Uffizi Mission Project

I have been wondering about Jesus of late, let’s say I am curious about Him.  I think it is all right to be curious again.  I have been reading a book about Leonardo da Vinci - his curiosity lead him to all those inventions.  I am seeking to reinvent Jesus, but rather to discover Him again.

Not only have I been seeking to understand who He is, but I have been begging Him for wisdom and mercy, in the midst of a tense existence.  It is a tension between church and culture, which I live within every day.  Now, I have asked God to take it away, but it hasn’t happened.  It may be a sort of thorn in the flesh for me, which pushes me forward even in the midst of it.

I believe, God is asking for reform - that is the bottom line.  That might also be termed repentance.  I think repentance is always good for us all the time, whether we are talking about individually, church, or culture.  Everything must adapt and change - we actually thrive in times of change.  

Leonardo’s inventions came within a huge time of change, as did the early reformation.  I believe we are in those times again.  

My friends in the younger generation look around and see that things just are not working - they are curious for new ways.  I am in between of course, being 45 (still young!).  I have to admit that I am looking to create new ways and things, while also trying to pull together the generations to communicate and work together.  This is some times working both within grassroots tweeting and facebooking and at the same time within churches and existing organizations.

All this comes back to Jesus because I am dazed and confused between how this all works, and how do you go about justice nicely and still be prophetically poignant and straight.  Honestly I think we like prophets once they are dead.  Not to say that I am at all in the prophet line of the biblical epic, but I sense something is wrong and it has to do with our neglect of the poor.  We do this at our own peril and risk.

Here is a poem that Christie shared about Damon, who passed away a week and a half ago.  We held his memorial at Pershing Park last Wednesday:

Damon's face
a gentle place of light
wild humble smile
a dreamer

I miss you
the way you described
the harshness of your life by
looking to the light
by thanking Jesus

you knew
bitterness could eat you
you knew
you did not belong to
wharves
parks
or addiction

you belonged to God
You belong to God

You have gone
but you have not left us
empty handed

We have our memories
your fire-flame hair
your toothless grin

your gentle way of telling us
it's going to be okay
it's going to be okay

because
this life is like grasses in the wind
the spirit can move us into
grace
forgiveness
newness

like fire
like rain
like ocean wind

Damon's gone
to newness

Last Wednesday we found out that one of our long time friends from the park passed away.  Damon was a friend on the streets who I knew for about 3 years, because he was one of our original friends at Pershing Park.  He fell down, suffered some head trauma, and was on life support at Cottage hospital.  He was in a coma that he never recovered from, and his family made the call to remove him from life support.  He passed away Thursday morning at 3:30am.  We all grieve our loss, because he was a gentle and kind man who could not kick an alcoholic habit.

On the same night, I found out that Victoria had started going into labor in Colorado, and that she gave birth to Addison about a day or so later.  The little girl is healthy and about to begin her life with Victoria and Michael’s family there.

Welcome to the roller coaster of life in Chaos.

If you read The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch, you will read in his chapter on Organic Systems that the church needs to return to the edges of Chaos.  It is where I am, and I agree.

If you return, expect high highs and low lows - but a pretty wild and wonderful ride.  And it is part of the reason I find it so difficult to live long term in the building, because it does not speak to my reality.  Is this some kind of missional addiction?  Will I be on a new drug later in life because of it?  Probably…

In the beginning, God created… out of chaos.  He hovered over chaos and made some kind of order out of it.  I just don’t believe now that the order that He needs to make out of chaos, is always the same thing.  He made insects, fish, animals, plants, stars, and suns - so why do we keep creating the same model out of chaos?  We don’t always need buildings in chaos, but we always need people who will join with God and travel off the map.

You create order out of chaos with grace, generosity, prayer, friendship, truth conversing - recapturing the magic of Jesus right smack center in the midst of culture.  The New Order results from The Golden Rule.  I believe that if everyone just lived this one command, then the world would look much like that which Jesus lived and described.

Which of us would like to be alone, on the streets, without health insurance, 3 families in an apartment, bi-polar with no cash for medication, ashamed, isolated… not me.  So, I must go into chaos - will you join me?

