Tag Archives: poverty

Random Thoughts from Seattle

24 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in Church, Theology, Travel

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I’m currently in Seattle, WA – at a training with mission developers.  My focus is on poverty and homelessness.  It’s been an interesting week so far.  A lot of great networking opportunities, hearing about great ministry, and learning some great stuff.

A few things I’m taking away as we move towards wrapping up the training:

  1. There are some great people in ministry.  People who are in mission development are a unique breed of people – very entrepreneurial.  That’s not really a new insight.  But it’s great to be around people like this.  It’s great to be around people who come up with as many ideas for ministry as I do and not think it’s insane.
  2. Even while I’m away, ministry continues to happen – and sometimes there is no escape.  Ok, often, there is no escape.  As I was listening in to a conversation on homelessness and prison ministry, I was busy trying to help a friend find some kind of shelter for a few days.  From three-time zones away.  Technology makes this possible.  Which is incredible and amazing.  And it also is a constant reminder that there is no break for those caught in poverty and homelessness.
  3. We in the church need to have more fun.  We get so wrapped up in our work and so stuck on being serious for worship that all to often we forget to have fun.  Where there is life, there is fun.  There is fun where there is health.  Yes, the institutional church is in decline, but where are the things we can celebrate?  Where are the things we can have fun with?  There’s enough crap in the world to bring people down.
  4. There are plenty of things in the secular world that the church can learn from.  I was in a bar last evening with friends.  This was an incredible place.  More than just a bar.  It was a brewery.  It was packed.  I would estimate there was over 200 people inside.  It was open and movement was easy.  There were large tables, specialty groups (we saw a camera group, a medical group, a Birthday, and more).  Dogs were welcome.  And there was even a kids section.  Games were available for guests – for free.  Bathrooms were even different – one entrance with separate very private individual stalls, with a central hand washing station.  It was packed – did I mention that?  We sat and wondered what church would look like in such a location?  Or if a church took on aspects of this.  What would it look like?  How would it be different?  There was great life in the place, and a sense of openness and welcome.  And it wasn’t forced.  It felt natural.

As we wrap up, I come away with plenty more ideas and enthusiasm.  I look forward to being back home, seeing my family, and trying out the ideas that have been learned.  And seeing what God is up to and how we are creating environments where people will encounter God in unique ways.

Does it affect you?

31 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Society, Theology

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Information is powerful.  It can give you great insight and guide you in where to go.

Recently I used a program that provides demographic information, along with trends, and insights into the area our church resides in and serves.

It was quite enlightening.  I found out that the area is aging, getting wealthier, and has a growing number of people with higher educational degrees.  There is also a growing middle age segment of the population.  The overall trends regarding religion are that people are less influenced by religion and are engaged with religion less and less.  As for interests, it seems that people in this region are most interested in their own health, their finances, and their futures.

When I read this, I see the connection of these things – an aging wealthier and smarter group of individuals who earned their success and are trying to figure out how to keep it.  This isn’t a judgement – it’s a summary of who the people around the church are.

And there is also a segment of the population that doesn’t really show up in the demographics – the poor and homeless, the prostitutes, victims of human trafficking.  That population is smaller than the main population, but it’s there.  I know – I encounter them often.  The overall trends regarding religion are that they don’t feel they are worthy of being a part of church, but they love the message of Jesus.  They interact with the church typically in non-worship functions that the church offers – social ministry and hands on ministry.  As for interests, they are concerned with where they are going to get their next meal, do they have enough for somewhere to stay, and how to pay this or that unexpected bill.  The focus is on the present tense.

Apparently then, there are two populations that don’t intersect very often.  If they do, it is usually pretty negative in society.  An example that I witnessed was in Harrisburg.  I was walking down the street to a meeting and a woman was in front of me.  We crossed the street and there was a man waiting on the corner.  He looked as though he were going to ask for some help.  She must have been hit up by him previous because she shouted at the top of her lungs at him to stop begging for money – to stop taking people’s money.  She swore at him, all while she was walking along.  He mumbled something, but didn’t respond directly to her.  I reached my car and the women went on.  The man came over to approach me and did ask for money.  I often don’t have any cash on me, so I told him I didn’t have any.  He looked disappointed.  He said he was just trying to get on the bus to go to work.  I went on my way to my next meeting.  Could I have done something different? Sure.  I could have taken him to work – or at least asked him where work was.  But I didn’t.  Too busy I guess.  I have no idea if this guy was telling the truth.  But really it didn’t matter.  I tell you this story in order to make a bigger point.

