-07-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hello from Beth, to my Kits Church family and any others reading this. This is my first time writing as part of this blog. For the last month, I've been spending twenty or so hours of my week helping to water and nurture this recently-planted-in-a-park, yet-to-be-named church plant. I have been delighted, challenged, and generally overwhelmed with all sorts of new thoughts and emotions. So many times over the last few months I've wanted to share these new experiences with you, to tell you stories about our little community. Here is my first attempt to do so.

I want to tell you about one of the most exciting Sundays we've had together so far, a Sunday only a few weeks after our church was born, early in May. That was the Sunday when Julio and Lisa Hernandez visited from Washington, DC.

Many of you know that Julio and Lisa are really the roots of our new church. They worked both in Strathcona and at Kits, building bridges of relationship. Most of the church plant people were originally introduced to us through Julio and Lisa, before they moved to Washington.

So when we heard they were coming to visit, along with their newborn baby, Dinita, we spread the word and prepared for a party. By 2:00 that Sunday, there were about 30 people gathered at our site in the park, many of whom we had never met before, including plenty of kids who knew and loved Julio and Lisa. But the guests of honour were late. Finally we saw them coming from far away, and a bunch of kids ran to meet them. There were hugs all around, and even some tears of joy in the kids' eyes. Everyone wanted to look at the new baby, an incredible blessing in the Hernandez's lives after many miscarriages.

We started the service. I played the guitar, as the kids accompanied on maracas and hand drums, and we sang songs of thanksgiving: "every good and perfect gift comes from You." Jodi told us some stories about "Nobodies" who God turned into "Somebodies" in order to set His people free... from Moses, to Gideon, to Julio & Lisa. The highlight of the service was the end, when Eunice, an elder, gave gifts to Julio and Lisa, then sang and played her drum to bless baby Dinita, as some of the other First Nations women joined in, arms outstretched, hands cupped, in a gently swaying dance.

After the service, we all headed down the alley to Jodi's house for a BBQ. In a matter of minutes, the house was full of people - our numbers doubled to about 60 (food does have that effect!). Terry assumed the important role of hamburger-barbecuer on the back porch, and Jodi boiled hot dogs on the stove. Kids were everywhere, running in a steady stream from the back door through the house and out the front door, then around back again. I passed out punch and tried to learn everyone's names. Baby Dinita was making her rounds, being held by everyone in attendance.

Later, as the crowd thinned, I wandered to the sun room in the back. Eunice was sitting there with some other women, her drum beside her. I commented on the beautiful patterns on the surface of the drum. She picked it up and played another song, one that the women seemed to know well. As she finished, we heard a clap of thunder, a rare occurrence in Vancouver. Moving quickly from a ceremonious seriousness to characteristic tongue-in-cheek First Nations humour, Eunice quipped that she had perhaps drummed a little too hard. Our laughter was interrupted by a shout from outside: "It's an eagle!" Everyone rushed out to watch the huge bird circle, silhouetted on the dark clouds. We stood in hushed awe. Eagle sightings are especially significant in the First Nations community, a good sign - a very good sign.

The whole day seemed like a very good sign, a sign of God's grace to all of us, a sign of the legacy Julio and Lisa left for us, a sign of something new being birthed among us.

This is how a church is born

2009-04-13T10:15:00.001-07:00

On Good Friday we gathered on the north slope of the Georgia Viaduct, the first official gathering of this church-to-be. Children played in the "forest" and we all helped make a cross with pine cones gathered from the ground. Twenty one of us were there, from 9months to 60 years in age, from First Nations bands, New Zealanders, Croatians, Cambodians, Scots, Chinese, Americans and Canadians, a good representation of the neighbourhood.

As we gathered pine cones I marvelled at what God is doing in this place. I wondered what God's dream is for this place, knowing that in seed form it was beginning here as we gathered around the cross of Jesus, and wandered through the neighbourhood asking, if Jesus were from this neighbourhood rather than from Galilee, where would he have walked on his journey to the cross? Where would we have stood?

We finished off our walk with a beautiful dinner at Hastings and Jackson, prepared by a friend, venison stew and bannock may become this community's Good Friday tradition. Another 20-30 friends joined us there for dinner, kids played foose ball, teenagers played pool, old and young sat talking and eating. This is how a church is born.

Holy Week

2009-04-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

Learning to walk in this neighbourhood

2009-04-02T20:29:00.001-07:00

So I am discovering that I need to re-learn how to walk in my new neighbourhood. My whole life I have walked with purpose (though a bit like a duck) and prided myself in my ability to move at a good clip but in my new neighbourhood that causes problems. The biggest being that people think I am a cop.

I want to say, "No, I don't work for the man who locks you up. I work for the one who sets you free", but maybe that is a bit cheesy. Instead I am trying to learn from Jesus who moved into the neighbourhood and was seen as a neighbour, not an authority (though he was), not someone with an agenda (even though he had one), but as a friend...or an enemy, but certainly not as an outsider.

As I learn to slow down and to match my pace with the pace of my friends here I find more people who want to talk. Most days, when I slow down, people ask me to pray for them. I don't quite understand why, but hopefully it is Jesus walking in me.

Conceptions and Misconceptions

2009-03-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

"Church planting, church plaaaaan-ting", she sings to the tune of some old superhero theme song. "Jodi, what is church planting?" said my friend Aria someone quite new to the idea of church not to mention to the insider language of church culture.

In conversation with my cousin the other day she said, "I hear you are building a church?" "Well...no, perhaps starting a church, but not building a building, we will probably rent a space that already exists" I replied. "Oh, my Mom said you were 'church planting' and we figured that must mean that you were building a church."

That all has me thinking about language. Why do we call starting a new church, "church planting"? I don't know who first started using this language, but every church that currently exists was once either planted (beautiful intentionality), or it was the result of a church split (the dark ugly side of what happens when we do not play well in the sandbox with others). But as I walk around Vancouver as spring fights to come early I think I like this language of planting.

Planting speaks to hard work, tending to soil, working in compost, testing the nature of the soil you have, the amount of sun you will get, where you are in the biosphere and what will grow well in this place. Then you plant, and by faith you put these tiny seeds in the ground, and you wait. And wait. And wait. Tempted though you may be to dig up that little seed, and see how it is doing, is it growing? Will it make it? And in the dark ground that you have tended, there is an unfolding mystery that you cannot control. The mystery of a seed dying in order to break forth into fragile, tender life, a green shoot that is hard at first to distinguish from a weed. A garden emerging which will feed multitudes. Fruit that will hang heavy one day on these tender vines.

This is the mystery of God. Church planting.

Intro.

2009-02-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This is a blog intended to keep Kits Church abreast of developments around a possible church plant in neighbourhood of Strathcona. It is also for anyone interested in being a part of this process.

We are one month into meeting with friends we have known for awhile and making new friends in the neighbourhood. Our goal is to meet 200 new people in the neighbourhood who might be interested in being a part of a new church that would be a place of welcome for people of all ages and from all different backgrounds. For now we hope that the vision of Kitsilano Christian Community would also be a marker for this new church, that we would be a place where people can:
Come as you are
Discover and grow in a relationship with Jesus
Support each other in practical and spiritual ways
Transform the world (starting with our neighbourhood) with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Stay tuned for stories of what we are dreaming and praying about.