Darryl's Blog
Eugene Rivers and the Boston Strategy
A good article on the message of Eugene Rivers:
The strong crime-fighting medicine prescribed by the preacher from Boston has been most bitter for black Toronto, if the grumbling in some quarters about "blaming the victim" is any indication.
But the genius of the good Rev. Eugene Rivers is that he comforts and afflicts at the same time.
He lambastes the "hug-a-thug, paleo-Liberals" who think social programs are going to remove guns from the hands of gangstas. And just when he has you nodding your head in agreement, he excoriates the neo-cons who want to spend millions of dollars on law enforcement "toys" instead of prevention and intervention....
"The middle class, the political leadership and the middle-class church have turned their backs on the poor," Rivers told a meeting of the Etobicoke Strategy, a group of ministers and church leaders in Rexdale, yesterday.
More on the Boston Strategy here and here. Dr. Rivers only covered one point of the ten-point strategy yesterday (that churches adopt youth gangs) but that was challenging enough.
Challenging times for the Church to get involved Darryl.
I like his number 5. Even there the challenge would be great because of the differing views and philosophy of ministry that churches and para church organizations have.
I don't think in Toronto you would have the same cooperative spirit that you might have in the US between faith based and secular initiatives.
I think in Toronto the Church should focus on what God would have us do. Let's honour and glorify God in what we do and seek Him with respect to how He might use us to impact our community for His purposes.
Man's ways amount to nothing, its why we are in the predicament we are, because as a society we ignore God more and more.
The challenge is for the Church to rise up and seek God.
General statements I know, but I'm convinced if you get a bunch of people together from His Church who are first and foremost committed to Him, who have a burden for the inner city and the problems it faces, begin to pray and to seek His leading and guidance watch out. God will begin to move and honour and bless the efforts of those involved and we can really start to make a difference. A difference that will have eternal implications as people come to know the Lord.
That's where we got to start. We have to lift high the name of Jesus Christ and proclaim Him as our only hope. He will honour that, history shows us that, other committed ministries bear that out, and His Word is loaded with that message.