Homelessness, human trafficking, poverty, prostitution, and more affect you.  You may not experience people caught in these things directly, or maybe you do.  But they affect you.  They affect you because when one person is caught in these, it impacts the whole of society.  I saw an estimate once that claimed that one homeless person uses $250,000 a year worth of medical services.  How so?  Well, a homeless person probably doesn’t have health insurance.  They have limited money and therefore buy the cheapest food they can find to fill their stomachs.  They typically have health challenges – many are diabetic.  When there is a health problem, they don’t go to their doctor because they don’t have one – they go to the hospital.  Guess who pays that bill?  If there is trouble with the law, guess where they go – jail.  Guess who pays that bill?  It’s paid through our taxes.

Imagine a different way of handling these situations.  Imaging offering housing first in order to get someone off the streets.  To recognize their humanity.  Taking that burden off of someone makes a big difference for a person.  It is one stress they have taken care off.  And it allows a person to start tackling other challenges.  In the long run, it cost far less, and is more caring and compassionate to pay for housing for someone who is homeless than it is to do nothing and end up paying for all the services they use.  The cost isn’t just in terms of money, but there is also a human cost.

The point is, if all we ever care about is ourselves, then we blind.  And it will cost us a great deal more than if we pay attention to the greater needs of society.

Broken

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Church, Health, Humanity, Theology

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Many of us sit in comfort in our homes of multiple thousand square feet, with our nice lawns measured in either a fraction of an acre or in multiple acres.  We have nice vehicles that are pretty reliable.  We have our well-paying jobs that pay us enough for our necessities as well as for the nicer things in life.  We enjoy our vacations.  We enjoy the health we have.  We sit down in the evenings and enjoy entertainment.  And have no worry or thought that tomorrow will be any different.  Why should we?  We have what we need and many of the things we want.  Is everything perfect – of course not.  But really, we’re doing pretty well.

And many of us have no clue about another population that exists in our midst – usually just down the road.  It’s a population that survives day-by-day.  A population that lives day-by-day.  A population that is constantly worried about what they will eat and where they will lay their head for the night.

This isn’t a lazy population.  They aren’t living in luxury off of welfare.  In fact, many don’t receive welfare, or what they do receive isn’t enough to make much difference in their lives.  They aren’t going to the grocery store to buy lobster.

Many in this population work full-time.  Are you surprised?  They work full time and they don’t make enough to cover housing and the other necessities of life, like food, cosmetic necessities, feminine products, things for their kids, clothing, health care, and transportation.

They live in anxiety – it is a constant blanket that covers them each night.  Only this blanket doesn’t provide warmth and comfort, but rather dis-ease.

Many have animals that they care for. Before you spout off about how these poor folks shouldn’t have animals because they can’t take care of themselves, realize a few things.  These animals are often the only ones who offer these people actual love.  These animals are the only ones who keep many of these people going to the next day – their animals give them purpose for going forward instead of giving up on life completely.  Their animals are there for them when no one else is.

Many of the people I have come across lately are women.  Their significant other left them – often left to fend for themselves and their children.  Their men just up and left, some never to be heard from again.  In some cases, that’s an improvement – at least they aren’t suffering domestic violence any more.

Our society is broken.  There is no other way to describe a society where there are homeless women left to fend for themselves.  We aren’t great – we’re broken.  And for many, there is no recognition that society is broken.  If it doesn’t affect you directly, then there isn’t a problem.  The only problem with that belief is that the belief itself is broken.  What happens to one in a society, impacts the rest.  I know this because I’m willing to bet that as you read this you are felling some kind of emotion – maybe guilt, maybe anger, maybe motivation, maybe a combination of emotions.  At any rate, you’ve been impacted without being homeless yourself.  Your emotional state has been affected.  And that’s just a small impact – tiny actually.  But it’s a start.

