One of my extracurricular ministry things I do in my life as
well as pastoring a wonderful church of Christ followers in Littlerock, California, is that I serve as a board member of the DOOR Network in Hollywood.
I’ve only served on the board for a short few months. I’m still a little wet
behind the ears when it comes to the whole “board” thing. I have some cool
history with DOOR that goes way back before DOOR ever came to Hollywood and
some of that history stems from a church that I was part of for several years
and that God used in transforming my life for Christ.
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| Eduardo at Homegirl Cafe |
This past week I got to witness with my own eyes why the
DOOR Network exists. Part of the DOOR mission statement is, “DOOR invites our
Discover, Discern and Dwell participants to See the face of God in the city.”
This was played out during a reflection time with a group of kids and adults
who were from that cool place north of us here in the states called Canada. As
Eduardo, our guest Director from San Antonio for the week, was leading the reflection
time, (Matthew and his wife are about to have their second child), my friend
Marvin, who is also a board member and I got to be observants of a group of
kids who really worked hard at discerning what it means to truly see God’s face
in the city.
As the students shared their experiences from the task they
were given that evening, one student in particular stood out to me the most. As
he was talking and sharing about his experience at an agency, I couldn’t help
but notice this kids transformation right in front of my own eyes. It was as if
God had come down and was holding this kids eyelids literally “wide open.”
This student was telling the story about a conversation he
had with someone at the agency he helped at earlier in the day and how he was
blessed by this conversation and how this particular someone gave him a gift
that blew him away. As the student described the exchange, the student began to
talk about his own “preconceived” notions about what homeless persons were like
and that he just assumed they were all “jaded” individuals. As he finished
sharing, he said something that sounded like, “I came to the city thinking I
had nothing in common with the people I’ve met and I’m leaving knowing that I
have lots in common.” (My paraphrase).
This is what DOOR does. It changes the gospel from being
about just “fixing” to a gospel of interaction. Too many of us in the church
hear the words of Jesus in John 13:34 as “A new command I give you: fix one
another. As I have fixed you, so you must fix one another.” Groups who have the chance to participate in
something like DOOR, don’t come to a place like Hollywood just to fix
homelessness. They come to interact with Jesus and to be in the presence of
those who are just as broken and in need of God’s grace and mercy as we are.
They come to learn what it means to go into the world and love as Jesus loved.
They leave having learned what it means to also receive God’s love through the
gift of relationships. This is life changing and has the ability to turn around
any church and it wouldn’t cost a church a single dime to implement a gospel of
interaction, a face to face, no holds barred kind of love that Jesus gave to us
in the story of the cross and in the post resurrection story of how Jesus calls
us to be in the world.
“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the
same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize
that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” John
13:34-35
-by Reverend KC Wahe, a member of the DOOR Hollywood Board. Follow his blog here.
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