Dodging Bullets in the City

I often have the television news on in the background while I fix dinner. Lately, I’ve been wondering if my house near the center of Philadelphia, one of the largest cities in the United States, has been picked up by a tornado and plopped down in neighboring New Jersey.

All the worthwhile news seems to be about the Garden State, with place names I recognize but would have to scan a map to know exactly where they are.

The Philadelphia news is crime- and sports-oriented.

That was my impression. Was I imagining things?

Last night when the news came on, I was sitting in my easy chair, so I grabbed a scrap of paper and pen and took notes. CBS-3 local news opened with the story of a woman who was beaten by another woman near a subway stop in South Philadelphia.

The next five or so stories, bringing us seven minutes into the 20-minute broadcast, were about Hurricane Sandy relief at the Jersey shore—seventy or so miles away. (I know NJ Governor Christie’s politics much better than that Tom fellow in Harrisburg.)

Commercial Break

The next segment opened with a teaser about the weather. Great map. Beautiful gal standing in front of it. No real information. That was coming. Promise!

Some poor soul in New Jersey was practicing the art of kidnapping. Glad we got him!

At last, some Philadelphia news. A shooting in North Philadelphia. An update on two shootings at Temple University (where my son works, should I panic?!).

Back to New Jersey. Camden County police will be replacing Camden City police, something all we Philadelphians need to know about our crime-ridden sister city across the Delaware River.

Back to Philadelphia. I was happy to learn that the fired Eagles coach found an $8 million dollar per year job in Kansas City. His family will eat for five more years.

More promises of a weather report. Meanwhile, be advised, it is cold.

Commercial Break

The next stories gave me a view of the world. Another celebrity visited Newtown, Connecticut. There was some trouble in Minneapolis, a drunk on a plane that flew into New York’s JFK Airport, and a health alert.

More about the Eagles and some footage of a tired-looking Sixers team. At least they help each other up off the floor. We are the City of Brotherly Love.

Finally, the promised weather report. It was cold today and it will be cold tomorrow.

It’s great to live in Philadelphia. We just have to dodge bullets. Everyone else has real problems.

It is clear that the local news is about building a platform to sell advertising. They, like the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, want to broaden readership. The news becomes about the New Jersey suburbs. They wonder why Philadelphians stop following them.

They are chasing demographics.

Dodging Bullets in City Ministry

We tend chase demographics in the church, too. We find mission projects upon which we can build our reputation and will be easy to support. It feels good to support the organized efforts of organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the Weekend Walk for any number of causes. But let’s not fool ourselves. 

It looks good in the bulletin. It feels good to those who participate. It is good work.

It is not mission work. 

Within the church, an attractive demographic is one that is already predisposed to church tradition, where mission work is not needed to meet a budget that supports a pastor and a building.

This demographic fled to the suburbs decades ago. Replacing it is too much like work—mission work.

All those little churches in the city neighborhoods—still populated with plenty of God-loving, hard-serving people — well, let them dodge bullets. The suburbs will get the benefit of their property sooner that way.

Meanwhile, at Christmas, suburban church members don stylish dungarees, reluctantly shell out $20 parking in center city, dish out some soup to the city’s worst off, and call it mission.

That’s a pretty paltry return for the millions of dollars they are taking from city neighborhoods when they force church closures and lock local people out of the churches they built—contributing to slum-building.

And now for the weather. It’s STILL cold!

By the way, those people you fed at Christmas are hungry again.