Can we agree that we have a problem?  That it’s a problem that we have people who are working full-time and can’t afford housing?  Can we acknowledge that our society is broken – at least in this regard?  Can we agree that something should be done?  And not just throw money at the problem?  Or just focus on the material?

Can we agree on just that?  Once we agree to that, can we figure out what to do as a society?  Can we move past the empty rhetoric of politicians and campaign slogans and propaganda?  Can we actually deal with the problem?

I don’t want to live in a broken society.  Correction: I refuse to live in a broken society.  As Christians, we are called to participate in the unfolding of the kingdom.  I take that call seriously.  I pray that you do too.

Poverty

07 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by in Health, Humanity, Society

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Poverty.  The word brings to mind many things for many people.  Often it brings to mind mess and trash – both in the literal sense, but also in terms of how people are viewed.  Poverty is destructive to lives and societies – and very costly.  Not just in terms of dollars, but way beyond that.

Which is why alleviating poverty is so important.  Yet, we have been trying to alleviate poverty for so long that no one remembers when we started.  And we’ve had varying degrees of success.  Although right now it seems as though we are struggling with alleviating poverty.  We don’t have current stats – only data from 2015 and earlier (You can see that here).  However, basing it on observation, conversations, and a whole lot of non-scientific data, I’m willing to wager that poverty is on the rise in the US in recent times.  One of the things that I’m basing this on is the fact that there is a lack of emergency housing in the region of the country I reside in.  There are waiting lists and have been for a few months now.  That’s not a good indicator.

Often we look to the government for solutions to our problems.  Or some will say, never mind the government, the churches and non-profits should do it.  The problem with this is that it’s an all or nothing approach – and it doesn’t work.  Alleviating poverty has to be a multiple faceted approach incorporating many different elements – because there are many aspects to poverty that need to be addressed.

One of the challenges to alleviating poverty is agreeing on what poverty is.  Yes, there is the official definitions – but those focus entirely on the material needs that people have.  If poverty were entirely material, then we would have solved it long ago.  We’ve spent more money on trying to alleviate poverty through material means than anyone thought possible.  It would have been cheaper to just transfer wealth directly from the rich to the poor and be done with it.  Except a transfer of wealth, on its own, just doesn’t work.

That’s because if you only deal with the material, you’ll never actually alleviate poverty.  I received a call from a person who had an eviction notice.  The person needed $500 to stay in their home.  When we talked with the owner of the property, we discovered that the person had resided at the property for 44 months and was late with their rent 17 times.  Giving this person money to stop the eviction wouldn’t have changed anything for this person ultimately.  It would have bought them more time and it would have dealt with the material need, but it wouldn’t have alleviated poverty in any real way.  in fact, we would have been enabling this person to continue to see being late on rent as normal with no need to change.

Could we have done something different – probably, but only so far as someone wants to change and improve their life.  You can’t force change to happen on people.

We live in a political climate right now where one political party is attempting to recreate the Know Nothing Party of the 1850’s and the other party is stuck in the New Deal of the 1940’s.  That’s not leadership, and it doesn’t bode well for people who actually want to escape poverty.

There are fresh ideas out there, but it’s hard to get any spotlight when all the air in the room is used up to cover what our politicians say and think and tweet 24 hours a day – as if Washington DC were the center of the universe.  It isn’t and here’s the reality – new ideas don’t come out of Washington, DC.  The state of the two political parties should be evidence enough of that reality.

If we are going alleviate poverty, then we need to think differently about it and act differently too.  We need to take a look at poverty in a given context and not make an assumption that poverty looks the same everywhere.  We need to build partnerships between government, leaders, non-profits, churches, and communities – so that we can work together to touch the many different aspects of poverty.  We need to see people in poverty as people, not as statistics.  We need to look at long-term commitments from those in poverty and those who are helping.  We need to look beyond the material to see poverty as more than just the lack of money or stuff – it is spiritual, it is mental, it is emotional.  Let’s move past the ideas of the past and towards new ideas.

Life outside of Windhoek

01 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by in Travel

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As we headed outside of Windhoek, we saw what real life was like for some Namibians.  Some looked pretty normal for us.

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Normal things were going on.

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And then the further we got from downtown Windhoek, the more we saw the lingering effects of colonization (from the Germans) and apartheid (from the South Africans).  It’s a reminder that Namibia has only been independent for 25 years and even though it has made great strides, there is still much to do.

