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February 23, 2005
Discussion
Shannel Hanft
Journey to the Center of the City
By Randy White
Pg. 65-134
Shannel Hanft
Journey to the Center of the City
By Randy White
Pg. 65-134
“As we have built friendships with people already here, we are beginning to understand that they already have a very good sense of what the needs of the neighborhood are. On one street we pulled way back with the initiative we were taking and instead worked on developing these relationships.” (89) I think it is very important to understand the real needs of the neighborhood before one even starts to try to help it. The neighborhood has been there a long time, and there are people who have lived there their whole lives. Talking with these people about the strengths and weaknesses of the neighborhood would probably be a good place to start in the life of that community. Sometimes the needs that we see in the neighborhood are not exactly the real needs that are necessary for being addressed in that neighborhood. It is all on a case to case basis because different communities need different things.
One form of ministry that I believe works in every neighborhood is relationships. I think building relationships is the key to any ministry. The seventh chapter titled
“Songs of the City” consists of poems, stories, and songs in which people who have intentionally moved into the city have written. Funny thing is that each one had to do with a certain relationship in which God had used the intentional neighbor to minister to another person through that relationship. These relationships, I believe require a lot of trust which means that once a strong relationship has been formed, the intentional neighbor may feel comfortable sharing with the other person the truth about Christ. The other person would have already developed a trust with the intentional neighbor therefore actually taking to heart what they have said.
One of the poems includes this quote, “Fact is, I’ve had the ‘fan on high’ most of my life, conveniently deaf to the cries of pain around me. It’s easier not knowing; Not knowing is a hard habit to break.” (102) I believe the word fan in this poem can have many different meanings but I am going to say it means relationships. If there are no relationships with people in your community it is very easy to go without getting to know any of the pains around you. That is why it is very important to turn off the fan and jump into getting to know people and developing genuine relationships in the neighborhood.
Posted by shannel at 11:55 PM
Discussion on Journey to the center of the City
Shannel Hanft
Journey to the Center of the City
pgs. 1-64
This is exactly what I want to do with my life. I knew it for about a year now but this is just a reminder of how much I really want to move into the city and make it my home. Wow, I am so amazed at God’s works, what a great God we serve. God continues to amaze me with his work in the city. It is obvious that is exactly where God wanted the White family to be. It was amazing to watch the ways that God made everything come together for them to move their. It also takes my breath away when I hear how their children are working in the neighborhood as well, and how they are growing up with such Christ centered values. Praise God for His work with this family.
I can relate to this in certain ways from when we were in Atlanta, kids would be over at our house all the time and it was great. We would work down the street at a tutoring program, and my roommates and I would work at different organizations in the neighborhood. Three of the five us worked at schools and after school we would all walk down to the tutoring program at our church. It was great to see all the kids there. There would be some neighborhood kids that would stop by, as well as kids from the shelter at the church. God was definitely present in our neighborhood and it was obvious as well.
When we first moved into the neighborhood there was a lady named Mary who lived across the street. She had a grandson named Bam who was twenty years old and I would go over there to hang out and talk with Bam a lot. When ever I would knock on the door she would answer but would not really want to talk to me at all. I would ask her how she was doing and there wasn’t much of a response from her. It was difficult to get to know her. One day I went over to see if Bam was home and I heard her on the phone and as she came to the door she said oh it is those F-ing white girls again that live across the street. I was ready to turn around and leave but I knew I needed to stay. When she opened the door I could see she was busy but I asked her how she was doing and then if Bam was home. She said he wasn’t and I walked back across the street in shame wondering what this meant.
After this experience I prayed a lot and I was very nervous to even go back over to their house because I was embarrassed and I wasn’t wanted. Through talking with my roommates and a lot of praying, I knew what I had to do. I continued to go over to Mary and Bam’s house with God by my side. I was scared but I knew that God was with me and he would do the rest of the work. As time went on Mary began to open up a little from conversations on the porch to watching me interact with her grandson Bam.
By the end of the year Mary had completely opened up to her hurtings and pains, and how much she appreciated me helping out her family. I call Mary about every couple weeks and we talk for quite awhile about life. Then, when I go to hang up the phone she tells me how much she misses me and that she loves me! WOW, what the heck, the first time I heard this I cried and praised God for his faithfulness.
