Urban Ministry That Works

My day job transports me beyond our nation’s borders every morning. I rally our supporters to unleash grassroots entrepreneurs in places like Bujumbura and Lubumbashi. But, I live in Denver. I walk these streets. So when it comes to my town, who do I cheer for (apart from Tim Tebow, of course)?

Many great organizations serve our city. We need important agencies like Joshua Station and Providence Network that protect our city’s most-vulnerable families. What energizes me most, however, are entrepreneurs at the margins. I’m drawn to the innovators that give job opportunities to those who typically go without. These two great organizations inspire me:

• Belay Enterprises

An open industrial garage door invites discount-hunters into a nondescript warehouse in northeast Denver. Inside Bud’s Warehouse, profundities of all varieties are commonplace. Bud’s, a home improvement thrift store, hires the unhireable, mostly former felons. They repurpose construction site leftovers and lighten the load on landfills by selling these products to deal-hunting contractors and home remodelers.

Each morning, the Bud’s team gathers for a “hood check” to discuss faith, family and work. Bud’s is the cornerstone business of the Belay Enterprises portfolio. But, after growing Bud’s into a $2 million business, they launched new ventures including a commercial cleaning company, a baby clothing consignment store, an auto garage, a jail-based bakery and a custom-woodworking business. Together, these businesses help rebuild lives and create immense value in our community. The masses–including major publications like Christianity Today–are starting to catch the Belay fever.

Staff photo at Bud's Warehouse

• Jobs for Life

They aren’t based in Denver, but Jobs for Life recently sank roots into Coloradan soil (and they’re probably in your city too). Throughout the Mile High City, many unemployed and underemployed people are rediscovering their purpose through Jobs for Life seminars. God designed people to apply their hand to a craft, to work hard and to yield fruit from their labor. 

Especially in this socioeconomic climate, we need to recapture this message. Even many good-hearted charitable efforts stifle our design as workers. We forget we are co-creators with the God who toiled for six long days to create the galaxies and ecosystems. Jobs for Life helps our communities rekindle the message of work. Their new video communicates this better than I can:

Entrepreneurship is in my blood. I visit places like Bud’s Warehouse and am inspired by their creativity, profitability and impact. Who inspires you in your city?

We Love… Urban Living

We are city folk. I’m not sure how or when it developed, but Alli and I love urban living. While we certainly are activists for the joys of the city, we aren’t exclusivists. We love small mountain communities, rolling farmland and the towns outside the city — the suburbs. For us, however, the city is home. And here’s why:

Density: Cities are packed with people. Houses are slammed against each other and apartments are stacked up high. Streets swarm with all stripes of humanity on bicycles, in cars, riding buses and boarding light rail (or, as true urbanists hope: Walking). This people potpourri creates an incredible amount of energy. Weekend days in the city are filled with street festivals, political picketers, farmers markets, sporting events…on top of the normal hustle and bustle.

(photo credit: Lancaster Living)

Culture: We like living in community with folks who look, think and act radically different than we do. It’s not a race issue as much as a variety issue. Our neighbor, Vicky, has lived in our flavorful neighborhood for 45 years. She’s a widowed, African-American great-grandmother who has lived through the civil rights era and has spent a life watching the streets where we now live. There is a Latino entrepreneur who peddles his tamale varieties while peddalling his bicycle through our neighborhood. It’s a joy to be surrounded by people and perspectives from different age brackets, cultures, faith backgrounds, and educational levels.

History: Our cities are like living memoirs, filled with stories, buildings, scars, and relics of our country’s past. We love the aging homes, ornate old church buildings, and the stories of our city’s yesteryear. The richness of these stories is woven through the tree-lined streets and historic neighborhoods–and  the people who walk them.

Need: In 1900, 9% of our world’s population lived in cities. In 2000, that percentage exploded to 50%. Where there are lots of people; there are lots of challenges. Cities, and uniquely so in our country, are poor. We are drawn to live in tough neighborhoods because we feel called to do so.

City living is the hip thing to do these days. But, for the above reasons, I don’t think that we are living here (solely) because its cool. I just think it happens to be that many people share some of these same appreciations. But, either way, we love it.

