You Invited Me In

by Bob Setzer
Last Thursday, September 16, Dan Riley and I gathered with a few dozen folk to dedicate the latest Macon area Habitat House. This house located in south Macon (4251 Roy Avenue) is part of a neighborhood reborn. Five years ago, residents of this neighborhood mostly kept to themselves behind locked doors. Today, they gather freely to stroll, visit, and help each other out. According to the pastor of a nearby church, the transformation of the Lynmore Estates is a miracle of biblical proportions. Today hope is radiant where despair once stalked the streets.

Approaching this neighborhood holistically has been the heart of Habitat’s strategy for restoring the neighborhood’s vitality. Seventeen Habitat houses have been built in the area toward a goal of 40, spurring civic pride along with other renovation and development. Today, Chuckie and Janelle Williams--and their children--are the proud new owners of a safe, affordable home. As partners in the local Habitat movement, our church played a small part in their triumph.

The Williams’ home is the 12th Habitat House First Baptist has built or helped to build; this particular home was built in partnership with Mercer University and Highland Hills Baptist. According to Dan, over the last several years, our church has given 30-40% of the monies donated by churches to the local Habitat chapter. In addition to the resources and labor our church invested in the Williams’ home, the Williams’ family--like all Habitat home owners--contributed “sweat equity,” helping with construction. Thus, the help our church, Habitat, and our other partners provided was not a “hand out” but a “hand up.” The Williams will pay in full for their home over the next twenty years.

This Sunday, our church will host a guest teacher and preacher, Dr. Robert Lupton, who knows a lot about reversing urban blight through holistic neighborhood development. He is the founder and director of FCS (Focused Community Strategies) Urban Ministries in south Atlanta (www.fcsministries.org). Dr. Lupton is author of Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life:  Rethinking Ministry to the Poor, a book studied by our Global Women and several of our adult Sunday School classes. Rather than simply wax eloquent about the problems of the poor, Dr. Lupton has developed proven strategies for empowering people to climb out of poverty. He has been instrumental in revitalizing two declining, crime-ridden neighborhoods in Atlanta, beginning by moving there himself, along with his family.

During his inaugural sermon, Jesus said his ministry, his movement, would spell “good news for the poor” (Luke 4:18). As our church strives to be “the Presence of Christ” in the world, we hope to rise to this sacred calling. Sunday’s conversation with Robert Lupton, a fellow pilgrim in the way of Jesus, may yield important insights about what we are called to be and do next.