God is obviously present in the city and there are too many faithful occasions to even question it. I am thankful for books like this to remind me of how faithful God is and how He is ever so present in the city. I am excited for the day I can move back into the urban neighborhoods and continue to live out God’s story in the city.
Posted by shannel at 11:54 PM
A Theology as big as the City
Shannel Hanft
Bakke Ch. 21-26
February 9, 2005
The 21st chapter reminds me that in the city evangelism can happen in many ways, whether done by you or by someone else. Philemon a slave holding farmer went into the city and heard about the gospel and he returned home to plant a church. Meanwhile, one of his slaves Onesimus stole money from Philemon and ran away to Rome. But while Onesimus was in the city he heard about the gospel, and later is found out to be a bishop. This just goes to show how the city is an evangelism tool. So goes the city, so goes the country. Both Philemon and Onesimus heard about the gospel in the city. This stresses the importance of preaching the gospel in the city so all can hear the word and the word will continue to spread from person to person.
We as Christians are called to the needs of the city. It has been shown throughout the generations that in order to solve the problems of the city we are called to help. Bishop Samuel of Cairo reveled that, “in the second century church women provided nursing mothers who sat in the public squares, often under pagan statues, while other women went up and down the streets to collect the unwanted babies abandoned in the night.” (192) Wow, it is amazing women gave their lives to God and followed Jesus. That is exactly what Jesus has asked us to do, and these women are perfect examples of doing just that. The church women responded to a problem in their city and developed a ministry.
This is how I feel Christians need to work today, there are many who already do but I feel that is where we are being called. When we see a need we need to find a way to provide help. Christians have a job that cannot be ignored. I believe we are called to the city because there is a need for the homeless, for the drug addicts, for the children, and many others but I believe my job is to find a need that I can help with, a need in which God has given me a gift to help with this problem and help in anyway I can. I have faith that I am being called to live in the city and develop a ministry to help their needs. I believe all people need to come together and work together just as Bakke said. The only way things will get solved is if we work together and see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ no matter our race or religion.
Posted by shannel at 11:53 PM
Discussion Theology as big as the city ch. 16-20
Shannel Hanft
Reflection on Bakke "Theology as big as the City" Ch. 16-20
February 2, 2005
What better place to look than at Jesus when trying to understand how to approach the cities. Jesus traveled to “about all the cities and villages of Galileee. That would be an area twenty-five to thirty miles across in both east-west and north-south directions. There were more than two hundred cities and villages in Galilee.” (130) Jesus started in the city and with time He had reached all the way to the countryside. Jesus did not go to the countryside itself but through His message in the city it soon reached the countryside from word of mouth. As we always say in class so goes the city, so goes the country. It sounds as if Jesus already knew this stradegy in his time. This is a great reminder that when looking for ways to help the cities, the best place to look is the bible. It has the answers to the many questions that face our society today. Even before our time people were dealing with the same struggles we face today and Paul and Jesus were very good examples of how to go about solving these issues.
Paul had a interesting approach to missions. He was creative in his ministry and he never approached a city the same way twice. I find this very intriguing and helpful for myself in developing my own mission strategies. When my new roommates and I first arrived in Atlanta we needed to find a way to get to know the people in our neighborhood we were placed into. We tried to find creative ways to get to know people. The first week we made about 100 cookies and brought them in bags to our neighbors who we have seen around or had met already. We also had just moved in so there were things we needed to borrow, so we would go and ask one of our neighbors if we could borrow something. We found many ways to arrange interaction with our neighbors in order to build many lasting relationships. Our main task was to get into the city and feel around for a bit and figure out the best way to approach our ministry based on their needs. I feel this is very similar to the way Paul approached his ministry as well. Once again I feel the best place to find the answers to how to go about how to do ministry can be found in the bible. Barnabas would be another prime example of how to do ministry. He was considered a healer, he felt and acted on his feelings. He had a way of showing God’s grace to others. This is a wonderful gift to posses when dealing with urban people or any people because when first finding Christ the person needs to understand God’s grace or else they will get very discouraged and feel extremely guilty.
