Live Openly & Expansively

This morning, I took some time to reflect on yesterday and I have to be honest that I am a little sad and my heart is broken a bit. I am not sure if it should be, but at the present time it is and there was a scripture that came to mind. I am going to share that scripture with you and then I am going to share a little bit about what occurred, what I observed and what ticked me off. But, first, the scripture. Please read with fresh eyes:

Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help.

Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don't put it off; don't frustrate God's work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we're doing. Our work as God's servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

Maybe my bolds interfered with you reading it freshly. But, the bold is what stood out to me and that I needed to scream.

Yesterday, we had our Guiding Coalition ( Board of Directors ) meetings on the Bridges out of Poverty. Overall, it was a very good meeting and the updates from the family meetings ( there have been 3 ) were fantastic. I cannot wait to be at the meeting tonight, meet the families going through the support system and hear their stories. From what I gathered, they have already taken big steps and that is just unbelievable and rockin' news.

The part that turned my stomach however was the report from the faith community and their lack of response in my opinion or the strings that they want to attach for them to be part of the partnership.

I really wish that we, as a faith community, would see this "program" as an opportunity to help 10 families who are willing to commit to make a change and get out of poverty. We are not asking a great commitment from you. But yet, you want to raise numerous yellow and red flags and you want your hands ( it seems ) in the program for interior motives which just makes me want to go ugh.

The aspect that I guess that makes my heart break is that as I look around the room and see all the folks working on this program and the bad taste that they are getting in their mouth about churches, Christianity and religion. That is sad.

There was a letter that was read/outline about why some of the churches are not willing to help. I have to say that I did not "react" to the letter too well. I asked the board if I could address the letter and comments that were given as a person who is a "paid-staff-person" in the faith community.

I may have given a 5 minute rant, I am not sure. There were numerous shaking of the head in agreement. Which is good and bad. The reason that it is bad, I wish there would have been stop sighs going up saying, "Jeff, no that is not how we see the faith community ...."

I am really not even sure how to put this feeling down, it is very odd. Also, I have been getting flack from some locals when I put things on my blog or facebook status about the faith community in our county.

We, I believe, are putting up walls that we do not need to be putting up and I am afraid that the walls that we are putting up are hurting our image in the community and to me that is sad. Let me "list my bold highlights"


please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us.

Friends, God has given us a great life. Too many times, I think that we squander it away and we focus and put time & energies into things that do not really matter. I want to encourage you to take a look at your life and ask the question: am i squandering my life away?

People are watching us as we stay at our post

Folks are watching us and they are making decisions and determinations about Christianity, religion, church and spirituality based on what they see in you. I can tell you that there are a lot of people who are turning their nose to the church because how they see us reacting to community issues. I know that there are many that say, " but we are called to focus on .... " All I am saying is that people are watching; let us try to make sure that we are not the reason they do not want to give Jesus a chance.

I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life.

I think that is still the case today but too many times we are in our gated fence, we do not live out the call to wide open spaces.

Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way.

As Paul says, these are simple words and pretty straight-forward. Our lives are lived so small, so many times and that should just not be the case. With Christ living in us, our lives are large, live large.

Live openly and expansively!

I just want to close my eyes for a few minutes and dream. Dream what our lives would be like, what are friends lives would be like, what our churches would look like and what would happen in our communities if every Christ follower lived openly and expansively.

If Only .....

There is a house downtown that just went on the market. It is a house that I pass everyday walking to and from church. They had an open house today and I walked through it. It was beautiful and I was shocked to be honest with you. But, the living room, dining room and kitchen were excellent and it had a very nice half bath / laundry room off the kitchen.

Upstairs it had 3 bedrooms and a full bath. The bedrooms were not huge but they were good enough size and the colors and paint was very nice and there was a very large walk-in-closet.

There were small winding steps to a 3rd floor room that would make a very nice den/office/family room/additional BR or ....

The windows were good. It has a two car garage and a nice yard, even though the yard was behind the garage. The price is also very good.

If I had the money, we would make an offer today. This is where I get a little upset.

