A Day on the Streets of LA
Whatever view we had of Hollywood was transformed by spending a couple of days in LA's Dream Center.
The Dream Center is a church which has bought a 1000-bed hospital and transformed and dedicated it to reach, serve and transform its community. And it's working, radically!
I signed up with my son Sam and a mate Dennis to do a short term mission at the Dream Center in May in to learn how to better impact our community through church-based community ministry.
A paragraph or two from an application letter they sent us was sobering -
Honestly, we really don't have a whole lot to offer. " With us, you'll find nothing but hard work and red cried eyes. So before making your decision, please forget about fluffy sweet Christianity; here we're fighting a war.
Alas, we're simply asking you to come and work. - To wear yourself out on the dirty streets of a city dedicated to angels but taken by evil. Streets covered by tents and card-board boxes, streets walked on by runaway teens and young prostitutes. Streets used as play-grounds for abused children trying to survive in crack-houses and shelters. Streets transformed into killing-fields by gang-members and drug-dealers. - These are the streets we are asking you to come walk on, right by our side, for the glory of God.
There were many times we were deep in these circumstances and well out of our comfort zones. One unforgetable occasion was when we had gathered teenagers from a tough "housing project" area to bus them to a youth event. As we were getting them back onto the bus for the return home, we were confronted by what turned out to be a rival gang who were waiting for them next to our bus. In those unfamiliar situations, you tend to discern how much trouble you're in by seeing the response of the locals. Our seasoned bus driver was white with terror. She closed the bus doors with us on the outside. "Not good" I thought and prayed.
As the war escalated, another gang of "angels" descended on the scene in between the warring parties. They calmed down the situation enough to shepherd our kids back onto the bus. The driver laid rubber out of there leaving some of the leaders on the sidewalk.
Wide-eyed and grateful, I talked to some of the "angels" on the trip home and learned that some of these guys had previously been members of that gang.
They testified that through the ministry of the Dream Center they'd been saved, transformed and trained for ministry back TO the gangs and other areas.
No wonder, I marvelled, by the grace of God, and the radical love and discipling ministry of this church, that gang warfare has reduced by 74% in that area.
Praise Jesus! That’s impact. That’s transformation. That’s discipleship.
Compassionate Outreach?
Having always had a belief that our mission ought to include compassionate acts of service (or needs-based evangelism) I was stimulated to start to think more strategically about it through reading the book, "The Church of Irresistible Influence" by Robert Lewis while on Long Service leave in 2004/5. The opening words of the book ask :
Can you imagine the community in which you live being genuinely thankful for your church?
* Can you imagine city leaders valuing your church’s friendship and participation in the community even asking for it?
* Can you imagine the neighbourhoods around your church talking behind your back about "how good it is" to have your church in the area because of the tangible witness you've offered them of God's love?
* Can you imagine a large number of your church members actively engaged in, and passionate about, community service, using their gifts and abilities in ways and at levels they never thought possible?
* Can you imagine the community actually changing (Proverbs 11: 11) because of the impact of your church’s involvement?
* Can you imagine many in your city, formerly cynical and hostile toward Christianity, actually praising God for your church and the positive contributions your members have made in Jesus' name?
* Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that would naturally follow if all this were true?
Those were the questions which had me dreaming and eventually took me to the US on a mission. I so wanted to do more than imagine.
The book argues that the gap between the church and community is widening and can most effectively be narrowed / spanned / crossed, when our proclamational ministries are accompanied by compassionate, equipped Christians shining the light of Jesus through their good deeds in incarnational ministries. (Matthew 5:16)
The book details the transition which Fellowship Bible Church, in Little Rock, Arkansas, made into being intentional about compassionate community based ministries. The impact that church makes on its community is remarkable.
On return to Figtree from my long service leave, I gathered a group of keen Christians in our church to study the book, pray and share their dreams. From there two more groups and a movement started. About 70 people, including staff and our parish council have now read the book and prayerfully started dreaming and beginning or expanding ministries into the community.
