Values our Programs Intentionally Seek to Inculcate
INTRODUCTION
Urban programs have grown up. The birth of the first happened in the late 1970’s, and over that same period of time, more than 40 others have developed. They are no longer isolated experiences, unconnected and dependent on the vision of a few staff. Rather, as staff began to recognize that urban programs were providing a unique forum or training ground for student ministry, these experiences matured into fully developed strategies, which Areas and Regions have incorporated as permanent components of the training year.
Every other year, program directors have been meeting with one another in Consultations, primarily for sharing and encouragement. Since 1992, they have entered the difficult process of building cohesiveness, shared vision, and common values, so that the contribution which urban programs make to the overall ministry of InterVarsity is of high quality, and has specific relevance to the overall mission of the organization. At the Consultation in Atlanta in 1994, program directors, development personnel, NSC staff and senior management persons helped to begin the process of clarifying values and goals, which are at the foundation of these programs. The following six areas represent values which program directors agree need to be reflected in each program. A summary is given of each, and a more complete explanation follows in subsequent pages.
SUMMARY OF VALUES
The Campus. Urban programs must provide a powerful context for developing and training our students to embody the ministry values in InterVarsity’s mission statement. They must contribute to building students into leaders and teams, which apply the values they acquired on the program in strategic ways back on campus. They must help prepare students to graduate as disciples who are ready and equipped to live out their faith and calling in the context of an urbanizing world.
Christian Community. Urban programs must provide an experience of radical, focused Christian community. Barriers to community are examined and dealt with in the midst of a very diverse context. Bible study, prayer, and the shared risks and activities of the program, when lived out in this context, give students a unique opportunity to develop the “one anothers” of the Christian life.
Theology, Scripture & Prayer. Urban programs are a response to the Lordship of Christ in word and deed (Ps. 24:1, Col. 1:15). Students must acquire a deeply rooted understanding of and commitment to God’s agenda for transforming the city. At the foundation of all activities of the program, we must be committed to providing students the opportunity and guidance to listen to God and wrestle with him through prayer and serious study of the scriptures.
Racial Reconciliation. Urban programs must provide intentional opportunities to address and experience racial reconciliation. Both our goals for the ethnic make-up of program participants, and the ministries or ministry contexts to which we connect them, must reflect our commitment to developing the values, skills, and patterns of reconciled friendships.
Employment, Vocational, & Lifestyle Choices. Urban programs must help students listen to God’s call regarding the stewardship of their life situation. Stewardship includes students making godly decisions regarding the vocations they pursue, the neighborhoods they inhabit, the relationships they develop, the resources they have access to, and the power and influence they acquire as a result of all these choices.
The Church. Urban programs are committed to the urban church. The church began on the streets of Jerusalem. It spread throughout the cities of the world because of Paul’s intentional strategy of urban evangelism. In every way, we seek to cooperate and partner on a long-term basis with local churches and congregations. We come to be led by them; to serve and partner with them in what God is already doing there.
COMPLETE STATEMENTS
The Campus
Urban programs must provide a powerful context for developing and training our students to embody the ministry values of evangelism, spiritual formation, justice & righteousness, the church, vocational stewardship, healthy relationships, and cross cultural mission. Urban programs must intentionally serve our on-campus objectives. This is done by providing focused training and diverse experiences, which has the effect of both equipping students in these values and knitting them together into a community which applies them visibly back on campus. The emphasis which urban program directors place on racial reconciliation has prepared students to value and attempt to engage the diversity they have met back on campus. The risk-taking faith they have employed in the city has prepared many students to stand up for Christ in their classrooms and relationships. The models of Christians serving Christ in their urban vocations, to which they are exposed over the summer, has helped students think about their majors and the way they see employment. Some have even made changes in their vocational directions. The commitment to living out a biblical model of community during the program has prepared them to confront and swim against the individualism of their culture. The use of the scriptures on the program, and the various methods of study employed, have given them a taste of the power of a hermeneutical community, and has driven students to become more committed students of the Bible. All of the above results have been directly transferable to life and leadership on campus. Urban programs must foster and cultivate this application. And if our on-campus vision of our mission in InterVarsity is to develop life-long disciples, then urban programs must continue to be structured to help train students to make faithful decisions after graduation in an increasingly urbanized world. In the same way that the practice of graduating high school seniors who cannot read is criminal, so too would we be culpable if, looking into the face of the new millennium and seeing the explosion of the world’s cities, we allow alumni of InterVarsity to graduate unprepared for life and ministry in that context.
Christian Community
Our urban program (program) seeks to provide an environment that accepts each participant, just as Christ accepted us. We realize because of Christ’s work on the cross, all barriers, (ethnic, racial, class, citizenship, and gender) are put away for the purpose of forming a new community in Himself. With the elimination of these barriers, we have improved sight for each participant to see each other as expressions of God’s creative power. This community becomes a sign to those outside that we are disciples of the Lord Jesus because of the love and acceptance we have for each other. Therefore, our urban program (program) becomes a learning community. It provides an opportunity for participants to live together, and grow in their faith together through the diverse ways God has created them. Bible study, prayer, and worship give opportunity to praise God for His unique way of communicating to and through our diversity. The programs provide an urban context in which to live out the “one anothers” of the Bible, and prepare students to return and serve with humility on an increasingly urbanized campus. Students learn to work through conflicts, laying the foundation for true koinonia with one another, and helping them graduate from college equipped to serve the ever-expanding cities and communities of the world.
