Jay Height & Shepherd in Indy Star

This interview with Jay Height appeared in the Indianapolis Star on November 21th.  Jay will be speaking at the Beacon of Hope class next Sunday, December 13th.  On that day, the Sunday School class will take place at 10:00am before the joint Christmas service at 11:00am.

Shepherd center works to break cycle of poverty

By Vic Ryckaert
vic.ryckaert@indystar.com

The roots of Shepherd Community Center, says its director, lie in a banquet.

Jay Height, head of the faith-based organization on the Near Eastside, said the idea arose 25 years ago this month when Westside Church of the Nazarene was planning its Thanksgiving dinner. In a staff meeting, then-pastor J.K. Warrick remarked that the church should prepare a dinner for people in the inner city before it looked to its own needs.

The church focused on a century-old church building just east of Downtown Indianapolis, Height said. The original congregation had relocated years before, and the once-vibrant neighborhood had seen better days.

“It was only to have been a Thanksgiving meal, but when those suburban volunteers saw the need at that old, inner-city church, they were touched,” Height wrote in an e-mail. “A number of them agreed to come and worship there for a period of time, and out of that was born what is known today as Shepherd Community Center.”

Height, the organization’s director since 1998, this week answered questions about Shepherd Community Center and its activities.

Question: What is Shepherd Community Center?

Answer: Shepherd is a faith-based, nonprofit organization established in 1985 with a simple but staggering goal: to break the cycle of poverty on the Near-Eastside of Indianapolis.

Click here to continue reading the article on the Indy Star’s website.

Video from Ron’s Class

During today’s Sunday School class, Ron Somerville showed the following video at the end of class.  For those who were unable to see it in its entirety, it is shown below:

Also, the next Sacred Conversation between members of Tab and Philips temple will take place on December 5th.  The group will share a pitch-in meal  at 12:30 in the Tab Parlor and then begin their conversation.

The group meets the first Sunday of each month.  Currently, the conversation is based on The Church Enslaved, a book written by Tony Campolo and Michael Battle.  Please contact Ann Reynolds if you have any questions about this meeting.

Shane Claiborne in Indianapolis

COMMUNITY and CREATIVITY IN RESISTING CONSUMERISM

An Evening with Shane Claiborne
Author of The Irresistible Revolution, Follow Me to Freedom and other books

Friday November 13 – 7PM
ENGLEWOOD CHRISTIAN CHURCH
57 N. Rural St.- Indianapolis – Near-eastside

Admission is FREE //
(An offering will be taken to support Shane’s work.)
ARRIVE EARLY // Doors open @ 6PM. Seating is limited!

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS !!!
- Facebook invite:  http://bit.ly/ZdoZ6
- Use this printable flyer:
http://englewoodcc.com/consumingfire/shane-claiborne.pdf

This event is part of the Through the Consuming Fire Conference:
A Conversation on Economic Faithfulness in an Age of Consumerism
http://englewoodcc.com/consumingfire/

The Source of Growth

When he came and spoke in Indianapolis a few months ago, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove mentioned that often we have a misleading idea of what it takes to create a healthy community.  Ministry is not a linear process of gradual improvements until someone “makes it.”  Working in disadvantage communities – and encouraging a health community – is not like repairing a broken machine, where replacing a cog or making small adjustments will make the engine run correctly.

In contrast to this image of a broken engine, Wilson-Hartgrove argued that creating a healthy community is more like gardening.  In a garden, there is always something to do – soil to prepare, weeds to pull, plants to water.  Without this dedication, a garden will never flourish.  However, even when a gardener puts her blood, sweat, and tears into a small plot of land, there is nothing she can do to force the plants to grow.  She can provide the conditions for growth – and encourage what is already growing to become even stronger – but she cannot make a seed sprout into a flourishing plant.  Gardening is relying on that mysterious power of growth to take place and grow.

This reality is the same in ministry.  There is always much to do – arrangements to be made, people to encourage, programs to build and sustain.  Many times growth is impossible without this work.  However, the real transformation of individuals and communities is out of our hands.  We can set the stage for growth, but we can’t make growth occur by ourselves.

Building a health community comes in stops and stars, breakthroughs and setbacks.  Sometimes people seem to be stagnating for years only to put everything together in a moment of clarity.  At other times those who have all the tools they need to move to a better place simply don’t recognize and use what God has provided them.

The Apostle Paul used this same image in a letter to the Corinthians.  The church’s growth was encouraged by the work of many church leaders, but their efforts alone weren’t enough.  Paul writes:

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)

The same is true in ministry.  When a church commits to the work of ministry in its context, it aims to bring the Kingdom of God to that place.  This transformation is so dramatic that it can only be the work of God.  Therefore, the fundamental work of any ministry must be prayer.

“Praying for the kingdom means praying for restored identity and for restored vocation, knowing that at the most fundamental level these are things only God can do…Praying the kingdom means remembering that bringing the kingdom is God’s business…We must not assume the burden for something we cannot do.”

-Myers, Walking With the Poor

New “About” Section

The About section of this blog has been updated.

Upcoming Sunday School Topics & Speakers

Tab’s class on Urban Ministry, “Tab: A Beacon of Hope in the Heart of the City,” has a variety of speakers coming to speak in the next few weeks.  Here’s a glance at the class’ schedule:

• March 22 – Jackie Nytes, Mapleton-Fall Creek Community Development Corporation
• March 29 – Oscar Clavel – The Impact of Salvation and its Implication for Missions
• April 5 – Steve Reynolds – Open Hand
• April 12 – Easter Sunday -  no class
• April 19 – Jim and Scott McCelland – Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana & The Indianapolis Met