Metro Youth Network

Please stand with me (yes, right there by your computer!), click on the link below, and sing our national anthem (okay, if you are in a library, just whisper – but still stand up!).  As you do, concentrate on the images that will remind you of the struggles we have faced in our history as a nation:

While the song you just heard might be unfamiliar to you, hopefully the images are not.  It’s a part of our U.S. history that should cause us to reflect and move us to compassion.  “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, or the Negro National Anthem as it is commonly referred to, became part of black culture within the U.S. as an anthem for Americans who were not always treated as Americans; as people who were not always treated as people.

I first heard the Negro National Anthem in 1986 when the people in my first appointment as a new Salvation Army Officer – the Chicago Lawn Corps – informed me that February was Black History Month (which I had heard of) and that we were going to sing this song (which I had not heard of) every week in our Sunday meetings as we observed the progress and example of African Americans in the United States.

But while I heard the stories of so many black people and marveled at the achievements which were often under appreciated and under recognized, what impacted me most was the example of the black people I learned to know, work with, and love.  It was the example of my black soldiers who continued to meet for worship when the Ku Klux Klan marched in the streets around their corps building, or when a racially motivated arsonist threw an incendiary device through the window which would require massive cleanup and renovation.  It was the example of Mrs. Geneva Brown, who put her arms around a very angry boy and told him, “Don’t hate, don’t hate…”, and the example of Mrs. Dempsey Jones and the sisters, Mrs. Adeline and Mrs. Christine Kirkwood, who learned to love the very diverse population in our corps neighborhood, a neighborhood where they would never feel safe living in even though they worked and worshiped there.  It was the example of people who showed grace and love to individuals who were sometimes dirty, angry, hurting, and mentally or emotionally unstable.

And it was the example of those who, despite having experienced discrimination in their own personal lives, yet by God’s grace were putting into practice the Mission Statement of The Salvation Army:  “…to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination,” day in and day out.  These are my heroes – those who loved and prayed and put into action what they believed as Christians and as soldiers of The Salvation Army.  Those who, by their example, changed people’s hearts and minds and lives – including my own!

This is Black History Month – but for me it is more, it is Black HERO Month.

“Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand.  True to our God, true to our native land.”  I choose to stand alongside these people, my heroes.  Won’t you choose to stand with us as well, not only this month, but every day of your life?  Start today!

There is a little debate one wether or not dropping Haiti’s $890 million international debt would contribute to re-building a strong or weaker country.  While you should research the issue, let us refer to a few points that ONE has posted on their website about the debt cancellation:

1.  $93 billion has been canceled in sub-Saharan African countries since 1996.

2.  Lesotho paid $47 million to its creditors in 2006, an amount equivalent to two-thirds of the development assistance it receives each year.

3.  3.1 million more Tanzanian children enrolled in school after the government used its savings from debt relief to eliminate school fees in 2001.

That last fact is quite astounding.  Debt relief does seem to make a difference.  Wherever you fall on this debate, make sure you do some researching (both in the news and in the Bible [remember the year of Jubilee]), and make a decision on the ONE Campaign’s “Drop the Debt” campaign.

To read more on debt relief, visit ONE’s website.  Or, to read more about the “Drop the Debt” campaign and to sign the petition to cancel Haiti’s debt, click here.

(By Amanda Keene) – After doing research on the amount of money put into the corrections system in the United States, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that expenditures on corrections alone have increased from $9,000,000 in 1982 to $59,000,000 in 2002. Looking at this dramatic increase of expenditures, it is interesting to note that of the 272,111 offenders released from prison in 15 States in 2000, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% re-sentenced to prison for a new crime. Does this make sense that so much money is going into putting offenders in jail when they will just later return after serving their time? Changes need to be made in how offenders are treated and how they are prepared to be reintegrated back into society.

Those who are drug offenders are most times put directly into prison in order to serve their punishment for their crime without the alternative to drug treatment programs. An evaluation that was done by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that only six months after drug treatment, 60% of the drug abusers remained drug free, and drug related offenses declined from 28% to 7%. Drug treatment plans do work and cost less that putting a person into prison, yet treatment is not usually given as an alternative.