Our mortgage payment at this house with taxes and insurance would be less than our current rent. But, I do not have a down-payment and our credit is shot AND it has nothing to do with credit cards or outrageous school loans.

The house is beautiful and a very good deal at $ 88,000. I know some do not like the downtown area, but we do and if we could do it, we would.

Ugh.

The good thing is that we do like the house that we are renting though and we do live downtown already, if only ...... we would definitely make an offer.

Time to quit dreaming and time to quit kicking myself in the butt because I cannot do it. I just wish that I could do it for my wife and kids

Bridges Out of Poverty

The first meeting for the Circles Leaders (families) is tonight. I am so glad that we have 11 families who are willing to step up and say, " I want out of Poverty " and that there is a network that is going to surround them and help them in this journey.

Volunteer-ism in our county

15 months ago, I was challenged by Erin ( Decompressing Faith ). She invited me to participate in a synchroblog that was entitled WWJDWTC. You can find my original post here.

Anyways, out of the post came my commitment to help in my community. One of those areas where I am helping is delivering meals th the homeward bound via Meals on Wheels.

Well, this past Friday, it was cold - very cold. I went out and hit the route with everyone else. I want to share a letter with you that I received that I believe is remarkable and shows a great spirit of volunteer-ism in our community.

As I write this letter, on Friday, it is still -7 outside (without the wind chill), at 11:30 in the morning. On a day like today, I'm reminded of the dedication of our volunteers to the mission of Meals on Wheels of Stark & Wayne County.

Remarkably, today we had no call-offs from our volunteers. From the early morning hours, when it was as cold as -15 in some areas, right through our regularly scheduled delivery times, all of you weathered the cold and filfilled your pledge to our Agency and the people we serve.

It was a remarkable display of commitment and compassion, for which I am personally grateful. On behalf of all of us at Meals On Wheels of Stark & Wayne Counties, thank-you for a job well done. We appreciate your loyalty and faithful service. It makes a significant difference in the lives of the homebound people we all serve.

I also think that is remarkable and shows the great spirit of volunteer-ism that is out there in our county and our country ----- people truly want to help people and will help when given the opportunity.

Even Colder ....

Today, it is even a little colder,

Community Working Together

I emailed Carolyn earlier this morning regarding the Guiding Coalition. The Guiding coalition is the "Board of Directors" for Bridges of Hope: Ending Poverty in Wayne County.

We, as a community, should be greatful that there are so many agencies that are partnering together to make this iniative a reality. Yes, we know that this is a HUGE GOAL and that it will not happen overnight.

However, we also know that one person, one agency or a goverment program is not going to make this happen.

Back to the email .....

For a "program and initiative" that is truly in the infancy stage, it is remarkable that these many programs, agencies, ministry and goverment support are at the table. Here is a list:

Americorps/VISTA
College of Wooster
Commercial Savings Bank
Crichtfield, Crichtfield, and Johnston
Department of Job and Family Services
First Presbyterian Church
Goodwill Industries of Wayne and Holmes Counites
Muddy Waters Cafe
Orrville Area Boys and Girls Club
Orrville Area United Way
Orrville City Schools
St. James Episcopal Church
Tri-County Educational Serice Center
United Way's InfoLink
United Way of Wayne and Holmes Counties
Viola Startzman Free Clinic
Wayne County Common Good
Wayne County Family and Children First Council
Wooster Area Interfaith Partnership
Wooster City Schools
Wooster Salvation Army
Zion Lutheran Church
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It is fantastic to see this occur. I have lived and ministered in numerous states and I have never seen a "grassroots" efferot like this occur in the name of accomplishing a great goal
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The next Coalition Meeting is on January 7th, so I will let you know more specifics laer.

It Is Cold !!!

and I walk home in it .... BRRRRRR

200%

In the US, they say that a family needs to make 200% of the poverty guidelines to live a "sustainable" life. Our family makes $9,000 LESS a year then the 200%.
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The above is just for informational sake. I am not sure what the 200% and sustainable life really means, I will have to look into that more

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Over the next several weeks, I am going to make some posts dealing with poverty.

