Reading: Chapter 10: Time To Run

Chapter 10

TIME TO RUN

Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.

Habakkuk 2:2

Habakkuk is unique among the Old Testament prophets. He is a prophet, to be sure. His heart aches over the lawlessness and wickedness of Israel. He expects God to judge the nation. He pleads with God to make things right.

Yet his prophecy does not include the “Thus saith the Lord!” clarion call one expects from a prophet. It reads more like a personal journal—a private conversation with God. God’s decision to use the inexorable Babylonian invasion to discipline the nation had shaken Habakkuk. It seemed inconsistent—frighteningly out of character—with God’s nature. The result was a momentary crisis of faith. Habakkuk cried out to God:

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (Habakkuk 1:13).

One cannot engage urban youth for any meaningful length of time without experiencing momentary crises of faith. The realities of the urban experience—with its chronic web of brokenness, violence and disappointment—can at times overwhelm even the most valiant of Christian leaders. I have heard the righteous cry out in bewilderment: “God, where are You? Why do You tolerate [fill in the blank]?”

God responds:

Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets . . .

Habakkuk was given a revelation—a vision that extended beyond Israel’s impending captivity to the restoration of the Jews’ freedom and the demise of their oppressors. Strangely, it began with a command: Write it down. Why?

Most communicators appreciate the clarity that comes from writing. Educators within every known discipline acknowledge this: Thoughts that cannot be clearly expressed on a page remain stubbornly obscure. Seventeenth-century English statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon observed:

Reading maketh a full man; Speaking a ready man; Writing an exact man.

So it is understandable that God would tell Habakkuk to write the revelation down. The promise preserved in writing would encourage the soon-to-be captive. It would help sustain the oppressed throughout a time of suffering.

The next statement, though, is peculiar: “. . . so that a herald [the one who reads] may run with it.” Why “run”? What does this mean?

The Hebrew language is filled with nuances—shades of meaning. One scholar suggests that the writing was to be so clear that a person on the run could read the message. Another commentator views the word “run” as a poetic device pointing to one’s ability to live (walk, run) according to the will of God. Still another proposes that “runners” were all who passed by and read the message aloud to the illiterate.¹

Most striking to me is God’s expectation that they “run” in the first place! Somehow the clearly written message would enable the people of God to successfully “run” during their captivity. The message was clear, the promise absolute. While they could not stop the Babylonian invasion, God’s revelation would empower them to persevere.

In chapter three, Habakkuk offers a prayer. He begins by remembering who God is (“I have heard of your fame”). He worships Him (“I stand in awe of your deeds”). He expects God to act (“Repeat them in our day”). He trusts God to love even through hard times (“In wrath remember mercy”).

He ends his prayer with a profoundly hopeful statement:

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

No amount of suffering would vanquish his joy. His response was simple: faithfulness. He would be faithful to God. And notice what that faithfulness would look like:

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights (Habakkuk 3:19).

With “the feet of a deer” he would “tread on the heights.” Trusting God, he would run.

Running with Reshaping Urban Discipleship

Shelly and I enjoy Saturday mornings—our weekly time for shared devotions and prayer. Currently we are reading excerpts from Rueben Job’s When You Pray: Daily Practices for Prayerful Living. Last week’s reading reminded me how important the reshaping   of urban youth discipleship is:

We don’t have to be particularly observant to notice that our world is filled with the wounded and broken. While many of them may feel forgotten, estranged, ridiculed, and left out, they are the very ones to whom Jesus comes to bring healing, hope, and wholeness.

Would you like to experience a new level of effectiveness and faithfulness? Go where the wounds are. This is what Jesus did and that is what Jesus does today. Let’s meet him there today and every day and be a part of his life-giving ministry.²

To enter urban ministry is to go where the wounds are. Urban youth grow up in a culture of violence. Christians working off old assumptions—perhaps the most careless being the idea that “the cream will rise” (i.e., that those youth “destined” to survive the harsh life of the streets will somehow survive)—in effect limit children’s access to Jesus. The disconnect between our assumptions and the growing youth unrest in cities all over the world is staggering. Most Christian leaders would rather address problems after they’ve taken root (in the adult) than at their point of origin (in children and adolescents).

Access to Jesus may be limited, yet youth seem to have full ac- cess to the destructive forces of urban dysfunction, hopelessness and death. The church is called to be salt and light in the midst of such circumstances. Transformational discipleship creates an oa- sis in the urban desert—a safe space in which generations of youth can engage Jesus and discover who they are in Christ.

So far we have spent our time rethinking how the church engages urban youth:

• We have defined transformational discipleship as an approach to youth ministry centered on maximizing the adolescent leadership experience in ways that mold youth for future service and motivate the future leaders (children) these adolescents influence.
• The mission of a transformational discipleship ministry is to create an environment in which youth can discover who they are in Christ.
• The vision of a transformational discipleship ministry is to see transformation in the heart of the city, where youth grow in faith and confidence to serve others, starting with the children of their neighborhood, reaching as far as God’s purpose for their lives takes them.
• What drives transformational discipleship is a foundational set of socio-theological concepts: (1) mission as the identity and purpose of the church, (2) urban youth as a focus of neighbor-love and discipleship, (3) the image of God as key to personal motivation and societal contribution, and (4) leader- ship asthe activity in which discipleship, identity discovery and life purpose come alive in the adolescent experience.

