My Neighborhood Is My Youth Group

I started teaching ESL and being the "youth worker" at Upward Bound Study Center in Monterey Park this week (a program reaching out to low immigrant Chinese high school youth), had a discussion with a local church about their desire to restart their youth group with an emphasis on reaching community kids, and had my recently graduated mentee from our Believe mentoring program randomly stop by Friday night with his friends to chill out while they were running (to exercise).

All my previous times with youth was in a church culture with church kids (I was reminded of this Saturday when I saw my old church's youth go off to their annual camp retreat). But now I'm in a completely different situation where most of these kids aren't believers. And I'm loving this opportunity because I feel like this is the missional edge we are called to as the Church.

I've often said that youth pastors in our cities should view these neighborhood kids as their youth group, instead of just those who go to their church programs. It's a practical way of working out that old idea that the neighborhood your church is in is your parish. A parish mentality begins with the belief that all those located around your church meeting place is of concern, whether or not they attend your church, whether or not they are believers. But typically, a youth worker is hired to take care of the kids who come to church first and then maybe try and attract more kids to go to their group (like the picture implies).

This attractional model of youth ministry ("build something great and they will come") won't die out anytime soon. And I know firsthand that most churches won't sign on to a completely "missional" model if it doesn't benefit the church kids and the youth group program. I also know that many church kids are nominal at best, and that we can't assume they are all followers of Jesus. We all know the tensions and perils of youth ministry.

But if Jesus came to "seek and save the lost," couldn't we write in the job description of each youth pastor or worker something that reflects that same heart Jesus had for the lost? Volunteer at the Boys and Girls club? Mentor an at-risk student? Teach ESL to the low-income immigrant students at Mark Keppel? Let's not leave outreach and mission to some summer trip or camp or think that it's up to the kids in the youth group. Leadership has to.....well, lead the way!

Branding Hope

This past week we had a discussion about what Kingdom Causes' "brand" is and filling out all those attributes that make up what we're about. A brand is different from our mission, because it's the specific ways we accomplish the mission. It's the adjectives you would use to describe what we are and do.

One of the brand attributes our facilitator reflected back to us was that we were "hopeful:" for and not against, forward thinking, optimistic. I totally agree. And interestingly enough, I started reading N.T. Wright's Surprised By Hope last week too.

Wright's thesis is that if we reorient ourselves again to the radical implications of Jesus' bodily resurrection, we have both an ultimate hope AND hope for the present world. Too often, Christians don't see the connection between an ultimate hope (summarized as "eternal life") and how if at all there's a connection to what we do on earth--why bother with trying to make things better if the only thing that's important is to save my individual soul? For those more concerned about working for a better world today, resurrection discussion can seem like a theological diversion that has nothing to do with the hard work to be done in the here and now.

Wright talks about "collaborative eschatology" as one way early Christians combined both pieces:

Because the early Christians believed that resurrection had begun with Jesus and would be completed in the great final resurrection on the last day, they believed that God had called them to work with him, in the power of the Spirit, to implement the achievement of Jesus and thereby to anticipate the final resurrection, in personal and political life, in mission and holiness.


To me, Wright's book is reminding me of this: We can not brand hope in a generic way at Kingdom Causes. Christ-centered hope is radical, revolutionary, relational, and surprising!

Credit or Change?

I had someone tell me last week that there was an interaction where she realized I wasn't given credit for something I'm doing. As a catalyst, part of our job is not necessarily to be up front and be the one in the limelight, but I'm sure we're all human and can feel a little bit indignant when credit isn't given when credit is due. WE certainly wouldn't want those we work with to not get credit.

But I remembered later a line quoted earlier this year at a conference that I wrote down to remember: "Credit doesn't matter. Change is." We can all nod our heads in the non-profit world to that maxim. But if someone else gets the credit? That's the real test on whether we really believe that the bigger picture of change and transformation is worth more than personal credit, personal or organizational.

Paul talks about that too, that some preach Christ out of selfish ambition but Paul, he was a big picture even when that meant personal attack: "The important thing is that in every way, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice" (Philippians 1:18). Praying that I will not forget to be a "big picture" guy.

