Now after five weeks recovering from open heart surgery* . . . Felt better. Stronger. More able to keep a good pace at this morning’s sidewalk breakfast and church. Not as shaky as last week (my first time back at it). While I am still not lifting anything more than 8 lbs, I felt good at moving about and talking to folks. I had good energy for the church service and the preaching. God is good. The message, the sermon, was from Acts 15:11-19 this morning: “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” This is not an easy text—and how can it be relevant to those who do church on the sidewalk? In short, of course, the simple gospel of faith in Jesus is all that is needed to be saved and part of God’s family (v. 11). But there is more: It was--it is—the acceptance of others into this family of the saved that also matters. Who are . . . who can be the sons of God? People who are different, culturally different, race different (yes, I even brought that up right here on the sidewalk)—what we add to our faith that others have to deal with so “I’d” accept then into God’s family, so they can be a part of the saved community? This is the question that is presented to us from this text on the sidewalk right here in the Hill. I briefly explained the Jew-Gentile thing happening in the background of the text—explained how the Jewish believer had to give up circumcision as the defining marker that set the Jew apart from the Gentile; and, the Gentile also had to give up something, namely the defining mark of being a Gentile, namely an idol-worshipper (vv. 19-20). That’s the text. I pointed out some of the modern idols we have and then explained how having such idols in our lives not only keeps us from fulling loving and serving God as we should, but also how such idols and all the habits that go with these idols keep us from loving our neighbors (our wives, family, those children, those on the other side of town, and those around us, especially those very different from “me”); and, this also keeps them from knowing all it takes to be saved is simple faith in Jesus Christ. Our idols have added to who is and who isn’t saved. Our idols tend to make us think others need to adopt a certain form or some measure of life that looks like “mine” in order to be saved and a full member of God’s family. Our idols make us add to faith so that we’d be comfortable with them and they’d be acceptable to us. We can keep people away, even causing them to stay away and not seek Jesus or even desire being a part of God’s family. It was incredible how these good folks identified with this reading of the text—some to be sure, is how they’ve felt and have stayed away from church, away from Jesus; some even recognizing their not very accepting of those different from them. We all need to abstain from idol-worship. After the service, I prayed with one of the street guys, whose cancer has returned. Talked to a few guys whose close friend had relapsed back into drug abuse and had stolen from them. During my sermon, when I used an example of a married couple that the man wasn’t loving his wife as he should because of an idol or idols in his life, one of the men (I could see this right in front of me) reached out and took his wife’s hand. After the service, he came up to me, shook my hand and said “thank you.” God is, indeed doing some amazing work in the lives of these forgotten, marginalized, strange, seemingly hopeless, messy folks. It was a good morning. And, yes, I am a bit tired. But better than last week for sure. Getting better. Slowly my energy is coming back. God is good! *Five weeks ago I had open heart surgery to repair and replace a calcified aortic bicuspid value. Been recuperating and gaining my strength back.
