4 minute read
Ripples in the Desert
Daniel Bair
- Psalm 42.4
Driving down a street in Englewood, you look out either window of the car, and see garbage littering the landscape. The roads, the sidewalks, the yards, the vacant lots all flooded with waste. Many buildings are dilapidated and falling apart; the ones that are salvageable have their windows and doors securely covered with wooden boards. Rusted out rod iron fences and rotted wooden porches are commonplace. Unkempt lawns are the norm. Slowing down you see something out of the ordinary— a block that is clean, well-tended, mended, and something that one could maybe even call beautiful.
“What Englewood needs is…” “The best way to stop the violence is by…” “Fatherlessness could be lowered if…” “The cure for poverty is through…” Many suggestions have been offered to end these sentences. While we know the answer is Jesus, the lingering question is: How do we make that explicit? By us, the church of Jesus Christ, praying over the city of Chicago and fitting our actions to those prayers. If the church will stand up and invest its energy and resources in neighborhoods such as Englewood, it will see an unrivaled return on that investment. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”
This year marks two decades that I have served in Englewood. The highs and lows of this time of ministry cannot be expressed through ink and paper. We have had the joys of souls saved, young people baptized, youth discipled into adulthood. We have had the sorrows of lives snuffed out before they had really begun, depression, addiction, and violence. Some days we feel as though all the work is in vain. Other days we recognize the eternal significance of being a vessel of God’s grace and mercy to a desperate world. It is a privilege and honor to which Christ has called each member of his body. “Go therefore and make disciples.”
Englewood has a drought of fathers. This is no newsflash. But it is not just fatherlessness, it is a systematic dismantling of the entire family. The devil’s attack on the family unit has not been subtle. Recognizing this, we see a great opportunity for the church to step in and be a family to the fatherless! Where the churches delay to step in, the gangs are quick to seize the chance—the gangs are strongest in the places where the church is dormant. We are praying and pushing for a Bible-preaching, Christ-centered, community-focused church service to start in our community. Our neighbors are hurting, weary, and heavy burdened—we cannot carry it for them, but we can point them to the One who can. “Come to me… and I will give you rest.”
College Church has been an important part of this outreach in Englewood. Through sending summer teams, prayers for the city, and financial partnership we have seen God at work in the lives of our neighbors. Thank you for your part in this! Our vision is to see these neighbors encouraged in their faith, growing in godliness, and then going out and pointing their friends and family members to Christ—that this would ripple through our community. While violence in Englewood still permeates the news, our vision is a neighborhood transformed by the Gospel through targeted permeation. Join us in praying that the church would stand in the gap. “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.”
I recently spent some time studying the letter of Paul to Philemon. I was struck anew by Paul’s habitual practice of standing in the gap by adopting young men in the faith. Of Onesimus Paul says, “I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.” What an example for us in the church to make it a priority to disciple and be a father to the fatherless! We as a church have the great calling and opportunity to make much of Christ through similar forms of discipleship.
While not all have been fatherless, I have had the privilege to be a spiritual father to many young people in Englewood. One young man I recently have been able to invest in this way is named Ray. As he has been coming regularly to our ministry for many years now, we have slowly been giving him the opportunity to lead things alongside us now that he is 18, he has expressed a desire to join our ministry team as a staff member! This is encouragement to us as God causes ripples to flow from this one relationship to many others in the community. While he has some way yet to go, we see Ray as being a beacon in the community to his family and neighbors—and our hope is to see this cause more ripples throughout our community.
Join us in praying that our neighbors would be encouraged to find the true hope that is only available in the Gospel! Pray that we would be faithful in using our time and energy and resources in ways that best direct people to Christ. Join us in rejoicing that God is moving in the lives of many individuals and that we as a church are invited to be part of his transformative work!
