Inspire, Winter 2002

L O G O S Bible Department Takes A Retreat Students and faculty from the department of biblical education spent a weekend together at Scioto Hills Baptist Camp this past September for what is hoped will be an annual event. The first retreat was a great success as evidenced by student and faculty participation in various events from paint ball to carpet bowling. One hundred and two students attended, as did 25 faculty and faculty family members. Get-acquainted games and small group discussions were organized for Friday night to allow students to get to know their faculty more personally. A Saturday morning prayer time with small groups of students meeting and praying with faculty provided a real spiritual stimulus and helped create a deeper sense of fellowship. The Senior Chapel Band, led by Tristan Mason, led a worship service which was well- received by both students and faculty alike. One student wrote in a thank you card: “I’m so amazed and grateful you all took a whole weekend off to spend time with us and encourage us. Thanks.” Another said, “Thank you so much for taking the time to spend time with us! I also enjoyed getting to know some of your wives. We are all so blessed to have you as our professors!” Another commented, “Thanks much for the great idea and the effort and commitment you put into it. It’s a privilege to be learning from you.” Such comments encouraged us to view the weekend as a tremendous success. We also extend our thanks to Gary Storm ’77 and his staff at Scioto Hills for helping us achieve our objectives and for providing the great facilities and good food which added to our enjoyment. as nothing, who has nothing, and has nowhere to go. One of the more painful personal lessons one learns in such a context is the profound disrespect much of the middle class has towards the poor. It underscores how little we often know or understand about the Bible’s view of this stratum of society. There is nothing quite like practical experience, and those who spend this time on the street never view the poor in quite the same light. Because some of my students will minister in the city on behalf of Jesus, I want them to see the urban poor as real people for whom Christ died regardless of racial, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. And, I want students to know something of what it is like to be in their shoes. Sunday morning in Waco we fellowshipped with “Church Under the Bridge,” a church that has no building. They meet under an I-35 bridge overpass year-round, bringing in folding chairs, a sound system, and a trailer for a nursery. There were probably 300 people there representing a wide diversity of people and socio-economic backgrounds. Many were street people; many were not. You sense, however, sitting in a poor congregation under an urban overpass, the need for God’s people to identify with and reach out to folks that the evangelical community typically has avoided. There is a growing interest in urban issues on the campus here at Cedarville. Some come already with a passion for the city; some catch it while here. Many are involved in Open Heirs or other urban-focused ministries; some of our Bible majors have done their internships in an inner-city context. I am asking God to continue to fan the flame here on campus and raise up men and women who will invest their lives in the city! In the urban ministry class at Cedarville University, we focus on both the theological and practical aspects of ministry. We spend a significant amount of time at the beginning developing a philosophy of ministry that is theologically informed about such issues as one’s perspective on the city, God’s compassion for the poor, dynamics of a multi-cultural environment, and ministering holistically. We want those who will be serving in urban areas to be able to think theologically about the context in which they find themselves. This is crucial since many middle-class suburbanites tend to have only minimal exposure to what the Bible has to say about those issues, and as a result are often shell-shocked when confronted with the challenging environment of the city. To have a rudder that will guide them through overwhelming circumstances that constantly confront them is strategic for long-term effectiveness. In addition, the class is structured for students to be exposed to the actual social/cultural context of the city. For example, all students participate in Adopt-A-Block outreach, a local ministry in Springfield where they get face-to-face interaction with those who live in poverty (see cover story on page 16). They also are required to attend African-American churches in the area to experience the worship environment and to acquaint themselves with what God is already doing in the city. An additional highlight during the class is to attend Central State University’s gospel concert, a wonderfully stretching cross-cultural worship experience! Such practical experience exposes students to the world outside of middle-class white suburbia. The inner-city and urban problems associated with the inner-city are often beyond the thought and heart of the local church. Congregations which fled to the suburbs have vacated a significant segment of society: the poor and homeless. The poor and homeless, too, are made in the image of God. They, too, are those for whom Christ died. To “walk in their shoes” is to incarnate the grace of God … just as Jesus did. W h a t ’ s t h e W o r d ? 12 Winter 2003 Inspire 13 Dr. Jeff Cook’s great passion is for the city. Before coming to Cedarville in 1998, he taught at an inner-city Bible college and served a number of years on the pastoral staff of an inner-city African-American church. One of the classes he teaches in the department of biblical education is “Introduction to Urban Ministry.” Recently he spent several days homeless on the streets of Waco, Texas doing research during a short-term poverty immersion experience. Here is an overview of the class and why he practiced poverty immersion. I recently had opportunity to spend several days homeless and on the street in Waco, Texas. My primary reason was to gain insight on preparing a poverty immersion experience for my students. For a number of years some friends of mine in an urban mission in Waco have helped Baylor University students learn firsthand what it is like to live in poverty. I wanted to personally experience and learn what they were doing so I could integrate such an experience into an urban ministries class at Cedarville University. Such an experience is vital in the development of an urban paradigm of ministry, because those who have entered into the world and pain of the poor and homeless tend to minister with far greater empathy and awareness of the core issues faced by those in that stratum of society. Jesus modeled such incarnational ministry. He didn’t just commute from his comfortable neighborhood of heaven and then make sure he was out of our neighborhood by dark. He moved into our neighborhood, entered into our circumstances, and experienced our pain in order to bring hope. He experienced what life was like for us in our circumstances. During such a weekend, one experiences a bit of what it is like to be on the other end of the socio-economic scale. In Waco, for example, we exchanged our clothes for clothes from a local thrift store. We slept outside at night. During the day we walked the streets with nothing but a rumpled list in our pocket of 25 things to do and experience as homeless people—a kind of poverty “scavenger hunt.” Survival skills included, among other things, 1) collect 100 aluminum cans and find out where to turn them in for money (100 cans equals about $1); 2) try to find out where to go in the city for assistance with food, temporary housing, rent assistance, and utilities assistance; 3) salvage something useful from a dumpster; 4) panhandle for food, etc. It is a humbling experience to be transformed from a comfortable, middle class, self-sufficient suburban citizen to someone on the street who is perceived Bible Prof Homeless and on the Street News on Dr. Gromacki Dr. Robert Gromacki ’96H, distinguished professor emeritus of Bible and Greek, has announced a publisher for his latest book. Kregel Publications has published his newest work, The Virgin Birth, which is now available in paperback at Christian bookstores. Dr. Gromacki’s commentaries on New Testament Epistles, called The Gromacki Expository Series, have been published by Kress Christian Publications. We are grateful that Dr. Gromacki’s insights and expositional skills continue to be available to the serious Bible student. We congratulate him on his newest book, and we thank him for his faithfulness to God and to the Word.