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On Saturday mornings, God shows up right here on the sidewalk in front of our Hill apartment. Over the years of being here in the Hill, both our church and, as well, Lisa and I (especially since we moved into the Hill) have encountered the homeless population. Sometimes on a Sunday morning, every year at our Park BBQ ministry, and now, almost every Saturday at the Sidewalk Breakfast and Sidewalk Church Service. Are the elect not also among the homeless? Is there not an obligation to make church available, accessible, and welcoming to the homeless? While so many things break and burden my heart in this ministry, the presence of the homeless grieves me, perplexes me, and humbles me. Over the past four months or so, we have come to know one of the local homeless. He collects bottles (a few of us save them for him). I encouraged him to start coming to our Saturday Breakfast and, perhaps, even to stay for the sidewalk church service. So he did. And, has been. Regularly. In fact, he’d bring one or two of his homeless friends (pretty much every Saturday), encouraging them, “We’re staying for the Church Service, too.” We have had, regularly, the homeless breakdown and cry, even a few times falling to their knees with their arms stretched out. We pray for them, comfort them. They’re just so grateful for the food and broken because they know they need God desperately. This man, the one who brings people, was missing a few Saturdays. When he showed back up, he assured me he was alright, but had been in the hospital. “Well, actually, the police brought me to the hospital,” he said. “Why did they do that?” “They arrested me for fighting, but instead of jail, they brought me to Yale—New Haven Hospital.” He was in a bad way, he explained. “But, I’m good now.” In fact, he was so proud to tell me: “Pastor, look at me. I’m clean. My teeth are brushed. My clothes are clean. I’m taking showers. I am good now.” My heart was so glad. He hasn’t stopped coming for Breakfast and participates in our Sidewalk Church Service—and has been bringing his homeless friends. Another regular gentleman also brings friends and many times his homeless friends to the breakfast and service. This week he brought a young lady (probably in her 30s). When we served her the food, she broke down and cried—she was so grateful. Drug use had ruined her teeth. In fact, she had told us she had a lot of teeth just removed. Ashen and thin—and being subject to the nightly elements doesn’t bring rest and renewed strength. This was very evident. She just cried and cried and said thank you, thank you, thank you. During the Church Service, she broke down, crying through most of it. Afterward, she came up to me to thank me again, still tears flowing. I told he, “We are glad you came today. Life has been pretty rough for you. Please come back. Come be a part of what God is doing here on this sidewalk. Let’s learn about Jesus. He is here for you. He will forgive you. Doesn’t mean everything will get better, but you will get better. Jesus will change you and help you, but most of all, he’ll give you a new family, this church family. This is where Jesus will give you strength, encouragement, people to cry with you—and eventually, people for you to cry with.” The thank yous kept coming. She said she plans on coming back. Are not the elect among the homeless? God showed up this past Saturday.
I am so very grateful to the many people who empowered me to serve and minister to those that live in the Hill community of New Haven, Connecticut. I get that not everyone can uproot, change vocation, or relocate into the proximity of neighbors who live in neighborhoods like the Hill. So for some, God’s plan is to reallocate and relocate their own resources to support the likes of people such as my wife, Lisa, and me in a neighborhood like the Hill, ministering in, with, and through a church like Christ Presbyterian Church in The Hill. The generosity of friends, family, and some we’ve just met and some we haven’t met yet–all have empowered me to pastor a church and a community in a place called the Hill. The Hill is actually a famous neighborhood that few people outside know about–well, at least famous for its place in American and New Haven’s history. The Hill, however, is more infamously known as “Sodom's Hill.” Yet in the early history of New Haven, the Trowbridge neighborhood (where Lisa and I actually have an apartment) was designated as a suburb–yes, that is correct, a suburb. Back in early American history, the wealthy and affluent settled in city-centers, that is, urban living. As the immigrants and the poor increased in New Haven, the bottom-demographics were moved to new quarters in the sub-urban regions of the City. Think walking, horse, and horse and buggy as the primary modes of travel, so suburbs were basically the outer districts of the urban area. In fact, if you dig down, now, under the sidewalks and tar of the roads around Trowbridge Square (where our apartment in the Hill is located), you’d find the old trolley car tracks; for this suburb was the trolley-hub to catch a ride