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| August -- 2003 "Catching Up With Ray Bakke" |
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| CityVoices readers,
As we move toward fall, CityVoices offers several new resources to enhance and enable your ministry. Allow me to call your attention to two of them. "The Promised Land," by Nicholas Lemann is a book that many urban students have found helpful over the past decade. If you haven't read it, you can now purchase your own account of the great migration from the rural south to the industrial north on the part African Americans. CityVoices offers this fine book for $12 per copy. Also, recently available is Carl Dudley's fine volume, "Effective Small Churches in the 21st Century." This update of his 1978 volume is especially helpful to pastors and congregational leaders in small city churches. Dudley's acute sense of analysis (with a touch of advice) enables church leaders without overpowering. He brings a needed gift to the urban tool kit. Available from CityVoices for $14 per copy. Dr. Mike Snow’s thesis "A Model for Transition of Ministry in Declining Congregations," continues to interest readers nationwide. If you haven’t yet purchased your copy, contact CityVoices at (773) 477-8163. The thesis sells for $10. God’s grace and peace today, Roger Johnson, Editor – CityVoices ******************** Catching Up With Ray Bakke: Global Education for an Urban World In the year 2000, Dr. Ray Bakke and the International Urban Associates ministry made a very intentional move: from Chicago, where Bakke had ministered since the 1960s, to the Pacific Rim city of Seattle, near Ray’s ancestral home. The move allowed Ray and his wife Corean, to build a home in Saxon, Washington (100 miles north of Seattle) and also allowed Ray to jump-start a new phase of his global education ministry. This summer we talked to Ray Bakke about some of the changes in his ministry these past three years. This is a first installment on Catching Up With Ray Bakke. Ray, since moving back to Washington three years ago, are you in any way a different kind of urban Christian? What is different is that I’m probably more global than local, in that sense. And I think that means that I’m more missiological than sociological these days. In other words, the shift to thinking about these cities in other cultures means that I’m reading books like "The Geography of Thought," by cultural psychologists. Asian thought stems from Confucius, western thought stems from Aristotle; there’s a whole different history of how we think about things. Is this urban? Well, yes; but it’s a bigger field of vision. A bit more theoretical, but it’s related to urban theology that I’ve always been doing. Let’s face it. We don’t have to talk about the urban world any more. Most people now live in cities. In fact, city living has now become attractive! How different has this transition been over the past few years? There’s a bit of an identity shift. In Seattle I’m a bit of a symbol. Everything I had previously done had been far away, but now I’m close up. Some people are surprised to see me. But there are some other things about this transition. It now takes me twice as long to fly anywhere! I have to leave the day before speaking engagements, and fly hours going east! That’s a piece that takes some getting used to. We have to prepare my calendar differently. Travel is become much harder since 9/11. The other thing has to do with Corean (my wife) and me. We have not at all regretted living in a little log cabin (for our first two years out west) and then moving into our new house at Saxon. We must have had 300 guests during our first year in our new house. Corean continues to learn new music, including an all-Russian program which she will perform at our house on October 5th. We have over 75 Russian churches between Bellingham and Olympia. These are mostly new Russian refugee churches, many huge. We’re getting to know Russian and Ukrainian pastors. We think her October concert will bring out quite a few Russians, along with neighbors. It should be fun. How do American Christians, passionate urban Christians at that, still need to alter their world view when it comes to ministering in the great cities of both the developed and the two-thirds world? I’ve become more impressed than ever with the fact that more that up to 80 percent of the world’s Christians are not western, not northern, not white. They’re not Americans, in other words. We still have people in America who think that the whole world is like us. That we can just stand and assume everybody wants to be an American, so we can go taking over every place. Well, that’s not true. We are 4.5 percent of God’s earth - 4.5 percent and shrinking. Our role is not to lead the world, but to build relationships with such integrity that we can share