Reciprocity

In Both Directions

The church has a long history of serving people at the margins…. At the same time, however, an older problem has been intensified. The modern self’s blindness to the other as part of the self has led to an increasing perception of charity as a one-way street, something that originates with the charitable self and leads to handouts for those in need…. Fresh encounters with people on the underside of history introduce a critical change. In solidarity with the marginalized, the modern one-way street gradually begins to bear traffic in both directions.

Joerg Rieger
Source: Remember the Poor

Same Old Hustle

It happens to me a lot, especially around church settings.

The latest experience came on Christmas Eve as I attempted to make my way into the late night service.

I saw the old man, bent over, but determined as he approached me.

I'd seen him before, and often outside the YMCA downtown.

He worked the same con on me.

 "Sir, I mean no disrespect, but I'm just out of the hospital and I'm trying to get home to Abilene, " he made his pitch as he extended a handful of documents and offered his Texas ID.

I'd heard the story, with a variation or two many times from him.  In previous iterations his health distress was complicated by his having missed a bus west.

"Sir, we've talked often.  You need what I don't have, my previous counsel didn't satisfy you, nor can I tonight," I tried to explain.

He walked away in disgust.

I watched him, feeling conflicted as I walked into the warmth of a dimly lit sanctuary about to burst with celebration, memories, rich sentiment and the inspiration of grace made real.

I know I did the correct thing technically, unless my goal was to purchase him a bottle of comfort.

Still, as I walked my way and he his, I knew in a deeper way possibly as never before that to the one I'd come to remember and thank, I appeared and behaved like this poor, struggling man.

I have my own cons with their ridiculous pitches.

I want my needs satisfied in my own ways, and on my terms, thank you very much.

At times I fool myself, and even try to fool those around me, including the one I'd come to worship during Advent.

The bent over gentleman and I need exactly the same thing: grace, honesty and another chance to get life right.

Neither of us can make much progress without a mutual respect for one another.

Both of us need to ditch the pitch, the hustle, the passing game.

I hope to see him again.

Possibly we can talk about what we both really need.

Homelessness, a personal response. . .

When it comes to relating to and moving alongside a person or persons who are homeless, what can be done practically?  People frequently ask me this question in one form or another.

"What should I do when a person on the street asks me for money?"

"How should I respond to a homeless person when I pass them on the sidewalk or encounter them begging at a stoplight?"

"How can I get to know a person who deals with a poverty so deep that they have no place to live?"

Good questions!

As I've noted several times over the last few days, efforts to end homelessness in Dallas face a number of obstacles, most of which appear in the form of what I call "unsatisfying half measures." 

At a very personal level, how do we move beyond "halfway" responses?

Let me offer an idea or two.

First, find a way to truly befriend a homeless person without rushing ahead to "fix" everything or to change the person's life or situation, as if that is your responsibility.  It is likely unrealistic that this can be done using a "fly-by" strategy.  It won't happen that you will become friends with a person by just seeing them a time or two on the street or corner.  What can be done is to stop, slow the frames down dramatically and just be human with another person.  Stop and talk.  Introduce yourself to the other person.  Plan to come back to the area where the person lives.  Realize that you likely won't find each other every time you try to, but keep coming back.  Join me on "the Corner" of Malcolm X and I-30 on Thursday afternoons at 2 p.m. and get accustomed to the approach.  Or volunteer at one of our housing sites on a regular basis.  I can hook you up!

Second, value every person you meet no matter how poor, ragged, rugged, dirty or injured they are when you encounter them.  We convey value to another by the way we respond and by how we refuse to be put off by their circumstances.  Work on creating relationships that are defined by reciprocity--relationships in which everyone gives and everyone receives.

Third, develop a new understanding of how enlightened self-interest serves the entire community. The fact is when everyone does better in a city, everyone benefits!  Begin to regard the real, pressing needs of your poor friends as opportunities for you and your community to invest in solutions.  These solutions will benefit the poor, but they will also benefit you and everyone else.  Better health, better housing, better diet, better work skills, better mental health--these are not expenses to be avoided, but investments to be made that enrich the quality of life for us all.

