Being Disciples: Incarnational Christian in the City.

                                                                                    -Manuel Ortiz

Adopt [then] this frame of mind in your community-which indeed [is proper for those who are] in Christ Jesus. Though He existed in the form of God, Christ took no advantage of His equality with God. Instead, He made Himself nothing by assuming the form of a servant, 'that is, by becoming incarnate. And having appeared as a mere man, He further humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death-no less than the death of the cross. [Phil. 2:5-8]1

Our Lord broke through the barriers between history and eternity to be with us. He underwent all the physical and emotional experiences of a Jew in first-century Judaism (Luke 2:51-52). This divine intrusion was necessary to fulfill God's redemptive plan. The Lord became a man, a servant among people who needed salvation. He came to redeem and transform them to a new life of obedience, justice, and worship in the Spirit of Christ. The manner in which the Lord came among us in his incarnation brought glory and honor to God and achieved his redemptive purpose. Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden describe specific features of Christ's incarnation:
1. [It] is specific to a context. Jesus did not come as a universal man: he came as a Jew to Jews. . . .
2. [It] is involved in a context. Jesus did not just speak to Jews; he became a Jew. He identified himself with all aspects of being a Jew.
3. The cultural context [is taken] seriously. . . . He came into real problems, debates, issues, struggles and conflicts which concerned the
Jewish people. . . .
4. Humanity [is taken] seriously. Jesus did not address the Jews impersonally, as one abstracted from their cultural context. He . . . addressed himself to economic questions, to the political groupings in Israel, and relationships of injustice that prevailed. 2

I find these observations about Christ's incarnation helpful. Having lived in the cities of the United States all of my life, from El Barrio of Spanish Harlem, New York, to Bartram Village Housing Project in Philadelphia and Humboldt Park, Chicago, I know by experience the awesome task of living out the gospel in the city. How shall we be Christ's hands, feet, and life in our community? How will Christ the 'Servant become known in contemporary urban America? And what is God's will for our I community and neighbors?
These questions provoke us to seek a deeper understanding of our calling and involvement in the communities where God has placed us. We have been purchased by Christ and are no longer our own (I Cor. 6:19-20). I Therefore, we are compelled by his Spirit to be concerned for the present and eternal well-being of our neighbors. We believe that God is disturbed with their condition and desires their reconciliation with himself He wants : peace between neighbors.
The Lord guides us into the streets of the city to bring God's peace, for in shalom there are no lame; all walk. There are no poor; all have sufficient means. The God of Israel is also the God of the poor and needy. Our Lord is committed to shalom, where there is no injustice or oppression} As we enter the barrios and communities of the city, we are conscious of the Lord's presence and power, for we have come in the name of the Lord.
Our prior assumptions about the needs of the community and solutions to the problems must be brought face to face with concrete facts. An illustration comes to mind from my ministry with gangs in Humboldt Park, Chicago, in the late 1970s. Violent crimes were on the increase, and many youths were being killed. The political leaders decided to hold a meeting and invite significant people from the community; like the police, religious leaders, and politicians. The goal was to get at the causes of the problem and attempt to find solutions.
The leaders discussed what they thought were the major issues. As a result, they suggested that paint be provided to clean up the graffiti, schools be opened during the summer for recreation, and equipment be made available for organized sports. After their presentation, a gang representative stood up, walked to the chalk board, and listed in plain and simple words the major problems in the community.

Education--students were dropping out, and those who graduated were no more prepared than those who dropped out.
Health Care-there was a lack of community health clinics, and the existing ones treated people disrespectfully.
Employment--there were high rates of unemployment and unemployables, which led to other economic alternatives (drug traffic, prostitution) harmful to the community.
Housing-the houses in the community were extremely bad, and few had any owners living in the community.

Who knew and cared about the community? Obviously, the people who lived there and whose lives were being destroyed by its conditions. This precisely illustrates the problem facing those who want to disciple the city. In order to be disciple makers for the Lord in the city, we need to know our communities well enough and become identified with them deeply enough to be the Lord's continuing incarnation there.
We must heed several warnings as we begin to pursue the theme of serving Christ incarnationally in the city. First, there is a tendency to transfer models of ministry from one location to another without discovering the new contextual situation. Hasty, unthinking transfers seldom work out. Another caution is in the area of felt needs. Peoples' future needs as well as their immediate, felt needs must be determined. Also, our preconceived assumptions about people, needs, and solutions may be inaccurate.
Learning a new community is a process, not a once-and-for-all matter. It goes on internally and externally. The community becomes part of our lives as we walk in it in the Spirit of Christ. As a final warning, we must realize that the Lord of history was and is present in the city. He works in each community in unique ways, and it is for us to discover what he is doing and what he wants us to do.


