The City is a Changin...

Blue State... Red State... has been a well publicized dividing point in North America for several political seasons. However, there seems to be an increasing movement of people who refuse to live within these defined categories and they are sick and tired of the posturing... Increasingly people are finding the political pundits and parties no longer speak for them. If you live in a major city in the States, you have become accustomed to the "party spirit" where two sides will simply disagree with each other to gain or maintain power. As one person recently commented about their political opponents, "I just want to poke them in the eye." The cities of North America are in danger of becoming as divided and angry as Belfast and Jerusalem.

In 2007 a group of us traveled to Belfast with the Center for Global Urban Leadership. John Perkins, Bob Lupton, Sunil Sardar, and others joined us for this learning community field experience. Although Northern Ireland regularly produces organizations working on the concept of reconciliation, it became apparent that people actually reconciled, would end the funding for these "reconciliation enterprises." Actual peace would be an unpeaceful solution for these organizations. This is also true in our North American cities. If the American people began to have sound conversations without shrill party rancor and were to reconcile, finding ways to work together, people who live for the fight will lose their funding and their voice.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers for their's is the Kingdom of Heaven."

--Jon Sharpe

Iasi, Romania Consultation June 08

We were pleasantly surprised by what took place in the city of Iasi, Romania in June of 08. World Vision sponsored a city consultation and Jonathan Sharpe, an educator with a historical perspective provided the framework for a consultation where Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestants came together to discuss what kind of transformation could take place if they worked together. In a rare two day display of Church unity, participants formed an ongoing process to work together for a common good purpose.

Orthodox Priests, Mihai Pavel and Nicholi Constin were instrumental in gathering Orthodox priests and leaders while Jonathan and Amy Sharpe were instrumental in bringing Roman Catholics and Protestants to the consultation. Mihai Pavel also works with World Vision International and has been instrumental helping the Orthodox Church understand its social mission within the country.

This city consultation was very effective and now the task of an ongoing mission for all participants continues.

City Consultations and Conversations: News from Jon Sharpe

City Consultations and Conversations: News from Jon Sharpe

Tough times... Reminds us of the comments in the Book of Revelation... "In one hour Babylon is destroyed and the merchants of the earth wail and weep." Our major commercial centers will not recover quickly from the "humpty dumpty" fall taking place in our global economy. All the kings horses and all the kings men will have trouble putting this together again. Business leaders are experiencing angst that we have not seen in our life time. Regional downturns have been known and survived but now there is no where to hide. If you are home builder you can't just pack up now and go to another part of the country. If you are a banker you can't just go to another bank.

Building community will take on new meaning now. We need each other. We have to think in a new way. We have to pull together. Life is not going to go on as it has in the past. This is time for the transformational leader to step forward. People who care deeply about change that lasts. People who will step forward and work for a lasting change reflecting the values of Jesus for people, places, and systems. This is a time for new systems to be created with everyone in mind, not just the smart, powerful, few.

Reconciliation in the City

We were walking through Belfast in September of 2007, listening to stories of systemic hatred and marginal reconciliation. We were listening for sounds of hope believing we would surely find it in this strife weary city. However, we found that a majority of the stories told seemed to have a cynical twist, laced with a clouds of despair.

A few weeks later I was back in Seattle away from the Belfast "Troubles" and asked to share my musings at a seminar with a Catholic priest who was a part of the consultation in Belfast. As I prepared to share my observations the overwhelming sense of division and despair we had experienced struck me. The Belfast consultation did have an impact on me. The impression was much deeper than I had imagined. I was becoming painfully aware that I too needed to practice reconciliation in every part of my life and that any real movement forward in our cities toward peace would require reconciliation beyond our normal limp attempts. The fact that broken relationships within a marriage, a family, and a community keep us tainted and wounded. Of necessity, the healing of broken relationships takes us back through our broken journey, retracing our path and all of the brokeness and finally giving up our entrenched anger and bitterness.

What's the big deal about Reconciliation?

We often wonder how our words and actions effect the universe. Does it really matter that I am not reconciled to a marriage partner, a family member, a friend, a business associate, others in my community? Where do the elements of war, violence, and pain start in my life and in yours? The Belfast Consultation this September will be addressing issues of Reconciliation using the Northern Ireland centuries old conflict as a case study to look deeply into the need for the Church to be engaged, even leading the charge in Reconciliation efforts globally.

What are you thoughts on Reconciliation taking into consideration your life experience, where you have failed and where you have grown?

Bob Lupton's Invitation

Dear colleagues on the urban front:
I am eagerly anticipating our gathering in Ireland this September. Reconciliation is a big word with many expressions. And regardless of our ministry context, it is central to our work as Kingdom people. I look forward to listening to lifelong enemies in Belfast talk candidly about reaching across forbidding barbed-wire divides to find true partnership - an intriguing backdrop to explore the anatomy of reconciliation. Vivid, personal stories of atrocities and forgiveness, of racism and bridge-building, shared by front-line practitioners from around the world, promise to be as inspiring as they are instructive. Bring your experience and let's learn together.

Bob Lupton

Reconciliation and the way forward

Reconciliation doesn't come easy. The three R's of repentance, restitution, reconciliation, followed by forgiveness is a long and winding road. Most of us have had a few relationships that made it through the steps of repentance and the initial steps of forgiveness but rarely do we move toward restitution and most certainly we do not get to the place of reconciliation.

Reconciliation implies that everything is new. "Behold all things have become new." God's promise of forgetting our sins and removing our sins "as far as the East is from the West" doesn't seem right somehow. We understand how to say were sorry but we have a harder time trusting our trepassing neighbor again. "I forgive you but I don't trust you and I will never work with you again," is the normal approach to forgiveness in a society that avoids all pain and seeks only comfort at all price.

To find reconciliation as a way of following Christ may mean that many will have to go to the cross without others understanding, without popularity, without everything working out okay, without selling numerous books, without being popular again, without having a happy human ending. Jesus did say, "If you want to be my disciple, you must take up your cross and follow me." Reconciliation is tough stuff. Jon Sharpe

Belfast Reconciliation 07

Dr. John Perkins &
Dr. Bob Lupton will be our international guides as we look at Global Reconciliation issues through the eyes of the Belfast team and the eyes of others from around the world.

September 7-13, 2007
Dublin, Ireland September 7-9
Belfast, Northern Ireland September 10-13

The Belfast Host Team: Gary Mason, Glenn Jordan, Nathan Hamilton, Jack Drennan, and Lynda Gould.