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<\/a>\nTo my Sisters in the Suburbs:<\/p>\n
I know you. You hear urban ministers like me say things like, \u201cJesus didn\u2019t commute from heaven to earth, he moved in and lived among the the poor\u201d<\/a> and in the back of your mind you wonder, \u2018what does that look for me?\u00a0 I mean\u2026I have kids,\u00a0 a mortgage, and a career. I want to look like Jesus, but\u00a0 I\u2019m not street savvy at all\u2026I mean\u2026what does that look like for me, a believer in the suburbs?\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n You love Jesus with your whole heart but when you look at his ministry to the poor, you feel overwhelmed. I get that! \u00a0I\u2019m an urban church planter, married to a man earning a Master\u2019s degree in urban ministry, someone who loves John Perkins<\/a>, Shane Claiborne,<\/a> and Jen Hatmaker<\/a>, and I still wonder about the logistics of fellow shipping with the poor.<\/p>\n I know how you feel sometimes. \u00a0\u00a0You drop your kids off at the church\u2019s children\u2019s ministry wing, maybe it\u2019s called something catchy like, \u201cKingdom Kidz Zone\u201d, and the young director with a Masters in Child Psychology hands you a pager like you find at The Cheesecake Factory.\u00a0 Then you make your way to the auditorium where the worship team made up of semi-professional musicians with their own album on iTunes, begins playing your favorite worship song.\u00a0 You slide in next to your girlfriend as she hands you a bulletin with \u201cMissions Sunday\u201d sprawled across the title page and you\u2019re intrigued. \u00a0Then you read the guest speaker\u2019s bio:\u00a0 young, passionate, educated, fairly good-looking, and wait\u2026what\u2019s this?\u00a0 He\u2019s planting a church in the urban core of your closest city?\u00a0 \u2018Oh no\u2019<\/i>, you think, \u2018not again\u2019<\/i>.\u00a0 Not another guilt trip to care about the city or even worse, a call to move there to \u201cdo life\u201d with the oppressed.\u00a0 When he gets up and quotes something like \u201cseek the peace of the city<\/a>\u201d, you\u2019re nearly ready to leave.\u00a0 Not because you don\u2019t care, but because you feel stuck. You can\u2019t just up and move into the inner city, so does that necessarily mean you don\u2019t care?\u00a0 You want to give money and volunteer, but his pitch sounds so all or nothing.\u00a0 He uses words like, \u201cdiscipleship\u201d and \u201cobedience\u201d and you feel unworthy, heartless, and shallow.<\/p>\n \u2018If Jesus, Emmanuel, \u00a0God with us, gave up the glory of heaven for the mire of earth\u2019,<\/em> you wonder, \u2018does that mean I have to give up the glory of my four bedroom colonial for the mire of a fifth floor walk up with a crack house around the corner?\u2019<\/em> Even though you know Jesus\u2019 voice and you don\u2019t think he\u2019s calling you to move into the city, shame creeps over tender heart\u2014 you\u2019re afraid you\u2019re not \u201cradical\u201d or \u201cobedient\u201d enough.<\/p>\n I understand all your feelings and I want to apologize.\u00a0 I think the way I\u2019ve been conditioned to talk about my calling has contributed to your consternation. I\u2019m so very sorry.<\/p>\n You see for many of us in full-time urban ministry, it has been <\/i>all or nothing.<\/p>\n I came to this calling after spending a week doing side-walk Sunday school for urban kids in the middle of a run-down housing development in New Orleans. Those kids who needed baths and a good meal would stare up at me and say, \u201ccan I have some more candy\u201d and I wondered \u2018Is this the only thing they\u2019ve eaten all day? If I\u2019m the only picture of Jesus in their lives, what happens if I leave?\u00a0 What happens if the church never comes back? They need Jesus!\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0And knowing my Shepherd\u2019s voice, I sensed him say, \u201cFeed my sheep in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i>So I went home to my college and changed my degree plans to include studying dance so I could teach inner city girls.\u00a0 I wanted\u00a0 to give them a sense of accomplishment and worth through the discipline of technique and the beauty of art.\u00a0 It all changed for me<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 It was all or nothing and honestly\u2014pretty sexy to give it all up for Jesus.