After an offender of any sort is released from prison, he or she many times does not effectively re-integrate back into society. An offender may be denied work because employers do not want to hire a person with a criminal record. General education within prisons can vary from quality education to no education at all. The percentage of state prisoners who are participating in offered educational courses decreased by more than 8% between 1991 and 1997 because funding for the courses ceased. This happened despite the fact that there is growing evidence of how educational programming reduces recidivism. This lack of education leaves ex-offenders without basic skills that are needed for job employment. Without employment, ex-offenders are many times faced with poverty since they do not have income coming in to provide for themselves and/or their families. This all results in something I like to call a vicious cycle.

One year ago, the Second Chance Act of 2007 was enacted. This is great because it provides the following:

1. The establishment of new and innovative programs to improve offender reentry services

2. Drug treatment programs as an alternative to imprisonment

3. Creation of mentoring and other transitional services for reintegrating offenders into the community

4. Reentry research on juvenile and adult offender reentry

This is a big step, but more can be done. We need to take more of a look at how to give ex-offenders basic life skills that can be useful to them in their reentry into society. I’m writing about this specific topic because I work with many men who are struggling with these issues after coming out of prison. They were released from prison but were never taught how to deal with their substance abuse issues, so they go right back into the destructive habits. They can’t hold a job, which means that they don’t have income, which means that they can’t afford housing, which eventually results in homelessness.

What can we do? Pray would be the most obvious. Pray for these men and women, the organizations who provide services for them, and the government. Praise God for the work that He is doing already, and pray that He would continue to bring to the minds of those with influence the things that need to be changed within the prison system and community. Also, if you are interested in following different bills and acts being talked about in Congress and the House of Representatives, you can go to the following website: http://thomas.loc.gov/. You can type in key words such as “prison”, “recidivism”, or “reentry,” and you will see a list of different pieces of legislation that are still in the process of being passed, as well as legislation that has already been passed on this issue. You can look up other issues as well, and know that you have a voice. You can write to your legislators and government officials about different social injustices that you are passionate about seeing changed. Look up pieces of legislation on the topics you are passionate about and urge officials to pass bills or acts that will bring justice. All it takes is some time, and I know you all have time….just get off Facebook for 10 minutes! So I challenge you to make a difference and actually take some action! Don’t just sit around and wait for someone else to do the work, because then it will never get done.

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” –Micah 6:8

(By John Kim) – I recently read a book entitled “Beyond Charity” by John Perkins, which challenged me deeply – one of those books that make you wonder whether you’re doing this whole Christianity thing correctly or not. Not just at a personal level, but being from The Salvation Army, I had to ask the same question of my church. As historically rooted in the social gospel as The Salvation Army is, and even today with its wide range of social service ministries, is it possible that we are failing to go beyond charity as a whole? An uncomfortable question, to be sure, but eventually I was able to walk away from this book not discouraged, but rather, challenged to action.

The basic point that Perkins drove in for me, going right along with the title of this book, was the utter inadequacy of the charity mentality when it comes to ministering to the urban poor of America: “America’s best intentions, most sincere thoughts, noblest efforts – all of these are useless to the urban poor if they do not connect with our personally defined, deepest felt needs…Overcoming an attitude of charity is a difficult task because it requires givers to demand more of themselves than good will” (p.23). So it seems that in the case of inner city ministry, good intentions and sincere motivations are far from adequate to get the job done. Coming from a relatively wealthy church in a relatively wealthy part of the city, this forced me to honestly evaluate our serious lack of involvement with the poor of our city. Are we doing enough? Hardly. Even the little that we do do could easily be out of sense of guilt, as Perkins painfully points out: “Sometimes our giving is motivated by guilt. When this is the case, we are giving for selfish reasons – to make ourselves feel okay…undisciplined giving can be just as destructive as the poverty it was meant to alleviate” (pp.23-24). Ouch! How many times have I been motivated by guilt, and thus actually acted selfishly, in my giving to the poor? Is it possible that my supposed generosity could’ve actually had a destructive effect on those to whom I gave? Scary thought.

The alternative to the quick-fix mentality, then, begins with a clear identification with the felt needs of the urban poor: “With the transformation of ‘you, them, and theirs’ to ‘we, us, and ours’ we will understand most clearly the real problems facing the poor; then we may begin to look for real solutions” (p.31). One of Perkins’ most challenging points, both through his words and through the example of his life, is the challenge to relocate into the inner city where transformation must take place. It is a model consistent with the Incarnation of Christ when He gave up the luxuries of heaven to come and dwell among us. This is how a community’s needs become our own needs – basic needs for things such as security, education, health care, etc. As clear and courageous as this call for physical relocation was, I was glad that there was also a call for ‘encouragers, investors and volunteers’ for inner city ministry also. For surely there are real spiritual needs in suburban and rural America also, and so the presence of Christians there is no less important in light of the Great Commission. The bottom line, I believe, has to be the specific calling of God on each of our lives.

