I need to be in Detroit next summer. You need to be in Detroit next summer. We need to be in Detroit next summer. And our high school folks definitely need to be in Detroit next summer. I dont write this to shame anyone or to yell at anyone. There are plenty of sound, rational, that-makes-sense reasons not to participate in Gatherings, whatever their location. Its easy not to bring young people to Detroit. I didnt bring youth to New Orleans either of the past two times, despite going myself as a volunteer. I would never personally miss a Gathering because I know how powerful and transformative Gatherings have been in my life and in the lives of my friends. But to bring along youth from my church? Well, they arent really that engaged. And theyve bailed on me at the last minute before. And we never see their parents. And they have so little money, and our church has so little money. And a mission/service trip is so much less expensive but also so transformative. And I dont have the time to do all of the extra work involved in raising the money and wrangling the disengaged parents scattered around our neighborhood. Those were my reasons. Maybe also some excuses, too. But I was in Detroit this weekend (for the first time) for the ELCA youth leadership summit, and a friend called me out on it and wouldnt let me off so easy. She was right. So I registered our church tonight all the same (without even checking with the youth, ha!) and well figure it out. Im just encouraging you to reconsider too. Or to consider that the reasons to go are actually more compelling and important than youve allowed yourself to believe or remember, or at least more compelling than youve allowed yourselves to communicate to the young people, parents, and leaders in question. Sure, sure, parents are finicky creatures and you cant always predict or influence what theyll do (teenagers, in my experience, are less unstable). But for the majority of teenagers and parents in your congregation, your clear, passionate, faithful, and informed pastoral/rostered/staff voice is what they really need to speak to the fears, doubts, anxieties, discomfort, and assumptions which are driving their resistance and reluctance, and tip them over toward participation. We have credibility. We have political capital. We have accumulated trust which we know we can draw on when we need to push something important across the line. This is one of those moments. I get it. Detroit is a tough sell because our travel there comes at the crest of an extended national narrative which holds Detroit up as an example of the very worst, most extreme form of American urban decay. Thats not to say there arent elements of truth hidden within the easy assumptions and talking points of that narrative. But anyone who lives or has lived in a major American city knows that no city is so easy to define, nor should it be so easy to dismiss. Im from and I serve in Baltimore, like, the actual city. We know a little bit about a bad national reputation. Detroit has Robocop and weve got The Wire. Were in an annual competition to see which city gets to be the poster-child of post-industrial Rust-Belt urban blight. Its a big day when FBI consolidated annual crime reports get released. Ill even admit that I was skeptical about going to Detroit for the Gathering, because I grew up in a city that, even on our darkest days, could always say Well, at least were not as bad as Detroit. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. What an ignorant and dismissive way to think about another city, especially one so much like my own. Cities are way more complicated than that. There are great things about Detroit. There are tough things about Detroit. There are mind-numbing, heart-breaking, fear-producing things about Detroit. There are joy-filled and reconciling and rebuilding and resurrecting things about Detroit. There are hundreds of communities and hundreds of thousands of people who each have their own story, and whose stories combine in difficult and amazing and challenging and holy ways like they do where we live, too. Stories of forgiven sinners and broken saints living together in community. We need to listen to those stories. We need to sit with people on their front steps and eat food in their restaurants and play alongside kids in the parks and dance with them to their music and pray together and praise together and cry together and laugh together and be amazed at the ways in which God weaves our stories together as the Spirit draws us into community with one another. We cant get that from documentaries or news reports or movies or textbooks. Our youth arent going to learn these stories in high school or college or sitting in our pews. We need to go to Detroit. One of our colleagues was sitting down with a major non-profit in Detroit, beginning the conversation about how we might be able to work alongside them and support them in their work. They listened politely to all she outlined, then waited a moment. Finally, they said, politely: They wont come. Weve heard this before. People say this and that, they make plans, they promise to come. But they dont show up. Maybe that seems a little heavy-handed. It certainly hit me in the gut. But thats kinda what the Law does, right? I dont share that to try to guilt anyone into participating. But maybe thats a sharp enough Word from God to cut us to the heart and make us reconsider how we have and will approach these conversations about participating in the Gathering. Can anything good come from Nazareth? Can anything good come from Detroit? Theres only one answer. Come and see.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:36:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015