Going to the International Association of Ministries annual conference in Kelowna gave me the opportunity to cash in a long-standing invitation: to visit Freedom's Door, a Christ-based recovery program in the City of Apples. One of the leaders of the program is Nick Yelland, who came out of prison and into the program several years ago, and realized that's where his ministry lies. He and I first collided at Gospel Mission, in fact. While working on his BA (Theology), he came to the Downtown East Side and did some volunteering with us. From there, we kept in touch, and while in the Kelowna area, I played hooky from the conference paid the program a visit.
While all of the people on the program were in various stages of coming out of substance abuse and crime -- somewhat like The Guys at Gospel Mission -- they seemed a bit younger and more robust, by and large. In fact, they looked like some of the meanest muthas I'd ever not want to meet in a dark alley. Maybe that was because they were getting healthier, because -- unlike Gospel Mission -- they've already made their commitment to a new life, both through Christ and physically.
But I was struck more by a common factor between Freedom's Door and Gospel Mission: an underlying theme that this is an initiative that God is definitely blessing. Like Gospel Mission, Freedom's Door is totally dependent on private contributions -- churches, individuals, foundations. But there's something deeper: the program is set up in a residential neighborhood. My first thought when I arrived was that the other homeowners must have had some choice words about Those Kind Of People coming to live next door.
It turned out that God had had all of that covered. First of all, the duplex that houses the "original" part of the program -- offices, dining area and 10 rooms downstairs -- was initially a women's shelter; so any controversies over zoning, NIMBYism and whatever were already taken care of. Then, a Christian woman who lived next door passed away, and left her house and property to Freedom's Door, so they added House #3 (the duplex was #1 and #2); and finally another house was acquired on the other side of Harvey Street (Highway 97), giving them four houses.
In other words, as with Gospel Mission and The Lord's Rain in particular, it's evident that Freedom's Door was meant to go ahead, whether The World liked it or not. God cleared away the obstacles and provided for the place, so that people with substance abuse issues and a criminal past -- who Nick readily describes as being ones other agencies won't take -- can be healed His way.
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They had asked me to talk a bit about Gospel Mission and how The Lord's Rain was built, and that brings a fresh voice to the eternal message of Hope in Christ (you can't have too many voices from too many different angles when that message is involved). But in the course of the talk, we touched on one of the key aspects in the spiritual success of The Lord's Rain, which is that it was built by a communal effort and that has infused the place with a spirit of community. That spirit passes on to those it serves.
One of the ways it became a communal effort is that we had approached a wealthy Christian businessman and asked him to underwrite the whole thing (this was 4-1/2 years ago, when the plan was first coming together). He turned us down flat, which left us scratching our heads at the time (although we were also saying, "OK, God, how do You expect us to do this?"). In the conversation I had with the businessman's assistant, she pointed out that something the Board of Directors had been concerned about, which was a lack of unity among the missions and outreaches on the DTES. They felt it would be good to see some kind of common front to deal with the situations in the area.
The trouble with that idea is that, while it may work in The World -- with groups determining goals and reaching consensus decisions on how to achieve them -- you could have a dozen different groups with a dozen different goals and a dozen different approaches; and all of them could legitimately be led by the Holy Spirit. If you're serving God, that leading in the Spirit is the #1 priority. If your leading is forced -- or even expected -- to take a back seat to some concept of "unity", you're not serving God.
"Unity" in serving God, to my mind, involves following the assignment God has given you and staying out of everybody else's way. We need to assume that others, too, are following a leading of the Holy Spirit -- and if they're not, their fruits will show it (Are people being healed? Are people emerging from their despair? Are lives changing?).
Remember what Jesus said when the disciples tried to prevent an outsider from healing people in Jesus` Name: "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is on our side." (Mark 9:39:40).
In fact, Paul writes, "when James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do." (Galatians 2:9-10).
In other words, the approach doesn't matter, so long as the goal is to draw people into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ -- and we remember to minister to the poor at the same time.
(The "James" mentioned in Paul's epistle is Jesus' half-brother, who wrote an epistle of his own and was the first Bishop of Jerusalem. He wasn't even a believer until after the Resurrection and while Jesus was being persecuted and tried, his ears were probably still stinging from his brother's remark about "who is My mother? and who are My brethren?). Yet I believe that when James spoke, it was Jesus speaking through him: the epistle reads like something Jesus would have written.)
But I digress ... In discussing this with the guys at Freedom's Door, I used the illustration of different people in different boats, all rowing towards the same goal: the boats might be of all shapes and sizes and might take little detours en route, but so long as the goal is that personal relationship mentioned above, we're all on the right path.
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We need to be clear about that goal, and I have to circle back to Nick to make sure it is. After my chat with the guys, a young man came over and asked to speak with me. He had been trying to come to God on his own terms, having "gotten into some bad stuff" when he was younger -- playing with a ouija board, he figures, opened a gateway for evil spirits to enter. I have a little experience with that, so I know he wasn't blowing smoke. But his attempt to get closer to God involved clearing his mind and "trying to let Mother Nature heal [him]", and that kind of talk is anaethema to my ears.
I also know better than to hammer someone over the head, that they're wrong -- rather, to point them in the right direction.
But he was looking for some kind of validation for his own approach, based on that "different boats" analogy above. It was almost along the lines of "many ways to the top of the mountain" or "one God - many paths" that are the hallmarks of New Age thinking. So I recommended that, as part of his own quest, he do Spirit-replacement therapy, reading the Psalms as his prayers.
No - the different boats represent different approaches to lead people to Christ and through Jesus, to God. One might be a ministry that offers a 12-step recovery program; one might be a healing ministry; another might involve hitting the streets with a box of sandwiches and a pocketful of tracts; but so long as we keep focused on that goal and stay out of one another's way, we will all get there, eventually.
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As I mentioned, Freedom's Door runs on private donations from individuals, churches and businesses. The success of their program is palpable as soon as you meet the guys. Please visit their website -- www.freedomsdoorkelowna.com -- for information on how you can donate.
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