what we have learned, without demanding that others follow us. This is the first generation of new Christians where each one thinks they are "Catholic" in their own culture – they’re the only thing they know about. There’s a legitimate role for Westerners to bring other people together and help introduce the right hand to the left, so that they can tell their own stories. Philip Jenkins ("The Next Christendom") reminds us that the new Christians are going to be biblical literalists. They’re going to be more Holy Spirit motivated. They’re going to be tribal. They’re going to expect miracles. They are not only post-modern, but in many ways pre-modern! They’ve never denied the miracles. These new Christians are very comfortable using miraculous language. It’s probably important for people to know that they aren’t going to be as open on the gay issue or gender issues as westerners have been. The church will be contextual in tribal structures again. If the tribe has women leaders, then the church will have women leaders. If the tribe has an eldership model, then the church will have elders. If the tribe doesn’t, they won’t. We won’t be able to force our Western structures upon them. I can remember a few years ago sitting in a church in China being overwhelmed with the fact that Christianity is no longer a Western religion at all! It never was until the 5th century. From the 5th till the 19th century, Christianity became a Western religion. But now it’s not. It’s going to take the shape of Oriental cultures, Latin cultures, African cultures. And we’re going to feel uncomfortable. The music and our favorite liturgies aren’t going to be their liturgies. We’re going to be offended by stuff. But we’re going to have to be as open as we’ve expected church elders to be to new generations of American young people. There will be many styles of worship. Statistically, there may be more missionaries coming to America than sent from America these days. And they’re coming to convert us. For further information on the programs and seminars in which Dr.Bakke is teaching these days, contact http://www.nwgs.edu. For specific information on Dr. Ray Bakke, his travel schedule and availability for speaking engagements, contact Julie Gustavson, IUA, 1013 – 8th Avenue, Suite 405, Seattle, WA 98104, ph: (206) 381-8893, seattleiua@earthlink.net. Look for more information on Dr. Ray Bakke’s ministry in a future edition of CityVoices. ******************** Agile – The Implications for City Christians The word came into my head earlier this summer, and just won’t go away – agile. It speaks of the ability to change direction, speed, temperament or style in a moment’s notice. It also speaks to the ability to quickly and accurately sense a change in the environment, climate, needs and opportunities that may require lightning-like adjustments. Furthermore, agile also suggests that a person, system or organism is instantly willing to alter its present realities in favor of a better, safer or more productive course of existence. Most often, agile creatures and systems aren’t agile because of proven logic or sound arguments. Rather, they sense both danger and opportunity quickly, they move in smart fashion before others around them even know what is going wrong. To be agile is to be tuned in to all that is needed, and "gone" before others even determine their course. Agile, and words like it, are often applied to city ministry and city churches, for good reason. Within relatively short periods of time, we see urban neighborhoods collapse, only to be claimed by outside interests. We see new people groups rapidly re-make and rebuild entire communities. While needs for the love and gospel of Jesus Christ remain constant, city ministers and lay people alike are faced with a rapidly revolving cycle of needs to be met. Oftentimes, the city church demands a good bit of agility to merely survive. At first glance, the Scriptures don’t seem to offer us much help in the way of agility. We’re told to "be strong in the Lord" (Ephesians 6:10), "be peaceable and considerate" (Titus 3:2). Great qualities, but not exactly, well… agile, as the city demands of us. The Apostle Paul does seem to give us a hint of what it means to be agile in his own 1st century world. He certainly didn’t get stuck in one mode of operation which would have proven ineffective (or even fatal) among the wide variety of peoples and places in which he ministered. "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some" (I Corinthians 9:22). How agile must you be to minister effectively in your city? That’s one you’ll have to answer for yourself as you carefully survey your community’s spiritual needs and changing realities. But don’t be afraid to consider "agile" right along with qualities like dependable, steady and strong. Develop agility by deleting some of the