According to Perkins, the first mark of an authentic church is this: “The authentic church absorbs pain” (p.45). I am burdened to know what this must mean for my local church, and for The Salvation Army as a whole in the 21st century. I pray that we will learn to go beyond charity in all of our outreach and social services, that we will clearly identify with the felt needs of the poor all around us, and that we would courageously follow God’s specific calling on our lives, no matter where that may take us.

(By Sarah Kincaid) – There have been a few standout moments in my life when I’ve felt as if God has pushed me down by my shoulders, grabbed my chin, pointed it in another direction and said, “look.” Driving down Chicago Avenue on the west side of Chicago through what’s known to be a dangerous neighborhood happened to be one of them.

People of all ages loitered on corners, sat in cars, shuffled down sidewalks, seemingly waiting for something to happen. One group huddled up caught my attention. I instantly assumed the worst. “I don’t even want to know what is going on there,” I thought cynically. But as I got closer, I saw they were praying. I could have driven straight into a parked car. I was so ashamed. I prayed out loud, “Father, forgive me for assuming You’re not here.” God had yanked my chin, and it hurt.

I saw similar instances of my Father’s under-the-radar Kingdom work when I visited the Kibera slums while in Kenya for a conference on child sponsorship. Amidst this overcrowded community, where sorrow and despair are as visible as the makeshift septic system, God’s Kingdom was discernible. The results of people serving God also were visible. People were taking care of each other. Grandmas and neighbors were looking after children orphaned by AIDS. Widows and elderly were looked after, too. The children were joyful and happy and they were being fed and taught God’s Word at the Salvation Army nursery situated in the middle of the slums.

God is at work. He is worthy to be praised. We just need to open our eyes and pay attention to those standout moments.

(By Andres Villatoro) – Care about them as much as you care about yourselves and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: Christ was truly God. But he did not try to remain equal with God. Instead he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us. Philippians 2.4-7

Some of my favorite people to read about in Salvation Army history are the Slum Sisters. These women were regular soldiers who had such a heart and compassion for the lost and for the poor that they purposefully moved into some of the worst neighborhoods and slums of cities like London and New York. With “a Bible in their pocket, and prayer on their tongue,” their job was to be useful in anyway possible in their neighborhood putting on old clothes (instead of their uniform) and going to about 30 homes everyday as well as going into bars, brothels, even drug houses. They would help with cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the sick and of children. They would go into horrible and dark slum dwellings to bring a little of the light of God in and often had the opportunity to pray with the people they were helping and lead them to salvation. These women were daily living out the word and the love of God. They were not considered Christian radicals who wanted to live alternative lives, but just Christians who were doing their duty. To them, the love and work of God came first, their personal interests second.

As Salvationists, we feel either an obligation or a desire to work with the poor and with anyone else who needs help because it is present in our corps or in our community all the time. I often have felt the need to personally go out to the poor to show my version of the love of God to them. A lot of the times though, I feel that what I do is not enough, or that I am somehow very disconnected and very uncomfortable with someone who has no home or no food. I end up discouraged feeling that I can never really make a difference, and I even get to the point of not wanting to go out and help anyone anymore. You may have felt like that at one point or another, as though you were not meeting your obligation as a Christian. I happened across an article about the Salvation Army that caught my attention.

“The Salvation Army’s ministry was never one of condescending charity, in which the rich and cultured went “slumming” with baskets of food and lessons on home management and hygiene. They ministered to the destitute out of solidarity, not superiority…with a handful of exceptions, the Army’s early leaders had been poor. They knew poverty, its terror and futility, and they knew how little the light of the Christian gospel had penetrated the vast, dismal acres of city slums in which they had passed their lives. They now felt called to return there with the Good News that God and The Salvation Army loved all people alike.”

