Dr. Tom Grassano

Instructions from the Maker

(I heard this message recently, and felt compelled to share it with you.)

The Maker looked at the pencil and instructed it on five important things:

1. You will only be useful when you are in held in your Master’s hand.
2. You are going to experience some painful sharpening from time to time, but if you don’t, you will lose your effectiveness.
3. You are able to correct your mistakes. (All that has happened, all that you have done in your life, mercy has followed behind you!)
4. The most important part of you is on the inside. It’s what’s inside of you that makes you useful and a blessing to others.
5. Everywhere you go, you can leave a mark.  So give your very best.

Wallbuilders

Nehemiah was a wall builder. He saw his city in ruins with physical and spiritual eyes. He heard the voice of the Lord as He cried out to God. Then he went to the city, sounded the call and led God’s people to rebuild the walls of their city. They accomplished their task, with a weapon in one hand and a tool in another. The city was fortified, and God was glorified.

Robert Lupton’s book Renewing the City shares this story in narrative form. I share these words from this book with you. May the Holy Spirit speak to your hearts.

“The temple, rebuilt several generations ago, had been upgraded under Ezra’s leadership. Many original gold and silver vessels and adornments from Solomon’s great temple had been returned from the imperial treasury in Babylon, and he had inspired many Babylonian Jews to give liberally to temple operations. That was certainly important, Nehemiah told himself. But a temple huddling in a burnt-out city laid open to the appetites of predators, a city devoid of governance of elders at the gates, a city whose economy was little more than a haven for charlatans and loan sharks – what good was a house of God when there was no city of God to implement its beliefs?” (Emphasis mine.)

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“And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins. You will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called the repairers of the breach, the restorers of the streets in which to dwell” (Isaiah 58:12).

Setting up Shop

I was blessed during our recent block party in the South Bronx by being reunited with one of the former drug dealers from our community.  I sat in The Harvest Center with him and his girlfriend, talking about their lives and what God can do. We wept as they wept over their pain, and we cried tears of joy as they prayed to begin a new start with Christ.  Another former dealer who has been clean and living out of state for several years is in the Bronx again and has spent time with me in prayer and discussing God’s Word and his destiny. God has filled my heart with love for him. He, too, is striving to make right choices.

As the girlfriend talked about how bad Johnny (not his real name) used to be, I mentioned how well he and the other drug dealers accepted us when we came to the South Bronx. Johnny said, “We didn’t have a choice.” I didn’t understand, so I asked what he meant.

“We didn’t have a choice because you set up shop on our block and you weren’t leaving.”

What a powerful statement about incarnational ministry in the inner city!  The streets of our community in the South Bronx have changed because, by God’s grace, people have changed. It started with someone “setting up shop” and, no matter the opposition, even death threats, not giving up. It took years, even eight to ten years, of patient endurance and unconditional love for some people to change. Transformation is not always overnight. But when it’s God, it’s real.

There are many more young men and women like these in inner cities around our nation. To see true change in our cities, the body of Christ must get out of the doors of our churches and “set up shop” on the streets of our cities, empowering chosen people to honor Christ, make right choices, pursue their destinies, and bring radical transformation to their own communities through the power of our radical, holy God who sets up shop wherever we invite Him.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

John 1:14

Hood Kids

Hood Kids

In my last entry, I shared about reaching our cities. I now share the words of Mimi Webb, a teenager from a tough, low-income neighborhood who shares from her heart the cry of many youth in the inner city in her poem, Hood Kids:

Hood kids but good kids

not bad kids, just neighborhood kids

watch mom shoot up and dad shoot bullets

and combat the words that scream I’m useless

I’m not

just hot

and mad at dad who split and mom who took him back

even though he split her lip the third time

I watch from the sidelines and grow full of hate

from parents’ guidelines

and you, pastor, push me faster to hate

taking our crumbs to fill your already full plate

your frock is stained

you mock the name of He who commissioned

cuz you’re more concerned with titles and positions

than the mission to save me

don’t forget the babies; don’t be so lazy

cuz I need you greatly

it’s not about parking spots and who pays a lot

but who gives [of themselves] a lot and who prays a lot

for me, the lost sheep

but nobody’s looked for me

don’t you know God made the Good Book for me?

but I need direction, some protection, much affection, not rejection

I . . . NEED . . . YOU

man of God, woman of God

Be of God

and keep your eyes peeled for real

we’re crying and dying but still trying

though momma ignores us and daddy abuses us

I’m sure that God still wants to use us

when momma doesn’t hug us and daddy slugs us

I’m confident that God still loves us

cuz I’m a hood kid, but a good kid

not a bad kid, just misunderstood kid

and I need your help before it’s too late

and I walk the same path that my parents made

look at us behind the chain linked fence

pain wrenched kids, such tainted kids

who were struck but never fainted kids

we live hellish lives but can be saintly kids

if you just try . . . TRY!

until then we’ll continue to die, continue to cry

the hood kids that no one really cares about

it’s so obvious that no one really cares . . .

