Wandering with Reckless Abandon

This morning I hit panera with my friend Joel.

It was good to hang out, connect, and dream about church. What church can be. What it should be, and to talk a little bit about the city of Baltimore and her needs.

Last weekend I sold a car to a teacher from Baltimore.

He and I spent some time talking about his experience, and what he has seen in his time here. He told me about 13 and 14 year old fifth graders that are in school because they are forced to be. He told me about parent-teacher nights that only see three people showing up, two of which were grandparents. He told me about a PTA that consists of five people.

And so as I jumble all this together in my brain, I return to the dream of a body of people uniting around the city of Baltimore, her people, and her children. A church that values the city enough to devote itself to working with a local elementary school, one class at a time, and helping it succeed in teaching students. A church that is willing to step in where the families of the school are not. A church that is willing to do things that are a little crazy in order to show the love of Jesus to the world we live in.

A few random thoughts that are bouncing around in my head about this thing:

Devoting one third of the budget (tithes, offering, etc) to caring for others:
One Third of this would go to Africa through an organization like Blood:Water Mission, or something similar
One third would go towards a local mission that is devoted to the restoration of the city of Baltimore. Something along the lines of a Habitat for Humanity type of thing, but I am not exactly sure what that would look like yet.
The final third would goe towards future strategic uses. This money would be devoted to in house ministries that we put on that are devoted to the restoring Baltimore. Examples of this would be a job training center, tutoring programs, the rehabbing of homes, and the like.

The importance of intentional communities, and the need to devote ourselves to being together. Whether it is sharing meals together, worshiping together, going to the park together, or grocery shopping together. We need to recognize the value of connectedness, and doing life together.

The need for stability (thanks, Joel). Members committing to perservere when things get tough or monotonous. To push through and continue to connect, even when they feel as though they are not “being fed”. Committing to hard conversations, standing in the gap for one another, and coming to the aid of others… even when it is inconvenient.

I think that is it for now, but I know there will be more coming…