Positive Loitering

During the summer, I will be working with a new church plant in Indiana which sprung from Fourth Congregational Church in Chicago. The new church is called the It’s All Good Community, and they currently have a café that is open Mon-Fri, and they also do weekly spiritual gatherings on Thursday evenings, outdoor retreats in Michigan, and tons of other really great, new ways of being the church and doing ministry. This past Thursday I attended an event that they called “Positive Loitering.” We informally set up a BBQ grill, tables and chairs on a street corner in Hedgwisch in South Chicago, and we grilled up some hotdogs, and invited the neighborhood, mostly complete strangers, to join us. We did this in response to a local shooting in the neighborhood, so we could reclaim this neighborhood as belonging to the people, not the gangs. This was the first evening the kids were out playing in the streets since the shooting. It was a great way for people to get to know their neighbors. As I stood around talking with people, I began to realize how little we actually know our literal neighbors, locally, like the people who live next door, much less our worldly neighbors. You can't love your neighbor, or care for them, or watch out for them, or provide for them, if you don't even KNOW them! When I was a census taker in the Spring, if I couldn't find the residents of a home, I was supposed to ask a neighbor for their info. I was shocked to find how little people actually know about their neighbors. I find this especially true with younger people of my generation, in apartment buildings, etc. We lived so exclusively from each other, so secluded and isolated. Especially with the internet and texting, there is no face-to-face contact anymore (and barely any voice to voice contact either!). I am continually shocked by the number of people I know who resort to online dating to meet people. What happened to meeting people in person? Why don't we know our neighbors? Why don't we know the people we walk by, and stand in line next to, and wait for the subway with? I am convinced that we need to do a better job of knowing the names, needs, and gifts of our neighbors, and not just the most recent gossip. But I think that most people just plain don't like each other, they choose to stay away from those they don't like, or who are different. Others are just just socially awkward or insecure, or introverted. But even so... there must be another of living in this world! But maybe I am too idealistic, though I'm not sure that's such a bad way to be. (I was told this the other day, that I haven't lived a long, life and experienced the rough bumps on the road so I am of course too idealistic. This, I believe, is really not true at all! But I will leave that debate for another blog post).