A Faithful Public-Prophetic Witness: Dynamics, Challenges, and Ambiguities of Success in Urban & Community Ministries

By Barry K. Morris and Tracy J. Trothen

This book hails from decades of challenging trial-and-error work, abundant reading, and an enduring obligation to ministers, activists, and unsung lay heroes whose legacies matter. As there is little that actually addresses the elusive meanings, if not the dangers inherent in pursuing alleged spoils of "success," it is kairos time. Seemingly scarce resources and competition to make and maintain ministries in the city challenge those of us in the field, or on the sidelines, to speak, write, and communicate clearly, and convincingly--not only for ourselves and our "people," past and present, but for those who come along soon to receive the baton or wear the mantle.
Concretely narrated, with unique case studies, a cast of dozens contribute their earthy, earnest testimonies and are, at long last, energetically affirmed. Specifically, this work proffers constructive attention to the critical cautions concerning subtle temptations to "succeed," including: commodification, cooptation, communalism, clientelism, and cowardice--and, not bailing on fierce charity-justice tensions (with benevolence protectively dominant). Narrative analysis and biography-as-theology, social ethics, biblical theology, and recent church history give apt attention to how a compelling case is possible for success, if justice is practiced, given a hopeful realism and perspective of prophetic eschatology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Mar 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781532684364

Barry K. Morris

Barry K. Morris is a Canadian United Church minister of several cities and studied in Vancouver, Chicago, and Wales. He reviews for AAR’s Reading Religion and has contributed to and authored books on urban ministry or particular persons, including The Book of Rita’s Living; The Word on the Street; Hopeful Realism in Urban Ministry; and A Faithful Public-Prophetic Witness. Barry is a lifelong student of the Niebuhrs and a grateful reader of meditation/contemplation books, especially in the service of grounding social justice commitments.

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A Faithful Public-Prophetic Witness

Dynamics, Challenges, and Ambiguities of Success in Urban & Community Ministries

Barry K. Morris

Foreword by Tracy J. Trothen

A Faithful Public-Prophetic Witness

Dynamics, Challenges, and Ambiguities of Success in Urban & Community Ministries

Copyright ©

2020

Barry K. Morris. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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Praise for A Faithful Public-Prophetic Witness

Barry Morris serves as a creative and faithful guide through the tensions of pursuing both systemic justice and a personal ministry of solidarity and compassion. If you want to learn how to be a faithful prophetic witness to the justice and love of the triune God in the urban context, Morris’s book provides a superb resource. Reading it inspired me to get back at it.

—Tim Dickau, author of Plunging into the Kingdom Way

Many seminarians idealize true ministry as service to society’s neglected and forgotten, but clergy who faithfully dedicate themselves to showing the face of Christ to the inhabitants of and sojourners through urban alleyways, parks, and shelters encounter the realities of systemic obstacles, including the easy temptation to deliver charity rather than working justice. Barry Morris is one such dedicated minister.

—Bruce Taylor, author of The Word in the Wind

"We North Americans live in an era when our grasp of Christian ministry is torn between a defense of nineteenth-century moralism and capitulation to the demands of a consumer society. A Faithful Public-Prophetic Witness calls us to something far more biblical, recovering what genuinely good news (the real meaning of ‘evangelical’) would look like. Barry Morris has given us an opening toward that recovery."

—John Badertscher, retired Methodist minister and professor

Compassion marked Barry as a teenager and marks him still—along with his determination to journey into the darkest corners of cities, armored with the love of God and all whom God has created. This book is an account of Barry’s urban ministry. It is about love. It is about championing justice over charity. It is moving.

—Michael Valpy, University of Toronto

Barry acquired his wisdom as a sage by walking among the humble on the notorious east side of Vancouver for decades. Those of us who know his work here hold him in the highest esteem. In this important book he enlarges our understanding with case studies from the world beyond Vancouver. This is the book I have been waiting for.