Theology, Scripture & Prayer
Our urban programs are a response to the Lordship of Christ in word and deed. “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” (Ps. 24:1) Therefore the content and structure of our programs must both reflect God’s heart for the city and his vision for bringing transformation there. We are wary of either the “Christ against culture” stance which only sees the city as evil and therefore unredeemable, the “Christ ofculture” stance which simply accommodates the church to culture and the realities of city life, or the “Christ above culture” stance which settles for a mystical Christ transcending culture and standing apart from the pain of the city. The Lordship of Jesus must be represented in our programs as having implications for both the evil and good of the polis, for both the rejection and transformation of city systems, and for incarnational forms of service, ministry and life in the city. Our programs must help students recognize the emphasis on the city which is so pervasive in the scriptures. The bible focuses on 119 cities in over a thousand passages in the OT, and in 160 passages in the NT. Some have noted that the OT books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Ruth, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jonah, Nahum, and Daniel are developed structurally around cities. Others have noted that the Bible begins in a garden but ends in a city, and that we, like Abraham, are to look forward to and prepare for that day (Heb. 11:10) when we all relocate to the city of God. We must teach that the city is “part of God’s design, not just a sociological phenomena or evolution of mankind,” and that a sovereign God is in the midst of the processes of urbanization which we see sweeping the world. Therefore students and staff are participating in His plan as they minister in the city. We need to present the city as not inherently evil in itself, but rather as an environment which provides greater opportunities for human sinfulness to manifest itself, and therefore greater opportunities for the gospel to show its empowering and healing relevance. We need to present Jesus weeping over Jerusalem (Lk. 19:41-42), Yahweh expressing His concern over Ninevah (Jonah 4:11), crying out over Moab (Isa. 15:5), weeping over Simbah, Heshbon, and Elealeh, even “drenching them with tears” (Isa. 16:9), and instructing Israel to settle down and invest in Babylon, seeking its welfare and prosperity (Jer. 29:7). Students need to hear God’s vision for the poor rebuilding their cities (Isa. 61:4) and for the potential of the city to be transformed into a place of righteousness (Isa. 62:1:12). And our urban programs need to expose students to the call to take no rest and give God no rest, that is to make a commitment of prayer for the city, until He fully establishes and heals it (Isa. 62:6,7). Believing that God is already at work in the city, we listen to God in prayer and through His Word for how He is calling us to respond to Him as Lord, becoming His hands and feet in serving the city.
Racial Reconciliation
We believe that the world is becoming increasingly multi-ethnic and that people from every ethnic and racial group are gathering in the cities of America. We also believe that most college students who graduate in this new century and beyond will either live and/or work in the city. Moreover, we believe that God loves every ethnic and racial group on earth and calls his people to be active agents of reconciliation, following the mandate and model of Christ’s ministry of reconciliation. In this context we believe that credible discipleship demands a commitment to racial reconciliation and solidarity. We therefore are committed to raising up a generation of Christian college students through our urban programs who are equipped to live and work effectively, compassionately, and redemptively in our racially diverse society. We endeavor to develop disciples who can engage the campus in all its ethnic diversity with the gospel of Jesus Christ and who model racial reconciliation in their relationships and lifestyle choices both on campus and after they graduate. This valuable aspect of holistic discipleship is taught and modeled by the staff of our urban programs in our relationships with one another and our ministry partners in the city, as well as through the use of Scripture and other relevant resources. We provide opportunities for the students to experience the struggles of pursuing real reconciliation with each other and – as much as possible – with our ministry partners in the city, and we challenge them to confront the historic and contemporary issues of oppression, injustice, power, prejudice, ignorance, and fear that afflict our society, our churches and our relationships.
Employment, Vocational, & Lifestyle Choices
We believe students and staff are called to lives which embody a commitment to justice, and mirror God’s concern for the city, its people and its systems. Our urban programs must help students listen to God’s call regarding the stewardship of their life situation. Stewardship includes students making godly decisions regarding the vocations they pursue, the neighborhoods they inhabit, the relationships they develop, the resources they have access to, and the power and influence they acquire as a result of all these choices.
Our programs should expose participants to models of people who have chosen to remain in or relocate to the city, work or develop jobs there, or minister full-time to inner-city community residents. We emphasize relocation because we want students to see “reneighboring the city” as a primary strategy for breaking cycles of poverty and to ask the question, “Could God use me in this way?” We emphasize working or developing jobs in the city not only because most of our students will find themselves there after graduation, but because they need to understand the redemptive effects of employment and economic stability in the city. We want them to ask, “What part might God want me to play in creating a stable economic environment there?” In this regard, we also want them to understand the power of the kingdom to penetrate and influence the power structures, the systems and the forces, which exercise influence there. We emphasize full-time ministry because we want to familiarize students with the options for working long-term with the existing community-based ministries.
Finally, in all these areas, we must ensure that students acquire, through our urban programs, a theology of the city and potential methodologies as a foundation for any response which God might call them to make in the above areas.
The Church
Our urban programs (programs) are committed to the urban church. The Church began on the streets of Jerusalem. It later spread through the cities of the world because of Paul’s intentional planting of churches in urban centers in his missionary journeys. The Scriptures conclude with the risen church in God’s glorious city, the New Jerusalem. It is our belief today that God’s presence is still real in our cities through the local church. We encourage all of our programs (programs) to worship and fellowship with local churches. In every way, we seek to cooperate and partner on a long-term basis with local churches and congregations. We come to be led by them and to serve and partner with them in what God is already doing there.
Urban Theology, an unpublished doctoral dissertation by James Westgate
The Urban Christian by Ray Bakke
Westgate