Finally, if you are a person of faith, begin to "re-read" the story of your faith with new eyes for compassion, justice, the city and the poor.  Decide to spend time reading the words of Jesus from the perspective of your new friends who happen to be poor and cast aside.

While I cannot answer all of the "how to" questions, I do know that what I have in mind can be done.  And, in the doing we discover real answers and make new, very satisfying friendships.

We call it "reciprocity"!

Running across a statement of one of the fundamental principles/values of our organization always pulls me up short.  Here is a great restatement of our belief in and insistence upon "reciprocity."  

BreakingBarriers

Breaking down the barriers between the givers and the receivers of aid, between those who have and those who have not, is an essential expression of the solidarity that liberates the privileged from their blindness and the marginalized from their invisibility.

Theodore W. Jennings

Good News to the Poor

What people are saying about "The Wealth of the Poor"

I'm back from vacation and finished your wonderful book. . . . To me your book was all about taking risks, especially taking the risk of really getting to know people as individuals and uniting with them as neighbors.  I also loved how you took risks - like being honest that what you need most is financial support versus well-intentioned gifts of volunteerism that don't involve true personal investment. . . . I love how you say, again and again, that we are really all the same and that it is the simple things that people often need the most like the freedom of privacy. My favorite part of the book was Principle 5 and I agree completely with you!  Some times you just have to hold hands and jump.  And of course I completely agree with you that it is time to move beyond the concept of charity.

Michelle Corson, CEO

Champion Impact Capital

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Your book is already as dogeared as a college freshman recycled textbook. The wisdom, insight, humility, and acknowledgement that we all need to remain both student and teacher, is highly respected and deeply appreciated. 

Michael Samuelson

The Health and Wellness Alliance for Children

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If you haven't got a copy of Larry's book, you need to!  

Dr. Bob Biard

Texas A & M Adjunct Professor

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This book should be read by anyone interested in urban ministry in America today.

 Dr. Jerry Jones

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It is a good read--I learned a great deal about your early efforts that I didn't know.

John McStay

Dallas business leader

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Simply put, this is the best, most readable, and most powerful book on the social implications of the Christian religion that I have read.

Richard T. Hughes

Distinguished Professor of Religion at Messiah College

Director of the Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies

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Larry James is an inspiration to my life.  Each time he speaks, I learn something.  May God use this book to do for many what Larry has done for me:  to remind us of the value of every single human being.

Max Lucado

Bestselling author

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Thank you for sending me your book--a testimony in the most profound sense. You lived and wrote in the open, which opened up space for others to find their own way. I love your idea of a business card with an asterisk. And I love that the credo of CitySquare on the next to the last page could be true.

I would have left out a lot of the running argument with the parts of the church that still want to ask about evangelism. And there was more bible than needed. I looked for your honest statement once that you said "I believe more and more in less and less." The church--at least the part of it that has a heartbeat--is emerging there, I think. So I argue less and less with the old church, hanging with people who believe deeply, but simply. So I wonder if you, like me, are still waiting for the moment to write an honest theology.

Your book does make me long for time together.

In the meantime, you'll see the book sales leap by at least a dozen or more copies as I recommend it. 

 

You've done a good thing.

Gary Gunderson

VP Faith and Health Ministries

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

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Call today, toll free  1-877-816-4455 to order your copy of The Wealth of the Poor:  How Valuing Every Neighbor Restores Hope in Our Cities by Larry M. James.

 

Wealth of the Poor

At last, I'm proud to announce that my new book, Wealth of the Poor:  How Valuing Every Neighbor Restores Hope in Our Cities, is finally available. 

Well, almost widely available.

Let me explain. 

We missed the sales deadline to place the book widely in retail establishments and on-line.  So, what we have is a pre-release option on the book.

You can order it today directly from ACU Press by calling 877-816-4455 or by visiting their website at www.abilenechristianuniversitypress.com. 

Wider distribution will begin in May 2013, as you'll learn by going to Amazon!

