An Introduction
When I was a child, I rode on a tractor, chased around chickens inside a fence, had a pet rabbit and pet a duck besides countless dogs and cats, climbed trees, and made a camp fire only steps from my back yard.
Today, I ride a bus into Manhattan, but sometimes I take the train. I live on the 3rd floor, and outside the door of my building, I can hear Russian, Albanian, Spanish, Urdu, or Vietnamese. I live by the cell phone and e-mail.
Before living in New York, I lived in Houston's 6th Ward. I moved in at the dawn of gentrification (At $375.00 a month rent for my small apartment, I was not part of this process) and watched a neighborhood change before my eyes. I spent my time driving along railroad tracks in 5th Ward, waving away drug pushers in 4th Ward, and circling through the narrow streets of housing projects picking up teens who were caught between loving their God and obeying the message of the story that had shaped their lives up until that point.
The rhythm of my life has changed since my childhood. I have undergone a cultural conversion in order to engage the world as it is. Urban. Pluralistic. Cosmopolitan. My city -- where global meets local -- is New York. My community is the Bronx. I love the people and the culture despite the stress and pressure all around me -- and at times within me.
I believe that my conversion represents the conversion that must be undergone by many Chrisitan traditions such as mine (Churches of Christ) who are largely rural. The call to conversion is from rural to urban, from culturally Southern (United States) to global citizens, from institutional to missional.
This blog is not intended to be a cyber soapbox. Rather, a space for thoughtful reflection and dialogue. We must plunge the depths for understanding this gift that God has given us called "church." This is, of course, secondary to understanding and knowing Jesus our King. If we are to be faithful to our calling, how do we today live in an individualistic, pluralistic, postmodern, multicultural, urban society? I find the best starting place to be an ancient voice (late 2nd century) in the Epistle to Diognetus:
But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.
Today, I ride a bus into Manhattan, but sometimes I take the train. I live on the 3rd floor, and outside the door of my building, I can hear Russian, Albanian, Spanish, Urdu, or Vietnamese. I live by the cell phone and e-mail.
Before living in New York, I lived in Houston's 6th Ward. I moved in at the dawn of gentrification (At $375.00 a month rent for my small apartment, I was not part of this process) and watched a neighborhood change before my eyes. I spent my time driving along railroad tracks in 5th Ward, waving away drug pushers in 4th Ward, and circling through the narrow streets of housing projects picking up teens who were caught between loving their God and obeying the message of the story that had shaped their lives up until that point.
The rhythm of my life has changed since my childhood. I have undergone a cultural conversion in order to engage the world as it is. Urban. Pluralistic. Cosmopolitan. My city -- where global meets local -- is New York. My community is the Bronx. I love the people and the culture despite the stress and pressure all around me -- and at times within me.
I believe that my conversion represents the conversion that must be undergone by many Chrisitan traditions such as mine (Churches of Christ) who are largely rural. The call to conversion is from rural to urban, from culturally Southern (United States) to global citizens, from institutional to missional.
This blog is not intended to be a cyber soapbox. Rather, a space for thoughtful reflection and dialogue. We must plunge the depths for understanding this gift that God has given us called "church." This is, of course, secondary to understanding and knowing Jesus our King. If we are to be faithful to our calling, how do we today live in an individualistic, pluralistic, postmodern, multicultural, urban society? I find the best starting place to be an ancient voice (late 2nd century) in the Epistle to Diognetus:
But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.
posted by Jared | 7:41 AM
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