neighborhood stage

So, there’s this alleged gang in my neighborhood, according to the neighborhood granny watch.* According to the granny watch report, there is a middle aged man who is moving out because his teenage son got jumped by the Asian gang that lives in the house immediately behind my property. In a report to the neighborhood crime complaint person entitled, “Trouble in Paradise” she talks about how those kids have been intimidating this man’s teenage son, so he wants to move out ASAP to where the gang can’t find his son. And he won’t report anything because he’s afraid of retaliation. She goes on to talk about me and how I was on the council and would have an inside perspective but “who knows? for all [the granny watch] knows I might be a member of the gang.”

I decided to respond...

I talked with M last night, who lives in the house across the street from the "house of Hmong kids who jumped his youngest." I've also been keeping an eye on them and talked to M and others about the possibilities in approaching the problem. We could do it the "Revival Row" way or we could get the city involved. If we get the city involved, it would just be a matter of reporting the house as an unregistered duplex and the property owners, which live in the upper portion of the house would get fined and all that good stuff. Then they most likely would reconsider renting out the bottom part to the said "gang." It is also very likely that the home is over-crowded and the new landlord licensure laws would crack down on them pretty hard. So, if we want to go about it this way, we would have to find out for sure if the property was registered as a duplex, which I am assuming it is not.

However, part of me feels badly about tattling on my neighbor to my big brother city and using good tax dollars for something we could see about resolving ourselves. Especially since we don't know exactly what is going on there. Remember *** H. Street. It was the problem property of the neighborhood 5 years ago. Everybody wanted them out. Everybody complained about them. Yet 4 years ago we could have just called the city on them and run them out of the neighborhood, but Revival Row decided that wasn't really the Christian thing to do. So, we befriended them, made inroads into their lives, took care of their kids. We went to their family reunions and invited them to our parties. We did all this while the drugs and alcohol and the police calls and the violence flowed freely under our noses--but we got some good barbecue out of it and some second hand highs. And look now, they've moved somewhere else and decided to go to rehab and live a different life.

Maybe we can talk to the family that owns the “new problem property.” Ask them what is going on with their renters. I have conversed with the lady and done business with her ex-husband. Her present husband snowblows my sidewalk, for which I am tremendously grateful. And yea, maybe I should go "become a member" to this "gang" and give everyone the insider scoop. :)

Incidentally, it was granny watch who named my little community “Revival Row.” She is agnostic but she likes us and has taken under her wing all those kids from that previous problem property. She does more for them than we do now.

* What is the neighborhood granny watch? Well, it’s all quite high tech. It’s that "granny" that sits in her rocker with a cat on her lap, looking out her window at all the goings on in the neighborhood. It’s a really good idea to be friends with the granny watch, because she helps you and she is quite entertaining. Bring her a plate of food every now and again so she won’t have to make her own supper. And if you are her friend the worst she’ll ever do is call the police on your friends who stop by for dinner because they just look like trouble. She will also notice when you come home at 3 am after a late night study session. And she might put out a rumor about the reason your whole house is full of women is because everyone is gay. So, you just tell all your roommates to invite a guy friend over and walk down the sidewalk in front of her window and hold hands. I love granny watch! And by the looks of it, I will be granny watch some day.

Rambo's Model of the Conversion Process

Here we have a very detailed schema of the conversion process. This is what I love about Western academics...so thorough! This model also applies to paradigm and worldview shifts that often happen in the course of a lifetime.

Stage 7

CONSEQUENCES

Personal bias in assessment

Nature of consequences

• Affective
• Intellectual
• Ethical
• Religious
• Social/political

Sociocultural and historical consequences of conversion

Religious landscapes

Unintended sociocultural consequences

• -Nationalism
• Preservation of the vernacular
• Secularization

Psychological consequences

• -Progression
• Regression
• Stasis

Stories of conversion

Theological consequences

Stage 6

COMMITMENT

Decision making Rituals

• Separation
• Transition
• Incorporation

Surrender

• Desire
• Conflict
• “Giving in”: relief and liberation
• Sustaining surrender

Testimony: biographical reconstruction integrating personal and community story

Motivational reformulation

• Multiple
• Malleable
• Interactive
• Cumulative

Stage 5

INTERACTION

Encapsulation

• Physical
• Social
• Ideological

Relationships

• Kinship
• Friendship
• Leadership
• Discipleship/teacher

Rituals-choreography of the soul

• Deconstruction
• Reconstruction

Rhetoric-systems of interpretation

• Attribution
• Modes of understanding

Roles-reciprocal expectations and conduct

• Self and God
• Self and others

Stage 4

ENCOUNTER

Advocate

• Secular attributes
• Theory of conversion
• Inducements to conversion

Advocate’s strategy

• Strategic style (Diffuse, Concentrated)
• Modes of contact (Public/private, Personal/impersonal)

Benefits of conversion

• Systems of meaning
• Emotional gratification
• Techniques for living
• Leadership
• Power
• Advocate and Convert
• Initial response
• Resistance
• Diffusion and innovation
• Differential motivation and experiences

Stage 3

QUEST

Response style

• Active
• Passive

Structural availability

• Emotional
• Intellectual
• Religious

Motivational structures

• Experience pleasure and avoid pain
• Conceptual system
• Enhance self-esteem
• Establish and maintain relationships
• Power
• Transcendence

Stage 2

CRISIS

Nature of crisis

• Intensity
• Duration
• Scope
• Source: internal/external

Catalysts for conversion

• Mystical experiences
• Near-death experiences
• Illness and healing
• Is that all there is
• Desire for transcendence
• Altered states of consciousness
• Protean selfhood
• Pathology
• Apostasy
• Externally stimulated crises