Naturally, I hope the book sells to broaden the reach of the CitySquare story and its model for urban renewal. 

Let me know if you order one! 



Terry

I wish I had asked for a photograph. 

His beard was magnificent! 

The slightly built, Caucasian man rode up on a nice looking bicycle just as I was unloading more water from my truck for distribution on "the Corner."

"Have anything to eat?" he asked hopefully.

"No, sorry," I replied, "just water today."

"That's okay," he said.

His name is Terry. 

"Nice bike," I observed.  "It looks new."

"No, not new, but in pretty good shape," he commented.  "A guy gave me this bike."

"Really?" I responded.

"Yes, he ran over my old one, so he gave me this one as a replacement," he explained as I admired his ride.

We talked for a long time.  He explained that he was a street entertainer.

"I do card tricks and tell jokes for tips," he informed me. 

"Where?" I asked.

"Deep Ellum," he replied. 

"So, you work the clubs on the sidewalks?" I asked.

"Yes, but I know which ones to pick," he beamed. 

He told me that he had staked out a private, secret place where he stowed his belongings and where he bedded down.  He didn't like the shelters because once in, you can't get out until early morning. 

"I don't have much stuff," he noted as we talked about securing belongings.

"Really, if you're happy on the inside and a pleasant person on the outside, that's all that matters," he declared. 

"Happy on the inside" and "a pleasant person on the outside"--hmmm. 

Sounds like a Rx for contentment. 

"I used to be materialistic, but I've gone beyond that," he told me. 

Wisdom from a new friend.  I'd never seen Terry before yesterday. 

I certainly hope to see him again. 

Intersections

Someone once observed "that the kitchen is the heart of any home, but the porch is its soul."  
I get that.

I've spent a good deal of time thinking about porches lately.

As I've reported previously, every Thursday that I'm in town, I sit on the porch of an old, abandoned house on Malcolm X Boulevard.  I try to bring an ice chest of bottled water to share with passersby, as well as those who choose to stop and sit a while for a visit.

Almost all of the people I meet on this porch live on the streets of Dallas.  Almost all are extremely poor.  Most face challenges that I can't begin to comprehend.  But we have a grand time.

Recently, I sat on another porch that appeared quite different.

This second porch attached itself to a beautiful lodge nestled beside the White River outside Harrison, Arkansas.  Six of us, some acquainted and some not, made the trip to fly fish and enjoy the beauty of the river and its environs.

What a trip!  And we caught lots and lots of trout!

Every evening before enjoying a great meal prepared for us by the lodge owners, we would retreat to the back porch to visit and recount the day's fishing adventure.

After dinner, we migrated back to the porch to look at the stars, listen to the river, enjoy a night cap and visit some more.

On the surface these two porches would appear to have nothing whatsoever in common.

Abandoned, old, decaying house with porch to match versus the luxury and comfort of a well-maintained lodge home with open air, covered porch.

Beneath the surface where things happen that really matter, the two porches share so much in common.

On each porch, men sit and talk and laugh and enjoy each other's company.

On each porch, men reflect on family, finances, dreams, experiences and life.

On both porches, men really connect.

On both porches, men envision a better life, discuss hopes and dreams, recall setbacks and laugh about some truly stupid mistakes.

On both, a group of men enjoy fellowship, community, mutual support.

On each porch things happen, things verbalized that build up and nurture self-worth and value.

As I reflect, the amazing thing to me is just how similar the two "porch experiences" really are.

Here's the challenge:  how do I get the lives of the people hanging out on these two porches to intersect?

I know in my gut that such gatherings, especially if they were frequent, would transform the participants and, even more, our community.

Hmmm.  Maybe we need to plan a fishing trip!

Treating folks right. . .

Robert Egger is a hero of mine and of a number of us at City-Square.  Founder and CEO of the DC Central Kitchen, this man "gets it."  For him, hunger is not about food.  Rather, it is a symptom of a larger issue/problem. 