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Did you know that in our county ( county of 115,000 ) that we have 3,700 children who live in poverty (100% guideline or less) and have only a mom ?

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Did you know that in our (my) county that 1 out of 5 adults over the age of 25 does not have their hs diploma or a GED ?

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Did you know that 11,000+ people in our county live in poverty at the 100% rate ?

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Some of the blogging is going to come under the following guidelines:

ending poverty in our nation, in our lifetime (until it's gone)

Bridges of Hope

I am really looking forward to the organization that I am going to be partnering with in Wayne County. In the next few weeks, I will be sharing more news on the organization and what aspects that I will get to help out in.

To give a quick summary though, we are going to be attempting to build an extensive network of individuals, businesses, non-profit agencies and government agencies that will team up with families who are wanting to move out of poverty.

These families will have to make a significant commitment to wanting to end the vicious cycle that they are facing. This "program" has huge potential and I am really excited to be part of this new initiative.

This past week, I have been involved in two meetings that have been very beneficial in making sure that the success of the program will happen. The first meeting was where the Director of Bridges spoke to the Wooster Area of Interfaith Partnership (WAIP) and the second meeting was the Guiding Coalition Info Meeting. This meeting was designed for potential "board of directors".

The next key date for us as an organization will be December 17th. I look forward to that date and on/after that date, I should be able to share a lot more information.

Poverty: Where is the Faith Community ?

Today, I went to a a meeting on homelessness. The meeting was entitled: Homelessness: It is here too!

For those of you who do not know me or my "home situation", I live in Wayne County, Ohio. We are a "small" county of about 125,000 and we are in the middle of "Amish Country". Our county is "very white", we are not diverse. 96.5% of our county are white.

Overall, individuals believe that with our median family income of $ 50,000 that we are a wealthy community that does not struggle with poverty and homelessness. Part of the deception is that the "homeless" in our county really do not have a face. They are "hidden" and not out in the opening.

This meeting was an eye opener for me. Here are some highlights and at the end, I will highlight why I asked the question and attempt to answer the question.

In Ohio

- 147,000 annually are homeless
- Rural Ohio has seen an increase of 300% since 1995
- $ 10.81 an hour is what is needed to have basic needs met
- 30% of homeless in Ohio have a mental illness
- 14.6% of homeless live in cars / abandoned buildings
- Younger women with education are the highest growing % of homeless

In our county, we only have 26 individual beds and 18 family units. There is a continuous waiting list to try to get people away from homelessness. Our metro housing has a waiting list of 700 !!!

The Wayne Metropolitan Housing Authority has 224 units of housing in eight different projects that were developed with funds provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Included in these projects are 120 units of housing designated for the elderly and/or disabled in high-rise buildings. Our family housing exhibits many of the features that new non-subsidized apartments have. Many of our public housing units have extra design features that make them most desirable.

The 'typical' wait could be over 18 months .......

Our town and county is experiencing "tent living". More and more individuals are pitching tents for their housing arrangements. The other area is community living where 10-15 individuals will be living in an apt. or small house.

Our children service folks were there and they shared their concern with their continue hardship on what the teens are doing when they reach the age of 18. A few individuals shared even a greater concern with the 14-18 year old population that is technically homeless ( no where to go - permanent home ).

After some speakers spoke on the issue, we got to listen to a forum from the following individuals: adult parole board, chief of police, inter-faith housing, every woman's house and the salvation army.

Each one of them gave statistics and stories that ripped my heart out. We, as a community, are failing in so many areas.

Switching Gears

In my opinion, noticeably missing from the 70+ individuals that were at the meeting was the faith community. Where were they ? Why were they not part of this conversation ? What was more important on their schedule then our county coming together to discuss poverty / homelessness in our community ?

I am not sure, but they were not at the meeting. A few of the churches were there and the ones that were there and represented were the "staples". Thank God for them.

One of our community speakers left us with a thought: the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train charging at us, it is instead, a light of hope.