—Bruce K. Alexander, Simon Fraser University

Table of Contents

Title Page

Praise for A Faithful Public-Prophetic Witness

Table of Illustrations

Foreword by Tracy J. Trothen

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

1. Introduction

What Is Urban Ministry?

Urban Patterns and Dynamics that Limit Human Development and Suppress Choice

Characteristics of a Ministry Response to the Problematical Aspects of Urban Life

Markers for Urban Ministry Success

What Is Favored?

Critical Crucial Caveats

Style of Urban Ministry

Content Dynamics of Urban Ministry

Re-Organizing Civic Institutions

Niebuhr’s Legacy of Christian Realism

Stability with Faithfulness

Introducing the Case Studies

2. The Toronto Christian Resource Centre

Overview: From House to Church to Building for Lives and Community

Origins and Purpose

CRC’s History

Fitting and Favorable Responses

Conclusion

3. Victoria BC

Overview

Origins and Purpose

Precedents

Recurring Issues

Supportive Sustenance

Further Fitting and Favorable Responses

Conclusion

4. Vancouver BC’s Streams of Justice

Overview

Origins and Purposes

Context of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church (GCBC)

Diewerts’ Coming to Justice

Abiding Justice Successfully

Fitting and Favorable Responses

Conclusion

5. What Constitutes Success in an Urban Ministry?

Engaging Questions via Lessons from the Cases

Comparative Summary of the Three Urban Ministry Cases

Enduring Charity-Justice Tensions and Facing Failure

Conclusion and Implications

Final Word

Bibliography

To those urban ministers, lay leaders, retirees, and virtually unsung volunteers of the case studies (and beyond) whose labors of deep dedication and relentless courage make it possible to be discerned and noted with steadfastness—as well as to those who devote the time and harness with discipline the energy it takes to write and in sharing, bear a faithful public, and thankfully, prophetic witness—that through our plain failures and myriad dead-end paths, a modicum of a purposeful legacy is passed on. You insert content into the greetings and blessings of shalom.

Obrigado/Obrigada

Table of Illustrations

Table 1. Pivotal Phases in the Three Urban Ministry Cases

Foreword

If you’ve ever wondered about the meaning of urban ministry for North American society, this book offers a thoughtful and creative response to that question. Morris looks at what it means to live justly, walk humbly with God, and practice loving kindness in the context of Canadian urban ministries. Indeed, Micah

6

:

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serves as a cornerstone throughout this faith-filled and inspiring book.

Through three in-depth case studies that explore rich and complicated examples of urban ministry in Toronto, Victoria, and Vancouver, Morris asks what makes an urban Christian ministry successful. What it means to offer a prophetic, liberating, and just ministry in an urban context is a complicated and often confusing question. Normative understandings of success muddy the waters, fostering very real tensions. How we understand success influences our responses to such questions as the appropriate place of charity, how we live in a society in which there is such a disparity of wealth, and who gets to decide how resources are spent to help those living on the margins. How do we discern whose interests are most in line with the gospel? Do we always know with certainty who the most marginalized are and how to serve in their best interests? Throughout the case studies, Morris asks where power lies and if this power is being used more to assist the vulnerable or more to support the interests of the privileged.

Success from a prophetic perspective, Morris explains, is not the same as secular conceptualizations of perfection. Success is about relationships and justice. Taking a hopeful realism perspective, Morris helps us to critically and concretely approach the meaning of success. His analysis is not only applicable to urban ministries but to life. What is it that we really want? How do we pare down the socially constructed meanings of success and discover what it is that truly makes our hearts sing? And how do we continue in the face of despair when success seems impossible? This is the work of hope, especially if success is understood as bearing a faithful public and prophetic witness.

