NEXT UP: Why Does This Matter?
At age 19, I was tasked with turning an old building into a teen outreach center. The building was located near what was known as “Uptown” in the Minneapolis, MN area and experienced many of the typical inner city issues. Not long after the renovations were completed, we began running various community outreach programs. Shortly thereafter, a small contingent of the Crips gang moved into the neighborhood and began causing problems. The gang headquarters was located about a block from our building. Though their activities had not escalated to violence yet, they were striking fear in the residents and forcing their will upon others.
One sunny afternoon, I walked back to the parking lot—which doubled as a basketball court—and happened upon 8 Crips members smoking pot. They were as surprised to see me as I was them and quickly tried to hide their joints behind their backs. I smiled and said, “Hey guys! What’s going on?” Their response about made me laugh out loud when they announced they were preparing to play some basketball. Many of them were not wearing shoes and there was no basketball in sight. Chuckling a bit I said, “Really? Without wearing shoes and with no basketball?” They shuffled their feet while trying to find the words to respond. I didn’t give them a chance and said, “Here’s the deal. You run home and get some shoes and I’ll grab a basketball. You come back and we’ll play 21. If any of you win, I’ll leave you alone. But if I win, you never smoke pot in my parking lot again.”
“21” is a basketball game that really has no rules. There is no out of bounds, fouls are not counted (in fact the game is quite physical), and the other typical basketball rules are only loosely followed. There are no teams. Everybody is against everyone else. A basket earns you points plus 3 free throw shots. If you make all 3, you keep the ball. The first person to score 21 points wins. Of course, in this scenario it would be the 8 of them against me. I had no confidence they would actually return. They did…all 8 of them.
The game was on. It was a brutal battle I will not forget. As I stepped to the line for the shot that would give me the win, I said, “Remember our deal.” I made the shot and won the game. I invited them into the building, handed out sodas, and we talked about my terms of the deal. I had no confidence they would honor any agreement. But once again, I was wrong. Following our game, the group ceased their intimidation tactics and later disbanded.
I don’t tell this in any effort to glorify my actions. In fact, my response may well be one of the most ill-conceived and naive decisions I ever made. However, God stepped in and used my ridiculous challenge to connect relationally with a group of young men and connect them to a community toward which they were hostile.
I met them on common ground and engaged them in their language. I didn’t try to pull them into my world, but rather met them in theirs. We engaged in a game that represented foundational needs of the heart such as purpose, striving, achieving, overcoming, winning and losing. And that afforded me the chance to speak.
This was exactly the example God gave us to follow. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God did not require us to figure it out on our own and find our way back to Him. He came into our world and spoke our language. He came first to understand us and then help us understand Him and show us the better way. This is our model for engaging the culture around us.
Jesus engaged people at the worldview level of life. He challenged people’s beliefs about foundational issues. One of His repeated phrases was, “Have you not read? In the beginning…” If returning to the beginning for answers to our core needs and questions was good enough for the Creator of the universe, then it should be good enough for us. If we disengage ourselves from our origins, we disengage ourselves from the only real truth about what our real problems and true solutions are.
With this in mind, my next few blogs will revolve around this theme. We will consider 4 reasons why the discussion of our origins is the most important conversation we might ever have with others.
1.) The beginning matters
2.) Remembering the wonders of God matters
3.) The next generation matters
4.) Origins are foundational to life
I hope you’ll join me for this journey as we grow together in our understanding of how to reach this world, and a generation who is NEXT UP.
— Jon