After we'd registered for the Irresistible Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, we started hearing about other churches who were making a significant impact on their cities. These were churches too driven by the desire to "SHINE the light of Jesus" into their communities.
The Dream Center
One such church was The Dream Center ([url=http://www.dreamcenter.org]http://www.dreamcenter.org[/url]) that I referred to above. Its former hospital campus houses its administrative services, a food distribution centre, a multitude of ministry centres, cafes, gymnasiums etc. They also have residential accommodation for interns, some staff, short term missioners, homeless youth and men and women participating in their 8-month 24/7 discipleship training program.
The name of the church speaks of the dream that is in many believers' hearts that the church can be used by God to radically impact its community with a holistic ministry that cares for the body as well as the soul.
Together with my 18 year-old son Sam (who is doing a "gap year" in a Christian half-way house in inner-Sydney) and Dennis Woodward, the co-ordinator of Men's Ministries at Figtree, we registered with their Short Term Missions Department to live in at the Dream Center and participate in their street ministries.
Impacting the Community? Check these stats "
What first attracted me to the Dream Center in Los Angeles was the statistical impact the church had made on the surrounding community. They planted their church in a tough area of LA :
"¢ It is surrounded by gang members
"¢ Poverty and addictions have sent many to live on the streets
"¢ One in six families live below the poverty line (the average family income for the poor has dropped by 24% since 1967)
"¢ 11,000 people live on the sidewalks each night
Through more than 100 ministries into the community, including distributing tonnes of food, medical help, friendships and a message of hope, they serve thousands of people every week.
Operating night and day, "Home For Homeless Youth" reaches more than 2000 hurting youth who live in abandoned buildings and dumpsters with its 30 outreaches that go into the city every week. People are loved, relationships are built, lives are changed.
In the first 4 years of the DC's establishment:
"¢ Prostitution and gang violence dropped 73%
"¢ The homicide rate dropped 28%
"¢ Rape dropped 53%
Another unforgettable experience was meeting and working with some of the people who'd been saved through these radical ministries, discipled (24/7 for 8 months!), transformed, trained and mobilised like a specialist strike force back into the streets full of the gangs and prostitutes to deliver the same loving ministry that reached them months earlier.
Adopt-A-Block Ministry
On Saturday morning I boarded a DC bus to join their Adopt-A-Block Ministry to a poor area of LA. We had a good hour of fervent prayer and a little preparation before we were allocated to different regular teams. We arrived at the designated spot to see people already lined up and waiting for us. This is a ministry by a dedicated team of church members and other volunteers which each Saturday morning takes barrow, truck and busloads of food and other gifts to areas that they have "adopted".
The needs of these areas are constantly monitored, food and other items are gratefully received and other ministry and prayer are offered in the name of Jesus. The needs of the areas vary widely but I believe all are classed as being under the poverty line. We handed out the food and gifts, talked to people, did some door-knocking, prayed for people and cleaned up the street.
This ministry is complimented by a bus ministry that brings the local kids to an exciting kids ministry on Saturday or Sundays and TAKES, a ministry to the local area mid-week.
The sadness and smells of the depravity of LA's skid-row will haunt me for a long time. It was here that my respect for and understanding of DC deepened. At their Under-The-Bridge Ministry I witnessed one guy called Juan, get "saved". This DC ministry was to people at the end of the line " people who literally have nothing left. No possessions, no food, no dignity, no hope. The DC takes a van load of food regularly to these people and ministers to them. When I first spoke to Juan he was lying helplessly in a courtyard on a blanket with a cast on his leg and crutches at his side. As I talked to the guy next to him, unbeknowns to me, a couple of the regular DC team were ministering to and "assessing" Juan for their live-in discipleship program. Next thing I knew Juan had offered his pillow and blanket to my new friend James. He explained to James that he was accepting the offer of the DC team to come to live in at the Dream Center to "get things right in his life" (or do the discipleship program).
