Snapshot of StreetLevel

StreetLevel has a small storefront space on 6th Ave in the International District of Seattle. Perhaps it's ironic, but the street is anything but level. There is a massive hill. For any who don't know, my wife Erin is VERY pregnant... her due date is tomorrow, actually. It is a challenge for her to walk up this hill to get to our house. We discovered a couple of weeks ago that I can walk behind her actually pushing he up the hill as she leans back. For her, the street is level and the walking is doable. We have gotten a couple of strange looks doing this, but it does work.

I smile at what I think is a little parable of the Kingdom - a glimse of the community of Christ in motion. The irony doesn't escape me that StreetLevel is founded on Isaiah 40:3-5 which you can read on the banner at the top of this blog.

What StreetLevel will do about Racial Reconciliation in Seattle

Annonymos wrote in response to my summary of the North American Urban Forum, which focused on Race and Reconcilliation, "What will StreetLevel do about racial reconcilliation in Seattle?"

Great Question.

For any unfamiliar with Seattle, there are issues pertaining to race. I live in the International District. There is a strong asian culture here - with Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino people making up the majority in the neighborhood. In the suburbs to the North of the city, the overwhelming majority of people are white. To the East and South, there are larger African-American and Hispanic communities. In the city, particulalry among the working poor and homeless, I have met a relatively large number of Native Americans.

There is, largely, an absence of conflict in Seattle over issues of race. However, each of the minorities I have mentioned has been marginalized or mistreated on a large scale in this city's history. I am reminded often that there is still a need for reconcilliation. In a park where we do some ministry there is a statue to Chief Sealth. Next to that, there are these banners with writing in Inuit. Behind this writing, as a background there are a bunch of dollar signs and crosses. I don't have to read Inuit to understand the message. Generations of oppression and marginilization in the name of what seemed two foreign gods has cast a shaddow on the here and now.

What StreetLevel is to do, is get to know people who are unlike us. Cross bariers or race and economy, with the Good News - that God has reconcilled us to Him and, in that relationship, we have a way of reconcilliation with our neighbors. We have to be careful not to bring anything more than Jesus. We cannot bring a cultural Christianity. We will not try to make people more like ourselves. We will get to know people who act differently, so we will stop being afraid of them. They will get to know us so they will stop being afraid of us. I believe, when there is fear and isolation between cultures, the powerful try to change the less powerful and the less powerful try to further isolate themselves. Then, possibly, things can really change so there will no longer be a "them and us", but there will be people with distinct personalities and cultures.


Chris Wikle

Erin and I saw Children of Men last night. An excellent film. One thing I liked about it was the fact that ithas a strong moral fiber. In other stories where heroes are put in extreme circumstances, there is a sense where the "ends justifies the means." That, when things get tough you can do things that would otherwise be wrong and still be considered "the good guy." In Children of Men doing things that were wrong was what made people or groups of people untrustworthy or, "the bad guy." That isn't really what the movie is about, but I found it refreshing.

If you've seen it, let me know if you agree with that statement, or if there are other films (particulalry violent ones) that have those ethics as well.

This gets me thinking about scenarios in life where the ends really does justify the means. I'll use the ideal of the movie - the value of human life. When is it okay to de-value human life enough to take it? How severe need a situation become in order to permit ending another's life. This question needs to be answered on a large scale and a small one. I think it is costly to answer it as well, but it must be answered.

More on this later...

Chris

I recently heard someone warn a bunch of go-getter, Salvation Army mission-types not to make the mistake of doing mission without prayer. Excellent advice. I was struck by the fact that that is a reversible statement.

Are you guilty of doing mission without prayer?

Are you guilty of praying without doing mission?

Chris

North American Urban Forum

I (Chris) was just in Atlanta Georgia for the Urban Forum, put on by 614 Regent Park Toronto (www.614network.com) with some Southern Territory USA help. It was excellent. Salvation Army Urban Mission thinkers and practitioners (not sure where I fit into those categories - sometimes I feel more like I'm practicing than a practitioner) gathered and discussed what we do.

I'll try to give you the Urban Forum in a few sentences.

We had three speakers help guide us over the week.

Ray Aldred outlined what the culture and systems of the world used to be and said, we must learn from the past (learn from mistakes of the church regarding race and reconcilliation). Learn more at www.mypeopleinternational.com

Robert Lupton stated the culture and systems of the world now and said we must redeem them (use economics and real estate for justice rather than oppression and greed). Learn more at www.fcsministries,org

Shane Claiborne spke about the culture and systems of the world now and said we must change them (cease consumerism and violence on small and large scales and embrace Kingdom values and actions). Learn more at www.thesimpleway.org

All three were different voices that followers of Christ need to listen to.

We also learned a fair bit from Martin Luther King Jr. during a visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial (check it out if your ever in Hotlanta) and from the experience of dozens of people at the event.

There you have it

Blessings

Chris

The Soldier
Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

I think the Soldier is Jesus who, when on the Earth lived and breathed Heaven. While in forign (enemy) territory the lives He contacted became forever Heaven.

Man that pumps me up!

When I die, think only this of me...

Chris