sustainable ministry? is that the same thing as being green?

ok, so here's my question that i've been asking my own self: how do i reconcile point loma with southeast? good question, jeff. why thanks! and did i mention that i really like that shirt your wearing? me too! my mom got it for me.


on Friday night, I took six SE kids to Yogurt Express. We then went to Balboa Park. These are not particularly uncommon events, either, though they are particularly bourgeois events. My goal is not to turn the kids at youth into little point loma student wanna-be's. But how do we get past the fact that we are all little PL students and doubtless, though subconscious, have a tendency to want to turn these kids into little versions of ourselves. Then we would have really saved them, right? The more they look like us and do the things that we do, the closer to God they must be.

No. Hell no. If anything, I hope to become more like them. Keep in mind that this is a sociological argument, not a theological one. I hope they look more and more like us from a religious standpoint, otherwise we are wasting our time and we should all move back on campus and into the suburbs and live our fat, happy lives raising fat, unhappy kids. Theologically and ecclesiologically, they should begin to look like us as we begin to look more and more like the saints who have come before us. They should learn our religious practices and habits and on and on. That's another issue. What I am talking about here is a relationship between Southeast and Point Loma that keeps Southeast dependent on Point Loma, and keeps a certain crowd at point loma dependent on SE. I want these kids to be able to run their own youth group some day. I don't want them to feel that the way that youth group should be run is the way that pl college students run it. that's not going to change things. I want these kids--I pray that these kids--will take charge of their Christianity so much that they will, though remaining dependent on the church, be able to change and affect their neighborhood. I'd like to see them move beyond the walls that they have right now and into the neighborhood because when they can apply the things that we talk about every week to the neighborhood that they live in, then they've gotten it. When being Christian is such a part of them that they cannot even slough that off outside of church, then they've gotten it. that is what I am ultimately shooting for. That is what I want.

So there's the concept: sustainable ministry. It is ministry that is self-perpetuating and therefore systemically transformative. By creating a climate where ministry begets Christian minsters, the very systems of the neighborhood begin to change and the church is real and authentic to its mission. Then faithful work can be done by all and the walls between server and servee begin to break down. That is what I really would like to see. Without losing structures of authority, I would like to see the walls between who serves and who doesn't fall more.

This requires a radical reorientation of the way that I live my life and do my church work. the way that I talk, the jokes i make need to be made with the sensitivities of the neighborhood in mind. The activities should ideally be reproducible activities for those in the youth so that they aren't stuck in a position of dependency when looking for alternative things to do. They should be able to go to each other and play out those same activities. We are, in a sense, modeling their lives to them to a certain extent. so how do we do this in a realistic, sustainable manner? that is a continuing question that I shall have to continue to wrestle with. For now, peace be on you.