I had a quite profound meeting today that I felt I needed to quickly blog about before losing the gravity of it all.

The words that caught hold of me were “the edge.”  The edge of reality – the edge of society – the edge of sanity.  It came about in the midst of a conversation with someone in the city who has had 30 or years so working within the homeless community.  He himself has a very raw edge – something I am beginning to appreciate more and more.

But the idea is something like this – homelessness represents a certain edge many are afraid to acknowledge, choosing instead to stay within the confines of a more stable world view, though it may be working or not working.  Homelessness brings a certain sense of madness – either in ourselves because it rocks our sense of a healthy society – an American idea that somehow we are one nation under God but don’t believe in God in the sense of our actions toward the other.  We still upgrade our phones or our cars or get new coaches despite the fact that there are brothers and sisters on the streets.

But there is that madness in our street friends too – that addiction or injury or desire to not play by a “healthy” society’s rules and so they are left somewhere on the edge themselves.

And then of course there is the madness in us, those who for some reason keep finding ourselves in the mix with street friends and in a sense have a craving for their stories and their colorful lives.  We are drawn near to the edge too – find a life there that is better than what we knew before.

As my friend tells me – (paraphrased) “think about the war veteran, who has served three or four times, has killed and seen friends killed, coming back as a veteran, and on the other side of the desk now someone is telling him about this other reality now, one in which he has to fill out this form and that one to be one of us.  But he has seen this other reality, which keeps our reality afloat, which may include the sounds, smells, and visions of death.  Who is on the right edge?  Who is in the center and who is on the edge?”

I maintain we hold the truth that all humanity holds the same amount of madness and lives the same sense of edge.  While someone may have an addiction that keeps them on the streets, another has the madness of consumerism, which seems to discount the humanity of another.  I have discerned this madness within myself – this calling within myself to test the edge.

I know that a firm grasp on reality escapes us all.

I still hold to the bottom line of the underneath reality of the personhood of God being behind it all – living with us in the midst of our mental illness.  In fact, I have found Him waiting for me on the edge – wondering what took me so long.

So I can remember at the beginning of this strange journey back in 2005, reading this book called Liquid Church and loving the idea.  I recall letting the church I was currently working within know about it and how I wanted to do it.  I got tepid reviews at best – more honestly probably an occasional luke warm affirmation.  When joining Christian Associates, for the most part they welcomed the idea and allowed me the freedom to try it out.  Most were waiting for the liquid to become solid, but still there was tremendous freedom and for 7 years I have been doing liquid church.

Yesterday it hit me that the whole thing is absolutely now validated.  And it came to me in this way – I was thinking about how many people that day I had been in contact with who have “fallen through the cracks.”  It was a day where several old and new street friends were in contact with me – either needing shelter or needing to move from shelter to housing.  And I through all the conversations I realized that often it is just one person who believes in them, advocates for them, and makes sure that they get from place a to place b to place c.  So many give up hope because the system is not “personal,” – it is does not seem to care about their individual story.  I am not blaming – just stating the fact that the sheer numbers of people in tough conditions is overwhelming and there are systems, paper work, applications which must be done and in order.

What does liquid do?  It easily slips into these cracks as well.  It moves with life that has slipped off center.

A liquid church exists where all these people are – surrounds them and helps transition them to other spaces of health.

I often get myself in these strange situations – where I am asked to speak somewhere because I “know something” and find myself have to explain myself.  It happened this week within a small group, where I was asked to explain about Common Ground but was pressed to explain my way of church.  I said I wanted to create church within culture – and was reminded again by the response of those in the meeting that this is a “strange idea.”  To create a wall-less permeable and vulnerable community in the center of the city – who does that?

Well it is a “both/and” idea – meaning we do need both the walls and the “without walls.”  The issue just is we don’t have enough “without walls.”  I believe myself justified in saying this by the fact of my email inbox – filled with connections to those who have fallen in the midst of the cracks.  And because I have few brothers and sisters freed up full time to join me in the liquid church movement – most resources are still walled up.

