Spades Anyone? An afternoon at TLC

Spades anyone?
This weekend we had our first service weekend in our new gathering format at Pathway. Friday night there was an opportunity to serve at Freedom Fire, (http://www.freedomfire.org/. ) Saturday afternoon we served at TLC for families and children (www.kidstlc.org) and Sunday we met at the Commons for some rearranging and cleaning. All these opportunities were fantastic, but I wanted to share some brief thoughts on the time I spent at TLC along with seven others from Pathway.

Our group was serving at TLC for an afternoon of snacks and games with the kids Frankly, I was anticipating playing some “Snorta,” “Slap-Jack” or .other kids games with eight year olds. I was surprised when I found out we were going to hang out with some of the older residents, kids ages 16-18. Standing with a bag full of board games, cards, and some chocolate chip cookies made by a Pathway member did not instill in me a great sense of confidence that these kids would be at all interested in hanging out with us. I was concerned that this would just be an activity that they were forced to do with “geeky Christian people” who, I will confess, looked very similar to a bunch of Ned Flanders groupies. I was nervous and felt awkward. Those feelings quickly changed to excitement when one of the boys said “does anyone want to play spades?” I could do that and it sounded fun. It had been awhile since I stat around a table and played cards, but soon the melody of Kenny Rogers singing “you’ve got to know when to hold’em and when to fold’em” was running through my head and I was into the game. The conversation with the kids flowed easily and comfortably. I no longer felt like Ned Flanders and maybe they didn’t feel like a teenager in TLC’s program; just some people playing cards, laughing, talking a little smack and enjoying camaraderie or, to sound evangelical, some good fellowship.

This was a “service project” for the people of Pathway. The term, service project, sounds boring, daunting, and something that should involve a little self loathing and sacrifice; some old fashion Puritan self-denial. This Saturday afternoon was nothing like that. I had fun and I think the kids did as well. It was uplifting to connect with complete strangers, even teenagers who had tattoos. I don’t know the kids at TLC well. I don’t know their stories or what circumstances led them to be separated from family. I could speculate, but what’s the point in that? They are not projects that need to be corrected by my self assessed expertise. They are kids, who like me, have some good days and bad days, make some good decisions and bad ones, or who have been dealt a deck of cards and are playing the hand they have been dealt the best they can. Maybe someday I can share my story with them and who knows, maybe between deals of the cards, they might want to share their story with me. Maybe knowing their story will help me live better, be better, grow in my faith and maybe my story could help them the same way. Either way, I think our stories could both be better because of the others.

I received multiple comments and emails from those from Pathway who attended about how much they enjoyed it. and an email from TLC. These are shared without permission
From Pathway

Once again, so very proud to be a part of Pathway. The young adults we met today were amazing. I can't believe how open and friendly they were to us. It really hit me …how upbeat and positive they were, even conversing with total strangers. I think this is a project Pathway must commit to on a regular basis. I can see how we will establish relationships if we are there on a regular basis.”

From TLC:

“Hey thanks a lot for the volunteers, they interacted very well with the youth and were very positive. All the kids talked about how much fun they had. This group was really good, we like them.”

What is the future for our relationship with TLC? I am hopeful that we will have the opportunity to weave our stories together more in the future. Often when we talk about serving at Pathway, I wonder if it can sound like a one way draining proposition – we give time, energy, effort, resources to others and then are drained of those resources, never able to get them back again. . Nothing can be further from the truth! The Christian faith is full of paradoxes and giving to others is one of them. I was blessed by my time at TLC – in being with others from Pathway and by meeting a wonderful group of kids. I grew in this experience in away that I could not have by doing another “church thing” and I think the kids got to experience a group of Ned Flanders church people in away that could never be experienced by inviting them to a teenage evangelistic crusade. What comes out of this? I don’t know. What I do know is that when the question comes, Does anyone want to play spades? I am in!

Mission Monday

I had the privilege of attending a traditional CRC in my youth. Some of my earliest memories of our time as a family at church were the special missionary Sundays. In the church basement surrounded by a spread of ham, buns and an unknown colorful jello salad, the missionary would present a slide show of lands and people that were much different than me I found myself captivated by the stories from the far away mission field. Hearing of people becoming Christians, or seeing pictures of children my age learning the same Sunday school stories I had learned were as thrilling as the stories of poverty and disease were heartbreaking. Even as a young boy I admired, respected and was attracted to what I perceived to be the adventure of being a missionary, of being a person who lived the Christian life in a way that was different “over there” than it was in my neighborhood or church. Mission was something that was separate from the life of the local church and was an exciting venture that happened in other places.

This understanding of missions remained unchallenged for most of my adult life. As I observe and interact with many Christian friends in a variety of context, I don’t think their understanding of mission has developed much from what they understood as a kid from those mission Sunday services. Again, I am thankful for those experiences as a kid and the impact those mission Sunday’s had on my spiritual formation! The problem with mission Sunday’s is the impression, intended or not, that mission was not local, was not for everyone, was something you gave your money to or, if you were really adventurous, went on a mission trip to visit for a short period. I believe understanding mission this way thwarts our ability to embrace the missionary calling that we all have whether we live in plains of an African country or in the plains of Kansas, whether your city is Nairobi or Kansas City, whether your calling is to Jerusalem or to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) We are called to be God’s missionaries as we enter into the Kingdom of the great missionary King!

When we repent and enter into the Kingdom we are confronted with the claims of Christ; confronted with the life of Christ and the heart and scope of the Gospel he preached; a Gospel which reconciles all things, which restores all things, which makes things new (2 Cor. 5:18-21). We understand that in Him there is a new birth, a completely different way of living (John 3), that we are empowered to live in this new life because of the Spirit of God which now lives in us (Rom 8), that we belong to a new family, a new brotherhood, a church (Eph. 4), and our sent on a mission to live as ambassadors for our King, as citizens in his new Kingdom, preaching I both word and deed the Kingdom and Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20, Acts 28:31). Having been touched by God to repent and enter into his Kingdom, we begin to live a new way, see things differently, and develop values which are contrary to culture and to the way we understood the world before. Our new life and values intersect with those who have not entered this new Kingdom of God. We become a city on the hill whose bright light shines (Mat. 5:14). We become missionaries sent to proclaim the Gospel in a world that has sinned and is deserving of judgment, but we are also sent to a world in which all of humanity, indeed all of creation, suffer from the consequences of sin. These consequences include all which stands against shalom, such as poverty, sickness, systematic oppression, injustices, and racism. We are to engage both those who sin and those who are sinned against in the missionary Kings plan of redemption.

The mission of the gospel that we present and preach is not limited in direction to a place “over there” or in a world far away, but is also for our own backyard. This is why the vocal proclamation of the gospel is accompanied by the incarnation of the one who is preaching and presenting the Gospel with both words and a life lived out. I enjoy Eugene Peterson’s translation in the message of the incarnation of Jesus when he says “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14). Could I be a missionary in my own neighborhood or my own city? I never would have guessed it was possible as a young child watching a great slide show. When we understand missions as something that happens outside of our town, city or country, if we understand it as only international we falsely segment a calling that was given to us all. You don’t have to bring a slide projector, but I would love to celebrate Mission Monday with you and hear the stories of your mission in your neighborhood. I will even bring some ham on bun.