Join us this Wednesday, June 17 at Pershing Park at 5:30pm as we have a memorial for Damon.

Join us this week this Thursday at 3:00-4:00pm on 1490am KIST as Nick and I describe who we meet on the streets during our summer of love.  Join Nick and Jeff’s Summer of Love on Facebook as well for updates.

I can see now, that perhaps there hope for a movement (though I am still hesitant).  The mirror has been placed within the institution and people are beginning to wonder why they have been sitting so long… the mirror is not for the individual but for the community, to see its neutral posture in a time of cultural need.  It is the Disneyanic mirror of reformation, perhaps not building the happiest place on earth, but maybe the most blessed?

I told a friend at Pershing Park last night, that we are getting better at this, though we have miles to go.

We now know that a band of people who want to follow in the way of life can get Victoria off the streets, into housing, so she can give birth to her girl and keep her.  She can also have visitors in her new home town who watch over her and update us on current needs.

We know that one other street pal has friends who will find him at the park and get him into a sober living home before he relapses.  Another will finance his first month there, and others will write him letters, pray for him, etc…  He wrote me a letter from prison saying that because of those who wrote him and visited him He has hope and heard the voice of God.

Bart Tarman recently gave a sermon and repeated the words of Jesus - well, you call me Lord Lord, but why don’t you do what I say?  Listen at http://www.shorelinechurch.org/index.php?s=bart+tarman&x=0&y=0.  That is the mirror on the wall.

The summer of love is coming, when a few will go out in twos and just see what awaits on the local streets.  I look forward to a new learning adventure.  It is simply a road trip to befriend and to bless.  It will be interesting to see how these groups of men and women do it differently, and hear their stories.

Some people will still want to take the mirror down, so people don’t have to reflect on whether orthopraxy has anything to do with orthodoxy.  Those big words that mean can our practice really be separated from what we believe.  I don’t think so.

I see good things coming as we reflect on our true image in the mirror.  It has started a local movement, and fostered some new dreams, such as:

*A tutoring center and library at the Village Apartment

*A summer camp for West Side kids

*A free four day detox for our friends without homes

All this makes the tension worth it, being in the church and out of the church at the same time, some people thinking I am truly not orthodox while others saying I am truly orthodox and honestly I am not sure myself.  I am not sure Jesus was fully one or the other in the eyes of his culture either…

Thanks for all your support during the journey, we all looked in the mirror didn’t we…

I was originally going to write about one less person on the streets, when I realized we are actually talking about 2, because Victoria is carrying a little girl.  And so I can write about (despite all the usual setbacks and difficulties) a success story for a moment.  Over the past several weeks, Jesus followers came together in different ways to help a mother and child find shelter.

Another reason to celebrate is now that Victoria has housing, she can have her child and keep her child.  If she would have had the child on the streets, the child would have been taken from her.  Surely there will be issues still to be faced, but now she does not have to worry about being separated from her baby at birth.

She is currently with her boyfriend’s aunt and uncle in Colorado Springs.  I talked with her on the phone and she was going to breakfast with some of Michael’s family, she was explaining to me how nice it was to have her own room - her own space of peace.  I take the moment to celebrate with her.

Yet, there are many others still forgotten and neglected…

One of my favorite movies is Koyaanisqatsi (from a Hopi word meaning “life out of balance”) - a documentary which illustrates society’s speeding up ills.  I see Santa Barbara as being a city out of balance.  In a community of outrageous wealth and such poverty in other ways.  I am not just talking about where I see financial ruin on the streets or on the West Side, but our own poverty birthed from consumerism.

Jesus would poke and prod at our lack of balance.  He would weep a bit over our riches.  He would point it out to us - not to make us feel guilty but to free us.  Which one of us truly wants to be free?

My richest friends over the past two weeks were the ones who gave generously to Victoria and people like her.  If you are doing so - you know what I mean.  I don’t have to explain it.  It is gospel validation.

We are rediscovering the historical Jesus by obeying Him.  We take seriously the parables, the parties of compassion and being not so “religious” as to not be the good samaritan.  Thanks to all you 21st century good samaritans - for you together purchased bus tickets, put on a baby shower, purchased a gift card - recognized Christ in Victoria.