However, that is changing.  There is a shalom network of churches and organizations coming into being through a partnership with the House of Prayer.  There are more churches, being invited by the mayor of Santa Barbara, wanting to join in both with the work with street friends and with the West Side.  We just had a great meeting with a local church who wants to create new initiatives in the city within their small group system.  We are celebrating and are excited.

All I am looking for is for the scales to become equal between liquid and solid church.  You can look at Jesus and see that both existed in his heart and mind.  He was both creating a solid community, while also giving them the mandate of existing within the least of these… that should become us again.

This week Lizzy and I took a team of high school students throughout the city to interact with some of our street friends, and understand a bit more about what it is like to be on the streets.  One of the jaunts of the day was to go up and down State Street with backpacks filled with water, soft cereal bars, and socks.  Socks are the “white gold” of the streets.

Well, needless to say, the socks were the big hit of the day.  Everyone on the streets wanted our socks, and were quite grateful for them.  We met street youth just traveling through, street vets, women and men – and everyone wanted our socks.  If you know the secret of the socks, then it shows that you understand, at whatever minor level, one of the needs of street friends.  Socks are often worn out, or get wet and moldy, or can be traded for other needed items.

As we debriefed the afternoon, one of the high school students shared how she was quite taken by the thankfulness expressed over something simple like a “pair of clean socks.”  She expressed that it is not something that she often thinks about, but will now.

The whole day did not go perfectly, but overall most of the conversations we had were healthy and positive.  I hope that these students will at least forever be willing to enter into conversation with street friends, be compassionate and generous and perhaps dive in a bit deeper into the homeless situation in our city or elsewhere.

The movement now to engage with our street friends and discover solutions to solve homelessness now grows – I see possibilities within our city as more volunteer programs emerge and some new friends are starting empowerment/development groups with street friends.

This week I had coffee with a student from Antioch University who wants to start a class within the university for street friends who cannot afford college – to learn the humanities, public speaking, writing… and will receive college credit for the courses.  I talked with her about my desire to see street friends leading the local movement, and that this might be a way to see this happen over time.  We are currently reading through a model together and will meet again this week to write our own proposal and present it to Antioch – hopefully starting the program in the fall.

Meanwhile we say goodbye to two wonderful friends who have worked with and advocated for street friends for 30 years plus in this city – Ken Williams and Peter Marin.  I have had the opportunity to learn from them both over the past year and a half as I have been a part of Common Ground Santa Barbara.  These men and their efforts are not easily replaced – there will have to be many others who rise up now to take on the challenge of local homelessness.  They have retired from their work with street neighbors now – both are hoping to do more writing.

Maybe it is up to the socks.  The socks are the tricksters – hopefully showing everyone how easy it is really to engage with street people.  ”White Gold” may be the commodity that brings us all together – to encourage us to learn from one another.  Our friends on the streets were the teachers for this team of high school students – both in their gratitude and in other ways, expressing as well the realities of the day to day on the streets.

If you want to join the efforts of the socks, on April 19th at the Presidio Springs Meeting Room on 721 Laguna St at 6pm – you can become a volunteer to walk with friends on the streets, in vehicles, or entering housing.  We begin a new movement of volunteers after this meeting, beginning the second week of May.

I really should not write this, as it is late at night – my pub team just got slaughtered in pop trivia, and I feel a cold coming on.  Yet still I know that there are times when I have to write – I am impelled to write down what is going on.

I have always known that something is not right – that something better is possible and coming.  It has been hard to state in a simple blog, or in a sermon – or to completely comprehend.  When it seems to press into me is when I am always awkward, trying to push against existing ways and structures that I think oppress or stand in the way.

My favorite verse since coming to faith (or pre-faith I might say) is Isaiah 43:18-19 – when God speaks through the prophet to the dull, saying “I am doing something new, will you not perceive it?”   There are times the old must be dispensed with and relegated to shadow, as the light commences…

The ringing phrase of this day is the idea that sin (let’s consider this now as corporate, not just individual) is the vandalism of shalom (idea from Cornelius Plantinga and shared with my Wes White)  Shalom is an idea I am aware of – but the phrase here tells me of the enemy.  I am discovering that the enemy has a foothold upon “us.”