We, as a community, can make a difference. We can solve the problem. We can end this vicious cycle of poverty and homelessness, but it will take all of us.

It was great to see some familiar faces today:

- people to people
- salvation army
- viola free medical clinic
- child services
- justice department
- interfaith housing community
- etc .....

What would have been nice was to see was the faith community. In a sense, it really saddens me. We, as churches, can easily combine our resources and knock this one out of the ballpark. It is not just about throwing money to them.

It is about spending time with them, it is about mentoring them, it is about listening to their stories, it is about providing life coping skills, it is about helping them navigate the muddy waters of the systems that are out there.

I think this is why I am excited about the Circles Initiative that is coming our way. It will be a partnership to help those on the fringes.

Then, as a big challenge .... if we (each church in the county) adopted one homeless family, there would currently be no homelessness in our community.

To those in the community that are providing free medical care, free counseling, free job skills, providing transportation for them to get to work, providing transitional housing and more .... THANK YOU.

To us in the churches, let us do something. Let's get off our butts and make a difference in our community. Maybe we can get together and have a meeting about how we are going to help the faithful rentals who are getting evicted because their landlords are going in foreclosure instead of deciding how we are going to spend $ 5 million dollars on new buildings ......

I am out

Meeting on Homelessness

Tomorrow morning, I am going to be going to a breakfast and a forum meeting on "Homelessness in Wayne County".

I am looking forward to the meeting.

The reason for the "excitement" is that I am wanting to get a better grasp on the homeless situation in the county that I live in and to make connection with individuals who want to help solve the problem.

At times, I am in meetings an wonder if what we are talking about will really make any difference. This meeting, I believe will be different. I will be in a meeting, networking and gathering information that will help me be proactive in helping and assisting in a situation that is close to my heart.

Also, I am looking forward to grabbing the information and the ideas and bringing it back to the church and making a presentation on "how we can make an impact on the homeless in our community".

On a side note, I have a few other meetings tomorrow. I will share about those after they have occurred. I will definitely give an update on my early morning meeting.

Ending Poverty

Today, I went to the Circles Campaign meeting. This was put on by Move the Mountain and aha! Process, Inc. The representation from our community (county) was diverse and was attended by various community leaders, agencies and churches. I believe that we as a county will act upon this measure and begin the process of implementing Circles in our county.

To do this, we will have to make numerous changes in our structure and agencies but I am hopeful that this can be done. One of the things that Circles is dependent on though is for individuals to step up and say, "I want to break the cycle of poverty and I want to get out". The concept of Circles (in theory) is simple. The individual in poverty has a team that "emotionally adopts" them. The team then helps them come out of the grips of poverty. The team consists of allies (people there to love, encourage, and support them), coach (professional: service worker), peer (individual in the same boat: giving back & helping) and finally ad-hoc allies (individuals to assist: servants). This team does life together. The team is driven by the circle leader (individual in poverty). The cast (team) is put into place by Circles. However, this puts the responsibility at the feet of those in poverty.

Highlights That Stood Out

1. Circles intentionally builds relationships across class and race lines to end poverty.

2. Research shows that it takes social capital and education to bring individuals out of poverty ( I Love the Concept of "social capital". )

3. For individuals to move out of poverty; it takes more than just the individual. It takes the community, agencies and policy changes (good examples were given).

4. Our goal has been wrong ! Our goal has been to get people off (out) the welfare system. The goal should be to end (get them out of) poverty.

5. Community mindset MUST CHANGE. It needs to shift from: some poverty is normal and tolerate to the following: no poverty is tolerable or necessary.

6. Our agencies must change. We must move from: We will deliver services to you on behalf of the community to the following: We will help you build community around your family and neighborhood so you can reach your dreams.

In a blog post, it may be difficult how we as a community or a county can/will achieve this. But, i am hopeful and am going to look into a few of the cities in the U.S. who have implemented this and are showing success.

This was the first time that I have been in a meeting or a conversation where I could say, 'YES, ENDING POVERTY IS A POSSIBILITY'. It will be hard work, but I think we can get it done.