[caption id="attachment_1530" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="David teaching one of our homeless guests how to play Bingo"][/caption] The Super Bowl for the City party is in the history books, and though I may not remember who won it in a few years, I'll remember how I spent this Super Bowl. It turns out that hanging with the homeless for the game is a whole lot more fun than my usual guest list! The first few minutes are always the toughest. That's when…
Kind of a dramatic statement, isn't it? But inbetween the cheering, the commercials, the dips and the wings, Jesus is definitely going to be at my Superbowl party. Why? Because David and I have decided not to throw our own party this year. Instead, we are going to Christ Fellowship's Superbowl in the City party. It's an outdoor event with an even mix of guests and volunteers. And oh yes, the guests are the homeless of West Palm Beach. With…
I have a Twitter friend named @invisiblepeople. This person whom I have never met profiles the faces of homeless people across the country. Every time I see one of his or her status's cross my phone, I'm reminded to stop, be thankful, get involved. Twitter has helped me "see" homelessness more than ever. Last week David and I were wandering around downtown Boston waiting for my kids. We walked by a homeless man selling Boston's homeless newspaper, Spare change. We've…
Hello everyone! I've missed you! I deliberately took most of Easter week off from the blog in order to practice the concept of Sabbath, resting, allowing God to speak into a space of time and energy. But I'm back and brimming with tidbits that don't fit into whole posts. So enjoy the chatter around the coffee shop today. Last year I went to a conference called Q. At the time, I knew Q was having an impact on my life,…
Writing about the homeless is tricky. For one thing, they are a remarkably internet-savvy group. Every time I write about them, I hear from them. This delights me, and terrifies me all at the same time. It delights me because traditionally homeless have not had a voice for themselves, but in this internet age, they have an electronic presence. This gives them a way to speak. It terrifies me because, well...I'm not homelesss and I really don't have even a…
Most businesses are run by people who look a lot like you and me. Not Street Roots, a newspaper produced by and for the homeless in Portland, Oregon. It's sole purpose is to be a voice for the voiceless and provide financial opportunities to the truly unemployable in Portland. Vendors -- also homeless -- can sell the newspaper for a profit and provide some basic needs for themselves. Some have even changed their entire way of life because of this…
I watched an episode of ABC Primetime's "What Would You Do?" tonight. I could probably write forever about the moral dilemmas they pose to unsuspecting passersby. One scene struck me in particular tonight. An actor poses as a homeless man collapsing on the street. The question is, how long will it take bystanders to call an ambulance? Turns out, quite a long time. To exacerbate the matter, the producers put a can of beer in the actor's "passed out" hand.…
Visiting Christ Fellowship's various campuses always causes me to come away shaking my head, amazed at the radically different personalities that have developed from one heart and one ministry. The City Place campus, also called the Ascent, seems like the bohemian, artsy little sister of the Christ Fellowshp group. City Place itself is a mid-sized commercial redevelopment program, an outdoor lifestyle center that is about as hip as you can get in West Palm Beach without descending into gritty. The…
I reprinted this recent entry from my church's "Stories" newsletter. I was touched by John's thoughtfulness in dealing with Ross. John was one of the Christ Fellowship Pastors who went to Q with us last April. This story is such a great picture of living out the life of Jesus in the kingdom one life at a time. You can read the original article here, along with a few other Christ Fellowship stories. Ross prays for you when he goes…