And I struggle that we cannot see it, name it within ourselves, and repent.  This repentance should ring out from the people of God, because we have forgotten that God is interested in justice now for the poor.  And it should propel us to greater solutions to adjust the systematic disharmony.  Something must be torn asunder – and something must be rebuilt.

It is not enough to just bring relief.  As Wes told me – we must again place ourselves before the poor and marginalized and listen and learn, and advocate for those with no voice within the current system.

I myself have to reconsider my own stance and power.

I wish I could be quiet – I really do.  I wish it were different – “this is not the way it is supposed to be..”  I know that I will be under holy tension now until I am gone.  It owns my life and I grudgingly give my life over.

Those crazy pictures and stories of the prophets are shockingly 21st century possibilities to me now.  How do you illustrate the reality, the passion, the emotion of God as he views our vandalism.  We are wrapped up in it – in injustice.  The Prince of Shalom will not settle for a middle class peace.  The stresses of our age are for good reason – we created them.

We can unwind our way out – please dream the right dream again people of God.  This dream is not the American one – it is the universal, gravitational pull of shalom -it is invading our personal space now, our wallets, our way of life.

As Bruggemann says – it is no wish dream.  It is very practical.  It is what we do in Santa Barbara.  It must be centered in the here and now in the city in which you live.  So, it is for Santa Barbara.  It is for your city.  It is for you – if you intend on giving it to someone else.

I am hopeful – yet still troubled.  I lean into it still…

There is a AP for a time such as this.  The AP I am talking about is the Apostolic Prophetic awakening – stirring both ingredients back into the mix.  The apostles and prophets have to be invited back to the table – no longer the step children of evangelical Christianity.

I am reading Alan Hirsch’s new book – The Permanent Revolution.  Cheers to the authors for both the brilliancy and bravery to put it all together for the modern day church.  Get the recipe book out again – and add them to the evangelists, shepherds, teachers – complete the dish.  The meal God offers humanity comes to us in the APEST.  (Eph 4:11-13)

We need it all.  To see the Kingdom of God in the here and now – we need everyone.

Why do we need this new AP?

Because the status quo clearly is not getting the job done.  The status quo has left people on our streets, poor and disabled and sometimes friendless.  The prophet has to turn the heat up – make us all aware of our brothers and sisters.

And the apostle needs to lead the way in – with long time love and simple relational solutions.  The Christ transforming DNA that is freely given starts out with the bravery of those who jump in.

The church now has to design a way to disciple apostles and prophets – to enter new subcultures and to speak the truth and to shape the future of a just society – and to finalize the maturity of the bride of Christ.  There are trainings for evangelists, pastors, and teachers – let that continue.

But find them in the raw, these young apostles and prophets – train them and set them free to lead – and there will be more who know the love of God, want to be gathered, and want to learn the way.

The Uffizi has its eyes set on finding you – the ones who have this calling.  The Uffizi Missional Order is in motion – to say like all the others, your gift is wonderful and needed.  You have a home like everyone else.

We live in the tension of all the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers.

Here’s to a distinctly different looking 21st century church!

]]> http://www.uffizimission.org/postmodernism/517/feed 1 http://www.uffizimission.org/homeless/513 http://www.uffizimission.org/homeless/513#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:07:47 +0000 Jeff http://www.uffizimission.org/?p=513

When the Uffizi Mission Project began, I chose the three terms purposefully.  The Uffizi was because the call came at the Uffizi Museum in Florence.  I went with the term mission because I understood that it was a calling to create within culture and not within walls.  The final term was project because I had no idea what God wanted to do with it long term, and I did not believe that we needed another church in Santa Barbara.

After six years we are considering dropping the word project and grabbing hold of the term “order.”  The reason for this is that we want to propose a way of life and invite others to join in that way of life.   We are beginning to meet and create vows that we will take together and then walk together in.  We believe in a way of life that promotes shalom – the ultimate well being of others in our city, and by that we find our health as well.

I can remember when I realized that as an evangelical it was finally fine to like Mother Teresa, Saint Francis, etc… I would not categorize myself now as anything beyond a Christ follower, because I have been impacted by so many streams of thought.  The bottom line for me is that Jesus brought me to the dance so I am not going to leave Him, but everything else is a journey of learning…

By finally taking a big breath and freeing myself of having to have every doctrine correct, I realized that I could move more into a mystical, loving flow of discipled and discipling action.  I could live in culture, learn of culture, let Jesus mold me back into the world to better serve it and Him.  A few years in God began to bring others who wanted to learn a similar “way.”