I believe that the application of these ideas will empower youth ministries to run. As we allow our understanding of urban discipleship to be reshaped, leaders will experience a renewed sense of hope, purpose and power. We will set in motion formative change that will have an impact on multiple generations of youth. Then the reality we long for will come alive in the urban experience: transformation in the heart of the city.

God does not want us to be bewildered or stagnant in serving the urban youth population. I believe that the concepts founda- tional to transformational discipleship will give leaders “the feet of a deer” so that we might “tread on the heights.” My prayer is that as we trust God’s perspective on mission, urban youth, the divine imprint and leadership, He will empower urban leaders to make a qualitative difference in the lives of urban youth.

The time has come for us to run.

Notes

• Ralph L. Smith, Word Biblical Commentary: Micah - Malachi Vol. 32 (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1984), p. 105.
• Rueben P. Job, When You Pray: Daily Practices for Prayerful Living (Nashville, TN: Abing- don Press, 2009), p. 130.

Praxis

From Theory to Substance

He who does that which he sees, shall understand; he who is set upon understanding rather than doing, shall go on stumbling and mistaking and speaking foolishness.

George Macdonald

How do we do it? How do we move from theology to practice, from thought to accomplishment? How do we press the transformational discipleship philosophy into the fabric of ministry?

To meet the challenges of a changing world, we must be pre- pared to change everything about ourselves except our fundamental core beliefs. This requires an ability to distinguish between belief and practice. We must commit to reaffirming core values through a continual refining and improving upon the ways in which we live out our central beliefs.

With this in mind, this section will do three things:

1. Present an overarching framework of the developmental process. This framework is based upon starting a transformational discipleship ministry from scratch. It only addresses those elements related to transformational discipleship, not any specialized ministry emphasis, such as education, music, sports, the arts, etc. This framework can be applied to all types of youth ministries.
2. Identify the values being fleshed out within each phase of the developmental process. Knowing the why of each phase presses meaning and purpose into what will be an extended process. Your values, if they are genuine, will motivate and sustain you over the long haul.
3. Share practices vital to each phase of the developmental process. These practices grew out of my personal experiences in animating leadership capacity and leading a youth development ministry. While important, they are neither sacrosanct nor exhaustive. It is my hope that those who are reading and applying this philosophy will build upon the things I have learned and discover new ways to transform the lives of urban youth.

Phases at a Glance

Transformational discipleship is a long-term process. It engag- es young people as they move through three distinct phases of pre-adult life.

• Late Childhood. Most people understand childhood as that period of life between toddlerhood and early adolescence—ages 5 through 11. There are reasons the youth developer should begin with the later childhood phase—ages 8 through 11, or third through fifth grade. These reasons have to do with Jawanza Kunjufu’s description of the Fourth Grade Failure Syndrome. It is around the fourth grade that the realities of “minority status” in relation to the larger world begin to affect the black child’s psyche. Bobb Biehl, in his insightful work 4th Grade, also pinpoints this age as a significant life-shaping moment for all children. Early childhood is important, but a focus on third through fifth grade reaches children at a critical time of life, adding motivation to young emerging leaders to be an influence for good among this significant age group.
• Early Adolescence. Early adolescence—ages 12 through 14—is where young people exhibit the first waves of “Sturmund Drang” (storm and stress), the internal confusion and erratic behavior associated with the adolescent’s jour- ney toward adulthood. It is during this phase that the transformational discipleship developer forges a culture of discipleship by embedding the practice of thinking, questioning, and intentionally engaging life issues—always exploring the question “Where is God in all this?”—within the youth program.
• Adolescence. Once early adolescents reach high school—entering the adolescence phase of life—they are invited to join the Emerging Leaders. They have grown accustomed to thinking, asking questions, and looking for God in the context of life. Now, as adolescents, they embrace the added responsibility of teaching and leading children in the later childhood stage. For the emerging leaders, the group or “club” experience takes on the qualities of a team—or a task force. They are challenged, throughout their high school group experience, to commit (1) to grow in their knowledge of who they are in Christ, (2) to lead the weekly elementary program and summer day camp, and (3) to submit as muchas they know about themselves to as much as they know about Jesus Christ.

There are three developmental phases to building a transformational discipleship ministry:

Developmental Phases of Transformational Discipleship

• The Context phase focuses on the positioning of the min- istry in relation to youth, the local community and the Christian church.
• The Culture phase focuses on practices that shape the environment in which youth can discover who they are in Christ.
• The Leadership phase focuses on the capacity discovery and leadership development of adolescents who participate in the Emerging Leaders Initiative.

The phases are interconnected. One cannot establish the right culture outside the proper context. It is the transforming discipleship culture that cultivates the thought processes, hopes and motivations needed for adolescents to succeed as emerging leaders.

Adolescents

(High School)

Early Adolescents (Middle School)

Children (elementary)

A cycle develops. Adolescent leaders influence children, who move through middle school with the hope of one day becoming like the adolescents who influenced them. “Potential and hope ignite when children see—modeled in youth from their neighborhood—possibilities for their own lives.”