"They tell me I won't need these things," he told James. Three or four hours later, back at the DC, I saw Juan again, washed, freshly dressed and now without a cast on his leg, but with a big smile on his face. When I enquired of one of the DC leaders about the apparent "miracle" they humbly downplayed the leg healing in favour of the new-life miracle that had begun. They explained that they thought his leg was already healed when they found him but that Juan had probably kept the cast on because he only owned one shoe. The contrast was stark between Juan's old world and the new life and surroundings he now found himself in as a DC disciple.
Men-In-Black
Many times I observed these DC disciples around the campus, dressed in black, as they went about their duties, often in military fashion. Many times there was a jovial, contagious and high spirited camaraderie amongst the men. Occasionally there were outbursts of tough love as men were brought into line in scenes reminiscent of a boot camp. As part of their discipleship training (I don't recall hearing the word "rehabilitation" used at the DC) they cleaned, cooked, gardened, guarded and administered some of the food distribution.
As I marveled at and admired these guys and the church which was seeing its dream emerge, a clearer picture of discipleship emerged in my mind.
Juan was the newest of the DC disciples who was loved and discipled in the name of Jesus and folded into a loving, but disciplined community of faith. He had, it seemed, found a new life, a new purpose and a new family in Christ. Judging by the other DC disciples I met, in a relatively short time he would be radically transformed and passionately impacting other lives for Jesus - part of a powerful movement of God transforming a community in the name of Jesus. It had a profound impact on me.
It was such a powerful living illustration of the fact that Jesus called us to make disciples, not converts. Disciples who, in becoming like their new Lord and Saviour, would naturally (or supernaturally) take on His servant nature and mission from day one. These guys, I ventured to guess, would never know a day in their new life when serving was an option. It was now a way of life.
One night I attended a youth outreach rally. While I thought the appeal was light on the gospel of forgiveness, it was heavy on God's ability to transform people and help them dream about a life full of significance, service and purpose.
While I could not and would not want to diminish the emphasis on the forgiveness of sins in an appeal, I was challenged by how the DC described a life of following Jesus. People knew that when they came to Christ they would be entering a selfless, but exciting life of service. They were called to, discipled and equipped in this from day one, never learning slack habits that so often plague our churches. They were encouraged to dream and live a life of significance and purpose. They could see where they belonged and how they could make a significant contribution to the lives of the community.
As I marveled at these guys, a clearer picture of true discipleship emerged in my mind. Amidst a myriad of questions, one haunted me. Did I really believe in (and was I prepared to act on) the power of the gospel to save and transform people of any background into an elite army who were better able than me and my middle-class mates to minister to the needs of the community?
I guess the power was in seeing it for myself. Paradoxically, this is central to the concept of incarnational thinking. People who would be deemed unreachable by many Christians and churches were drawn to Jesus by His Spirit through compassionate acts of kindness, won through the gospel and transformed into fruitful missionaries.
Again I saw the beauty of the "and". It has to be proclamation and incarnation.
The ministry of The Dream Center is publicly acknowledged by the local council, the mayor and even the president of the United States. Where others had given up, the church was labouring and prevailing.
This type of ministry is indeed profoundly irresistible. It is gaining the attention, admiration and support, not only of locals who'd been blessed by the church, but also by an army of volunteers, partners and wealthy benefactors and other churches and organisations. All of them are eager to be associated with and generous toward such a significant movement.
Irresistibly Influential in Arkansas
Next on our US itinerary was the ‘Church of Irresistible Influence Conference’ held at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock ([url=http://www.fbclr.org]http://www.fbclr.org[/url]), Arkansas. This is the origin of the book by the same name.
FBC's vision and values are unmistakable. They are engraved into the walls and landscape, and epitomized in their frequently-appearing bridge logo. More importantly, they are etched on to people’s hearts. providing the motivation for all of their ministries.
