World on Fire

by

World on Fire

The world's on fire and

it's more than I can handle.

I'll tap into the water

(try and bring my share).

I try to bring more,

more than I can handle.

(Bring it to the table.)             

       -Sarah McLachlan

This chorus from Sarah McLachlan’s song “World on Fire” kept playing in my head this morning as I sat in my study reading God’s word and praying for the people of Nepal and Baltimore, Maryland after this week’s tragic events. The death count in Nepal from last Sunday’s 7.8 magnitude killer quake is more than 5500 and rising. Shocked and worried citizens in Baltimore are sweeping up broken glass following peaceful protests that then erupted into violence, burning and looting in many Baltimore neighborhoods following Freddie Gray’s funeral on Monday. Gray, a 25-year-old African American, had been arrested by Baltimore police on April 12 and placed in a police van, suspiciously leaving the van later with what turned out to be fatal injuries.

The Freddie Gray incident is just one more tragic chapter in recent violent clashes pitting police officers against protestors following the arrest or death at police hands of a young black male. Decades after the passage of the Civil Rights Agreement, we remain in many ways a deeply divided nation. The divide is not only racial but also socioeconomic. Badly broken systems fuel resentment and feelings of hopelessness:

—Loss of jobs has contributed to a shrinking middle class as corporations to save money moved manufacturing, information technology and even customer support capabilities to developing countries. Per the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. multinational companies that employ a fifth of all American workers cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million.

—Broken systems for funding public schools create huge inequities in student experiences and opportunities. A recent Ed Trust study revealed that nationally the highest poverty districts receive about $1200 less in government funding per student than the lowest poverty districts. In a school of 1000 kids, that’s an annual difference of $1.2 million. Districts that serve the most students of color receive $2000 less per student. In my state of Ohio, school report cards show a nearly straight-line correlation between poverty and state test scores.

—Our immigration systems and policies are broken. Last year tens of thousands of children from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras crossed into the U.S. uninvited seeking safety and asylum from violence, human trafficking and poverty. Many towns and cities quickly passed proposals banning the temporary housing within their boundaries of any of the children. Often angry and vociferous protestors surrounded buses carrying the children to housing centers, directing their sometimes frenzied fury toward the children instead of approaching those in authority who would set or review immigration policy on behalf of the children. States like Alabama passed highly discriminatory, and later failed immigration laws, in the absence of a coherent U.S. policy.

—The U.S. Justice Department’s investigation into Ferguson, Missouri revealed that the police routinely violated the rights of blacks. Although a third of the city’s population is white, blacks accounted for 85 percent of traffic stops and 93 percent of arrests.

These broken systems need to be addressed! But, the problem is much bigger than simply a system problem – it is also a heart problem. What is my responsibility, what is your responsibility, to “tap into the water,” to “try to bring my share”?

I live in Tipp City, Ohio, a community that is primarily white and middle class, with a median household income that runs about 15 percent higher than the average for the entire state of Ohio. I have not relocated my home into a neighborhood that is more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse. It would be easy for me to bury my head in the sand and not be aware of my neighbors’ plight. As my friend Shane Claiborne has said, “The great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor... I long for the Calcutta slums to meet the Chicago suburbs, for lepers to meet landowners and for each to see God’s image in the other... I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.” (The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical). We could also swap out the words “poor” and “rich” for the words “black” and “white” and Shane’s point remains completely valid. So, as individuals, as churches, what do we do?

Ginghamsburg’s primary campus in Tipp City has always been predominantly white, mirroring the ethnic make-up of the nearest communities. Yet, we consider it essential at Ginghamsburg to demonstrate the diversity of the Kingdom, so we work to model all types of diversity across our staff, through the folks who lead worship from the stage each weekend and even in the congregation photos we choose to include in print and electronic communications.

Our two church restarts are located in racially and socioeconomically diverse communities. It is important that I visit our Fort McKinley and The Point campuses periodically to witness and be a witness to those communities. The Point is located in Trotwood, where 66 percent of the population is African American. When my daughter’s family lived with Carolyn and me for a number of months during their relocation from Boston to Cincinnati, I signed up to be the assistant coach for a team of four-year-olds in the Trotwood soccer program and enrolled my granddaughter on the team. I don’t want her, or I, to miss out on the beautiful diversity of what it can mean to love our neighbors. I am my brothers’ keeper – and they are mine!

Following the Ferguson crisis, our campuses hosted community sit-downs between neighbors and police officers. Healing begins with honest dialogue and listening. Part of our mission as the church is to create safe spaces in which deep wounds can be healed. You and I need to be praying daily for the young black males growing up in our surrounding communities and the parents who love them. We need to help neighbors understand that most police officers are fair, just and decent people, honestly working the best they know how to serve and protect.

Our servants have developed partnerships with struggling partner schools to tutor and mentor students. In one early Dayton City School System partnership, elementary student test scores within a three-year window moved from being in the bottom third of the large school system rankings to the top third after Ginghamsburg invested time and resources into impacting students.

Ginghamsburg works to become incarnational and relevant in the communities we serve. Our worship and missions pastor for our Fort McKinley Campus, Rusty Eshleman, purchased a home just blocks away from the church and moved his young family in. The per capita income of folks who live in Fort McKinley, located on the northwest side of Dayton, is only $18,000. Drug houses, crime, and poverty have been hallmarks of the community. Yet Rusty and wife Renae are raising their two children there.

How do we cross racial and socioeconomic barriers? We must intentionally make ourselves students of others’ lives. We need to teeter trustingly on the leading edge, at times even the “bleeding” edge, of where Christ is working in the world – changing systems and changing hearts. Ignorance, avoidance and denial will not fly as valid excuses on the day we meet Jesus, the day we are held accountable for what we have proactively done to renew, rebuild and restore a world that’s on fire. 

The Rev. Mike Slaughter serves as senior pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio. This post is reprinted with permission from his blog, MikeSlaughter.com.