Poverty, fragmented relationships, increasingly inaccessible housing to those with limited budgets, capitalist development projects, the privileging of those with political and social status, are all features of urban contexts that push us to examine our values. And, probing even more deeply, we need to ask what we believe makes a person valuable. Morris traces the complex intersections of multiple oppressions, systemic power, barriers, and privileges. Those with few resources are often those with the least voice. Their interests are not well heard. How might those in urban ministry champion the marginalized in meaningful and effective ways? Morris’ attention to the importance of what he calls earnest listening in community is evident throughout these pages.

Morris keeps us humbled and inspired. Lifting up the need for regular self-critique and prayerful soul-searching in community, he cautions against the dangers of cooptation associated with a high dependence on government or other funding, reflects on the tension between charity and justice, and names the fears that can paralyze us. He raises the issue of clientelism or the temptation to reduce people to statistics, ignoring their lived narratives. In these pages you will discover other compelling temptations that must be minimized in the pursuit of a faithful and often counter-cultural understanding of success.

Holding up the importance of self-critique and communal accountability, Morris also underscores the risks and costs of urban ministry to the ministry leaders. Self-care for the urban ministry leader is challenging to say the least. With so many challenges and temptations, consequences including compassion fatigue, moral distress, and just plain over-work are common. Morris addresses these risks parabolically through the stories of the ministry leaders involved in his three case studies. I was particularly struck by the potential for moral distress in urban ministry. For example, in supporting controlled housing density to preserve a more intimate and healthy neighbourhood community, one may inadvertently contribute to the squeezing out of affordable housing. What seemed to be a good thing turns out to further marginalize the impoverished. This is only one of Morris’ many powerful examples of ways in which one may unintentionally act against one’s values, causing moral distress. Moral distress can cause isolation, a sense of powerlessness and voicelessness, and even the decision to leave one’s profession. Morris confronts this despair that can accompany urban ministries, not sugar-coating the risks.

Yet the joys in urban ministry are persistent. Morris shows how urban ministry can be meaningful, relational, and prophetic, revealing glimpses of a new world. Attending to the importance of listening, place, organizing, and stability in each case study, Morris points out examples of successful strategies in urban ministry amid pitfalls and temptations. Spiritual practices and self-care, community, funding, endurance, tireless organization, and justice emerge as resources throughout this book. And underlying all of these is a hopeful realism.

Drawing on Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism, Morris makes a strong argument for the eschatological potential of urban ministry in a broken world. Morris is widely read and draws on interdisciplinary insights to tease out nuggets of insight that can be used by anyone involved in urban ministry. At least as important as his extensive theoretical knowledge is his

50

years of experiences in urban ministry, Morris’ passion for social justice and the church is evident on every page. He epitomizes the meaning of courage in urban ministry. His parabolic and prophetic-liberating stories of urban ministry are inspiring and wise. This is a profoundly relational and hopeful book, built on many years of experience and relentless faith in the possibilities of a more just world.

Tracy J. Trothen Professor of Ethics Jointly appointed to the School of Rehabilitation Therapy Queen’s University

Preface

There are precious few recent and current writings on urban and community ministries in North America, rarely in Canada, and virtually none at all on the nature, dynamics, and ambiguities, yet enduring, challenges of the meaning of success. The very givenness of human nature belies any hope of success-as-perfection in the practices of ministry. There is thus a realism that has been noted and developed, not alone, in my recent Hopeful Realism in Urban Ministry. Realistic understandings of and practices toward success intimate hope. Hence, I write this book as much for urban community ministry practitioners as students, researchers, and teachers in the field of practical theology or ministry, and other authors. It is also meant for a North American and United Kingdom readership, since many of the sources consulted and cited include these two continents (and more).

