My good friend, Jim Wehner, gave me the book, Reconciling All Things – A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace, and Healing by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice, for my birthday. This is an amazing book that I think every Christian should read. There is so much wisdom here. Wisdom about a calling and practice that is so absolutely counter-intuitive that without it we are virtually guaranteed to make decisions that seem right to our nature but are actually counter-productive to God’s work.
In the life of our community we are in the midst of one of these confrontations. In writing about the kind of leadership that embodies reconciliation Katongole and Rice write about Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. :
“When I (Chris) visited their ministries, we walked within a matter of minutes among people of every hue adn social class, from the Potter’s House (coffee shop and bookstore), to Joseph’s House (hospice for those dying of AIDS), to Andrew’s House for visiting guests, to Christ House (residential medical care for homeless men and women), to the Festival Center (discipleship training center). There Gordon Crosby sat quietly waiting for everybody to show up for noon prayer. In the midst of all the ministry, all the carre, all the swirl of activity, the inward journey remains central as the outward.“ (pg. 132 italics added)
This is one of the balancing/tension points in CCD (Christian Community Development) : the inward-outward focus. We saw the requirement for both in our solemn assembly Sunday night. Josh’s poem about the “burning fire” consuming lives and communities in Chamblee-Doraville and the “water” that flows in and through us was balanced/in tension with the healing, confessing, fear, insecurity and brokenness that came bursting forth from all of us.
What is important is that we have both without loosing either. But here is an important point of “order.” We don’t do the inner work to get ready and prepared to the outer. It is only in doing the outer work of being engaged and involved personally/bodily that the inner work has any real context. Otherwise the inner work is prone to a narcissistic, therapeutic emotionalism. Yet, without the inner work of growth, confession, and healing the outer work becomes mere social work or a codependent, twisted form of martydom/works righteousness.
As I reflect on Katongole and Rice’s work (which I haven’t finished yet because I keep getting overwhelmed and having to close the book every page or so to pray) I see the necessity of both in CCD because at the heart of CCD is incarnation leading to confrontation and transformation. A confrontation that costs us deeply as it did our Lord.
“Leaders who grow to belong to the gap [in our case the familes and communities in our "2 miles"] are those who journey far enough to feel its deep pain, to lament it, to learn its story deeply. Always bringing the pain of their context back to God, their response grows deeper over the years, drawning others with them into a distinct way of life. The leader has not come to the place of brokenness for a brief detour but to “offer [their] bodies as living sacrifices” (Rom 12:1). In belonging to the gap, everyday leaders take on the deep pain and brokenness there. Their very bodies and journeys become sites of the old and new in contention.” (pg.132-133)
Let’s keep both the inner work of healing and unity as we are fully engaged in the outer work of CCD. Working together overcomes a false distinction because as both work together they bring about the other. The outer work transforms us in lament and hope. The inner work heals and renews and fills us with joy and purpose to express love (the outer work). Ultimately it’s not the task of a particular ministry at a point in time, but the Lord’s loving, confronting Presence through our actual bodies and lives that is the most important work.
The million dollar question is: are we engaged in the lives of the people in our “2″ closely enough to have THEM wipe away our tears as we tremble, rage, and are broken by (and ultimately resurrected from) the struggles, injustices, and indignities of living?
