It's all about the 'hood!

I consider myself to be tougher than average. Now, I have never been to the top of Kilimanjaro, nor have I gone backpacking in the Amazon. Still, I think I am relatively "harder" than most.

So, it may surprise you to know that despite my toughness, some things, even words, make me queasy.

For example, the ultimate catchall phrase "urban ministry." Ooooh.

For me, the term evokes images of Morgan Freeman running round with a baseball bat and bullhorn, dodging bullets, knives, drug dealers, angry parents of drug dealers and corrupt politicians, all while blissfully leading a bunch of inner-city teens to the promised land. With an "urbanized" version of Lean On Me playing in the background.

For so long, it was a badge of honor. There were youth pastors, and then there were urban youth pastors. The former, God bless their hearts, were the preppy, sometime radical seminary graduates who ministered to the kids on the right side of the track. You know, kids just like themselves.

Then, you had the soldiers, the youth workers who marched boldly where angels feared to tread, winning the streets back one weeping former gang-banger at a time, breaking down barriers as we rolled out our ghetto reclamation project.

Yeah, I was one of them. I wore my badge with honor. You see, I wasn't just any other minister. I worked in the inner-city, so I did real work. I got my hands dirty. I knew the lingo. I was comfortable in Tims, tee-shirt and hoody, and I even had a ear for hip-hop (albeit, the Christian versions).

And that is how I allowed urban ministry to be my crutch. How? I quit looking at the horizon because I was so proud of my (not God's) impact on the present.

This is in no way intended to be a slap in the face of those who genuinely are out there in the not-so-glamorous places, doing what needs to be done. I am mostly uncomfortable with titles and tags, and all the unseen problems they can cause.

One thing I do believe is that youths face similar issues regardless of their backgrounds. Having coached soccer for years, this is clearer to me now than when I first got into ministry. Teens all have the same problems; they just manifest themselves in different ways. Affluence can be a curse (the tabloids remind us of this daily), and children of affluent homes can and do have the same voids that plague less affluent kids.

It would be foolish to pretend that the same approach to youth ministry would work in every environment, but I do believe that basing any ministry type on God is an important first step we tend to forget quite often. I believe that some people ARE called to the special realm of (dare I use the word) urban ministry. Still, let us not forget to pray for the Starbuckers (it didn't sound mean when we used the term way back when). They do not have it much easier.

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