At FBC we heard and witnessed countless stories of how individuals and groups had caught the vision to impact their community through gospel-centred, compassionate ministries. Many people had been won to Christ through FamilyLife ministries.
In a church culture that encouraged and modelled incarnational ministry at every level, it wasn't surprising to see small groups individually run with the vision. One group from the church had a goal to adopt and bless two inner-city kids with schooling and basic needs. They set about the task of making it happen together. Their group raised $36,000 to assist, not just two children, but many more. On the weekend we left the conference, they had generated enough interest in their project to raise $500,000. All starting from one group.
We spent a great deal of time studying their men's ministry, ‘Men's Fraternity’ ([url=http://www.mensfraternity.com]http://www.mensfraternity.com[/url]) which is also making radical in-roads into the community. We went to the classes. We met many changed and focussed men. We heard their stories. We felt their passion. We caught the vision. We brought back a bag of resources which are generating a lot of local interest. We are presently prayerfully analysing it in detail with a view to adapting it for our Australian context. Being a church with a community-reaching DNA, it was no surprise that their men's ministry was reaching the community in significant ways, but it was especially impressive that the men of the church were being equipped to take the material into their work situations. The local Ford dealer was running the course for his employees and at the same time training the local Chevvy dealer !
We also formed a partnership with Fellowship Associates, who pledged their ongoing support to help us implement the ministry ideas we had learned. Fellowship Associates has been set up as an auxiliary to the church to help plant churches and help others who want to better reach and transform their communities through irresistible incarnational ministries.
True to their promise, they have provided guidance and resources to help us get started.
Personal Impact
I also visited two other churches in Hawaii " New Hope Community Church ([url=http://www.enewhope.org]http://www.enewhope.org[/url]) and Hope Chapel. There we attended church services, staff meetings and had tours and consultations with staff members. Time and space does not permit me to recount the stories from these encounters, apart from saying they too will never be forgotten. Each congregation was passionate, growing, cross-centred. They were also founded with strong incarnational and gospel ministries, and were exerting a strong influence on their communities.
For a short time I was part of the dream of four different transformational churches, and the virus already planted in me was incubated through these US encounters. This type of ministry ought to come with a label: Theological authorities warn that compassionate incarnational ministries are highly contagious and personally transformational!
I believe that there is a dream in all of us. Christian and non Christian alike are drawn to support well-run, compassionate ministries that are making a difference in their communities. For true followers of Jesus, it is essential that these ministries have the cross, the gospel and proclamation as the heart of their mission and that those involved are equipped effectively. We saw it for ourselves. People were being won to Christ, lives were transformed, Christians were equipped and excited, churches cooperated and communities were being transformed. There was no unhelpful dichotomy between proclamation and incarnation (evangelism vs good works) " the bible mandated both, and both worked together beautifully.We now not only have a dream and passion to transform our community in Jesus' name, but some great resources and ideas, some new partners and the strong belief that our God is able to do it.
Retelling the story at home has unlocked some passionate dreams within a vast array of people. Many believe that this is the right idea for the time in which we find ourselves, that a culture shift is in the making. Many now feel that their present community ministries are being recognised and encouraged. Others feel free to dream bigger, more radical dreams than they ever dared. Still others have found like-minded friends and are praying through their ideas.
Some have already begun to take the love and light of Jesus to the community in new ways and all want to be part of a movement that God might use to transform their community.
My dream is be part of a new movement of God where we see a vast and growing army of people won, equipped, encouraged and mobilized to live irresistible lifestyles and doing influential acts of service which point to Jesus. I dream of seeing Bible-based churches and organizations partnering to shine the light and love of Jesus into the community.
In answer to the question posed at the start of the book, I canimagine the spiritual harvest that would follow if this were true, because for a short time God allowed me to taste it, and I can't imagine being satisfied by anything less again.
Leigh Roberts is a Senior Associate Minister at Figtree Anglican Church and can be contacted directly via email.
