A Missional Community of Faith at A Third Place Community
“doing small things with great love changes the world”
“you don’t have to think alike to love alike”
“freely following Jesus, in deeds not creeds, making Jesus visible in the world”
Maundy Thursday Communion Service: A Feast of Life and Love and Liberation
Invocation
Today is the day which God has made:
Let us rejoice and be glad therein.
What does the Eternal require of us?
To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
This is our covenant:
In the light of truth, and the loving and liberating spirit of Jesus, we gather in freedom, to worship God, and serve all.
Opening Prayer
O God, who by the example of thy servant Jesus has taught us the greatness of true humility, give us grace to serve one another in all lowliness and to enter into the fellowship of his sufferings. For life eternal, salvation, and hope, grant us thanksgiving in the breaking of bread and of the vine outpoured, and in the life given us through Jesus Christ. Everlasting God, the comfort for all who mourn, the strength of all who suffer, let the prayers of those who cry out this night come unto thee, and may they rejoice and find feast wherever they may be. Let all who are beset by fears, troubled by poverty, worn by illness, all who are wronged and oppressed, the lonely, the weary and heavy-laden, come unto you and be sustained. Amen. (selections from King’s Chapel Book of Common Prayer)
Scripture and Song: Communion, Feasts, and God’s Beloved Community
Later Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: "What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riffraff?" 17Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I'm here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit."…Mark 2 (The Message)
“Amazing Grace”
18The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees made a practice of fasting. Some people confronted Jesus: "Why do the followers of John and the Pharisees take on the discipline of fasting, but your followers don't?" 19-20Jesus said, "When you're celebrating a wedding, you don't skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but not now. As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!"---from Mark 2
So, my friends, when you come together to the Lord's Table, be reverent and courteous with one another. It is a spiritual meal—a love feast.---1 Corinthians 11
“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”
8The Day of Unleavened Bread came, the day the Passover lamb was butchered. Jesus sent Peter and John off, saying, "Go prepare the Passover for us so we can eat it together." 9They said, "Where do you want us to do this?" 10-12He said, "Keep your eyes open as you enter the city. A man carrying a water jug will meet you. Follow him home. Then speak with the owner of the house: The Teacher wants to know, 'Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?' He will show you a spacious second-story room, swept and ready. Prepare the meal there." 13They left, found everything just as he told them, and prepared the Passover meal. 14-16When it was time, he sat down, all the apostles with him, and said, "You've no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you before I enter my time of suffering. It's the last one I'll eat until we all eat it together in the kingdom of God." 17-18Taking the cup, he blessed it, then said, "Take this and pass it among you. As for me, I'll not drink wine again until the kingdom of God arrives." 19Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory." 20He did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you.”
“Let Us Break Bread Together”
Jesus said: "Who would you rather be: the one who eats the dinner or the one who serves the dinner? You'd rather eat and be served, right? But I've taken my place among you as the one who serves. And you've stuck with me through thick and thin. Now I confer on you the royal authority my Father conferred on me so you can eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and be strengthened as you take up responsibilities among the congregations of God's people.---Luke 22
And from Luke 24: They came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if he were going on but they pressed him: "Stay and have supper with us. It's nearly evening; the day is done." So he went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, he blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. And then he disappeared.
“Tis A Gift To Be Simple”
Responsive Reading
I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And they said, Lord, when did we do that? And he said, When you did it for the least of these, you did it to me. Here is the bread of life, food for the spirit. Let all who hunger come and eat. Here is the fruit of the vine, pressed and poured out for us. Let all who thirst now come and drink.
We come to break bread. We come to drink of the fruit of the vine. We come to make peace. May we never praise God with our mouths while denying in our hearts or by our acts the love that is our common speech. We come to be restored in the love of God. All are welcome. All are worthy.
(based on Robert Eller-Isaacs, based on Matthew 25, alt. Singing The Living Tradition hymnal)
Call To The Table
Leader: From olden times comes to us this meal of bread and wine. In the night before his passing, Jesus and his friends were gathered around this table.
Congregation: He had spoken of God who wants to save the world; of the cross that must be carried; of the beaker that should be emptied; of the joy awaiting the faithful.
Leader: Now he spoke of the sacrifice that would be made;
Congregation: Of the communion in His love, stronger than death.
Leader: The bread, made of grain, would be broken.
Congregation: As his body would be broken and die.
Leader: The wine, pressed from grapes, would be shed.
Congregation: As his blood would be shed.
Leader: Those who had joined the meal, knew the significance.
Congregation: They understood the darkness of betraying love, the grief of sacrificing for love, the power of communion in a love stronger than death; the peace for those who remember his love.
Leader: The meal of the bread and wine is the communion in this love we behold in Jesus and in which we share through him.
Congregation: The communion with the dead, the communion with those far away, the communion with those near and the communion with those who will succeed us.
Leader: Friends, in faith and love, we invite you to our Holy Communion. We invite all of you, whether or not you belong to this or any other church, or to none at all, all of you who know yourselves to be bonded in the Spirit, or who long to live in the spirit of Jesus.
(Litany from First Unitarian Church, Worcester, MA)
Let us join in saying the prayer Jesus taught to all those who would follow in his compassionate and transforming way. Feel free to use the words you were taught in the diverse faith traditions, or the words you have chosen for the spirit of the prayer: Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Come to this sacred table not because you must, but because you may. Come not because you are fulfilled, but because in your emptiness you stand in need of God’s mercy and assurance. Come not to express an opinion, but to seek a presence and to pray for a spirit. Come to this table, then, sisters and brothers, as you are. Partake and share. It is spread for you and me that we might know that God has come to us, shared our common lot, and invited us to join the people of God…(Book of Worship, United Church of Christ)
Passing the Bread of Life Everlasting and the Cup of Hope Eternal
This bread, which we take and break, bless and give, is The bread of life everlasting, broken in our hands as is our world and our lives, but made whole again in the love and forgiveness of God. Jesus said, eat in remembrance of me.
The cup of hope and spirit eternal that knows no end, our communion in the risen life poured out for all. Jesus said, drink in remembrance of me.
Homily Based On A Reading From “An Altar in the World” by Barbara Brown Taylor: The Spiritual Practice of Blessings
Passing of Blessings: kneel and/or touch the shoulder of one next to you: In service to God through service with one another, may you know the blessing you are and the blessings you have to give, and that nothing can ever separate you from the love of God.
“We’re Going to Sit At the Welcome Table”
Benediction
At the end of his last supper with his disciples, Jesus said: Let me give you a new command. Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciple—when they see the love you have for each other.
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Breaking News: Community LivingKitchen Garden Park Is ON
....with your crucial help. Now. Read below and pass on to everyone, let's see how fast we can get this around the world via the internet. If you are reading this and finding out about us and our project and community for the first time, welcome and stay in touch, and thanks.
Consider this: At a bad economic time of recession. At a time in our Tulsa area when community centers have been closed down, especially in our lowest income areas like ours. At a time when parks which are so critical to the life and health of communities and families have had budgets slashed. At a time when our state is dead last as the healthiest state. When our 74126 zip code has the lowest life expectancy in our area. When 40 percent of the vacant residential properties in our two mile radius have been abandoned, not for rent or for sale. When we live in a food desert. When nothing new is beginning for our children, and instead our schools are cutting out teachers, programs, in ways not seen before in our history...
...Being a group of "crazy" local northside residents in this area, we believe another world, another community, another response is possible. So working with the University of Oklahoma Graduate Design Studio and the University of Oklahoma Graduate Social Work Department which helped us with our initial brainstorming and dreams and project we are developing plans for a place for extensive community gardening, gazebo for entertaining, space for families, a living kitchen right by the garden where people who grow can cook and dehydrate healthy food on the space, where we can have cooking lessons, nutrition demonstration, even outdoors community health classes, community meals, play equipment, a firepit, where folks can watch fireworks and the stars at night, where it will be an outdoors "third place" environment, sustainable, bringing hope. So...
We, A Third Place Community, now have a chance to purchase a city block, an acre, up on a hilltop overlooking downtown Tulsa, at 60th and N. Johnstown Ave. where two abandoned homes are rundown and abandoned. Right across from where one of our community gardens started last summer is now located. A location bridging two ethnically diverse neighborhoods, one incorporated in the city of Tulsa and one in the unincorporated Turley part, where people and school children walk.
We have had our offer of $15,000 accepted for the property, paid in cash at closing. Now to make it real we have to raise the funds as soon as we can. Which means we have to ask everyone for help and to pass this on to their email lists and social media in order for us to reach our goal:
Be a part of this groundbreaking, ground transforming initiative, at this time, and at this place. Be a part of the group that makes another world possible. People from right here, and from around the country and even the world have a chance to make this real, to be listed on our sign at the site of LivingKitchen Garden Park Givers. Your name, your family, your children's names, those whom you want to give it in honor to or memory of.
We need as soon as possible to raise the $15,000, even as the OU Design Studio is finishing up the plans and visuals that we will pass on as soon as they are completed.
We need just one person to give $15,000, or 15 people to give $1,000, or 150 people to give $100. That is how we make it real. Be a part of this opportunity, right now, to be a part of this original list of Garden Park Givers. Reply and let all know you are helping. Let's raise it by Easter, April 4. Talk about a resurrection of hope and spirit of life. Pass this notice on to all and let them know you are contributing at what amount and give them a chance to change the world too between now and Easter.
Send checks made out to A Third Place Community Foundation to 6514 N. Peoria Ave., Turley, OK 74126. We are a 501c3 non profit organization. Sorry we don't have an online donation avenue possible yet, but don't let that stop you. Do it the old-fashioned way.