Research and Analysis
To be incarnational Christians in the city, we must know the city and, in particular, that part of the city in which the Lord has placed us. This means analysis and research.
James Engel states that research is gathering information for decision making.4 Dick Taylor indicates that carrying out needs assessments and conducting demographic studies are primarily for the purpose of knowing God's will for your neighborhood. He says that the purpose of research is to discover where people in your neighborhood are being denied shalom.5 He adds that research leads to shaping your plan for doing God's will. In other words, a strategy is developed that will meet the needs of the people in your community. This is "shaping your research by God's will."
Since research tends to discover the negatives and the shortcomings of a community, it is important to recognize a possible side effect: paternalism, wanting to rescue these "poor people" from their plight. Such an attitude is not likely to provide shalom but may instead bring shame on the gospel of Christ. Therefore, we must recognize the value and significance of the people of the community. God will use them to stimulate our personal growth. We need them just as they may need us.
Needs are an ever-present reality for each person. Not one of us is without needs in one area or another. The astounding error frequently I found among people serving in the city is to neglect people's eternal I needs. Every living person needs what can only be supplied by Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. To reduce our definition of people's needs to physical and material needs is to undercut the work of Christ in the city.
Certainly the more tangible felt needs are the most recognizable ones. But discipling the city for Christ, in his power and according to his Word, requires that our concerns and involvements in every area include presenting the gospel. The gospel is for the whole person. Needs, therefore, must be defined from both theological and sociological perspectives. When the Scripture declares that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), it speaks of a need that can be filled only by Christ.

What Are Needs?
A need is the "measurable discrepancy existing between a present state of affairs and a desired state of affairs as asserted either by an 'owner' of need or an 'authority' on need. In the former instance, need is described as motivational; in the latter instance, prescriptive."?

Clarification 1: Pelt Needs and Anticipatory Needs
Most of the time the cry of felt needs is heard so strongly that we are tempted to stop and go no further. However, because felt needs tell us something of a past-to-present reality, they do not present a complete picture. Identifying only the felt needs may be a formula for failure, because it leads us to continue to function on the basis of today's and yesterday's reality. Eventually this will make our ministry irrelevant to major issues and incapable of addressing them.
The felt-needs orientation must be challenged by attention to anticipatory needs, thinking and examining a present-to-future dynamic, which identifies what planning is to be done in order to move toward a specified future. The sharp distinction between these two approaches is extremely critical to those in ministry, because they lead to the development of different programs and relationship patterns within the community.
The following are examples of felt versus anticipatory needs in ministry settings:
1. Churches in transitioning communities might be meeting the felt needs of the current community, but if they are not prepared for the transition that will take place, their programs, congregations, and ability to meet needs will all be in jeopardy. This is one of the biggest reasons why churches have closed down when communities' populations have changed.
2. A Christian health clinic wanted to provide health care for His-panics in Philadelphia and was looking at a location on the southern end of the Hispanic community. Closer examination revealed that gentrification was relocating the Hispanic community from the south to the north. Therefore, clinic leaders decided to locate much farther north, in the heart of the Hispanic community, where they could minister for at least ten years without a population change.
3. When manufacturing businesses started to leave the north Philadelphia area, churches should have realized that this would cause massive unemployment of formerly stable working-class employees and that this in turn would affect families. If churches had been in touch with anticipatory needs, they would have been prepared to handle the fear and anxiety of unemployment. They might possibly have offered an alternative to the drugs and alcohol that the poor use as a release from feelings of hopelessness. Churches could have prepared to handle day care for working mothers and counseling to prevent family dysfunctions.

The major question is, How can we foresee anticipatory needs? One way is to use demographics not just for understanding current needs but in terms of trends-trends in population movements, trends in family structure, trends in employment/unemployment. Then, using these trends as predictors, we can foresee what we will be facing one, two, or five years down the road and start planning accordingly. In that way, when the anticipated need arrives, we will have programs already set up and will be able to start addressing those new needs immediately without the devastating time lag we usually see. This is an ongoing process, because trends are constantly changing. '

Clarification 2: Compassion and Programs
There is, in my opinion, a swing today toward the development of pro- grams for community transformation that are moving Christians away from developing personal relationships. The emphasis is placed on proposal writing, fund raising, promotional publicity, and programs that meet specific needs. More and more we are becoming servants from a distance. There may come a time when people will respond to Christians as the Samaritan woman did to Jesus: "'How can you ask me for a drink?' (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)" (John 4:9). I am not trying to discredit the new approaches entirely but to call attention to the pitfall of neglecting relationships in bringing God's shalom to a community. The approach too often is like that of a modern corporation-efficient, productive in some ways, but coldly lacking in interpersonal relations and compassion.
Compassion calls for standing with people in their suffering and pain. It is incarnational in the sense of being in intimate touch with hurting humanity. Compassion is a solidarity that is internal and external.
The other difficulty with programmatic ministry lies in the notion that once the felt need has been met, the task is completed. This again puts relationships at a distance and undermines incarnational ministries. Effective urban ministry is built on personal relationships.

