The Obvious

Recently while teaching a Rescue Class at New Life Church of God in Christ on Oakwood in Toledo's urban core, I drew a box on the flip chart and inside the box wrote the letters BS and said to the class, "Everyone is full of this".

Belief System!

Our Belief System is created by three predominant components; History, Experience and Environment. Our Belief System is our paradigm - it's not a 'seeing is believing' thing as much as it's a 'seeing what I believe' thing. Our Belief System determines how we see life. For example if you believe all homeless men are alcoholics and lazy that's the way you see homeless men. However, when you come to Cherry Street Mission Ministries and have a tour of one or all of our ministry sites and interact with actual homeless men you realize that not all homeless men are drunk and lazy.

What happened? Your Belief System was challenged and you begin to experience a Paradigm Shift in the way you think.

It is in fact our Belief System that creates our Culture. For example, if you grew up in a home where both parents were alcoholics, you grew up in a culture of drinking. That Culture of drinking in your home was there because a Belief System not only created it, but supported it. If you grew up and became an alcoholic, it is largely because the presence of a hidden Belief System created a very visible Culture of drinking.

It is our Culture that becomes the obvious of our lives. Our Culture always creates the 'obvious'. Unfortunately for many who desire to effect change in the lives of those we care for, it is only the 'Obvious' that we end up caring about. If someone is an alcoholic we want them to stop drinking [the obvious]. We then become frustrated because they remain unresponsive to our logic and ultimately we begin to give up on them all together.

If you want to effect change in the culture of a person or a community, you must first deal with their Belief System. You must care more for the person [Belief System], than what the person is doing [Culture].

What do you think?

Dan Rogers

Happy Anniversary!!

This month Cherry Street Mission Ministries turned 60 years old!

We began our ministry on June 14, 1947. Jesse and Bertha Fleck who were, by their own admission in a letter dated June 17, 1951, had lived in relative comfort most of their lives not feeling as though they had done much for God. Having decided to live out the balance of their lives serving God by serving others, they and a handful of friends began to serve food to men on skid row a few nights a week. Their first building was on Cherry Street and before too long they were serving meals every night of the week. By the first anniversary of Cherry Street Mission, they were putting men up in a nearby motel so they wouldn't have to sleep on the streets.

On June 29, 1949 they bought several cots and put them up in the back room behind where they served meals - there wasn't money enough for mattresses, so the men slept on cardboard on top of the springs of the cot.

The rest, as we say, is history. 60 years later, from our humble beginnings on Cherry Street we now serve more than 700 meals a day, shelter on average 180 men and women each night, and serve the community through five different ministry sites.

Today, June 30 2007, we celebrated our anniversary with a community picnic. I'm not sure how many people came out to help us celebrate, but we served hamburgers and hot dogs four hours straight with no gap in the serving line. What a great picnic it was, Tom Clappsaddle from the Toledo Gospel Rescue Mission brought his 'weenie wagon' and cooked up the hot dogs all day long, while dancers from Foundation Stone Christian Center worshipped God in style. Then there was a drummer and dance corp that entertained and excited the crowd and of course a few members of our staff sang and gave testimony to God's greatness.

There were games, face painting, inflatables for the kids, great music and a chance for everyone to connect and have a good time.

I thank God every time I think about the humility of the Flecks and the tremendous risk they took and sacrifice they made just so someone had a place to eat and sleep.

Jesse and Bertha passed on their Heritage and have honored us with the responsibility to live the Legacy of service!

Dan Rogers

Compassion and Rescue

This is our Monroe Street Facility on the corner of Monroe and 17th Street in the Uptown District of Toledo, Ohio. The first and third floors comprise our 165 bed unit for men in both our transitional and program services. The second floor houses our administration offices and conference facilities.

The men who arrive here each day represent a wide range of problems; ex-felons, addicts, mental health, physical health, no families, jobless, no high school diploma and the list goes on. But all of these men share something in common beyond the fact they're all homeless - none of their problems began today.

Ask yourself this question; "How long would it take me to become homeless if I started working on it right now?" Would it take a week, a month .. a year? While the time it takes a homeless person to reach one of the facilities of Cherry Street Mission Ministries, is going to vary from person to person, the reality is you have to imagine how many family and friends you will need to cycle through until there literally is no where else to go.

Think of it this way, how many moms, dads, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, friends, co-workers and friends of friends told you that you were no longer welcome in their home? That's how long it takes to become homeless - for some it's a matter of months, and for others the reality of homelessness has taken years.

This is what I mean when I say, Cherry Street Mission Ministries is a downstream ministry - we are the receiver of the many who have been floating ever-so steadily down the river of humanity for some time. Can you see that they've all come from another place?? A place way upstream of where they are now.

Compassion for the least, last and lost must begin with rescue! Rescue is defined by going after the upstream of a person's life - and here's the kicker for most would be or wanna be rescuers, you must be willing to put aside the downstream realities of a person's life first. In other words, if a person is an alcoholic you will put that aside to discover what cataclysmic event occurred in his or her life for the purpose of rescue.

More on this in July - stay tuned!