Send a message that another response, another world, another kind of community is possible.
Go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com or become a fan of us on Facebook and follow how we are doing, what we have done, and our activities coming up and dreams. This initiative is a great one, but even greater is on the way.
Pledge, donate, surprise yourself and the world and all those who don't know that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. Pass on the Possibility.
Thanks so much,
Ron Robinson
A Third Place Community
"small acts of justice done with great love change the world"
first place is your home, second place is where you gather with those of like minds and interests; a third place is where you build community with those different from you for the good of all.
6514 N. Peoria Ave.
918-794-4637, 691-3223, 430-1150
Type your summary here
Type rest of the post here
Consider this: At a bad economic time of recession. At a time in our Tulsa area when community centers have been closed down, especially in our lowest income areas like ours. At a time when parks which are so critical to the life and health of communities and families have had budgets slashed. At a time when our state is dead last as the healthiest state. When our 74126 zip code has the lowest life expectancy in our area. When 40 percent of the vacant residential properties in our two mile radius have been abandoned, not for rent or for sale. When we live in a food desert. When nothing new is beginning for our children, and instead our schools are cutting out teachers, programs, in ways not seen before in our history...
...Being a group of "crazy" local northside residents in this area, we believe another world, another community, another response is possible. So working with the University of Oklahoma Graduate Design Studio and the University of Oklahoma Graduate Social Work Department which helped us with our initial brainstorming and dreams and project we are developing plans for a place for extensive community gardening, gazebo for entertaining, space for families, a living kitchen right by the garden where people who grow can cook and dehydrate healthy food on the space, where we can have cooking lessons, nutrition demonstration, even outdoors community health classes, community meals, play equipment, a firepit, where folks can watch fireworks and the stars at night, where it will be an outdoors "third place" environment, sustainable, bringing hope. So...
We, A Third Place Community, now have a chance to purchase a city block, an acre, up on a hilltop overlooking downtown Tulsa, at 60th and N. Johnstown Ave. where two abandoned homes are rundown and abandoned. Right across from where one of our community gardens started last summer is now located. A location bridging two ethnically diverse neighborhoods, one incorporated in the city of Tulsa and one in the unincorporated Turley part, where people and school children walk.
We have had our offer of $15,000 accepted for the property, paid in cash at closing. Now to make it real we have to raise the funds as soon as we can. Which means we have to ask everyone for help and to pass this on to their email lists and social media in order for us to reach our goal:
Be a part of this groundbreaking, ground transforming initiative, at this time, and at this place. Be a part of the group that makes another world possible. People from right here, and from around the country and even the world have a chance to make this real, to be listed on our sign at the site of LivingKitchen Garden Park Givers. Your name, your family, your children's names, those whom you want to give it in honor to or memory of.
We need as soon as possible to raise the $15,000, even as the OU Design Studio is finishing up the plans and visuals that we will pass on as soon as they are completed.
We need just one person to give $15,000, or 15 people to give $1,000, or 150 people to give $100. That is how we make it real. Be a part of this opportunity, right now, to be a part of this original list of Garden Park Givers. Reply and let all know you are helping. Let's raise it by Easter, April 4. Talk about a resurrection of hope and spirit of life. Pass this notice on to all and let them know you are contributing at what amount and give them a chance to change the world too between now and Easter.
Send checks made out to A Third Place Community Foundation to 6514 N. Peoria Ave., Turley, OK 74126. We are a 501c3 non profit organization. Sorry we don't have an online donation avenue possible yet, but don't let that stop you. Do it the old-fashioned way.
Send a message that another response, another world, another kind of community is possible.
Go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com or become a fan of us on Facebook and follow how we are doing, what we have done, and our activities coming up and dreams. This initiative is a great one, but even greater is on the way.
Pledge, donate, surprise yourself and the world and all those who don't know that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. Pass on the Possibility.
Thanks so much,
Ron Robinson
A Third Place Community
"small acts of justice done with great love change the world"
first place is your home, second place is where you gather with those of like minds and interests; a third place is where you build community with those different from you for the good of all.
6514 N. Peoria Ave.
918-794-4637, 691-3223, 430-1150
Type your summary here
Type rest of the post here
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Miracles Before Our Very Eyes We Do Not See
Hi all. Long time no check in. Read below or go to Go to http://www.turleyok.blogspot.com/ and www.facebook.com/revronrobinson and http://www.uuchristian.org/ see a few of the many things that have kept us busy being church in this Lenten season in this place....plus I am teaching two classes at http://www.ptstulsa.edu/ as well as being one of the directors of ministerial formation there and enjoying it immensely, but sometimes the cup gets so full to overflowing you just have to share it, take a moment and sip from it slowly. This will then be somewhat of a different kind of report from our different way of being church; as always do us a favor and pass it on, post it on, witness for us....
Let's talk worship: This Sunday communion first thing at 10 am then off across town to Sheridan Lanes for Church Without Walls bowling party (join us and support bowlers even if you choose not to bowl), think of a service project there or on the way there and back, and lunch out together. Invite friends, et al. contribute what you can, in our usual shared way, everyone will be take care of. Next Sunday on Palm Sunday March 28 we will have a special Seminary Sunday Day; a indepth look at the events of Holy Week from the march into Jerusalem through the Resurrection, from First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom of God by scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, communion and common meal worked in, in the Jesus way....Also plan to attend the Friday April 2 annual our mutual Noon Good Friday Worship Service in the chapel at All Souls, 2952 S. Peoria Ave....On Easter there will be some kind of surprise, of course...
Let's talk mission: we partner with OU graduate school of social work on Tuesdays 5:30 to 8 pm Mar. 23 and 30 and in April 20 and 27 to begin our first session of the free, meal included, Community Academy for residents 14 years old and up to help develop their relationship and organizational skills to become leaders in our community, to help their churches or groups or projects and dreams they have and want to make real. Future community academies may stress a variety of skills and classes and groups. On March 30 we will host the regular monthly Turley Community Association meeting as part of the class....Saturday March 27 9 or 10 am start or come when you can to first Spring gardening and cleanup with our partner Cherokee School; we will do the second one Sat. April 17...on Tuesday April 6 calling all artists and crafts people to come at 6:30 pm, meal included of course, also trying to arrange a quilt show in our gallery space...on Tuesday April 13 6:30 pm our gardening and food justice group will be showing the monthly documentary and planning the gardening we do communally and guerilla fashion (Food Inc was a hit this month; in April it will be SuperSize Me)...and importantly on Saturday April 10 from 8 to 10 am we have our community pancake and more benefit breakfast; $5 donation or more suggestion and a chance to eat and visit and hear whats going on in lives and the community of Tulsa North and the Turley area. Then join us for random acts of kindness and/or gardening, always multigenerational...check the blogs for more and updates; just too many projects and initiatives going on to mention here...
Let's talk party: All are invited to the annual Easter Eve Holy Saturday Celebrate Jesus Emptying Hell, AshingRobinson Garden Party, 11 am to 3 pm or so, 563 E. 63rd St. N. that's up the hill from the Two Turtles Smoke Shop and Dollar General west of Peoria turn right on North Garrison and we are the little rock house tucked up with Turley Mountain rising behind us, with the National Wildlife Federation Habitat Approved Sign on the Fence. We might even end it with a little Easter Eve vigil at the house or down at a third place.
Worship, Mission, Party, that's the agenda of revolutions, you need all three, at least in the way of Jesus. Speaking of which, the real reason I write to you today...
One of the common texts from scripture for this coming Sunday has in part this, from the gospel of John:
"Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”"
So there you have human nature, I suppose. There is Lazarus, raised from the dead, sitting at the table with Jesus, eating with Jesus, in his own home, but no one says a word about how amazing that is, no one is still going on and on about this transformation, this renewal (it isnt a resurrection of course, not in the same vein as Jesus' later, but that's another commentary); it is still so amazing and yet everything has gone back to the relative status quo so quickly. Maybe it is one of those cases where to look at the transformed one, to notice her or him, would put your own need of transformation into stark relief and you can't stand that; maybe we just have to have that status quo, homeostasis, restored. Lazarus quietly a miracle in the presence of the miracle maker and what does our Judas side fixate on, to complain about? Mary's hospitality to Jesus. Can't have that either.
I know there is that troubling passage. Jesus has a way of troubling things. The poor will always be with you; but he won't be. That social justice side of us, God forbid I sound like Glenn Beck, wants to say thank god for Judas naming the elephant in the room; but then the even quieter side of us wants to say, there goes Judas again; yes we know there is always something we need to do better for others, but there are times when the best, most immediate way you can change the world is to fill that world with the fragrance of perfume, unexpectedly (especially if you have a still raised from the dead Lazarus in the room, the real elephant in the room nobody is mentioning). Hmm, like putting your own oxygen mask on first before you can help others breathe in emergencies?
So here we have "the poor" with us always; someone gets a job and moves on somewhere else into their own place and their rented house goes empty then someone else moves in, paying or not. It is so easy to think of people as "the poor" without names and histories attached; I don't want to pick on poor Judas, Lord knows history has done that enough, but he reminds me of someone making a site visit here where we are, talking of statistics and stereotypes. He reminds me of me too. Meanwhile there are the miracles with names, Lazarus and Jesus, one getting attention and one being ignored, in his own home.
Funny what people see and don't see, fixate on and ignore.....
