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Greensboro Urban Ministry Presents
When Helping HurtsDATE: September 14
TIME: 12:30-2:00 PM
LOCATION: Weaver House Classroom
MORE: Tuesdays for 10 Weeks
The Rev. Frank Dew, chaplain at Greensboro Urban Ministry, will facilitate a discussion of the book “When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor… and Ourselves.”
Read more on Book study: When Helping Hurts…
… What if we, as the Church, functioned in ways that the early church did? What if we did not have such segregation within the very Body of Christ? What is we truly took the Bible seriously and committed ourselves to passages like Acts 2 and Isaiah 58 which teach us that we should have all things in common, that no one among us should have want for anything, that we please God and He reveals Himself to us when we feed those who are hungry, clothe those who lack, and bring people into our homes?
Read more on The end of outreach? What if……
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness …” — Matthew 5:6
Ultimately, I suppose, what we’re talking about is a clash between the sweet by and by and the fierce urgency of now.
Read more on Leonard Pitts Jr.: The Gospel according to Glenn Beck…
One night a year or so ago, I was at my church, getting things out of the kitchen for street outreach, and half-listening to the mostly incoherent mutterings of my friend, Al — a homeless schizophrenic. His face this night was wrinkled and troubled, his thoughts jumbled, his eyes unfocused. I finished up what I was doing, told Al I’d see him later, and then headed for the door. I wasn’t even sure he knew I was there. But then, his voice stopped me:
Read more on Down by the riverside…
I wrote about the guys on the block (and more) for the News & Record: “When there’s nowhere to go,” by Michele Forrest; published Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009. It’s online here, and reposted below:
On the block. Image credit: Michele Forrest / ChosenFast.com
My ministry partner, Audrie Keen, and I provide a street outreach to the homeless in Greensboro, and we’ve made a lot of friends along the way. We eat together, go to church together and have cookouts. Sometimes our homeless friends stay with us. We visit formerly homeless friends in their homes.
When we say “homeless friends,” we really mean friends.
Two Friday mornings ago, we visited “The Block” at Lee and South Eugene streets. It had been 11 days since my last visit, when we’d talked about the artistic bench installed, then removed, from along the new stretch of the Downtown Greenway in that area. Neighbors said the bench attracted drug addicts and prostitutes.
The guys on The Block dismissed that notion. One said: “The problem is not as serious as they say it is on the news. And the bench has nothing to do with it.”
Read more on When there’s nowhere to go…
I’ve been studying what the Bible has to say about caring for the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and the hurting. I came across a really thought-provoking article on the internet:
From Jon Acuff:
Booty, God, Booty.
The archives don’t go back far enough, but I think that this is exactly the kind of idea that Billy Graham launched his ministry with when he was coming up. It makes sense too because Christians really like “Booty, God, Booty.”
Read more on Booty, God, Booty…
Seven months of the year have 31 days — January, March, May, July, August, October, and December. The book of Proverbs has 31 chapters. Read a chapter a day and see how your life changes. Why read Proverbs?
Read more on One a day can change your life…
A local blogger who likes to send me links to often unflattering articles about homeless or poor people emailed me this today:
Recently Michelle Obama went to serve food to the homeless at a government funded soup kitchen .
Read more on Making assumptions: Michelle Obama, a soup kitchen and a guy with a BlackBerry…
My blog friend over at LNB reminded me via email what all of us Jesus followers are aiming for — these words: “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:23) I want to hear that from the LORD! I want to be well done! But oh wow, how often I fall short…
Read more on I want to be well done and I’m not there yet…
1) attend a church; 2) BE the church; many attend but don’t choose to BE; but most who choose to BE also attend. think: am i a #1 or a #2?
Read more on 1) attend a church; 2) BE the ……
photo credit: irrezolut
From an instant message conversation with my best friend and ministry partner, Audrie Keen, thinking about yesterday when we were at the Salvation Army store, loading the truck for NightWatch, street outreach to the homeless:
Read more on Dirty hands like Jesus…