This report appeared recently in the Huffington Post.  Read it and watch it.  Give me your reactions.  Egger is attempting to align and redefine non-profit influence and power.

Robert Egger: Fighting Hunger And Stereotypes
The Huffington Post Abby Wendle
First Posted: 01/21/11 05:52 PM Updated: 01/21/11 06:26 PM

Robert Egger, founder of the DC Central Kitchen and the Campus Kitchens Project, has a unique approach to charity work, which came to him the first time he volunteered to feed the homeless.

I looked at the homeless men and women and thought, we can shorten the line if we make them part of the process," he said.

In the late 1980s, when Robert proposed the idea to take donated food from restaurants and train the homeless to cook it, people were skeptical.

"They were stuck in an old fashioned kind of charity. They had all these different reasons of why it wouldn't work. People would tell me, 'you can't train the homeless.' I was shocked by that," he said.

But Robert was determined. With a James Brown song as his mantra, "Open Up The Door I'll Get It Myself,", he spent months applying for grants and appealing to donors. Finally, he got a $25,000 grant, bought a refrigerated truck and opened DC Central Kitchen. At the time, he wasn't sure exactly how it would all work.

"I was making it up, no one had really done this before," he said. But people came. "Men and women who were alcoholics and heroine addicts, then crack addicts," he said. And they kept coming. "In 1996, we had welfare reform and a lot of women who had never worked before needed jobs. Now we're dealing with felons," he said.

The Kitchen also attracts some of D.C.'s biggest names to volunteer. The day President Clinton came remains in Robert's memory as an example of the power the kitchen has to get the well-off to rub elbows with the down-and-out.

Clinton didn't know how to cut a carrot," Robert said. "It was up to a student in the basement of a shelter to teach the President how to cut a carrot. That's the power of what we do. We show that everybody has a role to play and everybody has value. We don't fight hunger as much as we fight stereotypes," he said.

The organizations that Robert started do, in fact, also fight hunger. Everyday, the DC Central Kitchen takes 3,000 pounds of good food that would otherwise get thrown out and turns it into 4,500 meals that are served at shelters and addiction recovery centers. The Campus Kitchens project replicates DC Central Kitchen's model at 26 high schools and college campuses across America, teaching students to cook recovered cafeteria food and serve it to those in need. Combined, the kitchens are steadily fighting back against the food insecurity 50 million Americans, including 10 million children under the age of six, face.

But the kitchen also fights the stereotype that nonprofit organizations cannot be financially self-sustaining without donations.

"Right now, we're forcing people to choose between being a .org or a .com," Robert said. "The future is a hybrid, like economic Buddhism. We can take a middle road and do both."

Two unique aspects of Robert's organization allow it to walk this middle road. The DC Central Kitchen launched Fresh Start, a catering employment project, to generate revenue. Fresh Start currently generates 50 percent of the Kitchen's funding -- the rest come from grants and donations -- by buying fresh food from local farmers and successfully competing in Washington D.C.'s catering market. Fresh Start also provides made-from-scratch meals for seven elementary schools as part of a pilot project to improve the quality and nutrition of what students eat.

Secondly, the kitchen's Culinary Training Program trains dozens of Washington D.C. residents who are homeless, poor and convicted felons each year. Robert's "ragtag army of food lovers and badasses" learn to work in the food industry. The training program aims to get at the root problems that cause hunger.

"Hunger is so not about food -- hunger is a symptom. Hunger is about wage, it's about being in prison," he said.

Click here to read entire report and view YouTube video.

We agree with Egger, and we have for a long time. 

The Go Giver

If you haven't read The Go-Giver, you need to check it out! 

The principles apply in business, but also across the board generally for all aspects of life. 

My friend and partner, Dr. Jim Walton gave me a copy for my birthday this year.  Thanks, Dr. Jim!   Great, inspirational read.  Not so much a new message, but packaged so well in a story that pulls you along to the next page. 

Two Men

One flying home in his blind rush,

Agendas whirling,
Time demanding,
Wheel in hand,

Thinking of lunch and after,

Work, football, family, obligations,

Weary with the constant press.