....We had a young man shot in front of the Chicken Hut in a crowd of people out after 2 am when the dance clubs close, and that is tragic, and mob mentality set in and people wouldn't talk to police, again, and got in the way of the first responders, again, and much was made in the media and online of people walking up to place their orders with him still lying wounded or dead. And that shouldn't be. And yet that is what people see instead of seeing what the people here see and don't see everyday. You have heard me before: a litany of things absent, so that the Chicken Hut, small as it is, becomes a gathering place for young people who want to continue being together but have no where else to go; Lord knows all the community centers we just closed in our lowest income areas couldn't be opened and adopted by churches and businesses to offer midnight basketball, a place to crash, etc. There are no movie theaters, few if any places like Chicken Hut to go to so that the one place gets the crush of people, and it isn't like they could have gone home and ordered in pizza to unwind cause you can't get pizza delivery. But the commentators don't see all that, or all the other aspects of the lives of those making bad decisions for sure. Did I just call them Judas? Sorry Judas.
The attitude is that if you are living here in the first place you get what you deserve; if you are out on Memorial Drive on the southside at that time and something like that happens it is a terrible commentary on society; but when it happens here, well then it is a commentary on the individuals involved and doesn't have anything to do with society because that's what they get for living here; the goal is often to help people get on their feet so they can high-tail it to the other side of town or the suburbs, onward and upward, let those behind suffer because they didn't get on their feet fast enough. It is one of the stories of the history of how this zipcode became to be struggling and abandoned. It is one of the reason why we have added a Fourth R to our list of the 3Rs of Community Development and Spiritual Life: remember the original 3Rs are relocation, redistribution, and reconciliation; the fourth R is Retention; as we improve the community we do it with and for the residents who are here, and so they won't have to move even when the neighborhoods are raised from the dead around them.
Even Jesus would soon, he was saying, be one whom they would not see anymore. Pay attention. Jesus was a peasant, as poor as they come, without even a home of his own so he made his home with others. Pay attention. See him. Jesus saw the Roman crosses lining the roads around Bethany, talk about your fragile gang-ridden neighborhoods with occupying forces and not much property value; he knew he could be gone at any moment, and so did Mary, who brought a glimpse of anointing to Jesus while he was alive, a small measure of the healing and anointing and life he had helped initiate and brought everywhere he went. Judas might have spread the value of that perfume around to so many of "the poor" that none got but a fractional amount so he could say he had helped such and such a number of "the poor." Mary started with the poor in front of her who had a name and a need. Hers was a miracle too, such a fragrance, such an act. Lazarus was a miracle. Jesus was a miracle. And don't forget to see Martha serving up the miracle in the background; no complaints from her in this story; I like to think of her as in her groove here, like some Top Chef, living out her passion feeding and orchestrating the community life happening all around her.
So many miracles, it's hard to see them all. So many miracles, it's hard to see at all. All that worship, all that mission, all that party, all that community organizing behind the scenes I don't write about us, all that we take for granted, all of you, miracle all.
Blessings to you and yours, thanks for all you do and all you see wherever you are and for your presence with us here, and more to come, soon I hope,
Ron
Let's talk worship: This Sunday communion first thing at 10 am then off across town to Sheridan Lanes for Church Without Walls bowling party (join us and support bowlers even if you choose not to bowl), think of a service project there or on the way there and back, and lunch out together. Invite friends, et al. contribute what you can, in our usual shared way, everyone will be take care of. Next Sunday on Palm Sunday March 28 we will have a special Seminary Sunday Day; a indepth look at the events of Holy Week from the march into Jerusalem through the Resurrection, from First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom of God by scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, communion and common meal worked in, in the Jesus way....Also plan to attend the Friday April 2 annual our mutual Noon Good Friday Worship Service in the chapel at All Souls, 2952 S. Peoria Ave....On Easter there will be some kind of surprise, of course...
Let's talk mission: we partner with OU graduate school of social work on Tuesdays 5:30 to 8 pm Mar. 23 and 30 and in April 20 and 27 to begin our first session of the free, meal included, Community Academy for residents 14 years old and up to help develop their relationship and organizational skills to become leaders in our community, to help their churches or groups or projects and dreams they have and want to make real. Future community academies may stress a variety of skills and classes and groups. On March 30 we will host the regular monthly Turley Community Association meeting as part of the class....Saturday March 27 9 or 10 am start or come when you can to first Spring gardening and cleanup with our partner Cherokee School; we will do the second one Sat. April 17...on Tuesday April 6 calling all artists and crafts people to come at 6:30 pm, meal included of course, also trying to arrange a quilt show in our gallery space...on Tuesday April 13 6:30 pm our gardening and food justice group will be showing the monthly documentary and planning the gardening we do communally and guerilla fashion (Food Inc was a hit this month; in April it will be SuperSize Me)...and importantly on Saturday April 10 from 8 to 10 am we have our community pancake and more benefit breakfast; $5 donation or more suggestion and a chance to eat and visit and hear whats going on in lives and the community of Tulsa North and the Turley area. Then join us for random acts of kindness and/or gardening, always multigenerational...check the blogs for more and updates; just too many projects and initiatives going on to mention here...
Let's talk party: All are invited to the annual Easter Eve Holy Saturday Celebrate Jesus Emptying Hell, AshingRobinson Garden Party, 11 am to 3 pm or so, 563 E. 63rd St. N. that's up the hill from the Two Turtles Smoke Shop and Dollar General west of Peoria turn right on North Garrison and we are the little rock house tucked up with Turley Mountain rising behind us, with the National Wildlife Federation Habitat Approved Sign on the Fence. We might even end it with a little Easter Eve vigil at the house or down at a third place.
Worship, Mission, Party, that's the agenda of revolutions, you need all three, at least in the way of Jesus. Speaking of which, the real reason I write to you today...
One of the common texts from scripture for this coming Sunday has in part this, from the gospel of John:
"Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”"
So there you have human nature, I suppose. There is Lazarus, raised from the dead, sitting at the table with Jesus, eating with Jesus, in his own home, but no one says a word about how amazing that is, no one is still going on and on about this transformation, this renewal (it isnt a resurrection of course, not in the same vein as Jesus' later, but that's another commentary); it is still so amazing and yet everything has gone back to the relative status quo so quickly. Maybe it is one of those cases where to look at the transformed one, to notice her or him, would put your own need of transformation into stark relief and you can't stand that; maybe we just have to have that status quo, homeostasis, restored. Lazarus quietly a miracle in the presence of the miracle maker and what does our Judas side fixate on, to complain about? Mary's hospitality to Jesus. Can't have that either.
I know there is that troubling passage. Jesus has a way of troubling things. The poor will always be with you; but he won't be. That social justice side of us, God forbid I sound like Glenn Beck, wants to say thank god for Judas naming the elephant in the room; but then the even quieter side of us wants to say, there goes Judas again; yes we know there is always something we need to do better for others, but there are times when the best, most immediate way you can change the world is to fill that world with the fragrance of perfume, unexpectedly (especially if you have a still raised from the dead Lazarus in the room, the real elephant in the room nobody is mentioning). Hmm, like putting your own oxygen mask on first before you can help others breathe in emergencies?
So here we have "the poor" with us always; someone gets a job and moves on somewhere else into their own place and their rented house goes empty then someone else moves in, paying or not. It is so easy to think of people as "the poor" without names and histories attached; I don't want to pick on poor Judas, Lord knows history has done that enough, but he reminds me of someone making a site visit here where we are, talking of statistics and stereotypes. He reminds me of me too. Meanwhile there are the miracles with names, Lazarus and Jesus, one getting attention and one being ignored, in his own home.
Funny what people see and don't see, fixate on and ignore.....
....We had a young man shot in front of the Chicken Hut in a crowd of people out after 2 am when the dance clubs close, and that is tragic, and mob mentality set in and people wouldn't talk to police, again, and got in the way of the first responders, again, and much was made in the media and online of people walking up to place their orders with him still lying wounded or dead. And that shouldn't be. And yet that is what people see instead of seeing what the people here see and don't see everyday. You have heard me before: a litany of things absent, so that the Chicken Hut, small as it is, becomes a gathering place for young people who want to continue being together but have no where else to go; Lord knows all the community centers we just closed in our lowest income areas couldn't be opened and adopted by churches and businesses to offer midnight basketball, a place to crash, etc. There are no movie theaters, few if any places like Chicken Hut to go to so that the one place gets the crush of people, and it isn't like they could have gone home and ordered in pizza to unwind cause you can't get pizza delivery. But the commentators don't see all that, or all the other aspects of the lives of those making bad decisions for sure. Did I just call them Judas? Sorry Judas.
The attitude is that if you are living here in the first place you get what you deserve; if you are out on Memorial Drive on the southside at that time and something like that happens it is a terrible commentary on society; but when it happens here, well then it is a commentary on the individuals involved and doesn't have anything to do with society because that's what they get for living here; the goal is often to help people get on their feet so they can high-tail it to the other side of town or the suburbs, onward and upward, let those behind suffer because they didn't get on their feet fast enough. It is one of the stories of the history of how this zipcode became to be struggling and abandoned. It is one of the reason why we have added a Fourth R to our list of the 3Rs of Community Development and Spiritual Life: remember the original 3Rs are relocation, redistribution, and reconciliation; the fourth R is Retention; as we improve the community we do it with and for the residents who are here, and so they won't have to move even when the neighborhoods are raised from the dead around them.