This is how we are supposed to roll…

I was traveling home from Pershing Park on a Sunday, after talking with my friend Brandon, and conversing with God.  (I have talked with him about sharing his story with friends and he is fine with it)  Brandon has been on the streets for awhile, and in the depths of his heart, does not want to remain there.  There are multiple issues in his life, but there is a foundational desire there too for change.

So in my spirit I received the idea of “120 12,” which is to gather 120 to pray consistently and 12 to relational come around him to help him go step by step.  We are now working on getting the people together to step in to work with him long term in a holistic fashion.  So, let me know if you want to join the group of men and women to support Brandon.

There are some other updates as well!

Please pray for Alyssa, Chelsea, Carrie, and Lizzie.  They are our Westmont summer interns who will be living at the Village Apartments!  I am excited to be working with them - they are very energized to get to work.  They will be working 16 hours a week focusing on kids club and the youth ministry, building a relationship with the Carrillo Apts, and doing family activities here.  Pray as well that the Turner Foundation makes this a year to year program!

If you want to see a news story about Westmont on the West Side, go here - Westmont on the West Side.  It has been wonderful to continue the continue a relationship with many of these students.  I am seeing some students every day at the Village - friendships have truly blossomed.  I see all these new Facebook posts between Village residents and Westmont students.  Long live Facebook!  (Not so sure about Twitter yet…)

I get both enthused and distraught… enthused because I see new folks waking up to the way of Jesus in the city, and distraught because of all the need.  So, I hope to walk in balance.  Jesus was at all the parties, yet He was acquainted with sorrows.  I hope this is true of all of us.

If you want to support the Uffizi Mission online, go to Christian Associates Giving.  Thanks for everything friends!

(The Playground Going Up at the Village Apartments)

Well, what can I say after a wonderful week of having 45 students from Westmont University spend their spring break on the West Side?  They were certainly “missionish” (a new word we created to escape using the word missional)  They were all wonderful and the residents responded with nothing but positive affirmation.

It is awkwardly quiet around here now that they are gone.

What did they do?  Well, first of all - they prayed alot.  This is huge for the West Side, where the church has retreated in many ways…  They prayer walked 5 different areas of the West Side.  I don’t think if that has ever happened here before.  They also had a prayer group going for much of the day.  Prayer will open the door for the future kingdom.

They did service projects all week.  Here we go:  painting the fence and putting up the playground; doing a laundry of love throughout the week; working with Looking Good SB; putting on a car wash; cleaning up the West Side, and more!

And, they loved the kids and families.  For the first time we had a camp for older kids (which is now going to continue one day a week!)  They did a camp for the younger kids.  They helped single moms all week by playing with their kids.  They helped individuals clean their apartments.

We also built relationships with new friends at the Carrillo Apartments and throughout the neighborhood.  This is huge because it helps us see how God wants to move in these new places.

I really fell in love with all the students.  I miss them already.  I am glad that I will get to see many of them more as they continue a relationship with us.

I told them that they all gave me hope, and that I no longer feel like I am carrying a great deal alone.  Four years ago I began this journey, with not so many believing in what we were trying to do.  Now, God spoils me with all these wonderful new friends who share the same heart.  Really, they are some of the greatest young people I have ever met, so willing to serve and full of love for my friends on the West Side.  We did get to see the Kingdom of God.

Here is what one resident wrote about them:  ”I have met scores of Westmont students since this foundation took over here and I would like to nominate Westmont students as representing the highest ideal of a human being that I’ve ever personally encountered.  PS - In all ways, eagerness to serve and an attitude of love and respect for every person they meet.”

If you want to see the blog for the week, go to http://springbreak2009westside.wordpress.com/.

For a video story that the SB Newspress did, see http://www.newspress.tv/main.jsp.

I’ve read these books, all either written or co-written by Michael Frost - The Shaping of Things to Come; Exiles; ReJesus.  So, it was fun to be able to hear him speak at our recent leadership conference with Christian Associates.  (Hey, all these are good books to get by the way)

The major point I walked away with - it is a good thing for the church to reorganize itself around mission, but the odds are against us really doing it.  What I mean by that, is that we share the language but not necessarily the willingness to just go out and do it.

