It seems en vogue
to do to plant churches committed to social justice and reconciliation. Four
ingredients generally describe these type churches. Ingredient one you must have a well-intentioned
white male that will take on the responsibility for leading the church. Two you
must find an African-American pastor to walk with the well intentioned white
male. Three you must have a core group of middle class folks that have caught a
hold of the vision of reconciliation and justice for the poor. Fourth you must identify
a place where this wonderful vision of reconciliation and justice will take
place. Usually we pick a predominantly black neighborhood without many social, economic,
and structural resources. In other words, we pick the ‘Hood.
Many well-meaning middle class Christians
white and black go into low income black neighborhoods with good intentions,
but ill equipped to create a Christian community that is for the people in the
neighborhood. As a result, we end up creating churches that minister to the
‘hood, but not churches for the people in the ‘hood. We miss that fact that the Hood is not a tabula rasa for Reformed
Culture, but it is a place with an already established culture: Hip Hop.
Therefore, the new breed of “Urban Missionaries” must not go into the ‘Hood to
live out Micah 6:8 without considering the fact the “Hood has a culture. Urban Church
planters must contextualize the gospel for the culture in the hood.
The first reason
we must start these churches intentionally considering the culture of the ‘Hood
is because the Hood already knows that it has a culture. The only people that
have not figure this important fact out are Christians. We have largely ignored
this fact. I want to highlight some lyrics from a song from DJ Khaled feat,
Trick Daddy, T-Pain, Plies, Rick Ross “I’m So Hood”:
I'm So Hood (Listen)//I
Wear My Pants Below My Waist//And I never dance when I'm in this place//'Cause
You And Your Man Is Planning To Hate (I'm So Hood)//And I Got These Golds Up In
My Mouth If You Get Closer To My House Then You Know What I'm Taking about//
I'm Out The Hood And If You Feel Me Put Your Hands Up (hood)// My Hood Of
Niggas Can You Stand Up (I'm So Hood)//If You're Not From Here You Can Walk It
Out And You Not Hood //Then You Don't Know What I'm Talking about[1]
These lyrics show that people in
the hood are not ashamed of their culture, but they are proud of it. It does
not matter if middle class black, white, Asian, Latino, etc. Christians do not
think they should have a sense of pride about their culture, because they do
not care. The implication of this sense of pride in the culture means that we cannot
do church in a traditionally Reformed way and expect that magically black folks
in the neighborhoods would want to be a apart. On the contrary, we must see the
need to contextualize the unchanging gospel in a changing world.
Secondly we must
contextualize the gospel for the culture of the “Hood, because it communicates respect
for the people that live there. Despite our experience in doing Urban Ministry we
tend to think in our hearts that we have all the answers. If people listen to
us, then the community would change. This line of thinking has a dangerous
superiority behind it, because it means we do not relate to our neighbors on an
equal basis, because we tend to think we are better than them. This attitude
communicates disrespect. In his explication of Psalm 8, Jerram Barrs says
concerning respect for people:
God has given us such great dignity as those who are made in
His image that, as the psalmist says, even God Himself is “mindful” of us. If
God is respectful of the glory of our humanity, how much more should we honor
the divine image in all those we meet?[2]
People pick up on these attitudes of
superiority and they put up barriers in their heart toward us. We merely become
another service provider and not a true community for them. We want the
attitude that John Perkins describes:
Those who answer the call of commitment develop a very
special and mutual relationship with the poor; the poor community becomes their
home; the needs and interests of the inner city become their very own. These
people I call comrades. You see,
God’s love is very personal and own to earth.[3]
Let us think of what the
results might be if we came as learners of the culture there and not saviors.
What if we sacrificed what we hold dear in our Church culture and planted our
churches intentionally using elements of Hip Hop culture? We have the hope of
not functioning as service providers and have the distinct possibility of
building a community with the neighborhood we work in. If we hold to the
ultimate desire of seeing people come to Christ, then we follow in the
footsteps of Paul who said:
19 For though I am free from
all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
20
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I
became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I
might win those under the law.
21
To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the
law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
22
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things
to all people, that by all means I might save some.
23 I do it all for the sake of the
gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. [4]
We do not seek to assimilate people
from the ‘Hood to church culture. On the contrary, we want to show respect for
our brothers and sisters. The ultimate form of respect occurs when we sacrifice
our culture in order to make room for the culture of others as Paul did. Does
the gospel mean that much to us?
Thirdly, you can never hope to restore “at risk” communities
without the people in the community. The trend that I tend to notice in
reconciliation and justice church is that we do a lot of good things in the
community, but we often do not intentionally think through long range plans for
developing indigenous leadership in the community. We cannot hope to develop
any community without that community participating in the life of our
congregation and our ministries. Perkins says:
Comrades learn from one another and help each other grow.
Reshaped through the purifying and refining of the convert process, those who
have transplanted themselves make a positive and vital contribution. At the
same time, the need for local indigenous leadership doesn’t diminish but
intensifies as we recognize firsthand the need for visible, strong leadership
relevant to the aspirations and needs of the black community.[5]
We usually develop leadership from within. If
we do not have people from the community apart of our church you do not have a
pool of people to develop leadership. As a corollary, you will have a
sprinkling of people come to your church, because of relational investment over
years of working in the community. Yet, you might find developing leaders from the community for the community difficult. If
you do not have a pool of people from the community in your church you do not
have many options for leadership from the community to take root. John Perkins
says about developing leaders:
We have seen over the years that the key to bearing lasting
fruit is not in developing programs. The key is in developing people-leaders. I
believe that developing creative leaders is both the most essential and the
most difficult part of Christian community development. It was the heart of
Jesus’ strategy. It must be the center of our strategy, too.[6]
Consequently, we have to start thinking about the contextualization
of our churches.
Lastly, we seek to
build the church and not programs. Our goal in doing justice and pursuing
reconciliation is not because it is cool or looks innovative on paper. On the
contrary, the goal behind all that we do as a congregation should be to build
God’s church. Contextualization of Hip Hop culture does not aim to be cutting
edge or innovative, but it aims to build God’s people. The Great Commission was
not about building programs or innovative church models, but about building the
body. We aim to make disciples. Jesus says: “19 Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." [7]
Jesus aims to make disciples and so should we. Perkins says about the
importance of Evangelism:
Christian community development cannot happen without the
work of evangelism. The goal of Christian service to the urban poor is not
programs that change the environment a little bit here and little bit there.
Instead, we are praying for the Holy Spirit to overturn the power of darkness.
Conversion brings about not only spiritual change but also development in
individuals, and as those individuals take leadership, they bring about the
development and conversion of others.[8]
Contextualization will afford us more of an opportunity to make disciples
and not just programs, which will build God’s Church.
In conclusion,
these four reasons for contextualization do not make an exhaustive list, but I
want my writing to spark the conversation. I hope we can add more to what I
have already written. Let’s continue doing the work of reconciliation and
justice to the poor, but with an eye toward contextualizing our churches for
the ‘Hood.
[1]
DJ Khaled. “I’m So Hood”. Produced by The Runners, from 2007 album We The Best. Track #5.
[2]
Barrs, Jerram. The heart of evangelism.
Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2001. Print.. (193)
[3]
Perkins, 163
[5]
Perkins, 164--165
[6]
Perkins, John. Beyond charity: the call to Christian community development.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1993. Print
(74)
[7]ESV, Mat 28:19-20
[8]
Perkins, 87
I really appreciate the time you took to site your sources and organize your thoughts. This is a much-needed perspective on community development. Please keep up this writing. I look forward to reading more!
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