I realized that I was going to the lost and to the poor with my pride. I realized that I was the “rich” and the “cultured” who was going out to the poor wanting to give them something I had that they didn’t. I wanted to give them charity, not love. Is this really the way we should be looking at Christian service though? The Salvation Army did not begin like this. As brothers and sisters they helped each other out. It was their neighbors, their friends and their families that were the poor and needy. Today, it is hard to imagine that our own family would be ones who are in need. However, as Christians, it is in this way that we must minister to other people. As if they were our own brothers and sisters, not feeling like we are better than them or anyone else because the truth is we are not. We must look at them with the compassion and love of Christ, who ate with tax collectors and sinners. Christ was one of the people and though he was God, he did not “try to remain equal with God.” Philippians 2.6.

We can learn from people like the slum sisters who, out of compassion for people, dressed in rags and became the people they wanted to minister to. This is what effective ministry looks like. We need to keep the mindset that we are no different than the people that we are helping. We are all made in the image of God. You help not out of charity but out of brotherly and sisterly love. So go to your communities and your neighborhoods and “care about them as much as you care about yourselves” (Philippians 2.4). Come to them not with the mindset of superiority, but with solidarity, having a connection and helping them out of agreement and love. If Christ became like one of us then let us become like one of them.

(By Colonel Denny Phillips) – A story is told — probably apocryphal — that a man walking in Times Square was approached by an indigent soul begging money. The man was not a New Yorker, and he was inclined to help, but he wasn’t carrying any cash on him, so he placed his hand on the man’s shoulder and looked him square in the eyes as he said, “I’m very sorry, brother, but I truly do not have anything to give you right now.” The beggar paused, feeling the warmth of the man’s hand on his shoulder and sensing the dignity of the passionate look in his eyes as he spoke. Placing his soiled hand on the manicured one now resting on his shoulder, he returned the intense look straight into the eyes of this passer-by who had stepped away from the crush of the Times Square crowd to spend a few seconds…to speak to and actually touch this man in ragged clothes…this man that thousands of others deemed untouchable, and said to him, “You’ve already given me something far more important than money, for you called me your brother, and I’ll never forget you.” With that, the beggar straightened his shoulders and brushed his coat as he strutted away feeling validated by another human being.

Social justice means more than providing for the poor. In The Salvation Army, we deliver human services in the name of Christ, but we must also do so in the spirit of Christ. We must engage the poor with love and respect, kindness and dignity, see beyond the crust of soiled clothes and dirty skin. Overlook awkward, even hostile behavior. Would any of us behave any better if we were homeless, hungry, cold and lonely?

Beware, for behind the unshaven face, the dirt engrained skin and the ragged clothes, Jesus may be checking us out. Did He not as much as say so? Oh yes, when His disciples badgered Him about “What is the kingdom like?”, “Who gets into the Kingdom”, Jesus finally answered and said, “Come, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you, for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you brought me water to drink; naked, and you clothed me; in prison and you visited me; sick, and you took care of me.” Then He concluded His startling answer with, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

General John Gowans summed it up well:

You came disguised, but still, I know it’s You.
Today your eyes be black, tomorrow blue.
Your skin is sometimes yellow, sometimes brown;
At times you wear a loin cloth, today a tattered gown.
Your bony hand is held before your face,
But I’d know you, my Lord, in any case,
Grinning at me through leprous eaten jaws.
The broken limbs….the bloated belly…yours.
You bring these changes, Lord
And yet I know
That every soul in need
Is really YOU.

Social justice begins in the heart. Love thy neighbor.

(By Mike Steinsland) – So today in class I had a really interesting, and altogether, boggling experience (I use the word boggling because, like the game, I’m currently in a mess). You see, there’s a man in my class from the Congo, and we all had to make presentations today, and his really spoke to me. While he was growing up in the Congo he lived through two civil wars, and had a lot that he wouldn’t talk about. He would just say that he saw very terrible things. My initial reaction was, “But it’s ok, because now you are safe, God has rescued you.” It soon happened, as it usually does, that I saw that that was a foolish thing for me to think. He met with several Christian refugees from the Congo, and asked them this question, “Do you think God loves the people of the Congo?” This of course led him to the question, “Do you think God is fair?” This is where it gets a little hard for me to stomach. They all said yes to both questions, and their reason why was the same as mine: God brought them out of the Congo, away from all that violence. The problem with such an answer is that it neglects the first question. How can God love the Congo, when only a few of its people get to escape? What about everyone else?