Dan Rogers

The Upstream / Downstream way of looking at things

Nearly 24 months ago, a good friend of Cherry Street Mission Ministries asked me a thought provoking question; "Dan, what is Cherry Street's responsibility to the church?" As odd as it seems now - at the time I had never thought about it.

But my what a personal and organizational quest we've been on since then.

If you've read any of the past posts, you've seen me briefly talk about the upstream and downstream model. Let me explain further. The next time you're near a blank piece of paper, a chalk board or a white board, draw a straight line from left to right ... now step back and look at it for a moment.

Looking at the start of the line on the far left, call that the upstream. The far right, or the end of the line is the downstream. Now, mark an X on the line, just before it ends [to the right] - that's Cherry Street Mission Ministries. We are a downstream ministry, receiving the human condition flowing down the river. We're a receiver ministry.

As you may know God has made us, as His hands to those in need, very good at what we do. For 60 years we have been receiving the stream of people flowing to one of our ministry sites and for 60 years through rescue and restoration, we've been able to return them to their families and communities. This is what we refer to as downstream service.

Now, please look once again at the line you've drawn ... mark an X at the beginning of the line - that's the church. Using the upstream / downstream model, what my friend was asking me nearly two years ago was; "Dan what responsibility does the downstream have to the upstream? As it turns out, quite a bit.

Perhaps the most asked question at Cherry Street Mission Ministries of those on our tours, is; "Can we end poverty and homelessness?" The only way to get your hands around the answer is to use this model of thinking.

Think about this for a moment; Immediate downstream problems can be solved with downstream solutions but systemic downstream problems can only be solved with upstream solutions.

We'll develop this model over the course of the next several posts. If you would like to join in the conversation, you can post your comments or email me your thoughts.

Dan Rogers

The Seeing and the Weeping of it. [part two]

Micah 6:8 says;
He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

The church over the past several generations has become good at mercy ministries and in some cases we've even become great at being merciful to those around us; donating to others our provisions, serving the less fortunate, sharing the Gospel with the down and out and demonstrating genuine compassion for the least, last and lost among us.

But are we great, or even good at providing justice?

God said through Micah; "do justly..." Do we weep over the injustice of a neighborhood that no longer can be afforded by it's residents? Are we concerned with the plight of our brothers and sisters, who attend our services but return to the drug infested neighborhood in which they live?

In short, could it be that the Great Commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" means that we must do more than the mere spiritual transformation of a person? Mercy causes me to share Christ for the purpose of Spiritual Transformation but justice causes me to share Christ for the purpose of Social Transformation.

Please remember that as the Church in your City, you are the most powerful certainty on the planet! No other entity has God said "Jesus is the Head of you." But also please know my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, if we're not careful we're going to lose the right all together to be heard in our communities.

Love mercy - please. But while we're at it, let's add justice to our plans, action steps, strategic sessions and yes ... to our prayer for one another. Then I think we can be like Nehemiah, who when after the weeping went to work to bring justice to a troubled city.

What do you think?

Dan Rogers

The Seeing and the Weeping of it [part 1]

Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 1:2-4

The gates and the walls of his beloved city were in ruins, and his fellow citizens were in harms way - now that's worth crying about!

You get the idea, walls and gates were very important to a city because of the protection and safe harbor they provided and represented. When the gates and walls are in ruins, it's very indicative of the overall condition of the city and it's citizenry.

If Toledo had walls and gates, what would be their condition?

You guessed it - "it's crying time."

Maybe it's time for us to step up and step back from our daily grind for a minute. What do we see? No, not just the obvious - what do we see? What is the condition of our people? Does it break your heart to see the hungry and the homeless? Does it mess you up to see thousands return to our city each year from incarceration? Do you weep over the victims of domestic violence? Are you crying?

First cry - then serve. That's Nehemiah's story. He allowed himself a moment to get messed up over the bad news of his home town, then he went to work to fix it. Perhaps in some cases we get too busy in the service and work of others, we forget to let something of ourselves break first.

When we follow Nehemiah's example and first weep over what we first see, then our action plans, and to-do lists, and economic development plans, and educational plans, and regional growth plans become better organized and better implemented, because we've seen the beginning from the end.

What do you think?

Dan Rogers

Do we 'Nehemiah' our City?

Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me,
The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 1:2-4

Toledo, like many mid-west cities, is in trouble.

Toledo is in fact the 13th fastest shrinking city in America, we have an entrenched political climate, a failing public school system, and a community of civic leaders who seem to have an endless penchant toward examining the fuzz in their navel while the city we love teeters somewhere between broken and busted.

In the course of the next several posts I would like to develop with you the following, regarding Nehemiah's responsiveness to bad news concerning his home town.

Nehemiah;

• Received those who knew the condition of the city,
• Asked questions regarding the cities condition,
• Heard the news
• Sat down - stopped his normal and daily routine,
• Wept - openly expressing the pain of the news,
• Mourned the reality,
• Turned to God with fasting and prayer concerning the cities condition.

Do we 'Nehemiah' our city?

What do you think?

Dan Rogers