Stage 1

CONTEXT

Macrocontext

• Systems of access and control

Microcontext

• Degree of integration and conflict

Contours of context

• Culture
• Social
• Personal
• Religious (Valence of dimension)

Contextual influences

• Resistance and rejection
• Enclaves
• Paths of conversion
• Congruence
• Types of conversion (Tradition transition, Institutional transition, Affiliation, Intensification, Apostasy)
• Motifs of conversion (Intellectual, Mystical, Experimental, Affectional, Revivalism, Coercive)

openings from the Lord

from the Journal of George Fox

After the Lord had “opened” to him, George Fox regarded less the leaders of the established faith community. He was drawn rather to folks who were dissenters.

Among them he saw those who possessed a tenderness, and many of them came afterwards to be convinced, for they had some openings. But as I had forsaken all the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those called the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, Oh then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,” and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy….And this I knew experimentally.

Now though I had great openings, yet great trouble and temptations came many times upon me, so that when it was day I wished for night, and when it was night I wished for day; […]

But my troubles continued, and I was often under great temptations; and I fasted much, and walked abroad in solitary places many days, and often took my Bible and went and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places till night came on; and frequently in the night walked mournfully about by myself, for I was a man of sorrows in the times of the first workings of the Lord in me. […]

There are times when we long for somebody be our rescue for whatever trouble we have encountered. Whether sorrow and trouble are from “the openings” that God has initiated or whether they are life events.

There are times when God sends the help through another person. And there are times when God himself is only sufficient and wishes himself to be the answer, erecting in those moments of his working abandonment and abuse by all others. Because of our destitution, self-respect and protest at being abused is does not even rise to defend us, we become like the least of these, whom the world has rejected. Then, only then can the Lord come in to be our defense. Then and then only can the Lord rise and be valiant for us. We will see his power and will rise up refreshed for our healer is with us always. He makes our wounds into mere scratches overnight.

Oh Christian, be careful not to distract those who walk about with long faces under the heavy hand of God. Do not offer to take their burden from them. Do not insist they see the doctor for a condition of the soul. Do not offer to give an answer to all the troubles. Do not pray for the trouble to be lifted and the weary soul to be relieved to quickly. Do not be like Job's friends who offered no support. But Christian, be God’s accompaniment in whatever he does with your brothers and sisters in the Lord. Oh Christian, be aware when the Lord is doing his work in sorrows and in joys.

the intern and his company

There was once a young developing professional who was recently brought onto a team at a company that had numerous campuses across the nation. He was given an intern to develop and a mentor to assist in his own professional development.

One day the intern observed the young professional in a disturbing altercation with a customer. The customer was swearing and yelling and using all manner of foul language. It appeared as though he had mistaken the professional for someone else. “You are a fraud! You are a fake!” he cried. “I won’t let you deceive me again.” The professional said nothing as he stood in front of the enraged customer. He shook his head sadly as the customer huffed and puffed away.

Later the intern asked. “Why did you not explain yourself to the customer? Why did you not defend the company’s reputation?”

“Well,” said the young professional, “The customer was not ready to hear a defense. We will encounter him again another time. It is certain that another representative will happen along his path soon.”

Soon thereafter the intern went on a vacation to another nation. While he was there he observed the fraudulent practices of his company, quite by accident. He was also enraged. When he returned from vacation, he violently confronted the young professional he had been interning for. “This company is fraudulent!” he cried. “I will certainly quit this very instant.”

“No!” cried the professional, as he chased after his intern and sought to stop him. “Stop!” He ordered. “You may not be belligerent with me and you cannot accuse the company of malpractice,” he urged, “it will be to your own undoing.”

Why do you treat me differently than you treated the customer who accosted you?” the intern responded indignantly. “You give me orders and you tell me I am wrong.”

“Because you are an intern and he was a customer,” responded the professional. “There are lots of frauds and fakes out there but those who are hired on with the company give the company its name.”

help me wash my window

Since I have all these Mennonite mom types checking out my site, thanks to Dorcas. I thought I would give a little spring cleaning tip I learned while living in the hood. If you are like my mom, there is a spring window cleaning and a fall window cleaning. Because I was a student and a homeowner for the past 6 years, my windows didn’t get cleaned quite that often. However, this spring, it looks like the grit and the grime have won the war. So, I am contemplating a widow cleaning.

But instead of running to Wal-Mart or Target and grabbing that spray bottle of blue juice, I do it the Mennonite way. A splash of vinegar in the bottom of a big bucket and a tablespoon of ammonia, with a gallon or more of water will do the trick. Be sure to use cotton rags to wash and dry as it tends to be a better experience. One in the bucket. And one to dry. Yet the tip I am offering today is the newspaper trick, which I learned from my African-American neighbors. I saw whenever they went to wash windows, they would pull out the newspaper. It is the easy fix for an almost dry window pane, with a bit of streak and smudge on it. You just take crumpled newspaper and rub it vigorously and it comes out with the sparkle of new glass.

So, whenever I clean windows I remember my heritage, my family and my mom giving me the internal urge to clean at all. And then I remember how even though Mennonites are known for being the neat as a pin type, I can still stand to learn well from those around me. It reminds me to look, listen and be curious about others—eventually, becoming more like them in their strengths and bearing with them in their weaknesses.

Come now, help me wash my window, so that I can see more clearly. Then I will help you wash yours. The work goes so much faster when two labor together.