Discern Vs. Dismiss

A few days back after being witness to the Beloved Community Council, a DOOR gathering based on the spirit and vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. to lift up and empower a diverse chorus of this country's voices, especially as it relates to the ministry of our work in cities, I feel recharged, honored, and ready for a new year.  I’m so grateful to be part of such an intentional organization, one that takes risks, listens, challenges, and steps back when needed.

DOOR Hollywood board member and regular speaker, Toni White, and I had a great discussion on the flight home.  It led to some thoughts I'm having about the propensity for Christians to hide behind "discernment.”  Or, I should say, “discernment” has too often meant, “dismissiveness.”

In my first 10 years as a Christian, born-again, woken up, however you want to classify, I have learned greatly about Discernment.  That, one role we share as Christians is to prayerfully find our role in God’s kingdom, and prayerfully find the ways we are supposed to recognize something is out of our control.  Sometimes we have to discern “swine” and reserve our pearls for those outside the sty.  Sometimes we have to own that we have “savior complexes,” and for some of us there is an overlay of “white savior guilt counter-complexes,” and step back.

But, in my next 10 years, I want to dig into discernment.  In some of the circles I’ve found myself in, “discernment” has been code for “dismiss.”  In other words, I might call it “discernment” when I don’t want to engage in a hot racial argument; in hearing the reason why a man living homelessly gives for needing that dollar; in stepping away from a situation that looks too complicated and messy.  And, sometimes, that might be good discernment.  But, it might also be a desire to not engage, which is more accurately described as being dismissive.

Discernment requires that we “intake,” and intake requires that we listen, take time, hear.  You can’t discern if you have no information.  You can’t adequately pray about something if you haven’t heard the core issue.  Now, sometimes we might seriously not be available, and that is okay, as we who seek justice and freedom cannot rest, and we ought to.  But if I’m honest, haven’t I used the word “discernment” when I just chose to avoid from the outset?

We are not called to be dismissive people.  We are called to NOT overlook, to NOT ignore.  May we feel called to step into the hard places and questions with boundless compassion, and may God make it clear when we are to accept rest.

Come see the new Dwellers, Lanita, Christian, Heather, Sara, Steph, Jordan, and Heather settling in by clicking here!

Be well, friends: Matthew

Complicating a Single Story

Complicate Single Stories with DOOR Hollywood:

The parables of Jesus urge us to see past our limited understandings, or single story, of people who are different than us, the nature of God, the ways to right living.  DOOR Hollywood, a multi-tiered urban ministry has been studying the damaging effects of the current single stories we are inundated with, often repetitively portrayed by television, movies, and news reports.  What comes to mind when one thinks of “the homeless,” “the gang member,” “the immigrant,” “the single mother on welfare,” “the celebrity,” “the elderly,” and “kids these days.”  Are we seeing our neighbors as people or as problems?  Are we seeing them the way God asks us to?  Are we able to humble ourselves to learn from a former prisoner, to see God’s face in a woman living on the streets?   Come hear our stories in progress as we wrestle with these questions.  Visit us for a weekend, a week, or living in intentional community for a year as a Dweller, and stay in touch with us on Twitter and Facebook.  #DOORStories14

Stories In Progress, #DOORStories14

some really fun photos from our Stories in Progress event at CBS Radford Studio's "New York Street" tonight.   see more here: #DOORStories14

If you weren't able to make it, and still want to support us, click here

 

DOOR Hollywood PRESENTS: STORIES IN PROGRESS!

Thursday, July 10th, 6pm at CBS STUDIOS' NEW YORK STREET

With three overlapping programs, Discern, Dwell, and Discover, our fundraising needs are the largest they’ve ever been. DOOR Hollywood invites you to attend this special event, hosted for the first time at CBS Radford Studios on beautiful 'New York Street,' home of Brooklyn 99, Seinfeld, and countless other "city" scenes.

Come learn about DOOR's local mission of 'complicating the single stories,’ digging deeper than any news report dares to go and trying to follow Jesus' example of storytelling in the Good Samaritan parable, while breaking the bread of Mama’s Hot Tamales, great company, and experiencing one of LA's most unique silent auctions in a vibrant street-fair setting.

Please RSVP by clicking here.

We also have a massive fundraising goal of $50,000, and need everyone to help even if you can't attend.  Every donation matters, from $5 to $500, so please help if you feel called.

Please click here to help fundraise before our celebration on July 10th!

In the peace of Christ,

Matthew & Marvin
#DOORStories14

Fires.

Not gonna lie: I'm starting the summer burned out.  Literally.  Last Friday morning, we received a call that our storage unit was burning down.  This was filled, mostly, with baby clothes, baby furniture, and other appliances from our downsize three years ago.  Photo albums miraculously survived; refrigerator, not so much.  Think: Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Nazi's face melting upon seeing God.  We lost about 75% of what was in there.