to West or East Haven or even downtown New Haven. Ironically there is a little hill (again think horse and walking hill) to get up to Trowbridge, thus, the naming of our Hill community: “We’re going up the hill to catch a trolley” . . . “going up the Hill to walk home” . . . became over time, “We’re going to the Hill” . . . “We live in the Hill . . .” And as this small district settled with immigrants and the indigent of that day, it became dense as a very impoverished, poor suburb of New Haven, eventually being saddled with the nickname “Sodom's Hill.” My supporters empower me to minister in this messy and hurting, but beautiful community, relocating their financial blessings to help the gospel to be planted in the heart of the Hill, changing lives, and lifting them and their neighbors above its unsavory nickname. To many, the Hill community is an uncool place. Planting and growing a church in the midst of an urban (aka old suburban), under-resourced, minority-populated (51% Hispanic; 39% Black) neighborhood is crazy, yet absolutely needed: 43% unemployment; nearly 85% of Hill residents live in subsidized housing; and, 70% of New Haven’s parole population is resident in the Hill. This neighborhood needs a gospel-centered, community-focused church in its midst. My financial partners empower me to empower our congregation to focus on the community. And, I am so proud (in every right sense of that word) that is exactly what CPC in The Hill is known for: being a church that is for its neighborhood, one that is present, many times outside its building’s walls, serving its community. The presence of CPC in The Hill helps to ameliorate the cliché that address is destiny. And, by God’s grace and the power of the gospel, we see lives changing, which will cause this community to flourish. Outside support allows me to spend time pastoring amidst this very poor and hurting neighborhood, and, as well, to be involved in the community, like as a member of the Hill Management Team and by showing up, literally, everywhere in the Hill. And, such outside support ensures I can continue sharing the gospel and, even, as it so happens, just outside my apartment door do some regular street pastoral counseling. God certainly has prepared me for this ministry, theologically, as well as, socially and vocationally. I like calling it now, “My-Lived-Out-Theology.”
I had always thought these past 20 years were God’s seminary-training for me. I've written on this (i.e., social action, church, and evangelism), articles, even a book, and in some way that has been self-preparation for this ministry, as well. I continue to be humbled by my call to the Hill. Humbled more so that people, friends, churches (a few churches anyway) support, especially financially and materially, our gospel work here in the Hill. I am so grateful to those who give of their own resources so I am empowered to serve and, as some in the Hill refer to me, to be the pastor of the Hill. Although I have yet to reach 100% of our fundraising needs, still because of the generosity of others, I have the ability to do this full time. And, trust me, it takes full time. This allows me to be where I need to be when I need to be there; not just hospital visits or at a kitchen table or a church activity, but out my front door to counsel those, who, almost as if they are waiting for me, need a word or a prayer from the Pastor, to show up at town and community meetings, and simply to be visible in the needed places of Hill life. I will find out this coming week regarding our FY20 budget (our fiscal year is 9/1–8/31), whether it was approved or modified. Yes, I am a little worried this year--our church does grow and will grow mostly with the same population that lacks resources, and more people means more resources needed to minister. We are a church that has become well known so our outreach activities (especially ones related to food!) increase in people served; thus, our need for our own resources to increase. The FY20 budget reflected a mere 6% increase; but without hitting our fundraising goal (so far) for FY19 (43k and currently at 83%), I am not sure where we stand (next week I will). A vision budget would include the funds to help obtain someone dedicated to reaching Hill teenagers and, as well, funds to help people in our congregation to start businesses and to start our own coffee shop, our own food co-op here in the Hill. But these must wait until more outside brothers and sisters see this vision as well. Nonetheless, I am blessed to be in a place where I can minister the gospel, demonstrating what loving one’s neighbor looks like in an under-resourced neighborhood; to be a pastor to the people of the Hill; to disciple a church to be a model of God’s kingdom; and, to be present in such a way to multiple opportunities for Hill men and women, Hill children, boys and girls, Hill young people, teenagers so they may find eternal life and a new life in the Hill. I am grateful that others give out of their own resources so that I am empowered to be a pastor in the Hill. If you'd like to know more how you can help, email me at [email protected].