Even Jesus would soon, he was saying, be one whom they would not see anymore. Pay attention. Jesus was a peasant, as poor as they come, without even a home of his own so he made his home with others. Pay attention. See him. Jesus saw the Roman crosses lining the roads around Bethany, talk about your fragile gang-ridden neighborhoods with occupying forces and not much property value; he knew he could be gone at any moment, and so did Mary, who brought a glimpse of anointing to Jesus while he was alive, a small measure of the healing and anointing and life he had helped initiate and brought everywhere he went. Judas might have spread the value of that perfume around to so many of "the poor" that none got but a fractional amount so he could say he had helped such and such a number of "the poor." Mary started with the poor in front of her who had a name and a need. Hers was a miracle too, such a fragrance, such an act. Lazarus was a miracle. Jesus was a miracle. And don't forget to see Martha serving up the miracle in the background; no complaints from her in this story; I like to think of her as in her groove here, like some Top Chef, living out her passion feeding and orchestrating the community life happening all around her.
So many miracles, it's hard to see them all. So many miracles, it's hard to see at all. All that worship, all that mission, all that party, all that community organizing behind the scenes I don't write about us, all that we take for granted, all of you, miracle all.
Blessings to you and yours, thanks for all you do and all you see wherever you are and for your presence with us here, and more to come, soon I hope,
Ron
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
What God and A Few Missional Minded (UU Christians) Can Do
Can you get five people, more or less, together to change the world? Here is a current status update on what can result. Yours will look different. But you can do it. Let me just say faith is so much a part of everything we've done, including forming a non profit that is not officially faith-based. Faith that is for us grounded in the intersection of Jesus and Freedom, faith that leads us to work with people of many faiths, faith that must take form to be real, and for us that form is below, and we can just begin to dream and imagine what the form will be in another three years. Glory Glory Halleluia!.
A Third Place Community Center
History, Mission, Values, Vision
A 501c3 grassroots volunteer-based community development initiative
for Tulsa’s northern-edge neighborhoods
6514 N. Peoria Ave. Turley OK 74126; 918-794-4637
Our Name: “A Third Place” refers to the types of public civic spaces where people meet with those who are different in many ways from themselves, for forming community spirit and connections for the greater community life. The “first place” may be the home; the “second place” may be work or a religious body or association of like-minded people; the “third place” is a diverse, and free, community space.
Our History: In January 2007 just a handful of Turley area residents, having met as a church that had begun in the area in 2004 and in the suburban community of Owasso in 2003, decided to transform themselves by moving and renting a larger space to create a free community center for all residents living in a two mile radius, primarily in zip codes 74126, 74130. A Third Place Community Center was born. At the same time we began work toward creating partnerships and our new non-profit community development foundation. In Fall 2009 the A Third Place Community Foundation received its IRS status. Although members of a single church began it, and office space is rented and shared with a national religious organization, Board members now have a variety of faith affiliations and the Foundation is not categorized as a faith-based group. Below are listed many projects and partnerships to date.
Our Service Area: A two mile radius—from 46th to 86th Sts North, and Highway 75 to Osage County Line---was chosen because it is the area in which our residents live, primarily shop, go to school, use services, and many work. It is also a bridge area connecting incorporated and unincorporated urban neighborhoods of great ethnic and age diversity. We are in the area of greatest poverty and lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa area.
Our Mission: To Change The World Though Small Acts of Justice Done with Great Love.
Our Vision: Creating many diverse kinds of “a third place” centers and connections for the development of community life, especially in areas of greatest social fragmentation.
Our Values: Welcoming All Who Welcome All. Creating Safe and Civil Space For Building Relationships Across Divides of Race, Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Physical Abilities, Economic Conditions, Political Persuasions, Religious Affiliations, and National Origins. Dedicated to Sustainability in our Native, Natural Environment, and in promoting “smart growth”.
Our Guiding “4Rs” Principles: Retaining Residents while developing community life. Re-location (of people, families, services, businesses, etc.) into our currently abandoned, neglected, underserved, low-income areas. Re-Distribution of Justice, Health, Goods, Spirit, Hidden Resources of Strength. Reconciliation among separated people, families, neighborhoods, races and cultures, religions, and other groups.
Our Current Projects: The Community Center Meeting Space For Making New Friends and Dreaming New Dreams…OU Community Medicine Clinic…Community Resource Information…Our Own Library….Free Internet Center….Food Pantry, including dog food…Giving Room for clothing and other items….Art Gallery…Music Coffeehouse Concerts…Community Meals and Feeding and Nutrition Programs….Children's Area and Library….Television watching and Game Playing….Community Festivals and Holiday Celebrations….Community meetings….Community development service-learning projects between residents and OU graduate students….Nutrition Class, Diabetes Class, other classes as part of grassroots Community Academy….Sewing Project…Arts and Crafts Gatherings and Projects….Let Turley Bloom community gardening and community orchard and roadside beauty….12 Step Recovery….Saving Pets of Turley
Our Current Partnerships: OU Graduate School of Social Work…...OU Community Medicine…..Cherokee Elementary School…OBrien Park…Turley Community Association….Healthy Cornerstore Initiatives….McLain High School Initiative….North Tulsa Economic Development Initiative….House District 72 Community Coalitions “from Turley to TU”….TU SEED Law Clinic….OU Tulsa Urban Design Studio…. The Living Room Church….Turley United Methodist Church…Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship…The Lighthouse 12-Step Recovery….North Tulsa Farmers Market….Pending partnership with the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, and more all the time. If you read this and are interested, let us know how we can help your mission come true in our area.
Our Dreams: 1. Purchase and renew the historic but abandoned 10,500 square foot Turley Methodist Church building and properties near 59th and N Peoria to expand into and create a Community Center for Body, Mind, Spirit, moving and transforming our clinic and current projects into this newer better space with room to grow new projects connected with our community gardens and food justice work; 2. purchase and transform a hilltop acre at 60th and N. Johnstown overlooking downtown, a “city block”, with two abandoned dilapidated homes and transform the space into The LivingKitchen Garden Pocket Park for growing, cooking, teaching, feeding, celebrating, bridging two neighborhoods, one incorporated and one not; 3. create one or more “healthy cornerstores” in our center and in other areas of our service boundary; 4. Grow Staff Capacity to support current and future projects; 5. Create additional A Third Place Centers, either in building spaces of their own such as in the McLain Shopping Center, or in existing businesses and schools or spaces used by existing groups, and in non-building spaces such as our community gardens or in other public spaces…..
…..All so every neighborhod has a free community center within walking distance, and has volunteer trained neighborhood community health associates and designated resource responders within walking distance.
New Website under construction as project of OU graduate students and the Center; in meantime see http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Third-Place-Community-Center/286321927878 and www.turleyok.blogspot.com. Contact thirdplaceturley@aol.com or RevRonRobinson@aol.com
Our Leadership: Executive Director, currently volunteer: Rev. Ron Robinson, Turley.
Board members: Dr. Lisa Byers, Owasso and originally from north Tulsa; Marcy Janitz, Turley,; Dr. Bonnie Ashing, Turley; Julie Sansone, Turley; Chris Sansone, Turley; Gwen Goff, north Tulsa; Linda Taylor, north Tulsa; Jim Webb, Turley.
Our Members and Governance: We are a voluntary association. Membership is open and needed by all, individuals and institutions, within or beyond our service area. Members elect the Board which operates the Foundation between Annual or Special Membership Meetings. Membership Forms are available at the Center or currently by calling 918-794-4637 or emailing thirdplaceturley@aol.com.
Our Thanks For Your Interest, Support, and Partnership As We Dream Another World Into Being
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A Third Place Community Center
History, Mission, Values, Vision
A 501c3 grassroots volunteer-based community development initiative
for Tulsa’s northern-edge neighborhoods
6514 N. Peoria Ave. Turley OK 74126; 918-794-4637
Our Name: “A Third Place” refers to the types of public civic spaces where people meet with those who are different in many ways from themselves, for forming community spirit and connections for the greater community life. The “first place” may be the home; the “second place” may be work or a religious body or association of like-minded people; the “third place” is a diverse, and free, community space.
Our History: In January 2007 just a handful of Turley area residents, having met as a church that had begun in the area in 2004 and in the suburban community of Owasso in 2003, decided to transform themselves by moving and renting a larger space to create a free community center for all residents living in a two mile radius, primarily in zip codes 74126, 74130. A Third Place Community Center was born. At the same time we began work toward creating partnerships and our new non-profit community development foundation. In Fall 2009 the A Third Place Community Foundation received its IRS status. Although members of a single church began it, and office space is rented and shared with a national religious organization, Board members now have a variety of faith affiliations and the Foundation is not categorized as a faith-based group. Below are listed many projects and partnerships to date.
Our Service Area: A two mile radius—from 46th to 86th Sts North, and Highway 75 to Osage County Line---was chosen because it is the area in which our residents live, primarily shop, go to school, use services, and many work. It is also a bridge area connecting incorporated and unincorporated urban neighborhoods of great ethnic and age diversity. We are in the area of greatest poverty and lowest life expectancy in the Tulsa area.
Our Mission: To Change The World Though Small Acts of Justice Done with Great Love.
Our Vision: Creating many diverse kinds of “a third place” centers and connections for the development of community life, especially in areas of greatest social fragmentation.
Our Values: Welcoming All Who Welcome All. Creating Safe and Civil Space For Building Relationships Across Divides of Race, Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Physical Abilities, Economic Conditions, Political Persuasions, Religious Affiliations, and National Origins. Dedicated to Sustainability in our Native, Natural Environment, and in promoting “smart growth”.
Our Guiding “4Rs” Principles: Retaining Residents while developing community life. Re-location (of people, families, services, businesses, etc.) into our currently abandoned, neglected, underserved, low-income areas. Re-Distribution of Justice, Health, Goods, Spirit, Hidden Resources of Strength. Reconciliation among separated people, families, neighborhoods, races and cultures, religions, and other groups.