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Poverty is a real issue here.

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The buildings in the picture above are images of people’s homes and some shops.  Yes, people live in these structures.  With no running water or electricity and dirt floors.  That is a part of the reality of Namibia.  It’s a sobering sight.

But the really fascinating thing about these images is what is not in the picture – trash.  Even though people are poor, they aren’t trashy.  That’s a lesson for any of us to learn.  The poor aren’t treated as trash here.  And they don’t see themselves as trash either.  I don’t have any evidence or data to support this statement but here goes – I think the level of trash that lies around the streets, especially in poor areas (regardless of what country) is an indication of how the people in that community are viewed and see themselves.

Some thoughts on Pope Francis’ comments on poverty

18 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Church, Humanity, Politics, Theology

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I’m torn when it comes to Pope Francis.  I want to like the guy, but I have trouble just about every time the media covers something he says.  Something just doesn’t sit right with me.

For example, this story appeared two days ago.  It’s about the Pope’s comments on poverty.

Christian poverty is that I give to the poor what is mine, not just what is left over, but even that which I need for myself, because I know that he enriches me,”

I get the idea and agree to a certain extent, but I’ve got some issues with the whole “theology of poverty.”

The headline of the article states – “Pope Francis: Handing over wealth to the poor is Christianity – not communism.”

The headline struck me as a bit odd. When I read the story, there are no quotes from the Pope about communism.  When I read the comment section, just about every comment ended up being either a political statement, or a general statement of support couched in politics, or something like this – “great idea – let the church and its riches go first.”

The Pope has made statements in the past about homosexuality, climate change, creation, and even atheists maybe going to heaven, among other things.  When I think back to the reactions, they always seem to be the same – people respond with political-oriented statements that suggest the Pope supports their side of the issue or label the Pope in a political fashion.  I’ve been watching this and each time, it just doesn’t sit well with me.  I can’t place my finger on it.

Maybe it’s the same feeling I get when I hear politicians and political figures make statements.  Having worked in the world of politics I can say honestly that there aren’t many politicians that impress me.  Most of their speeches are full of platitudes designed to rally the supporters with nice fluffy and patriotic terminology designed to make people feel like the politician really cares about everyone else.  In a sense, the Pope has given these types of statements plenty of times.  It’s not so much that he is saying anything new in substance, but rather, he’s saying the same thing the Church has taught for a long time, but in a different way that makes it sound like something new and different is coming.

Then again, I’m not one to just dismiss the leader of the largest Christian denomination on the planet.  I think he’s got some good qualities too.  His own personal actions speak louder than words to me.  He lives a simpler life than previous popes.  He has gone to serve the poor.  He’s reached out to the disadvantaged.  He’s done some great things.  I like that about him.

Maybe that’s the issue for me.  Speaking vs. actions.  It’s easy to give a speech.  Yes, I know that public speaking is a huge fear for many people.  That’s not what I’m talking about.  It’s easy to make a public statement.  In fact, so often, I’ve seen people make statements about whatever topic of the moment is in the headlines.  People make statements, they post comments on social media, maybe even go to a rally or sign a petition and think “I care and I did something.” Sorry to break it to you – no you didn’t.  Yes, you took a few moments of time to show some support, but you really didn’t do anything to change the situation – there was no giving of yourself.  Because human words can’t change things ultimately.  It’s the actions that actually change things.  Only God has the power to speak something and cause it to change.

And so I remain torn when it comes to the Pope.  He’s personally a great role model for how to live and act.  But I’m not crazy about his statements – they sound too much like any other politician I’d heard before.

Then again, maybe I just don’t like the way the media “reports” on statement by the Pope.  I have to remember that the media is a business too. It makes money when it gets advertisers.  Advertisers want to know that people are seeing their ads.  The best way to see ads is to make the news sensational and controversial – you get views that way.

In the meantime, I’ll keep listening and watching the Pope.  I think its good for me to be uncomfortable at times and to ask why I’m uncomfortable with certain statements.  Sometimes the uncomfortableness is because of some of the things I mentioned before.  But sometimes, the uncomfortableness is something deeper – it’s a signal that there’s something that needs to change in me and I may not like that.