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“Jesus saw the city, and He wept over it.”

(Luke 19:41

Rethinking Urban Ministry

I recently read an article written by an author with a burden for reaching cities. He shares about a week of violence in his city which included a high school student being gunned down at a barbeque, a hopeless mother throwing two of her small children off a bridge, and a distraught father in the process of divorce tragically taking his life and the lives of his three young children. Sharing about the urgency of reaching our cities with the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ, the author then makes this statement:  “Jesus calls us to go to our cities as home missionaries to reach the homeless, the hungry, and the addicted…”

My question is very simply this: How does reaching the homeless, hungry and addicted help the very ones in crisis mentioned in the article, of whom none were homeless, hungry or addicted? Yet, this is the philosophy that occupies the majority of our discussions about ministry in the city.

What about:

• Dysfunctional families

• Generational cycles of abuse and neglect

• Illiteracy

• Joblessness (In some inner city communities, unemployment is 35-45 percent. The unemployment rate in Detroit is now 23.4 percent.)

• Disease (In our community in the South Bronx, 25 percent of expectant mothers are HIV+. Asthma is rampant and tuberculosis is on the rise.)

• Inadequacies in educational institutions  (On the average, a 75 percent high school drop-out rate is present in the inner city communities of our nation.)

• And the greatest ill in the city, fatherlessness.

Yes, we must reach the homeless, hungry and addicted. But for change to come to suffering inner city communities, we must reach those who are not homeless, hungry and addicted, such as abused and neglected children, disenfranchised youth, broken families, single-mothers trying to raise their children in a hostile environment, the illiterate, the unemployed, and the many unreached immigrants God has brought our cities. The condition of our cities is worsening, and in the process, more young lives are being lost and forgotten.  We must think more holistically and not focus the majority of our energies and resources on one small percentage of the hurting populations in our cities.

We must listen to and serve those who are in the city. At a recent seminar, a suburban pastor shared about how his church was preparing to randomly bring sandwiches and used clothing to homeless in the inner city. They were taking initiative with a very popular and visible method of urban outreach, but the focus was not on serving a resident ministry established in the inner city for the long haul. Two pastors and one church leader who had worked in the inner city for decades stood and pleaded, “Please don’t. You’re not helping us.” Initiative is wonderful, but we must focus on serving those who have the wisdom and experience of years in the trenches of the inner city, honoring those whom God has called to affect change in the urban environment.

Compassionate outreach is an imperative in reaching the poor. True compassion empowers and propels urban citizens toward the fulfillment of their divinely-ordained destinies. Our 19 years in some of the worst communities in our nation have formed a theology of urban ministry that is devoted to community transformation. It is our desire to bring change one person and one family at a time, to penetrate the gates of hell with hope, and to send out a cry for others to live lives that refuse to maintain a distance from the reality of human pain wherever people are lost and hurting.

We must hear the hearts of those devoting their lives reach the hurting in our cities. We must be better stewards and not expend our resources and energies placing band aids on the cancerous wounds of the inner city. We must seek to employ strategic principles and methods that will work toward long-term change and serve those in the city whom God called and placed there as the “strong and graceful oaks for His own glory” that through them “the ruined cities will be restored” (Isaiah 61:4-5).

Defining Church

An army is not measured by its numbers, Sheer numbers do not indicate that an army is able to fight well, defend its people and accomplish its goals.

Likewise, a church is not measured merely by the amount of people who sit in the pews or the amount of programs available for the people.

The quality and effectiveness of the church is more measured by:

• The genuineness of its worship,
• The fervency of its prayers,
• The faithfulness and commitment of its people,
• The hunger and thirst for the things of God,
• The uncompromising teaching of the Word,
• The brokenness and purity of the body,
• The activity of sending into the harvest fields of our families, our city, and our world,
• The discipleship of the sheep and lambs,
• The passion for His name,
• The respect for His presence,
• The humility and servant-hearts of its leaders,
• The unity of the body,
• The living and growing presence of Christ Jesus.

Many have highly trained musicians, impressive media ministries, gifted communicators, extravagant facilities, and activities for every age group, but they lack many of the qualities above.

If I had to choose, I would choose the church under a tree with these qualities than a performance that stirs my emotions but does not rend my soul.