One limping along with one concern,

Eating something,

A next meal's hope

Balanced now atop a makeshift cart,

Once a baby carriage,

Piled high with cans,

Weary of the day-to-day nothing.

One glancing in a rearview mirror,

Then into tired, empty eyes,

Catches sight of the canner

With his limp and

His valiant struggle to right His load,

Considers their common burden.

One surprised by the car,

The lowered window, the offer,

"Mister, can I buy your cans?"

Of course, where should I put them?

A cash exchange, a brief moment of

Human contact to lift a burden,

A tear in the eye of each.

Two men,
A few words, smiles,
A small amount of cash,
Exchanged together with connection,
Without obligation;
Pure concern, pure gratitude,
Relief for both.

Community, not charity

Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (NIV)

It may be my favorite snippet from Jesus. Just a brief reflection he offered when at a party table himself, thanks to the invitation of a wealthy religious leader of his day.

I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his interpretation:

Then he turned to the host. "The next time you put on a dinner, don't just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You'll be—and experience—a blessing. They won't be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God's people." (The Message)

No telling how many times I've read the words. But I just saw something new and extremely important about this story.

No doubt, Jesus is seated at a table with his host for the party meal. As he observes the assembly of invited guests, he offers his suggestion about the guest list the next time his rich friend throws a party. He encourages his friend to invite people who don't often, if ever, receive an invitation to a party.

But, here's what I hadn't thought of until now.

Jesus doesn't have in mind a soup line or a giveaway effort.

What he imagines is exactly what he is enjoying. A sit-down dinner at the host's table. He's talking about serious friendship and fellowship! He wants his friend to discover the joy of the poor.

The reciprocity will not come in the form of any future invitation to come to their homes for a "pay back" party.

No. The payback will be in the event itself and in the eternal scheme of things to come.

I love it.

We dare not settle for the confines of controllable charity. We must dive into the deeps of genuine community engagement.

There we will find the true joy!

Bill Moyers' Commencement Speech at SMU

Bill Moyers presented the commencement speech for the Southern Methodist University Class of 2007 on May 19.

The entire speech is more than worth your time. You can find it at: http://www.smu.edu/newsinfo/stories/
commencementday2007.asp.

What follows is just a section of his poignant commentary on life in the USA today, a big part of the world every graduate will face as they move out with their lives.
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Let me see if I can say it a different way. A moment ago, when the reunion class of 1957 stood up to be recognized, I was taken back half a century to my first year at the University of Texas. In my mind’s eye I saw Gilbert McAlister – “Dr. Mac” – pacing back and forth in his introductory class to anthropology. He had spent his years as a graduate student among the Apache Indians on the plains of Texas. He said he learned from them the meaning of reciprocity. In the Apache tongue, he told us, the word for grandfather was the same as the word for grandson. Generations were linked together by mutual obligation. Through the years, he went on; we human beings have advanced more from collaboration than competition. For all the chest-thumping about rugged individuals and self-made men, it was the imperative and ethic of cooperation that forged America. Laissez faire – “Leave me alone” – didn’t work. We had to move from the philosophy of “Live and let live” to “Live and help live.” You see, civilization is not a natural act. Civilization is a veneer of civility stretched across primal human appetites. Like democracy, civilization has to be willed, practiced, and constantly repaired, or society becomes a war of all against all.

Think it over: On one side of this city of Dallas people pay $69 for a margarita and on the other side of town the homeless scrounge for scraps in garbage cans. What would be the civilized response to such a disparity?

Think it over: In 1960 the gap in wealth between the top 20% of our country and the bottom 20% was thirty fold. Now it is 75 fold. Stock prices and productivity are up, and CEO salaries are soaring, but ordinary workers aren’t sharing in the profits they helped generate. Their incomes aren’t keeping up with costs. More Americans live in poverty – 37 million, including 12 million children. Twelve million children! Despite extraordinary wealth at the top, America’s last among the highly developed countries in each of seven measures of inequality.