Posted by shannel at 11:52 PM
Discussion
Shannel Hanft
Bakke ch. 11-15
"A Theology as Big As the City"
“History is not just a study of the past. Archeology is a study of the past. History, by contrast, is a study of the written records of the past.” (Bakke 102) The Lord is calling us to the city and the chapters in this book are obvious that is what the bible is trying to tell us. We need to be praying for the city because, “Satan is intervening in the day-to-day decisions of even our best leaders.” (Bakke 103) We also need to pray because all the nations are moving into the city neighborhoods and we need more ministries in those neighborhoods to minister to all the nations. In the book of Esther she gives us permission to reflect on our call to serve God within the matrix of modern secular or oppressive system to confront evil and work for justice. Where is the modern secular or oppressive system? In the city, we need to confront evil and work for justice and I believe the very place to do that is the city.
I lived in Atlanta for a year and I wish it could have been longer because I believe the ministry was just starting when we were about to leave. I feel like there was so much more to do and a year just wasn’t enough. We have to get in and get to know the city and their needs and then start to minister, just figuring out the true needs takes a lot of time. I believe real ministry in the cities requires living there for a long period of time and becoming a part of the community. A person really needs to take time to understand where the “itch” of the community is and then find a way to “scratch” that “itch.”
One thing Bakke said that I agree with is all the churches that are located in the urban neighborhoods should have strong, resourceful members of the church living in the community, as well as, being very intentionally about becoming a part of the community. “For the nations have come to the city neighborhoods in our time.” It is our time to come to the city and minister to all the nations. I think that is where the church needs to be, and right now I don’t see a lot church members living in the actual community throughout the neighborhoods the church is trying to help.
It is not only urban neighborhoods that this should be happening in, I think it should be happening in every neighborhood. Personally, I think that churches should go back to being neighborhood churches instead of commuter churches because a true community has a better chance of developing. Also, the people who the church is most likely trying to reach is the community, if we have members of the church living in the community the people in the neighborhood have a better chance of being reached.
Justice needs to be happening in the community and I think by having resourceful members of the church in the neighborhoods, justice has a better chance of reaching the community. Church members need to become a part of the community because all of a sudden their problems become your problems. Church members need be examples of leadership, show people how to fight for their justice, and that is not okay for the system to treat them the way they are being treated.
Posted by shannel at 11:51 PM
6-10 Bakke Discussion
Shannel hanft
Ch. 6-10 Discussion of Bakke's book Theology as big as the City.
Let me first start off by saying how much I love reading this book. In Atlanta, I learned a lot about the city through living there and reading many books about a variety of topics needed for understanding urban neighborhoods. These chapters in Bakke’s book taught me a lot, and were also a huge reminder of things I had learned in Atlanta. Bakke has a lot to say about the city and what the bible says about the city. I think that it is important to know where the city came from and what God’s ideal city would look like in order to even begin to help urban neighborhoods.
I believe the past holds one of the keys to the future because you can learn a lot from the past. In Bakke’s book he wrote about the churches relocating and leaving the cities. I wonder if the churches and the church people relocating has ever happened before. If it has, why haven’t we learned from that mistake? In Chapter one a student asked a pastor, “What does it take to be a ‘with it’ pastor?” The pastor replied, “Unless you can read Hebrew without the vowel points and translate any passage in the Greek New Testament in side fifteen minutes, you have no business in the ministry.” He paused for a moment while the students went into shock, then continued, “Because if you can’t tell me where the church has been, you have no business telling me where it ought to go.” Wow, when I read that last week I was in total agreement with what he had to say. We can learn a lot from our past.
Churches are relocating and it has affected the city dramatically, it has created slums and ghettos. A lot of city churches have people coming in from the suburbs to attend, and a majority of times the church have very little involvement within the community it is in. Mega-churches are being built left and right, with parking lots that take up whole neighbors. In Atlanta, the churches in our neighborhoods had no parking lots because driving to church did not used to be an option. People stayed in their communities and walked to church. I am wondering if there is somewhere we can learn about this in our world’s history, and how churches and church people relocating will affect the community and then deal with it.