Everything is actually the refound old, the “forgotten ways,” – the circular coming back to God always.  But the Uffizi is also unique – we are “cha-ordic” and people of the “APEST” and “shalomites.”  We have things to learn and things to teach.  But we believe we have stumbled into ways of ending chronic homelessness and securing the West Side as a place of peace.  We believe Jesus is serious and at the same time find him in the party which just may be happening at Elsies Tavern.  We seek Him everywhere and have found Him everywhere.

Dualism is dead to us.

But we struggle against the machine.  Consumerism may be the thing that threatens humanity the most.  Certainly the machinery which keeps us from developing friendships with those on the streets or families on the West Side is the target of our shinanigans.

I was a class clown gone English major spiritually awakened to be a pastor reformed back into a cultural class clown.  A bit of all that is in Uffizi – as is all the DNA now of the small community that makes us up.

The deal is that I don’t care if Uffizi lives on or dies out, and so in that way of course it is still a project.  I am more interested of inviting everyone into a certain way of life – which begins in serious humility at the feet of those friends outside our walls right now.  I poke and prod us out of our comfort because I believe it is a win win win – win for us win for them win for Jesus who is of course all about the other two wins.

After all, the only way to find it is to lose it…

Well, well, well – the beauty and the danger of the blog is that it allows me some free speech and the chance to influence.  Normal people can get their say whether they have power or no power.  I am somewhere in between.  Because of the impact of Common Ground Santa Barbara, the vulnerability index, and how that may help people get housed gives me some influence.

I remember taking a course on “power.”  We all have some level of power – it is whether we use it and how we use it.  And it is those who have some voice, some power, who must speak up for those who do not have much, have little, have none.

Many of our street friends live within that reality of “limited power.”

While I believe that my friends on the streets must also recognize their own power in making decisions toward health (that is a human decision making process we are all involved in), I believe many of them have lost hope or have been beaten down so many times and left by the side of the road.  Think of young men and women un-parented or consider perhaps the fact that 50% of our street friends suffer depression or that there are 300+ with a high diagnosis of mental illness…

Homelessness is complex for sure – we can discuss it some time.

But, here is the truth.   This past year I have been more involved with the professionals and electeds – and I recognize that it those relationships that need to be better oiled with grace and understanding.  I am now including myself in that equation as a member of Common Ground Santa Barbara.  It is how we relate together and work together that will impact whether our friends get housing, needed resources, healthy community.  That also includes the involvement of faith communities and volunteers.

So – mayors, supervisors, shelters, homeless advocates, mental health workers, public health workers, housing authorities, street outreach workers, meal sharers, Jesus Followers, volunteers, police officers, business owners, funders… the list goes on and on… how we work together will determine our success.

We need to consider last year Registry Week and all those it took to successfully converse with over 1,000 street friends and do the Vulnerability index in order to work better to get the sick in housing.  It is great that we could do it for a week, but it will be more difficult to get it done for a year, 3 years, 5 years…

Those with power need to recognize how it influences those without power.

My gut tells me it could swing either way with us housed people.  We are fickle.  We often take our toys and go home.

Here’s to a new year of sticking together I hope.  And, I also hope that the volunteer movement will grow as funds may decrease.  Average people can do great things.

Several times in Christian circles I have heard this – “Now remember, we don’t do this because of the need…”  I now see that statement as classic “pass the buck” theology.  It is the thinking that has placed us in such a situation of great and overwhelming need… and so the story goes on…

I do what I do because of the “need” – while I admit the there was a calling when God asked me to open the door of the Uffizi for the church in Santa Barbara… to open the door of the Uffizi was to open the way to “incarnation.”

For Jesus surely came because of “our need.”  At Christmas time for Christ followers – it is primarily to admit our own need.  Christ would have no need to come at all if it were not for our “sickness.”  He was the “doctor” who came for the “sick.”  If the founder came because of need, then we can surely embrace doing what we do because of this same need.