Block Parties Galore

One of the best ideas to come out from our strategic planning meeting last month was the neighborhood block party. We planned on having four for the year, and we already had two last weekend and one planned for July 4th weekend. And now our local churches want to do the same, and some asking KCAMP to help them reach their neighbors.

I had a conversation with one of the host neighbors last week about how counter cultural it is to much of our LA culture to have neighbors hanging out with each other, knowing, trusting, and helping one another. I know it's a larger symptom of the shadow side of our independent American spirit, where loneliness and isolation is the norm. But the irony is deeper in a dense city like our own.

And as I experienced our own block party, I got a vision of a pretty good end result for these block parties: my block which is usually empty of residents being outside had people walking back and forth in their front yards, laughing with one another, talking out on the street, and making plans together for future interactions.

The Kingdom is like, as Tony Campolo famously said, "a party." An apt metaphor. I think our parties are a foretaste of that Kingdom life.

Finishing Well

Some of the lines bandied about in talking about leadership include "working yourself out of a job" and "begin with the end in mind." After having my final day at my shelter job on Thursday, I thought those sayings can be somewhat simplistic. I didn't work myself out of my job; there was a replacement. I didn't know starting out where the end of this job would be, only that it would end someday. And I'm still on a sort of "on call" to help the new guy transition well.

I guess for me there is never closure in the simplest sense of the word--the work will never end, until Kingdom Come. Finishing well seems to be more about legacy, if Iron Man 2 has taught me anything. Have you left this job, ministry, work better than when you came in? Did you leave without any burned bridges of relationships, as far as you could control? What good thing have you left behind that will go on after your last day?

Maybe it's better to start with those questions than to throw out those tired leadership statements!

Pentecost Reflection

Journaling this morning reminded me again that today is Pentecost Sunday. And I came up with this question as I reflected on the Acts 2 story: "How are you, Holy Spirit, bringing newness?" It was difficult to come up with a list.

Even if I know there is potential stagnancy I sense in myself and some of those around me, I know this is also my untrained ability to see that newness. God may be making all things new through His Spirit, but I'm often hurtling along on the freeway of life without my mirrors attached.

This reflection from Every Bush Is Burning by Joan Puls captures what I want to believe, and with the Spirit's transforming work also SEE more of this newness in my life and in our cities:


"I believe that nothing human is foreign to the Spirit, that the Spirit embraces all. Our mundane experiences contain all the stuff of holiness and of human growth in grace. Our world is rife with messages and signatures of the Spirit. Our encounters with one another are potential sites of the awakening and energizing that characterize the Spirit. But so much goes unnoticed. We fail so often to recognize the light that shines through the tiny chinks and the dusty panes of our daily lives. We are too busy to name the event that is blessed in its ordinariness, holy in its uniqueness, and grace-filled in its underlying challenge."


Come, Holy Spirit.

Transition Plan

If you don't know by now, my family and I are taking a step of faith for me to quit my stable 30 hour job so I could focus more on going "full-time" with Kingdom Causes Alhambra - Monterey Park (stable in work, not necessarily in pay :P) . There's been a rush of feelings, lots of fitful sleep, and wondering prayers. It can be hard living in that "in-between" space, wondering how it's all going to play out.

But this week as I started my transition plan (down from 30 to 16 hours with the goal of training my successor), I found so much life-giving work, meetings, and conversations that helped confirm this sense of calling even more with the additional time in Kingdom Causes work.

Monday--Meeting with local pastors about opportunities to serve the community. Also connected with the SGV branch of Habitat for Humanity.

Wednesday--Met with my coach to talk about our strategic plan for KCAMP for the next few years. Our team is already moving forward with all our listed goals.

Thursday--Monterey Park Ministerial group. Continued to dream and plan on how we can work together as well as for the city.

Friday--Did some extra mentoring time and replanted a garden with summer veggies.

Praise God for all these opportunities and connections. Sometimes I feel like what I'm doing with KCAMP "out there" is making up for all the pretty much in-house work I did as a pastor of a church.