Our Current Projects: The Community Center Meeting Space For Making New Friends and Dreaming New Dreams…OU Community Medicine Clinic…Community Resource Information…Our Own Library….Free Internet Center….Food Pantry, including dog food…Giving Room for clothing and other items….Art Gallery…Music Coffeehouse Concerts…Community Meals and Feeding and Nutrition Programs….Children's Area and Library….Television watching and Game Playing….Community Festivals and Holiday Celebrations….Community meetings….Community development service-learning projects between residents and OU graduate students….Nutrition Class, Diabetes Class, other classes as part of grassroots Community Academy….Sewing Project…Arts and Crafts Gatherings and Projects….Let Turley Bloom community gardening and community orchard and roadside beauty….12 Step Recovery….Saving Pets of Turley
Our Current Partnerships: OU Graduate School of Social Work…...OU Community Medicine…..Cherokee Elementary School…OBrien Park…Turley Community Association….Healthy Cornerstore Initiatives….McLain High School Initiative….North Tulsa Economic Development Initiative….House District 72 Community Coalitions “from Turley to TU”….TU SEED Law Clinic….OU Tulsa Urban Design Studio…. The Living Room Church….Turley United Methodist Church…Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship…The Lighthouse 12-Step Recovery….North Tulsa Farmers Market….Pending partnership with the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, and more all the time. If you read this and are interested, let us know how we can help your mission come true in our area.
Our Dreams: 1. Purchase and renew the historic but abandoned 10,500 square foot Turley Methodist Church building and properties near 59th and N Peoria to expand into and create a Community Center for Body, Mind, Spirit, moving and transforming our clinic and current projects into this newer better space with room to grow new projects connected with our community gardens and food justice work; 2. purchase and transform a hilltop acre at 60th and N. Johnstown overlooking downtown, a “city block”, with two abandoned dilapidated homes and transform the space into The LivingKitchen Garden Pocket Park for growing, cooking, teaching, feeding, celebrating, bridging two neighborhoods, one incorporated and one not; 3. create one or more “healthy cornerstores” in our center and in other areas of our service boundary; 4. Grow Staff Capacity to support current and future projects; 5. Create additional A Third Place Centers, either in building spaces of their own such as in the McLain Shopping Center, or in existing businesses and schools or spaces used by existing groups, and in non-building spaces such as our community gardens or in other public spaces…..
…..All so every neighborhod has a free community center within walking distance, and has volunteer trained neighborhood community health associates and designated resource responders within walking distance.
New Website under construction as project of OU graduate students and the Center; in meantime see http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Third-Place-Community-Center/286321927878 and www.turleyok.blogspot.com. Contact thirdplaceturley@aol.com or RevRonRobinson@aol.com
Our Leadership: Executive Director, currently volunteer: Rev. Ron Robinson, Turley.
Board members: Dr. Lisa Byers, Owasso and originally from north Tulsa; Marcy Janitz, Turley,; Dr. Bonnie Ashing, Turley; Julie Sansone, Turley; Chris Sansone, Turley; Gwen Goff, north Tulsa; Linda Taylor, north Tulsa; Jim Webb, Turley.
Our Members and Governance: We are a voluntary association. Membership is open and needed by all, individuals and institutions, within or beyond our service area. Members elect the Board which operates the Foundation between Annual or Special Membership Meetings. Membership Forms are available at the Center or currently by calling 918-794-4637 or emailing thirdplaceturley@aol.com.
Our Thanks For Your Interest, Support, and Partnership As We Dream Another World Into Being
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Friday, March 05, 2010
Turning Your Congregation Inside Out: Creating Missional Communities of Faith...
...is the name of the workshop I will be doing with Joel Miller of Buffalo and perhaps some others during UUA General Assembly in Minneapolis on Friday, June 25 from 1 to 2:15 pm in the convention center. Hope you will put it on your schedule if you are going. That evening from 6 to 8 pm come eat and hymn sing with the UU Christian Fellowship at the First Unitarian Church of Minneapolis close to the convention center. The workshop will use what we do here on Tulsa's northernedge neighborhoods, and learnings from others, to shift our thinking on church, and church planting, and the cultures we need to be with in mission. A summary of our changes, how to use the 3Rs of community development---relocation, redistribution, reconciliation--to guide missional activities, and the many ways to become what Michael Durral calls public churches. Not that others have to follow our model, but hoping it will inspire others to take risks to embody faith, because if you don't it is the surest route to stay the course into oblivion and irrelevancy. More on it to come. End. Type your summary here
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Re-Discovering Jesus and Communities of Hope: Plan Now: UU Christian Fellowship Revival/Retreat Dallas Brandon Scott and John Buehrens and More
Don't miss this year's Revival/Retreat, open to all, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship, at Horizon UU Church in Carrollton Texas near Dallas, Thursday Oct. 14 to Sunday, Oct. 17. Theme is Re-Discovering Jesus and Communities of Hope. Keynote lectures by parables scholar and author Brandon Scott and former president of the UUA and pastor and author John Buehrens. Multi choir opening worship. Taize worship. Communion and Baptism and Prayer and Healing services. Workshops. Service Project. Small group community relationships.
Go to http://www.uuchristian.org/revival/index.html
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Go to http://www.uuchristian.org/revival/index.html
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Saturday, February 27, 2010
UU World Articles; Unitarian Universalism and Change, and What Change A Small Progressive Missional Community of Faith Can Create
There has been a lot of talk again about Unitarian Universalism and change and multi culturalism and multi-class embodying, and reclaiming mission as the owner of the congregation, and how to move from private to public churches. I just had a great and pretty eloquent post on all of this commenting on several of the wonderful articles that have been published in the past couple of issues of the UU World magazine, but I hit the wrong button and lost it all; thank you God for the reminder of who is in charge of the internet and my vanity.
I will try to work up the energy to redo the post, but in the meantime go to www.uuworld.org and read the articles by Michael Durral on the public church from his great new sequel book on UUism The Almost Church ReVitalized, and from the latest issue Paul Rasor's article and Rosemary McNatt's response, and perhaps even more importantly the article about the Jericho Road project for a kind of start at relocating church mission and ministry, and read Dan Hotchkiss's article on mission driving all things church (rather than churches trying to find and express their mission), and Doug Muder's column on UUism as a message or a culture. I liked them all and they are moving the realm of the important up into the forefront a bit more. But of course they are long on diagnosis and short on prescription. That was going to be the gist of the lost blogpost, and I will come back to it, but if you read this blog you will know the answer; if we want to get out of our head we have to stop analyzing and diagnosing, and start creating new communities in new places in new ways, relocating, redistributing, reconciling. This is how we become multicultural; we live and be the church with the poor. God will take care of the rest. The nuances I will live to when I get up the energy to write it again.
Instead, let me just bring a summary of what's going on here, by a few progressive minded folks commited to a missional community of faith here where we live in the poorest unhealthiest zipcode of our metropolitan area, amidst diversity. I don't blog much or send out email much anymore because it is all so much of a ride we are on. But I will try to do some more often. Enjoy this glimpse of change.
The LivingRoom Church and A Third Place Community Center
History, Mission, Values, Vision
A 501c3 grassroots volunteer-based community development initiative
for Tulsa’s northern-edge neighborhoods
Our Name: “A Third Place” refers to the types of public civic spaces where people used to meet with those who are different in many ways from themselves, for forming community spirit and connections for the greater life of the wider community. The “first place” may be the home; the “second place” may be work or a church or association of like-minded people; the “third place” is truly a diverse, and free, community space.
Our History: In January 2007 a small handful of local residents, having met as Epiphany: The Living Room Church at 6305 N. Peoria Ave. since 2004 in the unincorporated urban-rural-small-town of Turley on the northern edge of Tulsa, decided to transform themselves by moving into a larger rented space at 6514 N. Peoria Ave. and creating that space as a free community center for residents living in a two mile radius, primarily in zip codes 74126, 74130. A Third Place Community Center was born. We began working toward creating a new non-profit community development foundation to sustain the center and its projects and greater mission and vision. Its service area of a two mile radius—from 46th to 86th Sts North, and Highway 75 to Osage County Line---was chosen because it is the area in which our residents primarily shop, go to school, use services, and many work. It is also a bridge area connecting incorporated and unincorporated neighborhoods of great ethnic and age diversity, and one of our core values is working toward reconciliation.
Mission: As a Center, To Change The World Though Small Acts of Justice Done with Great Love. As the Church, to make Jesus visible in the world.
Vision: Creating many diverse kinds of “a third place” centers and connections for the development of community life. As the church, creating an urban new monastic missional setting with many partners participating in different ways.
Values: Welcoming All Who Welcome All. Creating Safe and Civil Space For Building Relationships Across Divides of Race, Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Physical Abilities, Economic Conditions, Political Persuasions, Religious Affiliations, and National Origins. Dedicated to Sustainability in our Native, Natural Environment, and in promoting “smart growth”. As a Church, keeping it simple, real, relational, organic, permission-giving, prayerful, mission-driven, sharing leadership.
Guiding “4Rs” Principles: Retaining Residents while developing community life. Re-location (of people, families, services, businesses, etc.) into our currently abandoned, neglected, underserved, low-income areas. Re-Distribution of Justice, Health, Goods, Spirit, Hidden Resources of Strength. Reconciliation among separated people, families, neighborhoods, religions and other groups. The 3rs of relocation, redistribution, and reconciliation come from the Christian Community Development Association standards; the 4th R of retention comes from seeking to avoid gentrification (though that's difficult now to envision) so that current residents can enjoy the creation of new community life and not be forced to leave, even as now they are often penalized from the attitude that if you can move to a "better area" you should and if you can't or don't then you deserved what you get where you are.
