Kansas City's Racial Problem and How the Church Can Influence Change

   What can we do to bridge the gap in this wonderful city's great divide? 
      As left for class today I made my way through the business lined streets of Westport. Sprawling along each avenue are beautifully trimmed trees that line the paved sidewalks which run into the always illustrious Plaza. Not long after exiting Midtown I came onto Paseo, a street with many dynamics of poverty. As I head towards the Northeast side one only need to take a quick glance before noticing the vast contrast in neighborhoods. Businesses become rare, abandoned houses are the norm, and the African American population skyrockets. The divide starts at Troost Avenue. Some call it the "Troost Wall" because of how apparent the city's separation. When the lines were drawn for school district boundaries Troost was the line of separation to keep an all white southwest school district from that of the rest of Kansas City despite Brown vs. The Board of Education. 

Real Estate Monsters 

     In addition to this was the real estate barons of the past who sought to eliminate black home ownership. In the middle of all this was "community covenants  that could regulate "white only" homeowners in a district. To add to the mess were racial lending practices over and against the black population. It's saddening the treatment our veterans received after coming home from WWII where they fought and died to defend racial freedom only to be disregarded by racists in their own country.

      Why areas like the Plaza are so illustrious is due to developers quickly buying out property and partnering with banks and other community leaders to keep the population white. The stigma against blacks created from these tyrants has been allowed to infiltrate our churches and the east side of Kansas City is merely a place to avoid. I see it here down at the Mission where church volunteers gather once a month to hand out food and preach about life change only to disappear before getting too close.

My Heart Bleeds

How to influence a change in this city is my life's mission. I believe I have the life experience I do for just such a cause. I've walked through drug addiction where I spent most of my days acquiring my latest fix in these east side neighborhoods of Van Brunt, Paseo and Prospect. I've done time in prison and I've been called to minister the Gospel in the heart of Kansas City's most impoverished area. 

Just exactly how that is to be accomplished I don't know. Long range I can see a few things that need to take place

 Generational Wealth. 

     What I mean is that to right the initial wrong one of the steps to progress is home ownership. Now I know this isn't the totality of all solutions but it is one. Home ownership fosters pride, family unity and the joy one can receive in passing on to their children a piece of property that is owned. What happened in the 60 or so years since the conception of this racial divide is, again, racial lending practices to force fewer chances of African American home ownership. That has to change.

 Paradigm Shift. 

    I was talking with Kevin Cawley, Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship and he said this, "What East side needs is indigenous leaders." I agree, to a point. Now having been involved with various churches down in this area and seeing multiple groups come in to the Mission I have noticed a trend with most inner city black churches. Their pastors are flashy, they dance around on a stage and drive fancy Lincoln Town Cars. They exude a sense of esteem and accompanying these pastors are deacons who see Sunday as a day of pomp and pageantry. That must change. How the impoverished view church is through the lens of regal and fain fare. I heard an excellent sermon preached by a young man but I what got lost was the message among the spinning around, dancing, and occasional, "Can I get a witness!"

   The Gospel should be the heart of every sermon - not the clothes, the appearance, or the gimmick to attract. When we break down these barriers we will replace the paradigm and give back to this community an understanding that church is about coming as you are and watching how an altogether sovereign God transforms your life from the inside out not from the outside in.  Churches must be hospitals for the sick, not social clubs for the righteous.

Church Involvement. 

    So often we have church groups only coming down to gain their missionary "token." They gather their youth or their Bible study group and come down for a day and pass out cupcakes and struggle to fill the awkward gaps in conversation. Our churches need to rise up and revitalize whole neighborhoods. Often that may mean answering the big call to relocate. This isn't an easy challenge I know but I know it is made less difficult if the churches we do have now would start cell groups or Gospel Communities or sponsor church plants close to the East side. If we can start on the fringe and work our way outward I can only faintly fathom what God will do in a small network of Christians going door to door offering friendship and assistance, reaching out to the poor and taking action to help our children see what real men and women look like.

Revival. 

      I know, I know, just saying it sounds outdated but imagine if we took a weekend and set up in a park. Studies can directly link community change with revivals. We could line the park with booths focused on outreach and church involvement. We could have fun events for kids and bring powerful speakers and good solid Christian music. We could hold prayer meetings at the end of each day. When it's all over with we involve ourselves in the lives of those who either signed up or requested more info. We check back and make a vow to continue our efforts. This show of activity will let the communities know we are no longer going to view them as a distance group or foreign territory. Plus when you get that many people together focusing on the Holy Spirit moving there is no end to the power!

Church Unity. 

    There are thousands of churches in Kansas City. It's amazing that it took 11 scared and frightened men barely out of their teens to change the world yet millions of us surrounding a small city cannot. I'm disgusted by the egotism of pastors too afraid to reach out to other gifted men and involve them in the process or even to set aside the prestige of the pulpit to allow for us all to band together. Be it mode of baptism  mode of communion or even whether or not we can lose our salvation, most of the arguments that separate us are petty. We have far more by way of essentials that bind us than the non-essentials that separate us. We must, in the cause to transform our communities for Jesus Christ pool our resources and join in on the fight rather than puff our chests in a stance to prove who's the best.

I Am

    In response to the question, "What's wrong with the world?" G.K. Chesterton responded, "I am!" You, me, each one of us first must look at what is inside of us that may lead to furthering the atrocity of this city. How can we ever change our world if we first do not look to change ourselves? "Be the change," MLK JR. said, "That you wish to see in the world."

    At the heart of every conflict is either an inflated view of self or a depleted view. We either think so highly of ourselves that any interference causes us to lash out in anger or discontent. Or on the flip side in our poor self-esteem we are seeking to make others just as miserable as ourselves. 

 Crazy? Maybe.

     I'm sitting outside on a park bench on a beautiful day and I am seeing so many beautiful people from all walks of life. I stop to have conversations and speak to others about their view. Seems everyone I talk to knows all this and does desire change.

     So I write this not as a man with a grand design or to promote new liberation theology. I only speak the passion welling up inside me that causes me to cry at least once every shift at City Union. It is the passion that causes indignation when I see racism displayed or judgment cast simply by a person's position in life. This passion to live like Jesus should be in all of us who call him our Lord

     Grand idea? Maybe. But I do know that Jesus took a few rag tag failures and lit the world on fire. Just imagine what he could do with you?