“Greet one another with a Holy Kiss” (Romans 16:16). The theme and sermon of our service at CPC in The Hill yesterday was centered on the reason and nature of the "holy kiss" (aka, Peter, "kiss of love"). The Kiss had deep, cultural significant that was harnessed by Paul (and Peter) to bind the gathered-church of unequals and strangers together in unity, as a family in Christ. This act (the Kiss) was soon incorporated into the liturgical flow of the gathered-church's worship, which was actually a fair (albeit physical and symbolic) application of the commands in the NT to greet one another (at the gathered-church) with a holy kiss (cf. Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14). The kiss was positioned just before communal prayers and the celebration of the Lord's table in order to give space to welcome each other as family and to allow for any moments of reconciliation between congregants to happen before they, together as equals, shared in the Table of the Lord. The power, the spiritual power, of this moment isn't simply passing the peace or saying "hi," but to physically demonstrate a true welcome (Romans 14-15) and reconciliation among unequals and strangers, now as God's family. This kiss provided . . . ▸ A physical act toward reconciliation, publically, personal, and demonstratively Right there, at that moment, amid worship, instruction, and fellowship of church, of CPC in The Hill, rests, demonstrates, and provides a solution to every wound, every harm, every social problem facing us . . . the gathered-church is the way in which God changes everything . . . for the good and for his glory.
All in that kiss. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Cinco de Mayo, today, is a celebration (not of Mexico’s Independence Day, which is September 16th, but to) commemorate the Mexican Army's difficult victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862. Ironically, I was watching Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and it was a little weird to hear Captain Picard narrate the final defeat of the Borg, “Captain’s log April the 5th, 2063 . . .” We certainly like commemorating war victories . . . soon we will celebrate Memorial Day, this year, May 28th (and rightly so to remember those who died while serving in our country’s armed forces) and, of course, the 4th of July (our own independence day). Today, at the Anderson’s in Bridgeport, we will have our own celebration: We have an open invitation to a simple backyard BBQ to celebrate that Jesus Christ defeated our mortal enemy, the devil, on that cruel cross and has opened the door, giving, to all and anyone who believes in the gospel, access to His house (the church), the forgiveness of sins, and life eternal (I mean real life, forever and ever). Our backyard BBQ is our one time a year fundraiser to help us ensure we have the resources for our church, Christ Presbyterian Church in The Hill, for our Summer Park BBQ. For 8 Wednesday we roll a grill into Trowbridge Square Park in the Hill community to serve hot dogs and hamburgers to whoever is in the park that evening. The average night has been between 65-70 served (even in the rain) and a few nights, 90+. For some, it will be their only meal that day and maybe the only real food for a few days. The enemy has been defeated and we want the good people of the park to know this. I always preach and share the gospel before we eat (and the come, the almost all come and listen); I pray, we eat, and for about two hours CPC in The Hill loves on our Hill neighbors who are fighting battles most of us can’t even imagine. This is the last call . . . the BBQ is today at 3:30 at our home in Bridgeport, come join us if you have the time and want to help . . . we turn our backyard into that park for an hour and a half or so . . . FYI, if you can’t come and God is pushing you to help, we do have a GoFundMe as well . . . https://www.gofundme.com/2018-cpc-in-the-hill-bbq-ministry We have friends and family–and of course my blog readers (thank you)–all around the world and here in the USoA. We are using a GoFundMe to help raise some funds for our summer park ministry. Lisa, my wife, and I are also having a BBQ fundraiser in our backyard (we turn it in a mini-park experience) this coming Saturday, May 5th, for this ministry and we know many of you are too far to come join us–but may want to help us out. This is a particularly powerful ministry we call "In His Midst," because when we, CPC in The Hill, show up in the park, Jesus walks among the most vulnerable of us who have, that evening, decided to be in the park–those that enjoy some Park Preaching, a meal that evening, and some neighborly fellowship. If you are too far to come to the BBQ and would still like to help ensure we have the resources for this summer, please consider helping us out. Here's the link to the GoFundMe page >> https://www.gofundme.com/2019-cpc-in-the-hill-bbq-ministry Thanks. We can't do this without you! |
Wasted Blogger, Chip M. AndersonI am the pastor and church planter for Christ Presbyterian Church in The Hill; a flawed practitioner of Wasted Evangelism. I am learning about Wasted Evangelism through my experience in The Hill and through the good people of CPC in The Hill. Archives
April 2024
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