I don’t admit to becoming emotionally involved in things much, but this was it. I felt stirred, and I didn’t know what to think about it anymore. I kept asking myself over and over again, “How can God be fair in the eyes of the people still in the Congo, who where killed for no reason? How can I even ask this man about it when his family has been killed inside of a church?” Luckily for me, my teacher is a very smart man of amazing faith and was able to help. He said we were asking the wrong question. It’s a good question to ask, but it’s not the one we really want the answer for. The question we are attempting to ask is, “Is God responsible?” Is God responsible for what happened in the Congo, or what is happening in Uganda? Is God responsible for families becoming homeless? These are the questions we are trying to ask, but instead of asking if He is responsible, we sort of take the easy way out.

The point is that we shouldn’t ask if God is fair because, just like in the story of Adam and Eve, we had a choice, and God knew what was going to happen and still let us make that choice. You could say God’s full time job is correcting the wrongs that people do. If we could look at all of existence, and I’m going to try to not seem like a know-it-all, we would understand how fully awful and treacherous the human race truly is. Through Jesus Christ our sins were forgiven though, which makes us clean right? Well, we sort of have to try to stay clean. I mean, you don’t take a shower and then go play in a mud-pit, or maybe you do. The fact is no matter how clean you were before playing in that mud-pit you are filthy afterward and need to be cleaned again. That’s what a relationship with God is like, except in the process we help others get clean too, hopefully.

So here’s my closing statement. Though, don’t let this stop you from thinking about these questions, because they are beautiful ways of seeing how great God is. God knows how things are going to end, and it frustrates us and so we complain. I’m beginning to realize the question isn’t a matter of whether God is fair, and how deep the question of God being responsible really goes. If God is not responsible, which I hope by now you know he isn’t, then the question isn’t about God being responsible at all, it’s shaking a finger, an awfully big one, at the entire human race. We are responsible, we are responsible because God gave us a choice and right now that choice is to help the homeless or not to, to help the people of the Congo or not, to stop the genocide in Darfur or not. I’m not an incredibly intelligent person, but I understand to a limited extent what purpose this gives me as a Christian and what the actions of loving my neighbor should look like. Am I stopping injustice, or am I letting the sin of this world corrupt me into apathy? Am I responsible? By listening to God and obeying his word, we can make an impact and change the world for his glory.

(By Sarah Kincaid) – I recently had an email conversation with my future brother-in-law (by the time this is posted, brother-in-law!) about the love of Christ, sinners, compassion, the United States and how we fit in these things. Having this dialog has caused me to wrestle with how I view love and has caused me to critique the way I show love in an unjust world. Am I showing God’s love? Or is it my version of what love is? Will love save the world? With some debate and wondering if believing in peace and love makes me a hippie, yeah I believe in love – love that comes from Christ – can overcome the world.

In Matthew 22:37-40 Christ responds to a Pharisee’s question about what is the most important commandment and Jesus replies, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest command. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Wow. So a huge part of following Christ, the son of God, is about love. Well Christ is God and God is love, so that makes sense. 1 John 4: 7-8 says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” So we should be striving to be love, because God is love.

Yet another thing God is is just, and it is fair to say that we live in an unjust world. Unfortunately, Chicago leads the pack in the country for highest murder rate in 2008. The Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe is responsible for their economic and humanitarian crisis which has caused the nation to face acute shortages of fuel, electricity and medical drugs. The inflation rate — the highest in the world — is 231 million percent. Currently there are 3,000 kidnapped people in Columbia being held hostage by rebel groups. Where is the love in this unjust world?

Just before Christ left this world, after he died for our sins and was resurrected, he gave his disciples some very important instructions. He said, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and makes disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” So he is saying we are responsible for what happens on this earth? We are supposed to teach others his commandments? And the most important is to love God and love each other?

I guess someone dropped the ball. I think I’ve dropped the ball. But the good news is there is hope. That last line of instructions Christ gives says “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” So it is our responsibility, but Christ is saying he will be there. We need him because we can’t love or save. It’s him loving and saving through us. 1 John 4:11-12 “Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.”

These things aren’t easy; loving others. The people we love the most, our family, are usually the people we forget to show love to. And showing justice in an unjust world? Also not easy. But the Lord never said it would be easy. He actually said it would be difficult, but he also said he has overcome. “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:32-33