There were some frustrated men and women at the conference, who wanted to go further out into culture, but they didn’t want to leave their churches behind.  I understand that, because I am still working to partner with the existing church in my city, because I believe in the transforming power of Jesus and His people (even in the midst of a slightly drowsy stupor).  That is why we must begin in mission together, because it is hard to move out after we have created an overall culture of security for us and our children.

There are two reasons I can see for beginning with mission and then seeing what comes out of it, and basing what comes out on the sub-culture we are in.  #1 - God is a missional God (and very interested in justice I might add!)   Yes, I am still interested in theology, so if we go there we have to embrace the God of mission, who is clearly in our big book.  Consider the Exodus, where God hears the cries of His people and orchestrates a historically incredible movement in and movement out, of Hebrews and non-Hebrews, who will constitute His people of faith.  But the whole deal is about blessing the whole earth (remember Abraham).  And one real long wide eyed look at the remarkable Jesus and His foolishness with hanging out with the fringes will remind us of this as well.  Was He really a friend of sinners and partiers, or did he just wear the name tag?

I have to tell you a few times I just had to tell my CAI friends that we just plain have to go, and not worry about the ramifications.

How about reason #2?  Well, you may say I am a humanist (remember Jesus was 100% human too!), but I believe the second reason to just go baby is for the sake of the forgotten, ncglected, missed folks who don’t know the fullness that Jesus offers.  I still believe that Jesus is good news, when He is not reduced to a slogan or a single promise.  The news that He is with us, in the midst of our local history, is good news for people I know, even if they don’t fully embrace Him.  I know He is near them - that is enough to keep me going no matter what the result.  How many friends live on the edge tonight?

I happen to know 3-5 friends every week, whether on the West Side or on the streets of our city who could use both our real friendship and the practical reminder of the presence of God.  We are talking thousands in our city - we will all know this to be true when we are with them.  We will hear it straight out.

So thank you to all of you who have lead the way for me - from my local friends to people like the Frosts and Hirsch duo.  But books alone won’t do it, some of us have to be dumb enough to try in our own local contexts.

This next week there will be 50 or so Westmont students spending a week on the West Side, serving the local community in prayer, kids clubs, service projects, putting in a playground…  The number of foolish practitioners is growing!  A Missional God is calling again, and there is a growing response.  I will try to get some info out on this site as we go along.  

Thanks for all the prayers, love, and support.  I can’t let myself off the hook, and I can’t let you off the hook either.  God is Spirit, and Love, and Mission.  Let’s look like Him before we go be with Him.

Forgotten Ways are being refound (thanks Alan and Deb Hirsch).  You should all really go out and buy The Forgotten Ways, because there is something there.  I mean really…  I have been doing a class on forgotten ways with a few students out in Isla Vista, and as I do so, I am amazed that it is actually happening.

I did not want to plant a church, I wanted to create a movement.  I didn’t want to see a gathering, I wanted to see gatherings.  And best of all, we see a bit of justice returning to the poor, neglected, and forgotten - the people God misses.  I guess you could say that God misses all of us, because no one on earth has reached that zenith of relationship - yet many in our city have been neglected in friendship, one of the vision marks of the Uffizi Mission Project.

I can see now how God set the table, allowing me to walk into two of largest needs in our city - our friends without houses and our friends on the West Side.  Half of it was for my own education, so that I might be able to educate others.  As I continually face my own blindness, perhaps I can help others see theirs’ - “I once was blind but now I see.”

But now, we are waking up maybe even to the point of being able to multiply to other places?