Matthew 6:19-20 keeps floating through my thoughts.  If I'm honest, it's really annoying me: Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.  Yes, I agree, but unfortunately, it still hurts to lose.  It still hurts to throw away toys that meant a lot to your daughters.  Darcie's original artwork and my personal song lyric workbooks, gone.  And all because of a very chance accident with linseed oil in another unit.  A costly lesson, indeed.

Amidst this, we have also learned that one of our Dwellers has been diagnosed with a cancer, and while it is promisingly very treatable, that treatment must start immediately and not here in LA.  The emotional burn is painful to all of us: Marvin, the Dwell community, the neighbors.  We pray for her, pray for God to move the mountains of fear and pain.  And this week, I think we all started to feel the physical loss of someone very dear to us.  

So, launching Discern and Discover this week seems impossible, and yet, here we are.  Last week, Silverlake Presbyterian, a local group, came for a day and really engaged with our Discerners.  And, last night with our new friends from Laramie, Wyoming, was maybe a piece of the "treasure of heaven."

Toni & Albert, our regular speakers came to share experiences with homelessness.  After this, Toni turned to the idea of racial reconciliation, asking folks to consider if we see a homeless white man different than we see a homeless black man.  The answers were honest and troubling, but opened a massive, 90 minute discussion on race in general.  Toni asked everyone in the room what they thought about brown-skinned people in general.  We asked what we all thought about pinkish-orange folks.  Luis, a new Discerner shared experiences of assumptions made of him as a Mexican-American.  "Why are white people afraid?"  "Why do we shy away from talking about racism?"  "Why does CNN ask if Donald Sterling is racist or not (of course he is!) but it misses the bigger truth that we all have aspects of racism within, and it's not whether we do or not, but how we will process, handle, and build bridges despite that...."

I even got to be called out: as we study single stories, I made a comment while a Wyoming teen was telling us about an experiment his teacher conducted in middle school to simulate racism.  As a sort of "amen," I said, "go Wyoming."  The Wyoming leader pointed out to me that my statement suggested a single story of his state as being incapable of caring about diversity, caring about the ongoing damage of racism. He's right.  Touché, and amen.  I asked forgiveness, we all moved on.

Marvin brought it home when he asked, "pink people in the room, have you ever had an African-American ask you how you feel about black people?"  The conversation was generous, honest, and deeply moving.  Felt a little like the stirring of the Spirit, apropos a day after Pentecost.

Which is why I love this work, even exhausted.  Marvin's point: DOOR allows these kinds of spaces to exist, these kinds of conversations to flow, these kinds of kingdom moments to spark.  And to find grace when we say the wrong thing.  

It's this kind of treasure that recharges and fires me up.  Not gonna lie, pun very much intended.

Peace,

Matthew

Stories In Progress EVENT, July 10, 2014! All are welcome!

The 'Story in Progress' of DOOR Hollywood is that it's growing, and working to provide more paying internships and opportunities for local teens and adults to serve as hosts to our Dwellers and Discover group delegations to Hollywood.

On July 10, 2014, we will hold our largest fundraiser in our history at CBS Radford Studios in Studio City, California.  It will be a street fair and silent auction along "New York Street," familiar to most as the site of Seinfeld, Brooklyn 99, and countless other moments of stories set in a city.

DOOR Hollywood is the story of our city.  Please RSVP by clicking here.

We also have a massive fundraising goal, and need everyone to help even if you can't attend.  

Please click here to help fundraise before our celebration on July 10th!

In the peace of Christ,

Matthew & Marvin
#DOORStories14

Stories in Progress: Along the Border

DOOR Hollywood follows the example of Jesus' parable about the Samaritan, in that it would appear that the idea of "the Samaritan" was a person who would not be expected to have any kindness to offer.  And yet....

The Hollywood YAV/Dwellers recently visited the Mexican/US border in Agua Prieta, Sonora, and listened to migrant's stories, listened to the protocols of the border patrol from their office, and stepped into Mexico as guests, being hosted by families working hard to make a life in Mexico sustainable and profitable.  Jocabad, our leader, asked: what can we learn when we step to the other's side?  Not just the "other-side," but the other's side.  How will Jesus meet us there?

As we walked along the border in Mexico, I thought of my times in Dachau where many died; my standing on New Orleans' Congo Square where many stepped off boats into slavery; thought of preserved stops of the Underground Railroad where many passed to freedom.  These were moments that have happened.  As we walked along the dusty desert trail leading to a common crossing point, I felt the electric energy of a moment of great human history happening NOW.  The water tank we filled may very well be used tonight, and many prayers go up along that trail.  Prayers of protection, prayers of hope, prayers against fear, prayers for something better.  It was sacred space, the solemnity and power of now.

Please see more photos from our journey by clicking here.  

Blessings and hope to you in this now,
Matthew
#DOORStories14