Calling can be true but waiting for it can surely be escapism.  Scriptures on how to “be with” and “care for” the poor surely are a calling… and don’t forget that discipleship in rabbinical times certainly had no “escapism” within it.  Take a look at Mark 9 and witness how Jesus travels from a safe mountain top experience to one down in the valley with a boy in extreme crisis and in need of healing.

We have to examine our hearts.  We have to embrace the power of love in Jesus.  We have the opportunity before us to create solutions and ways for others out of extreme poverty.

Solutions:

#1 – We are currently creating a new model county wide to make a serious dent in local homelessness.  This plan involves the training of volunteers to work with friends living on the streets, in vehicles, and moving into housing.  It involves normal people like us who are there to insure that people don’t fall between the cracks (which often happens to people as little creases in our systems and programs exist).  It also involves a revolutionary new structure that all stakeholders in local homelessness need to agree upon and begin working better together.

You can sign up for the training at – http://www.commongroundsb.org/empowerment-training.html.

#2 – Santa Barbara has another secret side – it has a conflicted relationship with its Latino residents and sojourners.  It does not know how to deal with the crisis of “citizenship.”  And the church does not know fully how to express its relationship now to scriptures on how to care for “visitors.”  We may try to pretend the issue is not really there, or there are no solutions – so we will remain silent on the issue.  However, we are taking one bold step toward a solution with Immigrant Hope.  Today several of us are meeting to begin phase one of Immigrant Hope, which will be a way for our Latino friends to find the love of God and begin the real work of attaining US citizenship.  Though it will take years to establish – we believe it is a holistic solution to what is clearly a Santa Barbara citywide “need.”

Don’t practice pass the buck theology when you have two hours a week to work toward a greater incarnation in Santa Barbara.  Let this Christmas compel you toward living the Way.

I myself would much rather be doing something else – and I will when everyone is off the streets and when the West Side is a place of peace.  I can retire at the true establishment of the loving Kingdom of God.

]]> http://www.uffizimission.org/homeless/502/feed 0 http://www.uffizimission.org/the-village/496 http://www.uffizimission.org/the-village/496#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:43:14 +0000 Jeff http://www.uffizimission.org/?p=496

The other day on the West Side one of the kids came by to ask us to help him get blood stains off the pavement.  A relative of his had tried to take his own life over the weekend and they were in the midst of cleaning up after the event.  The relative is now at Cottage.  We walked over with him and saw the stain ourselves.  My son is nearly the age of this boy – and I wonder what it would be like for him to have to be cleaning blood stains in an apt and off the pavement.

Also recently a woman on the streets burned to death as she was sheltered in a local industrial yard.  She was around 40 years of age.  You can read about her and the story at Noozhawk.com if you read the most recent article by Ken Williams.  The questions are many – but why are there so many women living on our streets?

I was talking with a co-worker at the Village about this existence we now share – how it is slightly surreal and neither of us know how we got where we are.  She is younger and has spent less time within this side of Santa Barbara – but wonders why less emotions are coming when faced with the situations she sees… I encourage her that it is normal but not to become as cynical as I am sometimes.  We have to remain hopeful and “in” with others – “present.”

I can remain hopeful because I see light at the end of the tunnel – I can see awareness building and people desiring to enter in more – to the “other side of Santa Barbara.”  There’s the post card Santa Barbara and then there are the snapshots that don’t quite fit the economic niche.  Part of my job is to bring these photos out of the dark room for you.

But it is not so much that we need to fix the situation – but we should be “with” these people.

Recently there has been a swing in a certain term – the scale of these terms – “homeless” and “friends without homes.”  You can catch the local paper now using “street neighbor” or “street friend” more – and I have heard that a few local pastors are using the “friends without homes” term from the pulpit.  That to me is a sign of success – because it means we are moving toward a relational “being with” focus.

We cannot fix this – but we can be with our friends in the midst of this… and I believe by this move systematic change happens, because advocacy happens.

I noted this with the vulnerability index which took place in March, 2011.  The VI sought to discover the most vulnerable in our county.  County wide government, agencies, advocacy groups, faith communities worked together to canvas the streets and discover those who are most vulnerable on our streets.  It has sparked a huge change – opened the door to better collaboration and embarked us on a new volunteer movement.