Our GDP outperforms every country in the world except Luxembourg. But among industrialized nations we are at the bottom in functional literacy and dead last in combating poverty. Meanwhile, regular Americans are working longer and harder than workers in any other industrial nation, but it’s harder and harder for them to figure out how to make ends meet…how to send the kids to college…and how to hold on securely in their old age. If we’re all in this together, what’s a civilized response to these disparities?

America’s a broken promise. America needs fixing. . . .

Some of the elders among you will remember that Martin Luther King made a powerful speech here at SMU in 1966. It’s been said – this part of the story may be apocryphal – that when he was asked why he chose SMU instead of one of the all-black colleges, Dr. King replied: “Because if John Wesley were around he’d be standing right here with me.” Martin Luther King said at SMU: “…The challenge in the days ahead is to work passionately and unrelentingly…to make justice a reality for all people.” One of your own graduates – the Reverend Michael Waters – got it right a few years ago when he was a student here: “Martin Luther King became the symbol not only of the civil rights movement but of America itself: A symbol of a land of freedom where people of all races, creeds, and nationalities could live together as a Beloved Community.”

Not as an empire. Or a superpower. Not a place where the strong take what they can and the weak what they must. But a Beloved Community. It’s the core of civilization, the crux of democracy, and a profound religious truth.

But don’t go searching for the Beloved Community on a map. It’s not a place. It exists in the hearts and minds – our hearts and minds – or not at all.

Churches, Poverty and the Inner City

Church leaders often remark to me, "What can we do to really be involved in the work you are doing? We don't want to just write a check."

I understand and appreciate the sentiment behind the question, at least I think I do.

Of course, there are some clear facts to consider in this discussion.

First, churches don't write many checks to support our work here in Dallas. We project, based on past experience, that contributions by churches to Central Dallas Ministries during 2007 will total a good bit less than 5% of our operations budget. So, you will understand that from our perspective, in view of the needs and opportunities we face every day, it is not a bad thing for a church to simply write us a check, or better yet, a check a month!

Second, getting churches involved in inner city neighborhoods can be a little tricky. For one thing, lots of church folks want to lavish lots of stuff on poor people. This can be useful at times, if we are talking about the right stuff, delivered in the proper manner. But for the most part, free stuff is not what is needed or even best for our communities.

For example, putting low-income persons in a position to control the process of, say, hunger relief or clothing distribution, may be much better than having church folks from outside the community deliver the goods directly to the poor.

If your goal is community and human development, you look for ways to avoid the creation of dependence or a neo-colonial approach to relief and compassion efforts. If the community senses that it is being assisted by its own members, things seem to work better and lead somewhere beyond the venue and limitations of charity. Churches that are mature enough to entrust resources to inner city leaders and community organizers without the demand to be involved in the delivery process usually are doing much more than they realize to promote health in distressed communities.

Third, churches from outside the inner city can make a big difference if they are willing to simply work on developing authentic friendships. Churches may want to "adopt" a neighborhood, not to shower it with material gifts, but to come to know it, the environment, the challenges and its residents. As relationships form around various projects and meetings, friendship will lead naturally to joint action.

Such an approach takes time and commitment that includes and goes beyond check writing.

One of our best supporting churches is in the process of adopting the community formed by one of our apartment complexes. Church members have spent weekends painting and repairing apartments. They have had picnics and they have erected a much-needed fence around the front yard to protect the children who play outside from their rather busy street. I know his group plans to stay with it and get to know the people who live there.

Such an approach is key to really being involved in a way that goes beyond checks to friendships and community connections. The benefits are mutual and reciprocal. Both groups benefit from one another. This is key.

If an action does not result in reciprocal benefit for both groups and everyone involved, it likely should be reconsidered or redesigned. Including neighborhood folks in any planning for such activities will be a step in the right direction from the get-go.

Not every church is ready for such a commitment. That's okay.

Checks placed in the hands of community and ministry leaders are crucial to our continued progress. If more follows on from the financial commitment, well and good.

Please though, don't underestimate the importance and power of simply writing a check!