Consider the Village Apartments - thanks to the seed planted by the Turner Foundation, we now have a weekly kids club, God experience on Wed night for the adults, churches coming help with finances and parenting, and Westmont coming soon to do hip/hop and break dancing for the kids.  Not only that, but on March 15-20 45 Westmont students will be coming here to spend their spring break loving people on the West Side.  It is growing so fast that now I can consider partnering with others to begin an outpouring of blessing over at the neighboring Carrillo Apartments (should it be led by God…)

Pershing Park has swelled, and that is good news/bad news.  More friends from the streets are coming as well as more friends who come to befriend and share meals.  Street Medicine is up and running - I have witnessed them help people get needed operations, mend wounds, involve UCSB pre-med students learning medicine on the streets.  We now hope to raise up leadership to help with our Spanish speaking friends and street kids.  I have heard reports of people from jails being released soon because of our financial crisis, so that will increase numbers on the streets - pray about that one.

For the church to spread again wild and free like it did in the early church, or is doing in China, we have to be reminded of a few things.  Jesus is Lord (we are not just worshippers, we are followers); Disciple-Making (Jesus empowers us and believes in us, that is why He called us!); We are all Equal (God works equally through the ordained and non-ordained, the hired or the riff-raff frazzled every day spiritual novice); etc… (Get the book The Forgotten Ways if you want to learn more!)

Nothing will satisfy me except a movement.  That is a troubling thing, for I have no idea how to do that or oversee that, or make sure that a movement has a long term plan except for being the yeast that takes over the entire dough.  It’ll be fun, unsafe, rattling, exhausting, meaningful, life-giving, threatening, unnerving, painful, conflicted - just like what we see in the gospels.

Join in the revolution of love.

Your comments desired - are you seeing the revolution or not?  Have you read the Forgotten Ways?  What do you think?

Happy New Year - maybe?  Perhaps we should not use happy - how about “Meaningful New Year!”  Or perhaps “Full of Justice New Year?”  I know, they are harder to say.

I have high hopes for 2009 actually.  Here is my top ten list of reasons why 2009 will be better than 2008.

 Most importantly (this is not a number because it is more important that all the others!) - the Shaffer family is looking forward to another year of being goofy, learning together, and growing up (or down, I believe Julia and I are at the stage of growing shorter now?)

1.  Our doctor friends are returning to Pershing Park.  Street Medicine for the forgotten.  And, couldn’t be at a better time.  For the past two weeks I have been talking with a pregnant young woman who is living on the streets.  Now there are more of us, better equipped, to help such a young woman find the care she needs, and perhaps the housing to go along with it.

2.  Kids club is going great at the Village apartments.  This is the foundation of building a new generation of peace for the West Side.

3.  Holy Chaos is helping us bring betterment to our friends on the streets.  We meet at the loft (thanks Ocean Hills!) and it is a beautiful community of friends with and without houses.  But, it helps us hear the stories of our friends on the streets.  Some wonderful men and women of all ages are now involved in pastoring friends one on one.

4.  The Summer of Love is coming - yes indeed.  You will want to get on that bus.

5.  Westmont is waking up to local mission.  In March several students will be doing a week of loving mission on the West Side as a part of Santa Barbara Spring Break in the City.  They are already tying into the community center and kids club, and we are doing a monthly prayer walk.

6.  Third Window - based on the story of St. Barbara herself.  You can google it.  Several pastors in the area are gathering together monthly to steward the holistic mission work of God from Isla Vista to Carpinteria.  We just started meeting - so who knows…

7.  CHE.  Community Health Empowerment.  Next week I begin a weekly meeting at the Village apartments to create a leadership committee to equip the apartment residents to meet their own needs long term.

8.  Facebook.  I believe it and other websites are the key to sparking the revolution of love necessary to bring the kingdom of God to the forgotten.  So, be ready to be bothered by me even more in 2009.

9.  Perhaps out there, somewhere, is still a plan for State Street?  I hope to see what God wants for the center of downtown as well.

10.  A Biblical scheme of equity is in those scriptures, and I am on a mad search for it.  The word is Jubilee.  Haven’t found what I am looking for yet, but several books I am reading talk about it.  I guess we can all start with Deut 15.  The poor you will always have with you, but if you follow me you my commands, you will have no poor?  A crazy paradox indeed - but the greedy should beware the coming of the King.

Of course, this is thanks to all of you for being with us in the journey, graciously giving money, time, food, clothes, sleeping bags, socks… here’s to a graciously giving new year 2009.