In the neighborhood, in Atlanta I lived in there was a Salvation Army that takes up three blocks one way and four blocks the other, with a fence around the entire place. Recently, Salvation Army has decided to expand into a vacant lot next to it. In order to get in their gated community you need to know the name of the person you are there to see and place you are headed. My neighbor EJ lives across the street and she said, “I did not always have the front of my house facing this upscale community of white folks. I use to have neighbors living across the street, until they (the Salvation Army) tore down the houses.” Every once in awhile they hold community events but not once did I ever see any of them walking around in the neighborhood or being a true member of the community. I don’t understand how an upscale community with fences around it thinks it can actually fit into an urban neighborhood. They are separate; Salvation Army is its own neighborhood. I see a problem with this, I feel as if Salvation Army is actually taking away from the neighborhood instead of bringing something into it.
Once again I am left confused on the answers to the needs of urban neighborhoods and I think some of it has a lot to do with lack of education of the past. I believe the past has a key to help solve some of the problems of the urban neighborhoods and the systems which surround them. As Bakke said finding some of the solutions may involve reading up on cities in the bible and understanding them.
Posted by shannel at 11:50 PM
INtro-Ch. 5 Bakke Discussion
Shannel Hanft
GUM
January 12, 2005
Intro.-chapter 5 Bakke
"A theology as big as the City"
Shannel Hanft
GUM
January 12, 2005
Intro.-chapter 5 Bakke
I need to be in the city. This book gives me such an inspiration I love gaining knowledge about urban neighborhoods because that is where my desire lies. Reading this book helps remind me of where God wants me to be. One thing we talked about in class when Tali was here, was how God wants us in the city because that is where important things take place. The city is a very powerful place and what happens in the city soon happens in the country. By bringing God to the city means it will soon go to the country and then all over. Wow, what a great way to look at it. Year by year more and more people move in to live in the city. I believe God is calling his people to the city and this class and this book just remind me of that.
I have seen a lot of stuff that goes on in the city, as far as drugs, prostitution, poverty, abuse, crime, etc. when I was in Atlanta, Georgia, and seeing these struggles I automatically want to find a solution to a very deep lying problem within the cities system, I will call this the “fix it” mentality. I have struggled with this and continue to struggle with this at times because I get frustrated, I feel like the system is so circular. No matter what I think of trying to “fix” the city, it just won’t help, if anything if will probably just make it worse. I may try one thing and find out a reason why it will not work or the drawbacks for doing that specific thing. But I tend to always run into some sort of problem. What I have found is that there is nothing I can do to change the system. I need God. God is present in the city and this problem lies deep within the system of the city.
In Atlanta I worked and lived in an urban neighborhood called Pittsburgh. At first it was very difficult to see God present in the situation of this neighborhood. I went into the neighborhood with the “fix it” mentality and came out with a completely different aspect of the city. This experience really put me in a position of helplessness and I think that is exactly where God wants me. The less of me, leaves room for more of Him. I believe the only way to heal the city is to let God do the work through me. Let God live in me and make sure I don’t get in the way. The questions I need to ask myself are where does God want me? What does God want me to do? I struggle with this all the time because I am selfish, I am very selfish, “I want, I want, I want.” This is the point where I need to ask God for a healing over myself to understand what God is doing through me. The city has a room for growth and I would love it if God choose me to be a part of that. My heart lies in the city.
Posted by shannel at 11:47 PM
February 15, 2005
Garbage Night
It was a night of fun, if you don't think about what we actually did. We cleaned out the fridge from when the old roommates used to live here and emptied out all the bottles and stuff smelt so bad!!! We had so much fun though, who knows why. Then once we got everything emptied and the garbages full we baged everything up. Then Jackie and I sat on the back of Sarah's car down to campus to dump the garbages. Man it was so much fun, see for yourself.... http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=339151108531716867/l=42403045/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
Posted by shannel at 09:36 PM
Jillians
Sarah, Crystal, Michelle and I all went out to Jillians in Seattle on Valentines day. We had such a blast. Here are some pictures. http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=693151108531648448/l=42403044/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
Posted by shannel at 09:31 PM