Current Projects and more come and go and new ones come all the time:
The Community Center Meeting Space For Making New Friends and Dreaming New Dreams
OU Community Medicine Clinic
Community Resource Information
Our Own Library
Free Internet Center
Food Pantry, including dog food
Giving Room for clothing and other items
Art Gallery
Music Coffeehouse Concerts
Community Meals and Feeding and Nutrition Programs
Children's Area and Library
Television watching and Game Playing
Community Festivals and Holiday Celebrations
Community meetings
Nutrition Class, Diabetes Class, other classes
Sewing Project
Arts and Crafts Gatherings and community Projects
Let Turley Bloom community gardening and community orchard and roadside beauty
12 Step Recovery
Saving Pets of Turley
Community Academy of free classes supporting persons and the wider community
Current Partnerships with:
OU Graduate School of Social Work
OU Community Medicine
Cherokee Elementary School
OBrien Park
Turley Community Association
Healthy Cornerstore Initiatives
McLain High School Initiative
North Tulsa Economic Development Initiative
House District 72 Community Coalitions “from Turley to TU”
TU SEED Law Clinic
OU Tulsa Urban Design Studio
The Living Room Church (as the founding group, we still meet together within the center we created, on Sundays and at other times throughout the week for worship or service or other events)
Turley United Methodist Church
The Lighthouse 12-Step Recovery
North Tulsa Farmers Market
Our Dreams:
1. Purchase ($100,000) and renew the historic but abandoned 10,500 square foot Turley Methodist Church building and additional properties near 59th and N Peoria to expand into and create a Community Center for Body, Mind, Spirit, moving our current projects into this newer better space with room to grow new projects connected with our community gardens and food justice work, expanding the clinic and revolutionizing the concept of health clinic, creating a center for service-learning with campuses and partners, and the buildings would also be the hub for “de-centralizing the center” as we move our mission into public and outdoor spaces as well; The Living Room Church would coordinate the sanctuary space for regular times of prayer and meditation and worship and other spiritual events as an integral part of the new Center.
2. purchase ($25,000) a hilltop acre at 60th and N. Johnstown overlooking downtown, a “city block”, with two abandoned dilapidated homes and transform the space into The LivingKitchen Garden Pocket Park for growing, cooking, teaching, feeding, celebrating, bridging two neighborhoods, one incorporated and one not, with somewhat overlapping but different ethnic groups though sharing a common bond of poverty;
3. create one or more “healthy cornerstores” in our center and in other areas of our service boundary;
4. create additional A Third Place Centers, either in physical buildings of its own such as in the McLain Shopping Center, or existing businesses and groups, and in non-building spaces as part of our community gardens or other public spaces…..
…..so every neighborhod has a free community center within walking distance, and has volunteer trained neighborhood community health associates and designated resource responders within walking distance.
This is what a group of five to ten mission minded people can set in motion within three years. With no official denominational support. With few finances. With no staff.
End.
I will try to work up the energy to redo the post, but in the meantime go to www.uuworld.org and read the articles by Michael Durral on the public church from his great new sequel book on UUism The Almost Church ReVitalized, and from the latest issue Paul Rasor's article and Rosemary McNatt's response, and perhaps even more importantly the article about the Jericho Road project for a kind of start at relocating church mission and ministry, and read Dan Hotchkiss's article on mission driving all things church (rather than churches trying to find and express their mission), and Doug Muder's column on UUism as a message or a culture. I liked them all and they are moving the realm of the important up into the forefront a bit more. But of course they are long on diagnosis and short on prescription. That was going to be the gist of the lost blogpost, and I will come back to it, but if you read this blog you will know the answer; if we want to get out of our head we have to stop analyzing and diagnosing, and start creating new communities in new places in new ways, relocating, redistributing, reconciling. This is how we become multicultural; we live and be the church with the poor. God will take care of the rest. The nuances I will live to when I get up the energy to write it again.
Instead, let me just bring a summary of what's going on here, by a few progressive minded folks commited to a missional community of faith here where we live in the poorest unhealthiest zipcode of our metropolitan area, amidst diversity. I don't blog much or send out email much anymore because it is all so much of a ride we are on. But I will try to do some more often. Enjoy this glimpse of change.
The LivingRoom Church and A Third Place Community Center
History, Mission, Values, Vision
A 501c3 grassroots volunteer-based community development initiative
for Tulsa’s northern-edge neighborhoods
Our Name: “A Third Place” refers to the types of public civic spaces where people used to meet with those who are different in many ways from themselves, for forming community spirit and connections for the greater life of the wider community. The “first place” may be the home; the “second place” may be work or a church or association of like-minded people; the “third place” is truly a diverse, and free, community space.
Our History: In January 2007 a small handful of local residents, having met as Epiphany: The Living Room Church at 6305 N. Peoria Ave. since 2004 in the unincorporated urban-rural-small-town of Turley on the northern edge of Tulsa, decided to transform themselves by moving into a larger rented space at 6514 N. Peoria Ave. and creating that space as a free community center for residents living in a two mile radius, primarily in zip codes 74126, 74130. A Third Place Community Center was born. We began working toward creating a new non-profit community development foundation to sustain the center and its projects and greater mission and vision. Its service area of a two mile radius—from 46th to 86th Sts North, and Highway 75 to Osage County Line---was chosen because it is the area in which our residents primarily shop, go to school, use services, and many work. It is also a bridge area connecting incorporated and unincorporated neighborhoods of great ethnic and age diversity, and one of our core values is working toward reconciliation.
Mission: As a Center, To Change The World Though Small Acts of Justice Done with Great Love. As the Church, to make Jesus visible in the world.
Vision: Creating many diverse kinds of “a third place” centers and connections for the development of community life. As the church, creating an urban new monastic missional setting with many partners participating in different ways.
Values: Welcoming All Who Welcome All. Creating Safe and Civil Space For Building Relationships Across Divides of Race, Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Physical Abilities, Economic Conditions, Political Persuasions, Religious Affiliations, and National Origins. Dedicated to Sustainability in our Native, Natural Environment, and in promoting “smart growth”. As a Church, keeping it simple, real, relational, organic, permission-giving, prayerful, mission-driven, sharing leadership.
Guiding “4Rs” Principles: Retaining Residents while developing community life. Re-location (of people, families, services, businesses, etc.) into our currently abandoned, neglected, underserved, low-income areas. Re-Distribution of Justice, Health, Goods, Spirit, Hidden Resources of Strength. Reconciliation among separated people, families, neighborhoods, religions and other groups. The 3rs of relocation, redistribution, and reconciliation come from the Christian Community Development Association standards; the 4th R of retention comes from seeking to avoid gentrification (though that's difficult now to envision) so that current residents can enjoy the creation of new community life and not be forced to leave, even as now they are often penalized from the attitude that if you can move to a "better area" you should and if you can't or don't then you deserved what you get where you are.
Current Projects and more come and go and new ones come all the time:
The Community Center Meeting Space For Making New Friends and Dreaming New Dreams
OU Community Medicine Clinic
Community Resource Information
Our Own Library
Free Internet Center
Food Pantry, including dog food
Giving Room for clothing and other items
Art Gallery
Music Coffeehouse Concerts
Community Meals and Feeding and Nutrition Programs
Children's Area and Library
Television watching and Game Playing
Community Festivals and Holiday Celebrations
Community meetings
Nutrition Class, Diabetes Class, other classes
Sewing Project
Arts and Crafts Gatherings and community Projects
Let Turley Bloom community gardening and community orchard and roadside beauty
12 Step Recovery
Saving Pets of Turley
Community Academy of free classes supporting persons and the wider community
Current Partnerships with:
OU Graduate School of Social Work
OU Community Medicine
Cherokee Elementary School
OBrien Park
Turley Community Association
Healthy Cornerstore Initiatives
McLain High School Initiative
North Tulsa Economic Development Initiative
House District 72 Community Coalitions “from Turley to TU”
TU SEED Law Clinic
OU Tulsa Urban Design Studio
The Living Room Church (as the founding group, we still meet together within the center we created, on Sundays and at other times throughout the week for worship or service or other events)
Turley United Methodist Church
The Lighthouse 12-Step Recovery
North Tulsa Farmers Market
Our Dreams:
1. Purchase ($100,000) and renew the historic but abandoned 10,500 square foot Turley Methodist Church building and additional properties near 59th and N Peoria to expand into and create a Community Center for Body, Mind, Spirit, moving our current projects into this newer better space with room to grow new projects connected with our community gardens and food justice work, expanding the clinic and revolutionizing the concept of health clinic, creating a center for service-learning with campuses and partners, and the buildings would also be the hub for “de-centralizing the center” as we move our mission into public and outdoor spaces as well; The Living Room Church would coordinate the sanctuary space for regular times of prayer and meditation and worship and other spiritual events as an integral part of the new Center.
2. purchase ($25,000) a hilltop acre at 60th and N. Johnstown overlooking downtown, a “city block”, with two abandoned dilapidated homes and transform the space into The LivingKitchen Garden Pocket Park for growing, cooking, teaching, feeding, celebrating, bridging two neighborhoods, one incorporated and one not, with somewhat overlapping but different ethnic groups though sharing a common bond of poverty;
3. create one or more “healthy cornerstores” in our center and in other areas of our service boundary;
4. create additional A Third Place Centers, either in physical buildings of its own such as in the McLain Shopping Center, or existing businesses and groups, and in non-building spaces as part of our community gardens or other public spaces…..