structural baggage that may be weighing you down. Remember, the church that can change course rapidly will be a collection of saints who are living their lives closely tuned to God’s Spirit and willing to alter any present reality to help build God’s kingdom in the city. Contact: Roger Johnson, CityVoices, 1242 W. Addison St., Chicago, IL 60613, ph: (773) 477-8163, roger@cityvoices.com ******************** For Your Reading: "Pool Guy Pastor," If you haven’t seen this good piece of analogy published in the latest edition of Leadership Journal.net, fire up your web browser to http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2003/003/12.91.html and you’ll find something that you’ll no doubt relate to. Just how John Covell’s short piece helps you think about your own vocation as urban pastor is another matter, mostly up to your own thinking and creativity. But you won’t be left empty. There’s something here for every city pastor. "The Promised Land," by Nicholas Lemann, Vintage Books, New York, 1992. Nicholas Lemann’s "history-as-literature" account of the largest mass migration in U.S. history is constantly referred to as we gain an understanding of modern American cities. His compelling story is that of rural blacks migrating from cotton plantations in Mississippi to the industrialized north in the middle of the past century. All the accompanying trauma and discovery are included in Lemann’s account. Essential reading for any student of American cities, a classic! "The Promised Land" is now available from CityVoices for $12 per copy. ******************** Coming Events: National Leadership Forum, 2003 Mission America Coalition Annual Meeting October 5-8, 2003, sponsored by MissionAmerica, "The Gospel in the City: A National Leadership Forum," New York City, NY."To serve as a creative forum where individuals and leadership teams can be strengthened and resourced to serve and minister with city and urban ministries throughout the nation." The forum will assist leaders in their discovery of new resources and ministry models for sharing Christ in word and deed in city and urban areas, through shared experiences, interactive discussion, powerful teachers and on-site visits. Register online at: nationalleadershipforum@missionamerica.org or call (718)721-2626 Leading on the New Religious Frontier: Building Racially and Culturally Diverse Communities October 8-10, sponsored by The Alban Institute, Location: Washington Retreat House, Washington, DC If current demographic trends continue, experts predict that almost half of the population of our nation will be non-white by the year 2050. Astute leaders must confront old assumptions and rethink their ministries. As society looks to religious communities for help living with increasing diversity, border people—clergy and lay leaders who live and work in racially and culturally diverse settings—need a particular set of leadership skills in order to negotiate cultural boundaries on la frontera, and lead others to do the same. Register online at: http://www.alban.org/CourseDetails.asp?ID=1745 or call the Alban Institute at (800) 486-1318. Archdiocese of Chicago – Catholic Festival of Faith October 30 - November 2, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Location: Chicago’s Navy Pier This first Catholic Festival of Faith will bring together Catholics from across Chicagoland for a four-day celebration of Catholic faith, worship and ministries in the nation’s largest Archdiocese. The Catholic Festival of Faith will be an opportunity for people from all parishes, organizations, institutions, ministries, racial, ethnic and age groups to gather at one place and time to worship, learn, and celebrate both diversity and unity in one of the nation’s largest urban centers. Register online at: http://www.catholicfest.org/ or call the Archdiocese of Chicago at (312) 751-8385. 15th Annual CCDA Conference – "New Wineskins for our Changing Communities" November 12-16, sponsored by the Christian Community Development Association, Location: New Orleans Marriott Hotel, New Orleans, LA The 15th Annual CCDA Conference is shaping up to be one of the best ever. There will be over 100 workshops, networking opportunities where you will be able to meet some of the best community developers in the country, meet and speak with people from your region and network with programs that focus on issues that are close to your heart. Dr. John Perkins will lead each day in Bible study. Other challenging and informative speakers include: Dr. Leah Gaskin Fitchue, Dr. Tom Sine, Rev. Fred Luter, Rev. Luis Cortes, Jr, Dr. Glen Kehrein, Rev. A. Lincoln Washington, Dr. Wayne Gordon and Dr. A. Charles Ware. Register online at: http://www.ccda.org/ or call CCDA at (773) 762-0994. ******************** Thanks for Reading CityVoices! |
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