Ministry seeks to engage theology and practice, helpfully expressed in the word "praxis or the knowledge induced and gleaned from the practice, trials, and errors of our activities. The book provides three distinct case studies in three Canadian cities, and several other ministries in other cities are referenced and elaborated upon throughout the book. That the case studies have been possible at all is because I have had a privileged access to these ministries as well as their founders, successors, supporters, and some of their dedicated funders. The footnotes, many annotated, are meant to supplement and fortify the reader—for we are not alone. Given the global picture and its urgent climate change challenges, I sense with others a due situation of crisis, if not an alarming panic—so to interrupt deep temptations to complacency, or a subtler wanting to have our cake and eat it, too," passively endorsing a status quo economy with mild token nods of environmental stewardship. Dire, due warnings are served by David Wallace-Wells through The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming; Canadian scientist and advocate David Suzuki with Ian Hanington via Just Cool It: The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do; eco-theologian Sallie McFague’s A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming; and not all, along with Naomi Klein’s passionate, researched based advocacies, global youth spokesperson, Greta Thunberg’s brave speeches, as No One is Too Small to Make a Difference. Inescapably, the fate of the earth as our home is part and parcel of urban life and urban ministries—and, what challenges!

Above all, as the dedication professes, I express due gratitude and indebtedness for a faithful public and prophetic witness to that which God commands and enables communities or networks of faith to hear and do. Fifty years of city ministries bring me to the affirmation that what matters is our modest offerings, our willingness to learn from our mistakes and confessed sins, and to pray for the courage to risk fresh trials and errors, and even civil disobedience actions, while sustained and nudged by the Spirit of life to change what we ought to, as well as what we can.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Vancouver School of Theology Professor of Social Ethics Emeritus Terence R. Anderson for long encouragement to reflect and write on urban ministry and theology. I also thank Joanie Wolfe for her gracious assistance with formatting and editing this book in preparation for its submission—also Harvey Stevens for pertinent suggestions on earlier draft. Appreciation must be extended to all of those contributing to the three case studies, some from long ago, and even among the saints and many of them duly cited as primary sources in the pertinent case study. For valued moral support I appreciate Michele Lamont, Pam Cooley, Lori Gabrielson, Kate Andrews, Ryan Leamont-Koldewijn, Michael Glanville, David Tracey, Janette McIntosh, Longhouse Ministry onsite new monastic Daniel Wieb and, for when it sometimes felt futile, a once cadre of occasional independent creative writers via Tatamagouche Centre, Nova Scotia, who provided encouraging comments on some earlier biography-as-theology forays on urban or city ministry and into urban theology. Finally, I am grateful to Tracy Trothen for her years of collegial support as a sister traveler in a national church which labors for a vocational sense of success, for her earnest writings especially in the intersection of sports and religion, and her encouraging foreword.

List of Abbreviations

1

Introduction

What Is Urban Ministry?

By way of beginning this book, I offer the following working definition of urban ministry. Urban ministry is a religious and ethical response to the institutional patterns and dynamics of cities that thwart the fuller development of its citizens—and naming what blocks this mission aims toward a faithful public and prophetic witness. As such, this depiction comprises an understanding of the patterns and dynamics of urban life that limit the fuller expression of our humanity (and its support systems) as well as the nature of ministerial responses to those features of urban life.

Urban Patterns and Dynamics that Limit Human Development and Suppress Choice

A working definition of ministry in the city must infer the influences that characterize life and ministries in the city as a whole. Ministries work out of perceived and intuited observations of what is happening in the city as well as deeply felt covenant obligations to make its own, hopefully pertinent, response to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with thy God (Micah

