Jesus Loves the Disconnected (Part 1)

One of my favorite chapters in the book Jesus Loves You is the chapter titled “Jesus Loves the Disconnected.” I think I identify with that chapter so much because we’ve all been there, haven’t we? In this Chapter Jason Harper talks about being so busy doing ministry that it seems we’ve forgotten what ministry is supposed to be about. He writes that ministry should about living “amongst people who don’t look like me, act like me, talk like me or believe what I believe.” So, as I became challenged by this book and its reminders about those we should be loving, I became interested in Dave Hackbarth’s mission field in the heart of Texas. Dave writes a blog called “Covered In Dust,” shares my love of Twitter, and can be found loving his wife, son, and neighbors in Austin.

NW: I know that you guys are involved with Apartment Life. What exactly is Apartment Life?

DH: For my wife and I, Apartment Life is all about intentional, missional living here in west Austin, TX.  Through Apartment Life we have the opportunity to create a culture within our community for spiritual conversations about God and faith to take place through community events, social activities, welcome/renewal visits, community service, etc.  We have the direct intent of sharing the grace and love of Jesus to help our neighbors take the next steps of faith by loving them well: total relational evangelism. Apartment Life was founded and based on the philosophy of sending teams of influence into the neighborhoods where we live as missionaries into some of the most unchurched population in America… the apartment dwellers.  Apartment Life has observed that only 5% of people living in apartments go to church.  That means 95% do not have a church home.  To put that in some perspective, Austin has around 1.5 million people living in and around Austin (the metro area).  About 50% of the population live in apartments and this then represents a mission field of 750,000 people.  Now, a quick tally of the math would then mean that there are about 712,500 people who do not have a church home living in and around Austin.  Our apartment community has about 1,000 residents, which means about 950 people are not plugged into a community of faith.

NW: How did you find out about Apartment Life? How did you decide to get involved?

DH: You know, it’s funny how social networking and big, outlandish faith requests work sometimes!  My wife Lisa and I had been praying about our current living situation back in June due to my unemployment, and we were desperately petitioning God that we needed to find somewhere to live for almost free.  Oh yeah, did I mention that we needed God to do this before November but sooner would be great?  Well, this led me to send out an update on Twitter which alerts all my Facebook friends as well.  One of our friends from Gateway Church saw the update.  She sent me a direct message asking if we had ever heard of Apartment Life and included a link.  We decided to check into Apartment Life since it seemingly answered our prayers, and the rest took off from there. To be quite honest, we really had no idea at first that we were going to be considered local missionaries!  We saw this as an answer to our prayers and a good opportunity to help us out of a tough situation.  It’s funny how God can use our somewhat selfish motives and redirect them to for the good of others, isn’t it?  It didn’t take long for us to uncover the intent and heart of Apartment Life and to really get on board with their mission and vision.  Because their mission and vision aligned perfectly with what God was already at work doing in our lives and at Gateway, we were able to step out in faith trusting that this was God’s direction for our lives.

NW: When we think about missionaries, we usually think of people going out – way out, like out of the country. In what ways is your mission through Apartment Life similar to this? How is it different?

DH: For me, the similarities require more of an explanation than do the differences.  Rarely do you see a missionary go into another culture far away and “bring America” with them.  Typically, they try to immerse themselves in the culture by learning the local customs and language.  We are doing the same thing.  Much like an overseas missionary, we have been planted into an apartment culture where we must learn the customs of the residents.  There is an unspoken undercurrent of living that exists in most neighborhoods, and it is our job to learn it and live well within that culture as followers of Jesus. It would be easier for me to explain to someone the dire need for Jesus’ message of faith, hope, and love in Africa or Afghanistan or the Czech Republic.  People in Africa are starving or have no clean water.  Everyone gets that.  The need is huge.  What I think we typically forget about is the guy on the street desperately asking us for change so that he can live another day because he is without food and water.  We don’t realize that the woman four buildings down from us was abandoned by her husband and now has to care for her son all alone and with little support.  We ignore the “temporary widow” whose spouse is overseas with our military.  These are our neighbors.  They are in our own backyard, and Jesus has called us to love them. When people go on mission trips to another country, they are doing a great thing and my intent is to not diminish that need at all!  However, I think a lot of Christians use that notion as an excuse to allow someone else to care for the needs of others when God has put the hurting, needy, broken people that need Christ’s grace and love right next door to us.  We need a willing heart to intentionally love our neighbors with no other motive than to be a good neighbor.

NW: What types of events do you plan? What ways do you reach out to build relationships with the residents in your community?

DH: Brunches and movie nights are a tradition within our community.  Our residents LOVE these events!  However, as we are getting to know the culture within our own community, we are learning about our neighbors’ passions, and we want to help support them through community events.  For instance, one neighbor is a chef and would like to offer cooking classes.  We are currently working to bring that to our residents.  We have been made aware that there is a large population of widows and divorcees that live within our community.  We are going to be hosting a ladies’ night to start building relational bridges to the widows and divorced women in our community.  We are also planning on partnering with some of the local schools to help mobilize our residents out within our community at large to help serve the children and faculty.  Nothing builds a sense of community quite like serving alongside someone for the good of others!

NW: You also mentioned that you have started forming some spiritual relationships with people already. What does that look like at this point? How did those relationships get started?

DH: First, let me say that God had been working in our community long before we ever showed up.  We are simply partnering with God and joining with Him in the restorative work that He started.  We could not do this without God.  We have a great network of support at Gateway and a team of 30+ prayer partners supporting us in this endeavor too. A spiritual relationship is much easier to start if we realize that it is not about how much we know or how many verses we’ve memorized or how well spoken we are.  It is simply doing life together with someone else through a conversation about God and faith.  As an example, I have been unemployed for six months and started a conversation at one of our events recently with a guy who was in the same industry.  As we started to get to know each other through our conversation, he mentioned that he too had been unemployed.  We were both amazed at how our bills got paid without any source of real income.  I casually mentioned that it just seemed as though God had been taking care of it.  I literally said, “Yeah, it’s odd isn’t it?  It seems like God has just been dropping money out of the sky, because somehow I have been taken care of for the past six months.”  That’s it.  This initiated his awareness that I am a person of faith.  We have several more stories like this.  My wife even has a story where the conversation has moved beyond this initial step to praying for someone to inviting someone to Gateway. We are diving into our apartment culture expecting God to do the unseen and miraculous. It’s crazy, yet it’s perfectly beautiful!  God will cause the growth of Faith in the soil of our community and we have already begun seeing the opportunity to witness God’s power moving in our midst.  Granted, they’re small movements.  But each movement of God leads to life, and we are encouraged!

Check back tomorrow to read about how Josh Wilson and his team are loving the disconnected in inner city St. Louis through a community orginization called Mission: St. Louis. It will wreck you.