Give the Gift of Dignity

Three years ago I read a book by Robert Lupton which changed the way I think about helping the poor. In that book, he introduced the concept of the “dignity of exchange,” which is one of the primary lenses through which I now view compassion. Lupton suggests in this book that “people would far rather engage in legitimate exchange than be the object of another’s pity. There is something in one-way giving that erodes human dignity.” The Christmas season has reminded me again of why exchange matters.

Today, Mile High Ministries (which also runs Joshua Station) is hosting their 16th annual Christmas Store, which gives opportunities for low-income moms and dads in Denver to buy Christmas gifts for their children (at subsidized prices). Parents, as customers, are able to be providers for their children at Christmas. The real Christmas gift of this annual tradition, in my opinion, is given to these parents: Dignity. These parents are no longer needy recipients…they are bargain-hunters.

As a junior in high school, I joined with a group of my friends to purchase Christmas gifts for a low-income urban family in my hometown, Lancaster, Pennsylvania through a local urban ministry. We got the name of a family and a list of suggested gifts and we went to Walmart to pick up the items. After purchasing the items, we drove to to the house, which was in a low-income housing community in a rough section of town. The four of us, all exuberant Christian kids, then hauled the gifts from the car to the door, where we delivered them to the mother of the children, while the children looked on.

I think back to the experience often:

What would it have been like if I was one of those kids? …to see my mom receiving my future Christmas gifts from a bunch of youth I didn’t know?

How would I felt to be that mom or dad? …to have my neighbors see me receiving those gifts? …to feel as though I was incapable personally of giving my kids a great Christmas?

Compassion is important. But compassion, without thoughtful and prayerful consideration of the consequences of the actions, can be harmful. Most mothers will do whatever they need to do to provide for their kids, even if that means they have to humble themselves to allow wealthy high-school aged kids to pick up the tab for Christmas. One gift which we did not give to that mother was dignity. I am excited that Mile High Ministries, and many other wonderful organizations, have re-examined their Christmas efforts to support low-income families.

Jeff Johnsen, Executive Director at Mile High Ministries, said this as to why they began operating the Christmas Store 16 years ago. “A lot of us at Mile High Ministries saw over and over again that there was a hidden price being paid by some of the families that were served [through their traditional Christmas giveaways]. You could see it in a dad’s face. These generous gifts were also a reminder to him that he couldn’t provide for his family that year.I decided there had to be a better way…Dignity is perhaps The Christmas Store’s chief product.”

(Chris)

Can I call you daddy?

Living at Joshua Station is truly a joy. Alli and I have quickly accustomed ourselves to the roar of the highway, the dated exterior, the industrial neighborhood, and the fact that we’re living in a transitional housing program. We cherish the relationships we’ve built with our neighbors and truly have come to enjoy living in this converted roadside motel more than we enjoyed our hip downtown apartment where we resided previously.

Life at Joshua Station is not without its challenges, however. The most saddening aspect is the lack of dependable men in the lives of the 50 children who live here. Of the 28 resident families, there are remarkably 26 single-moms. Many of the fathers are in jail, several have restraining orders because of past abuses, and nearly all of them have completely failed their children.

A few weeks ago, we were babysitting two girls, age 5 and 6, for one of the residents, a single mom. While playing with the girls, the older sister asked, “Chris, can I call you daddy?” This was probably the saddest question I’ve ever been asked. And I honestly don’t even remember how I answered her. The truth is, I cannot fill the void of having an absentee father. And sometimes I’m not sure how much of an impact I can actually make here. I don’t know what it’s like to live in a fatherless home. I’ve never lived on the streets. There were never any doubts growing up that there would be food on the table.

In the midst of those personal insecurities, I know Alli and I have been called to be here. And we’ve been called to faithfully reflect Christ’s love to these families through small acts of tenderness and encouragement. We can’t heal the wounds that so many of these children have. We can do the little things. Alli and I hold hands when we walk to the car, make stove top popcorn together when neighbor kids drop-in and are quick with words of affirmation with children who so rarely hear them.

(Chris)