…..so every neighborhod has a free community center within walking distance, and has volunteer trained neighborhood community health associates and designated resource responders within walking distance.
This is what a group of five to ten mission minded people can set in motion within three years. With no official denominational support. With few finances. With no staff.
End.
Friday, February 05, 2010
The closing of community centers in Tulsa...
...And how to recreate them. Here below is the text of a letter I sent to the Tulsa World news and editorial staff. Hope to pass it on to others in the broadcast media soon. Go to http://www.tulsaworld.com/ to read the story about the closing of community centers and parks, especially in our north and west areas.
"In response to the closing of the community centers in Tulsa ("Centers' Groups Scramble", Feb. 5, 2010), I would like first to offer our non-profit A Third Place Community Center, 6514 N. Peoria Ave., for any groups who might find our space suitable to their needs and mission. Facilitating their missions for improving community life is our mission.
Secondly, I would like to offer our model for creating a non-governmental community center as a way to recreate truly grassroots community centers. Without grants so far, though we are working toward some for the growth of our work, and just with donations of money and materials and volunteer time from community residents, we have for three years now created a space for community to happen. We have a place for people to meet and help one another, a free health clinic, free internet center, free library, free programs, free clothing donations, free food pantry, free community gardens and orchard, free animal help group, free classes and programs, partnerships with schools and area groups to channel volunteer energy into community projects beyond our own. We are new, just recently obtaining our 501c3 status, and we have much to grow into, and are a bit messy at times, but so is community itself; in the meantime, there is great need that can be helped.
Just this Spring we will be working with several different classes and groups from the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa to help us create more community connections and highlight those we have undertaken so far. For example, this Saturday Feb. 6 from 9 to 3 pm we will be working with one class on community projects and communication; another will be teaching community development and leadership skills on Tuesday evenings in March and April; another will be helping us look at ways to create entreprenuers; another will be helping us this summer work on meeting nutrition needs in our area; we are also working with others to help us create community centers at community garden sites. And at a time when parks are being closed, we are planning and working toward creating our own neighborhood park out of a place where abandoned houses are located.
With a little help, people in their own areas can create and grow a variety of centers for community, and that sense of the "third places" that Editorial Writer Wayne Greene some time back mentioned as a crucial need, and the kind of work that the Parent Child Center is seeking to foster with its own front porch initiative. The same spirit is motivating the partnerships and work toward the healthy cornerstore initiatives, of which we also are a part.
Lastly, to help provide that little help, and to meet the most immediate emergency needs to keep these centers open, especially in our vulnerable neglected spaces in north and west and east Tulsa, while more grassroots ownership is being created, I call on the churches and other religious bodies to adopt and sponsor running and nurturing these closed community centers as a way to live out their messages of servant leadership. That is how our A Third Place Community Center was begun, as our small church of a few folks decided to transform ourselves into a missional community of faith and to give ourselves away to others, and to create not a space for ourselves but a space for and with others.
Thank you for recognizing the importance of this story, and the sense of place and community spirit and hope that is vital and which has rippling effects throughout the whole city."
Blessings,
Rev. Ron Robinson
Executive Director
A Third Place Community Foundation
6514 N. Peoria Ave.
794-4637, office; 691-3223, cell; 430-1150, home
"doing small acts of justice with great love changes the world" Type rest of the post here
"In response to the closing of the community centers in Tulsa ("Centers' Groups Scramble", Feb. 5, 2010), I would like first to offer our non-profit A Third Place Community Center, 6514 N. Peoria Ave., for any groups who might find our space suitable to their needs and mission. Facilitating their missions for improving community life is our mission.
Secondly, I would like to offer our model for creating a non-governmental community center as a way to recreate truly grassroots community centers. Without grants so far, though we are working toward some for the growth of our work, and just with donations of money and materials and volunteer time from community residents, we have for three years now created a space for community to happen. We have a place for people to meet and help one another, a free health clinic, free internet center, free library, free programs, free clothing donations, free food pantry, free community gardens and orchard, free animal help group, free classes and programs, partnerships with schools and area groups to channel volunteer energy into community projects beyond our own. We are new, just recently obtaining our 501c3 status, and we have much to grow into, and are a bit messy at times, but so is community itself; in the meantime, there is great need that can be helped.
Just this Spring we will be working with several different classes and groups from the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa to help us create more community connections and highlight those we have undertaken so far. For example, this Saturday Feb. 6 from 9 to 3 pm we will be working with one class on community projects and communication; another will be teaching community development and leadership skills on Tuesday evenings in March and April; another will be helping us look at ways to create entreprenuers; another will be helping us this summer work on meeting nutrition needs in our area; we are also working with others to help us create community centers at community garden sites. And at a time when parks are being closed, we are planning and working toward creating our own neighborhood park out of a place where abandoned houses are located.
With a little help, people in their own areas can create and grow a variety of centers for community, and that sense of the "third places" that Editorial Writer Wayne Greene some time back mentioned as a crucial need, and the kind of work that the Parent Child Center is seeking to foster with its own front porch initiative. The same spirit is motivating the partnerships and work toward the healthy cornerstore initiatives, of which we also are a part.
Lastly, to help provide that little help, and to meet the most immediate emergency needs to keep these centers open, especially in our vulnerable neglected spaces in north and west and east Tulsa, while more grassroots ownership is being created, I call on the churches and other religious bodies to adopt and sponsor running and nurturing these closed community centers as a way to live out their messages of servant leadership. That is how our A Third Place Community Center was begun, as our small church of a few folks decided to transform ourselves into a missional community of faith and to give ourselves away to others, and to create not a space for ourselves but a space for and with others.
Thank you for recognizing the importance of this story, and the sense of place and community spirit and hope that is vital and which has rippling effects throughout the whole city."
Blessings,
Rev. Ron Robinson
Executive Director
A Third Place Community Foundation
6514 N. Peoria Ave.
794-4637, office; 691-3223, cell; 430-1150, home
"doing small acts of justice with great love changes the world" Type rest of the post here
Thursday, February 04, 2010
The Future History of UUism
Here http://revthom.blogspot.com/2009/11/lecture-10-future-history-of-unitarian.html is a blog post lecture that colleague Rev. Thom Belote wrote looking at where the UU movement could and should be headed. I agree with all he writes, not just because he mentions me in it, not just because the basis for his vision is one of the church's committment to public spaces such as to what we call our "third place" centers here.
He has broadened my own horizon a little as he is writing about the need for the church to relocate itself in places where there intentionally are few public spaces for diversity, namely in suburban and exurban areas; while I, because of our focus, tend to think of the church needing to relocate to the "abandoned places of Empire" where the poor are, and not just the poor in spirit. I have tended to equate suburban and exurban places with the Empire itself and its dominant values, and have argued for an advance guard movement away from those places, as my own family and church did, precisely because so many "growing churches" have been moving toward them. I can see more clearly now the need for authentic diverse public space churches in these areas. I also know that the resources it will take to create them will call for churches and their partners to make major institutional changes in order to carry out something of a vision Thom hints at for these areas. But wouldn't it be grand if the churches, and the UU churches, who have the most resources would break themselves up in order to build up the public space of the communities they are in or become a part of. I will have to give some more thought to how a church of 500, for example, might become five groups of 100 with a mission of transforming suburban exurban space into diverse community nourishing third places.
Related to all this, I just want to add in thanks for Thom's reference of Alice Blair Wesley's historical comment about Unitarians as a church that became not began, and what lasting effects historically that has meant in relationship to our lack of church planting in diverse ways, at a very time when church planting, mission planting, is as crucial to the spiritual life and organizational life of a religious body as ever before. I am teaching a UU history and polity course this semester and this sentiment is picked up in many places and times of how much of our history has bent us away from church plants and growth.
And finally, from another reading source, John Perkins and Shane Claiborne's new book "Follow Me To Freedom" comes the insight from Shane that many of his Catholic friends get the life of the missional and new monastic communities easier than do his Protestant friends. This is because they have a concept of The Church rather than of a church, and so they can grasp how groups of people can operate more fluidly and organically and missionally because they are rooted in The Church rather than in a church. As UUs are often the most Protestant of the Protestant, this would go doubly for us.
Type rest of the post here
He has broadened my own horizon a little as he is writing about the need for the church to relocate itself in places where there intentionally are few public spaces for diversity, namely in suburban and exurban areas; while I, because of our focus, tend to think of the church needing to relocate to the "abandoned places of Empire" where the poor are, and not just the poor in spirit. I have tended to equate suburban and exurban places with the Empire itself and its dominant values, and have argued for an advance guard movement away from those places, as my own family and church did, precisely because so many "growing churches" have been moving toward them. I can see more clearly now the need for authentic diverse public space churches in these areas. I also know that the resources it will take to create them will call for churches and their partners to make major institutional changes in order to carry out something of a vision Thom hints at for these areas. But wouldn't it be grand if the churches, and the UU churches, who have the most resources would break themselves up in order to build up the public space of the communities they are in or become a part of. I will have to give some more thought to how a church of 500, for example, might become five groups of 100 with a mission of transforming suburban exurban space into diverse community nourishing third places.
Related to all this, I just want to add in thanks for Thom's reference of Alice Blair Wesley's historical comment about Unitarians as a church that became not began, and what lasting effects historically that has meant in relationship to our lack of church planting in diverse ways, at a very time when church planting, mission planting, is as crucial to the spiritual life and organizational life of a religious body as ever before. I am teaching a UU history and polity course this semester and this sentiment is picked up in many places and times of how much of our history has bent us away from church plants and growth.