Clarification 3: Causes and Effects
In the social sciences, there is a lot of discussion about causality. We should keep in mind that all research is based on trying to go from cause to effect. In assessing needs, one is often tempted for several reasons to deal with effects instead of causes. One reason is the visible, immediate need presented. We are moved to respond to that tangible situation. Another reason is that causes are often less visible and, since they can be multiple and are often interrelated, difficult to pin down. However, the causes of situations are where we discover the real needs.
We must learn to look deeper than symptoms if we are to see people delivered from dependency. Food pantries and clothing distribution are a popular diaconal ministry in most urban community churches. Without question they are important and worthwhile. However, these questions need to be faced: How do we get at the causes of poverty that make people dependent on outside help? How can we eliminate the causes of the problems while we continue to feed and provide shelter to those in need? It may be that the reason for dependency is the lack of employment or the low wages given in exploitative sweat shops. Another possible reason may be language and work skills. Sometimes it is racism and oppression. In any case, as we minister in the name of Christ, we must face the question of causality.

Clarification 4: Meeting Felt Needs
Investigating people's needs is an important aspect of preparing and implementing a holistic ministry strategy. Some Christians argue that it is the responsibility not of the church but of public agencies to address the wide range of human needs. But based on my experience, I maintain that public agencies are never as successful as God's people in meeting human needs with love.
Before launching a ministry, we must make sure that we understand accurately the people's need. It is clear, for example, that homeless people need shelter. But we have to determine what kind of shelter homeless people need in terms of what they want and require. Do they prefer, perhaps for reasons that make quite good sense, to live undisturbed over hot air vents on the streets? Should they be granted space in subways and bus terminals? Is a clean bed in a temporary shelter the best thing in view of their desire for mobility? Or is the proper solution a permanent home? How are we to meet their immediate needs in ways that improve their long-term situation?

Clarification 5: Interpretation of Needs
The person who gathers information about a community inevitably begins to interpret the data in the process of gathering it. Opinions are formed about the community that will eventually lead to a plan of ministry for the church in that context. It is important to recognize that data gatherers screen and evaluate information and form conclusions on the basis of their worldview, culture, and experience.
For example, when one person investigates a community where men hang out in bars during the day, large numbers of single mothers are on welfare, children are on the streets during school hours, and the housing conditions are deplorable, she may develop a plan of ministry based on the assumption that when people are evangelized and come to Christ, they will automatically straighten out their lives. They will begin to send their children to school, clean up their apartments, stop drinking, and act responsibly. All it takes to transform the community, therefore, is to get people saved. But another person might look at the same community and discern that behind the poor housing are absentee landlords, the kids' truancy results from an uncaring school system, and outside economic forces are destroying local businesses. Besides turning to the Lord and conforming their lives to his Word, these people need justice, economic opportunity, and education for community transformation to take place. In both cases, the interpretation given to community needs is affected by the investigator's religious, cultural, and social perspective.

Steps Toward Building Urban Ministries
To develop incarnational ministries in the urban context, several steps should be taken.
Make a commitment to bonding. Bonding may be a strange term for many of us, but it is an extremely important concept for Christian living as well as for learning the urban context so that we can minister with integrity. The best analogy to describe this process is that of a child being born and entering a new environment, a new culture, with new experiences, smells, and sights. Similarly, in the city Christian workers enter new communities, even if those communities are in the same city where they lived and served before. They become part of a new situation, bonded to it, just as an infant does at birth.
In the early stages of the bonding process, it is important not to allow other involvements to pull us away from our community. Ministry teams may be counterproductive to the bonding process because team members are tempted to spend too much time together, thus failing to build relationships with neighbors. Incarnational ministries begin with our neighbors, people who see the gospel in action through us and our families.
Bonding, as with an infant, begins instantly. The timing, therefore, is important, and we should commit ourselves to staying in the community to enhance the bonding process. We will know that bonding has taken place when we begin to own and feel at home with our city blocks.
An illustration of this is the following account by a young Christian woman who came out of a non-urban community:

I've lived in this, a largely Hispanic community, for the past eight months. Considering my completely different background, I feel very much at home here. I haven't been conscious of how I've been becoming a part of the community, but as I look back there are several things that have been helping me to feel a part.
I live with a Puerto Rican family in the community whose extended family is very close by. Very quickly I met brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews. I never really thought of it as first-hand exposure to the culture and neighborhood until now.
Most of my time is spent in the community. I go to church here and work here, and therefore most of my friends are here. It's as if the community is now the base of all my activity. Not that everything is done here, but everything has a connection back to the neighborhood. Usually those connections are people.
I think it has also, helped that I knew I was a stranger. I was not only new to the area, but 'to the culture as well. My background isn't anything like the people I am meeting, but we have been able to enjoy and deal with those differences through humor. My major barrier at this point is the Hispanic language, but they are willing to teach, and I am willing to learn, so one of these days I'll catch on.
The overriding motivation for being involved with this community is
that God has called me to the city and given me a peace about being here. That's an exciting base from which to work. 8

Bonding is extremely important. But too often we ignore the importance of the process because we think all North Americans have the same culture, and we minimize the intense differences between communities. If bonding does not take place at an early stage, our rural or suburban values will remain unchanged and our ministries will suffer the consequences. We will be "in" the urban community but not "of" it.

Discover your personal biases and stereotypical influences. This step is often the most difficult due to the introspectiveness and individuality of the matter. But, in my opinion, it is one of the most important. The basic idea is to discover the biases and prejudices we carry around in our minds in respect to the city, to multicultural communities, and to the poor.
Are we ethnocentric? Do we have an oppressive sense of superiority as we . perceive other cultures? What are our deep feelings about the poor? The agenda calls for honesty where it hurts the most. Can we be Christians I and at the same time racists? What do we think when we see a new car in a poor community, or a welfare recipient who is physically healthy and intelligent, or the welfare mother who solicits men to make ends meet? Many other questions can be asked to discover who we are in relationship to the urban context.
It is important to remember that no cultural, ethnic, or racial group is exempt from this need for self-discovery. Anglos are not the only ones who have prejudices and biases. Ethnocentrism is found in all groups.
Absorb the life of the community. In this step the primary concern is active participation in the life of the community. Become involved in community festivities and regular times of play. Learn from each age group. Do some- thing with young people. Become part of the community's fun life. Enjoy special events, eat in community restaurants, and shop in the stores. Notice how people treat each other as well as how they respond to you.
Gather community information. Gather information about the community from the people of the community, because they are the primary ones who define it. Ask questions that pertain to the major themes of the community. What are the best and worst aspects of living there? What do the people generally feel about the community? Would they rather live some- where else? Why or why not?
Feelings are important because they reveal things underlying other perspectives. Always keep in mind that some people will try to please you or provide answers they think you are looking for, especially if you are a stranger or represent a different culture.
Local merchants are a great source of information, and they should be divided into various groups. The first consists of merchants who belong to the dominant culture of the community and live in it. The second is merchants who are of the dominant culture but have moved out of the community. The third is merchants who are of a different culture that formerly was the dominant group in the community. This third type of person, in spite of the cultural transition, decided to stay in the community.

Finally, there are merchants who are of a different culture and live outside the community. Data collected from all these types of merchants will be important to you as you seek to integrate into the life of the community. The community, you will discover, becomes more valuable and exciting as you sit at its feet and learn by interacting.
Another source of information is community agencies. Agencies are divided into two kinds-indigenous and outside professional-depending on who controls them. Indigenous agencies are controlled by community leaders, even though their funds may come from outside sources. Local leaders fit programs to community needs and use people from the community to run them. Because they use indigenous leaders, most of the money earned stays in the community, and because they use paraprofessionals at lower salaries, they operate economically. The professional model, on the other hand, excludes many community workers because it employs people from outside the community who require higher salaries. Information gathered from both kinds of agencies is valuable.
Gather demographic data. For urban and metropolitan areas in Western countries, one of the first things to examine is the census tracts and their geographical boundaries. Much demographic information can be gathered from city hall, institutions of higher learning, radio stations, cable companies, and major fast-food companies. Real estate agencies can usually provide information on community transitions and the future of the community. Becoming acquainted with the community is an ongoing process. It prepares us for ministries that honor God as the source of strength and transformation and, demonstrate his concern for people.
Discern Gods perspective on the community. Here God's servant, walking in the Holy Spirit, discerns God's perspective on the community. How do you do this? Think of Paul, who was deeply touched in Athens as he viewed the idolatry of the city (Acts 17:16). Remember how Paul and his mission- ary friends were kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the gospel in Asia (Acts 16:6). Philip, you will recall, was instructed by the Lord's messenger to go south, where eventually he met an Ethiopian official who was searching for new life (Acts 8:26-40).
If we are determined to build Christ-honoring ministries in our communities, and if we continually yield our lives to the indwelling, guiding Holy Spirit, we will come to perceive what God wants us to do, and the ministry we develop will be truly of the Lord.
Put together and interpret the information gathered. Once you have put together all the information you can find about the community, allow local people to help you evaluate and interpret it. Community people should be part of the evaluating group.

