Imago Dei in Portland, where Rick McKinley is pastor, has started something called Sacred Space. From the Sacred Space website...
sacred space is an urban renewal project spearheaded by Imago Dei Community.
Last fall, nearly two hundred people got together on a sunny September day with a vision. The team descended upon St. Francis Park in SE Portland to serve in an amazing renovation project with over $5,000 in resources raised. The park was transformed from a blighted area into sacred space.
After a year of dreaming, praying, and planning, our vision has grown.
And it’s still growing.
On August 12, we expect one thousand people will come together to bring restoration, resurrection, and renewal to about fifty spots around Portland, Oregon.
With shovels and rakes, hammers and nails, hard work, healing, and laughter.
We’d love for you to be a part of it. Look for signup information soon.
the idea
Sacred Space is about recalling our duty to preserve creation by reclaiming harmony with God’s Kingdom: the way things should be. We are committed to a missional journey of actively repairing the broken places all around us, partnering with God to restore our divinely-created habitat.
We want to engage the city in this process of regeneration, planting seeds of hope and nurturing the faith that we can make life better together. We believe that God invites people from all beliefs into this progressive movement. As we combine our talents we experience authentic community rich in meaning, truth, beauty and worship.
Can you imagine the impact in communities if churches would join together to do this across our country?
We have work days to clean up our buildings and grounds. Why not join together to do this?
Posted by: Tom Bryant | 06/29/2006 at 08:42 AM
I think that the idea is a good one. However, I fear that in an effort to live missionally and incarnationally some have really deviated from what living out those things means within historic Christian faith. It is very easy to say your missional by mowing a lawn but if Christ is not shown and taught your merely another humanitarian. I don't want anybody to misunderstand, I think there should be more ideas like this, I do think Christians should be the ones helping there "secular" communities not humanitarian groups. Although I think this- I do fear that if we are not careful we will get carried away with the physical to a point that we forget the redemption that is in Christ for all those that would throw themselves upon him.
Posted by: Michael Touchton | 06/29/2006 at 10:16 AM
This is beautiful. I was in Seattle a couple of years ago at Pike's Place Market where there were flowers, people hanging out, music, laughter, joy - basically LIFE. We had a mission team headed to Vancouver, BC to help with a church plant and I was so taken with the scene from "godless" Seattle. I had our team sit down for 10 minutes and not speak. Then I asked them to describe what they saw happening and compare it with our "Christian" city of Montgomery, AL. The differences were dramatic. Somehow, in our "Christian" city, we were drab, boring, and addicted to strip malls. There was little life or community. I, personally, am weary of a "gospel" that is correct on theology, but produces dead people and lifeless communities. We are missing something. It sounds like Imago Dei is restoring the color to God's world, and isn't that the ultimate purpose to the gospel - to restore us to God's image?
Posted by: Alan Cross | 06/29/2006 at 11:36 AM
Glad to hear folks getting excited about this type of investment in our communities and cities - it demonstrates what I think is a much broader understanding of what it means to live sacramental lives that can and should transform the society/culture in which we live. There is some good literature out there along these lines from both secular and Christian writers - I'll make a recommendation from each:
Jane Jacobs – The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Everyone should read this book and every pastor/minister/Christian should be FORCED to read it, especially if you are living anywhere that could even remotely be referred to as urban.
Eric Jacobsen – Sidewalks in the Kingdom Eric is a Presbyterian pastor who takes Jacobs and her ilk and unpacks how missional discipleship/good "neighboring" leads to transformed communities
Lastly, for some free reading goodness: for those who aren't familiar with the Work Research Foundation (they're a good bunch of mostly neocalvinists and its definitely worth signing up for a free copy of their publication Comment) anywho, they recently finished up a conference entitled Stained Glass Urbanism: The Untold Story of the Church and City Renewal and they posted a number of good articles on the site that speak directly and indirectly to a number of the issues you are thinking through - worth a visit/read. Good stuff.
Posted by: Jon | 06/29/2006 at 01:26 PM