Dwelling Deeply in Christ and in the City...
A person can easily live in a place without dwelling there. To dwell somewhere implies a sense of rootedness... you are going to stay for a while. In religious language, we can group dwelling and abiding in a category that contrasts with sojourning. Either may be embraced for different times and callings in a life of faith, but they have different requirements and consequences. (As a fun fact, there are more than 6 times as many references to dwell/ dweller/ dwelling as to sojourn/ sojourner/ sojourning in the Bible, spanning the Old and New Testaments.)
At this point in my life, I believe I am called to dwell. Now, I don't necessarily know or think that San Diego is my final promised land in which to stay. The jury of discernment is still out on that one. However, I am convinced that my work is intimately linked to this act of dwelling. I have always believed that context is critical, and now I choose the context of a dweller, rather than a pilgrim or a sojourner. I am not someone who swoops in, consults, and helps churches with their outreach program for a week only to hop on a plane. I do not want to serve as someone who is on the road (or an airplane) 20 weeks of the year. My life has a home.
That home is first of all in Jesus. John 15:4-- "Dwell in me and I will dwell in you... you cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me." Even when that home isn't exactly what I imagined, it is where I stay. For the height of clarity and joy as well as the discipline of faith amidst uncertainty, I seek to daily deepen my abiding in Christ. Ministry flows first out of that-- before any crafted expertise or methodology.
Secondly, I minister out of the context of living in the city. Our world is undergoing a dramatic shift as the majority of its population moves to urban centers. Unfortunately, it is the church in the American city that has experienced the sharpest decline in the past 50 years. Yes, it is possible to care about the city and its residents from the outside, but that would be a different ministry. Living 5 miles from the center of downtown San Diego in a dense, urban neighborhood affects the ministry I do. The geographic proximity means that my involvement does not require a long commute. I can easily take the bus or bike. My neighbors and I use (or avoid) the same public services, and our relationships give me greater compassion and understanding of challenges faced in the city. As a result, I facilitate a church's urban engagement plans with a personal perspective. Outreach is not for "those" people, but for US, the ones who live here.
I seek depth in all my relationships. At my best, I am operating out of the depth of who I am and where I live. So I don't want to be sort of hanging out with Christ-- I want life deeply lived in him. I am not satisfied with life on the edge of God's work in the city, either. Everything that ensues-- the reconciling, revolutionizing work of Jesus, loving and changing the Church-- flows out of deep living. It does take work, but I see it as the non-negotiable prep-work for what I want to do. Like cooking a fine dish, there may be hours of un-glamorous chopping and whisking, but that is where quality is decided. I want quality, sustainability, and depth.