6

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). Urban refers to the character of a city where numbers of people, the density of their life situation and living areas, and the diversity or heterogeneity of communal life combine to depict what early twentieth century, and especially what the once Chicago School of urban sociologists referred to as urbanism as a way of life. Adding to this, a quick look at Wikipedia’s description of urban sociology reveals key patterns of residential segregation by class, the role of zoning in reinforcing that pattern, the challenges of mobility and weak social ties in giving people even a dim sense of belonging and the rise of gangs or ethno-centric clubs as a response to the anonymity of urban life, etc. It is also important for an urban ministry definition to incorporate the realities of gentrification with its pervasive side-effects—as evidence of the pressures and dramatic changes to previously traditional urban life and specifically of evidence for the downward spiral of working and welfare poor. Gentrification contributes to lower-income housing stock being bought by upper-income persons, groups, developers, and/or speculators add (even some with laundered money) seeking the convenience of central-city living but immediately impacting the lives of the welfare and working poor. Gentrification stimulates and fosters pressures to bear down on the size, density and diversity of the city. Current realities now include forced evictions (renovictions) as a result of higher-income people returning to the core of the city to live, perhaps due to proximity to work, convenient transportation and even a semblance of moral responsibility to lessen the impact of urban living on climate change. Such pressures inevitably contribute to evictions and/or renovictions for the lower income, the less politically and economically powerful population. Thus, vulnerability and fragility need be added to an urban ministry situation and any attempt toward a definition. When the pressures of globalization are also considered, also the virtually entrenched influences of neo-liberal policies often neglected by the untrained eye of urban ministry practitioners, then the urban context can feel overwhelming and virtually impossible to minister to effectively. There is, in effect, a dramatic dimension to depicting the nature of what is urban and therefore, also, to what characterizes an urban ministry.¹

Characteristics of a Ministry Response to the Problematical Aspects of Urban Life

Given these above aspects of urban life that limit human development, what constitutes a religious/ministerial response? Ministry involves discerning the kind of pressures that have been alluded to and then, as possible, responding in a way that invites a faithful public offering and pastoral-prophetic response. This discernment is made possible by adequate analysis of the pressures so that appropriate responses are possible. For example, Gustafson encourages that church body pronouncements on a range of issues, such as bio-ethical, environmental, social, political, economic, institutional and, of course, environmental and climatic, be adequately researched before, during and following the making of pronouncements so that they are grounded in competent analysis.²

Discernment also requires an ethical framework for identifying that which is not in keeping with that which ought to be. Here John Badertscher, religious studies and social ethics professor emeritus of the University of Winnipeg, calls for an iconic analysis and perspective. This considers how a city portrays itself, in terms of its raw and protected or disguised messages, as for whom the city really is and for whom it is not. He expresses:

I came to the conclusion that we live in a post-civil [post-city in the true sense] era by studying what cities have been, and by taking Aristotle’s Politics seriously . . . criteria for an iconic analysis of the city include: sustainability, along with a presence of genuine community/hospitality; justice or common good; beauty or environmental harmony; and, faith/hope contending death’s power to want the last word.³

His criteria assist urban ministries’ analyses of what is happening, and how to respond strategically to it in terms of who is included, who is excluded, who is marginalized, and even who is kept there for the sake of convenience (using the marginalized as statistics for people allegedly helped, for example, in food banks or soup kitchens, but seldom further). Such questions via Badertscher would include: Who holds power?; What happens to the poor?; How is waste disposed of?; What kind of prophetic iconic art is encouraged?⁴; and last but not least, Which gods are worshipped and what sacrifices are required?⁵

In turn, response implies the offering and living out of a witness (attestation); witness, in turn, implies a sacrifice or voluntary offering of oneself⁶ and in concert with others in a shared ministry for the sake of making whole that which is unhelpfully and unnecessarily broken, fragmented, and/or alienating. Practical and public theologians offer considerations of the meaning of witness. For example, Miroslav Volf suggests that a Christian witness does not mean so much being a teacher or even a midwife, and not to act as tyrants or merchants, as much as bearing a distinctive witness to the presence of the life, teachings and abiding sense of the presence of Christ in shared lives and communities.⁷

As noted above, response requires discernment—that is, doing an analysis of the situation that a ministry attends to and in which it seeks to be a liberating presence and offering alternatives to the pressures that result from the conditions of inequality and indignity that, in turn, foster the general reality of poverty. I affirm that a purposive fulfillment (at the very least, a purposive aim) toward a faithful public and prophetic witness also characterizes a successful accomplishment.

All of these features of ministry manifest a situation of relative powerlessness—relative, that is, to those in positions of power imposing limits upon those who are less powerful,