Karl Westerhof

Grace CRC in GR, MI has a house next door to the church.  We use it for a residence for people who are committed to living in community in an urban place, and who want to help Grace be a neighborhood church.  We're in our second year, with about five people in residence most of the time.  Most are students part or full time.  

We would LOVE to talk with others interested in learning about this venture.   We've learned a lot, and we still have a LOT of learning to do!  I assume you are familiar with Calvin College's Project Neighborhood.  Be sure to check them out.   And give me  a call!  We'd be glad  to help any way we can.

We've been broken into and had things taken.  You describe the lessons and the feelings well!  One of the wonderful things that happened was that friends came over and prayed with us, including prayers for protection for the house and for my wife when I traveled.  That meant a lot, and the memory is still wonderful and powerful 30 years later.

In our particular situation, we were in a highly fragile and disconnected urban community.  We felt no circle of support from neighbors.  The pastor of our church made it a point to be aware of our situation, and to take it into account when he related to us.  That was very helpful too.

"... all of our benevolent efforts should in the end be pointing towards stewardship, towards a place where the person being helped can claim their identity as a steward..."

I really like that, Jeff!  This is a wonderful way to think about the work of the deacon.... it's a ministry of "accompaniment", walking along side of people, building relationships of mutuality and reciprocity, enhancing the ability of both partners to live the lives God intended - restorers and stewards of SHALOM.   Sometimes the partnership is with church members, and sometimes with community folk.  sometimes with the rich, and sometimes with the poor.

This is beautiful, and also challenging!   Is this what deacons get to do, by God's grace?   What an honor we have.

Hi, Kelib, I think your question refers to Jeff's comments about  mercy having a goal of not just relief but of restoration.  I'm sure Jeff will want to respond to you, but in the mean time I wanted to say something as well.   Our world is broken by sin, and the effects of that are deep.  The breaks are bad.   Sometimes restoration can be only partial, or even totally impossible.  What to do?

I think that showing mercy can sometimes be a healing practice even though restoration as we hoped and prayed doesn't happen.   God's mercy, as shown by and through his people, can accomplish surprising things - that is a matter of trust!  So it's a sign of the Kingdom, and those to whom it is shown can read it whether or not it accomplishes "restoration" as we envisioned it.

Your question reminds me of my own wrestling with Micah 6:8. Just what is justice, and what is mercy and how in the world do they relate? Some days I really get it; most days not so much.
How does this sound? Taking care of people who are hurt by the ways things are - that's mercy. Setting things right so people aren't getting hurt - that's justice.
How to teach this? I have a few ideas, but nothing that's fresh and wonderful! I think the more people get to really know and spend time with hurting people, the more their passion for mercy and justice is kindled. But there also have to be some support systems, places to process feelings and new insights, opportunities to engage, connect, relate.... Safe places to confess.... skills and information.... practice new behavior.... Does this sound right? I have the feeling I'm still not quite in tune with your question.

What can God's people offer each other when there is deep deep pain? Dr. Joel C. Hunter writes in the November, 2010 Sojourners about the pain of losing his five year old grand daughter to cancer.  He writes: "It is startling to experience how present God was (and still is) through those whom God sent to love and encourage us."  He suggests that we can learn about a new kind of power - the power of compassion.  Dr Hunter concludes:  "If you have ever wondered if acts of kindness really make a difference....  Compassion is never wasted.  It has the power to give us hope, but also somehow to remind us that goodness and mercy do follow us all the days of our lives and that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Thanks, Jeff, for mentioning When Helping Hurts, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.  (Moody, 2009)   Its subtitle is "How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself".   I mention that because it's amazing how often our best intentions have "unintended negative side effects", and this book addresses that problem about as well as any I've read.

This book is readable, biblical, developmental, and comprehensive, and did I mention readable?   You don't need to be a scholar to get it.  It'll introduce you to basic understanding of what poverty is, and how the church can respond to it....   and it opens with one of the best stories I've ever read about wonderful good intentions and their surprisingly dismaying effects.

This book will also introduce you to ABCD - Asset Based Community Development.  ABCD is a tool that will sharpen all the other tools in your box.

If you've not read it, I recommend it.   And parts of it could be used to make great deacons' discussions!

JT, Steve VS (works for WM) who hosts the missions page, and Wendy Hammond at CRWRC, and then the offices of BTGMI and Home Missions.... there are folks who would be happy to send you exactly what you are looking for. I'll mention this to them too.

This is some fresh exegesis! I like it. It really helps undermine that sort of "second class citizen" syndrome so often associated with being a deacon!

Hmmmm.... let's see. 1967. How prophetic was THAT?! 43 years ago. I was, ummm, a student at CTS. It's hard to imagine that this paragraph you quote comes from that long ago. Could it be a prohetic utterance spoken also to the church in 2010?

Very cool to see the Phils CRC is ahead of us on this one!   And I know that's due in large part to the work you did over the years, Brother Eli!   I think the task force now working on the office of deacon in the CRCNA will help us look hard at this and will bring us up to speed.  I pray for that.

Yes, I see.   The data you cite is heart breaking.  It make a giant leap in my mind to the question of why the increasing numbers of article 17s....   could it be that the loving relationship between pastor and flock gets weakened by preaching that seems disconnected, and then flaws take center stage and resentment follows....