<\/p>\n At that time I was hearing about groups of people moving together to form intentional communities in the roughest neighborhoods.\u00a0 They chose to live on a single income and put signs on their doors that said, \u201call are welcomed here\u201d.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s all so sensational, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 \u201cWanna do something great for God?\u00a0 Move into the city.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re the ones who look like Jesus\u2019 ministry to the oppressed, right?<\/p>\n I\u2019m afraid urban ministry has become a new sex symbol in the church.<\/b><\/p>\n Obviously, I think urban ministry is good and necessary.\u00a0 There are groups of people forgotten and oppressed right in our backyards.\u00a0 I read a post that calls the inner city your Samaria,\u00a0 <\/a>and it\u2019s true. The inner city is a place we\u2019ve forgotten because it\u2019s hard to see hell on earth on a daily basis. \u201cWhite flight\u201d<\/a> is real, but those of us called to the city have no right to shame you for the past.\u00a0 We can only invite you to dream for a new future with us.<\/p>\n What if the privilege of the suburbs met the poverty of the hood?\u00a0 What could God do?\u00a0 How could lives be restored? \u00a0How could we practice Shalom together?\u00a0 What if we shared in this calling and widened the tent to include space for everyone, suburbanite and urban missionary alike?<\/em><\/p>\n We would love for you, our suburban sisters to join us in caring for Samaria. But know this\u2014 urban ministry is not a better way and it\u2019s definitely not the only way to seek God\u2019s Shalom in this broken world.<\/p>\n My \u201call or nothing\u201d will never look like your \u201call or nothing\u201d and I think that\u2019s the mark of a true disciple: knowing your Shepherd\u2019s voice and following him into your specific all or nothing.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry because I see your faces when I share my calling to plant a church in the city.\u00a0 I see your interest piqued. I see the wheels turning as you imagine caring for the homeless and an under-resourced school. \u00a0\u00a0I see the love of Jesus shine in your beautiful eyes.\u00a0 I see you lean in with amazement when I tell you my story of moving to Hollygrove, a dangerous neighborhood in New Orleans, and just months later our house was shot in a drive-by.<\/p>\n Then you ask me, why\/how\/ when did I decide to go into full-time ministry in the urban core and I quote those same scriptures, \u201cseek the peace of the city\u201d and I point to Jesus who didn\u2019t commute and your heart drops. \u00a0\u2018No, not again<\/i>\u2019, you think.<\/p>\n Then I watch shame\u2019s dark cloud attempt to blot out that stunning love for Christ in your eyes, and I think, \u00a0\u2018Oh no, not again.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n Words like \u201cradical\u201d have become a noose around your necks, my sweet Sisters, suffocating your spirits and killing your dreams of being used by God in a meaningful way. With this powerful movement in the Body towards a gospel that reflects Jesus\u2019 love for the poor, I\u2019m noticing a chasm widen between us, the \u201cradical\u201d ones and you, the \u201ccomfortable\u201d ones. \u00a0It\u2019s subtle, but real and exactly what the enemy loves to do. \u00a0Disunity.\u00a0 It\u2019s his wheelhouse and I am so very sorry for playing into it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry if you don\u2019t feel like your contribution from the \u2018burbs isn\u2019t enough.\u00a0 It is.\u00a0 I\u2019m going tell you now that the only reason I can do what I do is because of you.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry that we who have been called to give it all up to serve the oppressed in the city have made you question your fidelity to Christ because you\u2019ve chosen to stay in the suburbs.\u00a0 I want you to know that we do understand!\u00a0 If you can\u2019t give up the house, if you can\u2019t imagine yourself living across the street from a drug dealer, if you can\u2019t quit your jobs to stay home to be available to the poor, it\u2019s ok!<\/p>\n Really.<\/p>\n Stay in the suburbs.\u00a0 Don\u2019t move.