We DID it! Thanks to a dear friend lending us her fifteen-year-old daughter for the weekend and Deb recovering from her childcare cold - I, Sean, was able to host another Mission @ The Mission weekend where a bunch of young emerging leaders from Baseline Community Church in Claremont joined us at the Long Beach Rescue Mission to better understand their calling into local and/or global mission.

As you may have seen in last week's update, we were intending to host a four-hour session for adults on Saturday to assist in better understanding just what these weekends at the mission do for these young emerging leaders. Unfortunately, we had to cancel this session, but to continue to give you a bit of a grasp of what we do...lemme expand on what I've shared before...

These students and youth leaders come to the mission to get out of their suburban environment and stretch themselves spiritually. Many of them have not been out of their hometown for more than a vacation, so a trip to an urban setting like Long Beach is a stretch in itself. Actually, even the leaders, many of whom have been on missions trips outside of the United States, get a little fearful of the setting...mostly because of the stories they've been told or the movies they've seen which portray Los Angeles and Long Beach as NOT the safest place to bring kids for the weekend! (To be honest, we had a number of young people decide not to go this weekend because of their fear of Long Beach and some recent court hearings that were in the news this week)

What we emphasize in regards to the setting is the need for us to breakout of our "normal" context to better understand the world from a different perspective...through different eyes. We stress the fact that growing up and being taught how to live life in our suburban homes and neighborhoods can give us a worldview that prevents us from understanding the reality of the world beyond our suburban sphere of life.

From this different context, we look at two different threads of thought:

1) Our personal mission model - which includes learning more about God's desire to reach the world and a few examples of people and organizations who have successfully reached the world in extraordinary ways. Once we understand how others have done it, we spend time developing our own personal mission model which helps us understand and express who God is calling us to reach - who and where these people may be, either locally or globally, and what God is calling us to do in order to reach them.

2) The historically missional and institutional church - which includes learning how the church began as groups of people living missionally and incarnationally as people called "out" to reach those far from God wherever they were. We then talk about how the church later became an institutionally attractional church which called those far from God to come "in" - to change their beliefs and lifestyles and then come "in" to a building for a Sunday morning worship service as their primary connection to God. Our contention is there is a growing need for us to become a more missionally minded church again in order to reach out to those who simply will not attend a Sunday morning worship service. The hope is, through these Mission @ The Mission weekends, these young emerging leaders will discover how to reach these people in "incarnational" ways and will create ways of being the church beyond the Sunday morning expression we've grown so accustomed to over the last several centuries.

Not only do these young emerging leaders learn a whole lot about these two threads of thought, but they get a chance to see, hear, and experience what homelessness is all about - the homeless being one of many people groups who need the incarnational church to reach out to them. They get a chance to talk to, eat with, and serve the homeless community here at the mission. They even get a chance to experience a bit of what it means to be homeless through a four-hour homeless simulation where they leave the mission for the afternoon with no wallets or cell phones and one objective to accomplish: "Eat Lunch." We provide them with the resource guides and lists the mission hands out to assist the homeless with available meal options throughout the city but no other assistance. The hope is this simulation will allow them to experience what the homeless community experience everyday they're on the streets and will stimulate a better understanding and empathy to help people who are homeless.

One of the resources we use to build some empathy amongst our participants is:

"6 Things You Have In Common With A Homeless Person"

A Name- Homeless people are used to living in a world where no one ever calls them by name. Imagine what it would be like to go for weeks without ever hearing your name. Like you, homeless people value their names and the simple courtesy of being addressed with respect. If possible, learn the name of the homeless man or woman with whom you are speaking. Introduce yourself first by your first name. Even if it’s not possible to learn their name, or if they refuse to tell you, address them using titles of respect such as sir or ma’am.

A Fear of Strangers- Homeless people are often the strangers the rest of the world is afraid of. But think of the world from a homeless person’s point of view: Everyone else becomes the stranger. On the street, trusting someone you do not know can have dire consequences. If a homeless person responds to your friendliness with a cold shoulder, understand that the homeless learn to be suspicious of anyone who takes interest in them.

A Sense of Personal Dignity- When you see a person on the street who has not bathed or changed clothes for several days, do not assume that that person does not have any self respect. The opposite is almost always true. Homeless people often feel degraded by the treatment they receive in some shelters and social service agencies. They do not like being ordered from one line to another any more than the rest of us. Many homeless people stay on the street because they believe it is the only way they can preserve any sense of being human.

A Unique Set of Skills- Homeless people are almost always viewed either as objects of pity or anger. Neither understanding is very effective for facilitating real change in someone’s life. Think back to people who were instrumental in causing personal growth in your life. What do they have in common? Chances are they believed in you and saw something that others might not have seen. This same reality applies to men and women who are homeless. The truth is, it takes brains and courage to survive on the street. If these qualities can be channeled into productive, permanent life change, the results can be extremely positive.

A Family- Homeless people do not spring forth full grown from the cracks in the sidewalk. Like you, they have a mom and dad, and possibly brothers, sisters, spouses, or children. Although these relatives are not visible to you, they are likely still important to the homeless man or woman with whom you are interacting. Their bridges to other family members may be burned at present, but keep this in mind: Getting off the street involves being plugged back into the family unit- either the one you grew up with, or a new one who will take you in as one of their own.

A Desire for Positive Change in One’s Life- You may watch a homeless person near your workplace or home everyday for years and never see the vary from their routine. From this, you may conclude that they have no interest in changing their lives. Be cautious of such a conclusion. Almost everyone lives in a routine they have not changed in years. Homeless people are no different in this way than anyone else. They desire change, but are unsure how to achieve it. Like many of us, they are afraid that if they change, they will lose what they already have.

Hopefully this resource spawns some good questions for you to consider in regards to your own perspective on homelessness. Of course we'd still LOVE to have you join us on one of these Mission @ The Mission weekends OR the next Adult Info Session - but if you've got questions, thoughts, crass comments to share now about what we're doing - feel free to send us an e-mail or post a comment on the below response button!