Words of Encouragement
To be incarnational Christians in the city is, most of all, to be Christ's ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20), willing to live the gospel as Christ did, willing to speak as Christ did, willing to serve as he did. To be authentic disciples in the city means to empty ourselves and become servants of all. The following are some encouragements to our continued service for Christ in the city.
Build meaningful relationships. Programs are important, but they tend to move us away from one-to-one relationships. Personal relationships cannot be replaced by sophisticated strategies. Many Christian workers are becoming "development specialists" who do not participate in the community but only organize resources from a distance. They will not build effective, incarnational ministries.
Provide hope. People in our cities have only temporal and momentary glimpses of hope, if any at all. Hope comes through the lives of transformed Christians who are willing to share the saving grace of Christ. Our hope is transformational because it works to bring change in lives and communities. It is hope in word and deed, visible as a city on a hill.
Pursue reconciliation that leads to a united front. There is in most North American cities a maze of different racial and ethnic groups. We must pursue reconciliation among them. The need for reconciliation between the white and nonwhite communities has often been highlighted, but we have ignored a major and potentially greater challenge to reconciliation, where the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the Black, Brown, and Asian communities.
Demographic changes are going to have major consequences in matters of resources and how they are distributed among ethnic groups. One group will shortchange the other on the basis of sheer numbers. City Hall will pit the Black community against the Hispanic community. The various groups will fight for funds and eventually find themselves at odds with each other. The city needs a united front that works toward justice and reconciliation, and the Christian church should be at the forefront of this effort.
Understand systemic evil. The city needs ministers who can understand the devastating effects of systemic evil on our communities: the planning that comes from City Hall to displace and replace the poor for speculative reasons; the education system that selects winners and losers, those who will never work, those who will at best dean hospital floors and bath- rooms for minimum wages. We must understand the power of systemic evil and develop a strategy that will confront and overcome such evil with the authority of Christ.
Mission in reverse-kingdom values. This is mission that builds from a base among the poor, with the poor in mind, as the apostle Paul did (I Cor. 1:26-29). It is not enough to build our ministries among the poor and for the poor. The poor must be incorporated into the family of God and take their place in Christ's kingdom for the mission of King Jesus to advance. The rich need the poor and the poor need the rich, and in the kingdom we recognize our incompleteness without each other (1 Cor. 12:21-26).
Creative expressions of ministry. Ray Bakke indicates that he has found three significant elements in successful churches: dynamic worship, com- passionate giving, and risk taking-a church's willingness to develop new ministries for the present context. Traditional church models are not effective in changing urban neighborhoods. Our churches and their organizations resist pluralism socially, economically, ethnically, generationally, and through gender stereotyping. How shall we break out of our traditions and, for the sake of Christ and the city, create new forms of ministry?
Empowerment. Empowerment for me begins with a kenosis of the minister. The humility and servant heart of the minister are the starting place-a voluntary displacement that makes one willing to become vulnerable for the sake of the gospel, to refrain from grasping for the popularity of becoming an urban worker or developing a unique and famous ministry and to serve unselfishly out of a deep concern for the poor and needy of the community.
As incarnational Christians in the city, we yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are motivated by the Word of God and the Lord of Peace who transforms both life and community. Community is a place where we will live out Christ, with all our shortcomings and imperfections, realizing that at times many of our neighbors' needs are ours as well. We are parents who struggle to care for our children in a manner worthy of the gospel; our bills consume our peace of mind; our marriages need constant enrichment and revival. We recognize our fallen state and yet display hope because Christ will not depart from those he calls his own (Rom. 8:28-39).


Discussion Questions
1. Explain the motivating power of Christ's incarnation for the kind
of community involvement this chapter calls for.
2. Distinguish: felt needs; anticipatory needs; eternal needs. Why does Christian ministry require that all three be addressed?
3. Why are interpersonal relationships so important for building up
people and communities? Give examples of some ministries that are
strong on relationships and some that are weak.
4. Using ideas discovered in this chapter, suggest five items of serious advice you would offer to Christian workers in the city.