And finally, from another reading source, John Perkins and Shane Claiborne's new book "Follow Me To Freedom" comes the insight from Shane that many of his Catholic friends get the life of the missional and new monastic communities easier than do his Protestant friends. This is because they have a concept of The Church rather than of a church, and so they can grasp how groups of people can operate more fluidly and organically and missionally because they are rooted in The Church rather than in a church. As UUs are often the most Protestant of the Protestant, this would go doubly for us.
Type rest of the post here
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
"Welcoming Justice" Making Beloved Community Real, here and there
I came across this wonderful excerpt from the new book Welcoming Justice by John Perkins and Charles Marsh, John Perkins of our 3Ra roadmap of relocation, redistribution, and reconciliation (and we add a fourth R for Retention of current residents) you will hear a lot about here and read in posts below. It sums up much of the aim of what we try to do here and of the new missional and new monastic movements where progressive faith has been so lacking. It connects with all things having to do with rediscovering a sense of place, ecology, organic, glocal, going small, leaven and mustard seed parable living.
One thing I want to say about John Perkins' call here for churches on how to act in and toward their place, is that you first have to consider the locale and place of the local church; consider most of what Perkins is writing here about what the church is called to do; most or all of it won't really have to be done if the church is located in a place where resources are available to residents. Instead, this stance has the assumption built in that the church will be in or relocate to one of the abandoned places of Empire. This can happen in a number of different ways; but it has to happen. Also see how the whole point of the church shifts as a result?
So many churches see their role as getting out a message, and in the places most liberal churches are primarily located in and where most liberals seem themselves to live, at least those of european descent, there are not the pressing needs of the community development---those are addressed by other groups and institutions and the people themselves have the resources to meet basic needs---and so what is left is to get out the message of a particular theological orientation. But message-driven churches are so limited in their scope; for those who seek to embody the spirit of Jesus to be message-oriented is also to miss so much of the embodied radical, go where the need is, spirit. And more and more today people aren't seeking a message community; they can get that from home via the internet or magazines etc; they are seeking a sense of their mission in life being tied up with others in a real way making a real difference in the lives of others.
Here is the excerpt that resonated so much with me and captures what we, this crazy tribe of generous diversity loving folks called church, try, and fail, and keep trying to do here.:
Making Beloved Community Happen, by John Perkins from the new book Welcoming Justice by Perkins and Charles Marsh
“So what does it take to make beloved community happen? I really believe that it begins with a place. I’ve preached relocation all my life because the communities I’ve been a part of have been abandoned. Everybody left, so I called them to come back. But my real concern is for the place. If the church is going to offer some real good news in broken communities, it has to be committed to a place. We can’t just be a commuter church in the community.
In our community in West Jackson, we’ve got one of those churches where people drive in from all over town on Sunday morning. That church is not an asset to the community. It’s a liability. All those cars jam up our streets on Sunday morning and make it hard for us to get around. And they do almost nothing to help the community. A church that wants to be about God’s movement has to be committed to making a good life possible for people in the place where we are.
If you care about a place, you’ll care about the kids in that place. If you don’t care about the kids, they’ll knock out your windows. But the kids in our neighborhood don’t knock out our windows. One of the first things we did when we came here was to put in a sandbox and build a jungle gym. We made sure there was a field for kids to play ball . So now we can say, “Don’t throw rocks. Go throw the ball in the field.” The kids need to be able to play in the community…
When you’re committed to a place, you also care about the beauty of the place. The flowers around our place are important. Every summer the children come running to ask me if they can take some flowers home with them. They don’t have pretty flowers at home. So I always tell them “Yes, but wait till the end of the day. When you’re going home, you can cut a few and take them home to your mother.” Shared beauty makes people want to share life together. You don’t have to tend your flowers in a neighborhood very long before you have something to talk to your neighbors about.
It may sound simple but I think you’ve got to have neighbors you talk to and get to know before you can love your neighbor as yourself. That’s why community development has been so important to me all these years. The church can’t organize the perfect community. If people aren’t drawn by the cords of love to a vision of beloved community, you can’t force it on them. But we can organize for justice. We can develop a community so that there is a place for people to know one another. That’s the work God has given us to do. Only God can send the rain, but we can till the ground by committing to a place and making sure people can flourish there. That’s the first thing the church has to do if we’re going to interrupt the brokenness of society.
As we commit to our communities, we also need to learn how to see them as economic places. It’s not enough to just move into a place, plant some flowers and be nice to your neighbors. All of that is good, but that won’t address the brokenness of people’s lives because the structures of the community are broken. People need work, good housing, education and health care. So the church has to invest its resources in developing the community. We also need to use our influence to get businesses and government to invest in the community. All of this is crucial to creating the conditions that are necessary for beloved community. ….
I wish churches spent more time thinking about how their members could love one another and share a common life by working together as a community. Part of the reason our churches are so individualistic is that we just accept the economic systems of our culture without question. We assume that the people who can get the good jobs should go wherever they have to and the people who can’t get the good jobs should just take what they can get. But churches that want to interrupt the brokenness of society ought to be about creating jobs in the community and giving neighbors an opportunity to work together. If we take our communities seriously as economic places, we’ll spend more time thinking about creating good work than we spend thinking about more relevant worship styles or bigger church buildings."
End.
Type rest of the post here
One thing I want to say about John Perkins' call here for churches on how to act in and toward their place, is that you first have to consider the locale and place of the local church; consider most of what Perkins is writing here about what the church is called to do; most or all of it won't really have to be done if the church is located in a place where resources are available to residents. Instead, this stance has the assumption built in that the church will be in or relocate to one of the abandoned places of Empire. This can happen in a number of different ways; but it has to happen. Also see how the whole point of the church shifts as a result?
So many churches see their role as getting out a message, and in the places most liberal churches are primarily located in and where most liberals seem themselves to live, at least those of european descent, there are not the pressing needs of the community development---those are addressed by other groups and institutions and the people themselves have the resources to meet basic needs---and so what is left is to get out the message of a particular theological orientation. But message-driven churches are so limited in their scope; for those who seek to embody the spirit of Jesus to be message-oriented is also to miss so much of the embodied radical, go where the need is, spirit. And more and more today people aren't seeking a message community; they can get that from home via the internet or magazines etc; they are seeking a sense of their mission in life being tied up with others in a real way making a real difference in the lives of others.
Here is the excerpt that resonated so much with me and captures what we, this crazy tribe of generous diversity loving folks called church, try, and fail, and keep trying to do here.:
Making Beloved Community Happen, by John Perkins from the new book Welcoming Justice by Perkins and Charles Marsh
“So what does it take to make beloved community happen? I really believe that it begins with a place. I’ve preached relocation all my life because the communities I’ve been a part of have been abandoned. Everybody left, so I called them to come back. But my real concern is for the place. If the church is going to offer some real good news in broken communities, it has to be committed to a place. We can’t just be a commuter church in the community.
In our community in West Jackson, we’ve got one of those churches where people drive in from all over town on Sunday morning. That church is not an asset to the community. It’s a liability. All those cars jam up our streets on Sunday morning and make it hard for us to get around. And they do almost nothing to help the community. A church that wants to be about God’s movement has to be committed to making a good life possible for people in the place where we are.
If you care about a place, you’ll care about the kids in that place. If you don’t care about the kids, they’ll knock out your windows. But the kids in our neighborhood don’t knock out our windows. One of the first things we did when we came here was to put in a sandbox and build a jungle gym. We made sure there was a field for kids to play ball . So now we can say, “Don’t throw rocks. Go throw the ball in the field.” The kids need to be able to play in the community…
When you’re committed to a place, you also care about the beauty of the place. The flowers around our place are important. Every summer the children come running to ask me if they can take some flowers home with them. They don’t have pretty flowers at home. So I always tell them “Yes, but wait till the end of the day. When you’re going home, you can cut a few and take them home to your mother.” Shared beauty makes people want to share life together. You don’t have to tend your flowers in a neighborhood very long before you have something to talk to your neighbors about.
It may sound simple but I think you’ve got to have neighbors you talk to and get to know before you can love your neighbor as yourself. That’s why community development has been so important to me all these years. The church can’t organize the perfect community. If people aren’t drawn by the cords of love to a vision of beloved community, you can’t force it on them. But we can organize for justice. We can develop a community so that there is a place for people to know one another. That’s the work God has given us to do. Only God can send the rain, but we can till the ground by committing to a place and making sure people can flourish there. That’s the first thing the church has to do if we’re going to interrupt the brokenness of society.
As we commit to our communities, we also need to learn how to see them as economic places. It’s not enough to just move into a place, plant some flowers and be nice to your neighbors. All of that is good, but that won’t address the brokenness of people’s lives because the structures of the community are broken. People need work, good housing, education and health care. So the church has to invest its resources in developing the community. We also need to use our influence to get businesses and government to invest in the community. All of this is crucial to creating the conditions that are necessary for beloved community. ….
I wish churches spent more time thinking about how their members could love one another and share a common life by working together as a community. Part of the reason our churches are so individualistic is that we just accept the economic systems of our culture without question. We assume that the people who can get the good jobs should go wherever they have to and the people who can’t get the good jobs should just take what they can get. But churches that want to interrupt the brokenness of society ought to be about creating jobs in the community and giving neighbors an opportunity to work together. If we take our communities seriously as economic places, we’ll spend more time thinking about creating good work than we spend thinking about more relevant worship styles or bigger church buildings."
End.
Type rest of the post here
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