\u00a0 If God\u2019s not opening the doors for you to move into the city, then stay!<\/p>\n Geography does not indicate fidelity.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n Stay because I love your hearts and your fellowship more than I love my city.\u00a0 Stay because you are a light in the darkness right there in your cul-de-sac.\u00a0 <\/b>While your neighbors stress about status symbols and material wealth, you\u2019re there to hold up the cross where everyone\u2019s deemed worthy and hungry souls can find His richest of fare.<\/p>\n Stay because my kids need your kids.<\/b>\u00a0 Your kids, who talk about Harry Potter, Wii games, and tea parties keep my ministry kids grounded.\u00a0\u00a0 I worry with all this talk of the poor and all this exposure to the homeless or angry fathers who yell, \u201cShut the f**k up\u201d to their barely walking two-year olds, my children will forget the pure joy of talking about a book, playing a video game with their friends, or just being kids\u2014not ministry kids, but just kids. Kids who love to have fun for fun\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n I need them to know that people actually go to college and finish with advanced degrees in fields other than ministry, theology, or urban development.\u00a0 I need them to know it\u2019s perfectly fine for them to become a doctor, engineer, scientist, or professor.<\/b>\u00a0 I need them to see good and godly stay at home moms who are not building a church with their husbands.\u00a0 I need to them to see people loving Jesus because he\u2019s amazing and not because he\u2019s called them on an amazing mission<\/b>.<\/p>\n Stay because you have been given so much and we are always in need.<\/b>\u00a0 Until every last child in the hood has a well-rounded education, and until every teen values her body enough to wait until she\u2019s in a committed relationship before risking pregnancy, and until every black man is given a fair chance to earn a livable wage\u2014we\u2019ll need you.\u00a0 We need you to come and tutor, advocate, mentor, donate, love, and lead.<\/p>\n I need you because your hearts are so beautiful and your love for Jesus is so authentic.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n You are the ones calling me in to speak to your mom\u2019s group on raising kids with hearts for the poor.<\/p>\n You are the ones sending our church money to form a Jesus-centered community so that all people no matter where they live can hear the Gospel that Jesus loves them so much he would rather die for them<\/em> than live eternity without them.<\/em><\/p>\n You are the ones who email me with offers to help. \u201cYes, yes!\u201d you say,\u00a0 \u201cI will open up my home to bake batches of pumpkin bars and stuffing muffins to bless the people who have to work on Thanksgiving.\u00a0 I want to be a part of Operation Turkey Sandwich!\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0 You are the ones commuting into the city to deliver bagged lunches to the working class who have no other option but to work on Thanksgiving Day. It\u2019s stunning, my friends.\u00a0 It\u2019s that stunning love of Christ that fades away when faced with the unfair expectations of dropping it all and moving into the city.<\/p>\n I\u2019m so sorry for the social justice snobbery of my urban tribe that says, unless you put some \u201cskin in the game\u201d you\u2019re not worthy to battle alongside us.\u00a0 Ladies, I\u2019ve seen your skinned knees when you pray for us.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen you crucifying excess and comfort to give to urban organizations.\u00a0 I\u2019ve watched you wrestle with Jesus then hobble away with a softer heart and a new name.<\/p>\n The cross-shaped love that bestows unsurpassed-able worth and pronounces, \u201cgood\u201d over all people is wild and fierce in you, my friends.\u00a0 That\u2019s radical. If you ask me, faithfully following our radical Jesus makes<\/em> you radical.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 That\u2019s all.\u00a0 That\u2019s enough.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n This \u201cradical\u201d label is a love-robbing legalism. It\u2019s a noose around the necks of lovely Kingdom women. It\u2019s chasm-creating rhetoric. And I\u2019m done with it!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n