I participated in a service-learning program for teens a couple of years ago that's worth revisiting. Having had a baby since then, I do a lot less of this sort of stuff than I would like to, but I consider it something that truly enriched my life. I hope it was just as useful to the kids involved.
This was a three-day service project at a local church. My part was to lead a group of six suburban 15- to 17-year-olds from a conservative congregation of another local church. I could do whatever I wanted, so I chose a schedule that would allow them to experience urban Cincinnati and meet folks who live there.
I think I'm a relatively secular kind of guy to be doing this sort of thing, or perhaps I'm just guarded against cultish belief. Some folks get so tied to their own ideas of what God is and what his story is they become sure that all else is false. God's bigger than that, I think -- bigger than the words written by men about him in the Bible (even if some or all were divinely inspired) and bigger than our imaginations.
I dislike orthodoxy, fundamentalism and fetishization.
In that spirit, I put together a track, as I told our students on the third and last day of the trip, that tied together some key issues in our city. I am pro-people of color, pro-feminist, pro-queer, pro-poor and pro-Jesus, and I think all these things fit together quite nicely.
The week started with a trip to Caracole, which provides transitional housing for folks living with AIDS. The folks we met spoke to our group about what it's like to live with AIDS, and for most of the kids (and me as well) it was the first meaningful contact with someone with the illness. While we were there, we cleaned their blinds and windows and did yard work.
The second day began with brunch at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen in Over-the-Rhine (I really recommend you go for brunch one morning, 10 a.m.-noon daily) followed by house cleaning at Elementz Hip-Hop Youth Center in the West End. While there, we watched a video on abuses of power by some police in Cincinnati.
The final day was spent at the Cincinnati Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) learning about Christian opposition to the death penalty and the Biblical justification for being against the war in Iraq and war in general. We worked on signs for an upcoming demonstration against an execution.
Among others, the IJPC is staffed by Sister Alice Gerdeman, an amazing, vibrant example of activism in action. Gerdeman spoke with the group about the death penalty and about why she's against it as a Christian (Jesus was a victim of an execution, you'll recall).
IJPC staffer Kristin Barker discussed Jesus' crafty opposition to the monoculture of his time.
We took the bus downtown two out of the three days we worked, and I made sure we walked several miles through Over-the-Rhine so they could see what life is like without a car.
This is my little, imperfect version of what church should be: Experiential, diverse and asking more questions than it answers.
Contact Stephen Carter-Novotni: snovotni@citybeat.com