And guess what, 94 people have been housed off the index list.  This includes individuals and families county wide.  Sylvia from Good Samaritan in Santa Maria told us that for the first time, she moved whole families from her shelter into local housing.  This happens as awareness and advocacy grows.

I sat in two days of discussions as local stakeholders facing issues regarding our friends without homes discussed how we can work together better in the future.  The vulnerability index really was the reason for the discussion, and has bridged us all together to face one issue – getting the sick off our streets and into housing.  Our friends and neighbors should not die on the streets.

I only need to mention one story – the story Jesus told of the Good Samaritan.  Santa Barbara needs to continue to move toward becoming a good samaritan city.  Our issues are “our issues.”  We face them together.

The are moments to set a movement a change – the VI index has given us that opportunity.  But what solutions are still to come for women on the streets who may not be the “most vulnerable” (though I have a tough time believing that)  What solutions are there for our West Side (and East Side) youth for an “empowered future?”  What leans young people from suicide to hope?

The solution is not found in the ivory tower – but in human real life engagement, where your story meets the story of the other.  The hero of the good samaritan story is the one who recognized that “the other” was really a part of his own history, his story – an unavoidable connection.

I discover my own vulnerabilities as I work with those who may at this moment be at huge risk.  My mind cannot solve, handle or understand even what I have immersed myself into – but I know that I myself am just as vulnerable, at risk and in need, and at any moment could be injured on the side of the road.  I am selfishly hoping that someone will be there for me as well.

]]> http://www.uffizimission.org/the-village/496/feed 3 http://www.uffizimission.org/homeless/488 http://www.uffizimission.org/homeless/488#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:45:31 +0000 Jeff http://www.uffizimission.org/?p=488

I remember watching the old Westerns where someone would put their ear to the earth to listen for the coming of the train, wagons, enemy, etc…  It seems that the closer your ear is to the earth, the better prepared you are for the coming change.  The 99% and the 1% all know one thing – change is needed and it is coming.  The closer your ear is to the earthy cultures – the more you will understand the disappearance of the middle class and a certain way of life.

But those who are considered “poor,” have always known how this would go, and how to live with less, and the struggles that may soon befall us all.

I heard today that Greece may be kicked out of the EU.  That is something we should pay attention to.

But we have not paid attention to our own local poor, and to what they are experiencing and trying to tell us.  They are trying to become our teachers – seems the tables have been turned over – the rolls are being reversed.

So yesterday I received word that one of my street friends has died in Arizona after being on the streets and ill for years.

A West Side 10 year old came to me with her mother to tell me they have no insurance and she has been in the hospital several times because her stomach hurts and they can’t figure it out.  How can they pay their bills and remain housed?

I received a facebook message from a single mom losing her housing.

I received an email from a single mom trying to find housing who has two days left in a local shelter and needs an advocate.

I went up to Westmont for the day to a missions fair to try to sign up students to help with what is going on in the city but feel bad about it because I know students there are hit with the needs and opportunities all the time.  I don’t want to make anyone feel guilty…

But at the same point, I am trying to prepare “us” for what is coming.  The American dream may not be the same dream it was, or sustainable in the face of an even better dream.

The dream may be “shalom.”  But that dream can be costly to the ruling class – the one with power, wealth, and resources.  The dream states that those with power must learn to share it, must be concerned with those with the least power.  It must seek ways for justice and equalize the economy – must seek for just solutions.

Shalom is to seek the holistic well being of others – that in doing so you will find your own well being.  I think we have done the opposite, believing that finding our own best if first, and then hoping it would trickle down.  It isn’t trickling very well.

I have had my ears to the earth – I have had new teachers.  My teachers for the past year have not been the middle class – they have been street friends and west side families.  I am wrestling now with the contradictions of my many teachers.

As I am listening – I hear something approaching.  I am not sure what it is yet.  But I think everyone hears the faint sound now – the trick is not to fool yourself and believe that change is not inevitable.  The meek will inherit the earth.  It may be sooner than we thought.

Oh, and one final thought just hit me – the church should celebrate the meek occupying the earth – it is our original vision.