Tag: Gospel of Jesus

YMCA & Challenge 21: Global Inspiration for Local Mission-work

As YMCAs in the United States grapple with the roiling upheavals of 2020, and the tumultuous start to 2021, as we seek solid ground from which to stand and serve our struggling communities, there is much we can learn from our global YMCA friends and their foundation for serving amidst world-wide challenges.

Grinding poverty, political violence, ethnic resentments, religious strife, environmental pollution, broken families, corrupt cities – whatever shock or resistance American citizens have to these realities in our own country (the wealthiest and most powerful in modern history) fellow YMCA workers from around the world have also had to strive for success in this grueling reality for generations.

What can USA Christian YMCA leaders learn from Y’s in other countries – particularly ones committed to the legacy of George Williams and the Paris Basis?

What have other international Y’s figured out when it comes to embodying the gospel of Christ in a dangerous and violent world?

YMCA Challenge 21 is a gritty and enduring Christian commitment to historical and spiritual realities, but focused on an inspirational and grounded future.

Challenge 21, was drafted by the 14th World Council of YMCAS in Germany, 1998:

YMCA Challenge 21

“Affirming the Paris Basis adopted in 1855 as the ongoing foundation statement of the mission of the YMCA, at the threshold of the third millennium we declare that the YMCA is a world-wide Christian, ecumenical, voluntary movement for women and men with special emphasis on and the genuine involvement of young people and that it seeks to share the Christian ideal of building a human community of justice with love, peace and reconciliation for the fullness of life for all creation.

Each member YMCA is therefore called to focus on certain challenges which will be prioritized according to its own context.

These challenges, which are an evolution of the Kampala Principles, are:

• Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and striving for spiritual, intellectual and physical well-being of individuals and wholeness of communities.

• Empowering all, especially young people and women to take increased responsibilities and assume leadership at all levels and working towards an equitable society.

• Advocating for and promoting the rights of women and upholding the rights of children.

• Fostering dialogue and partnership between people of different faiths and ideologies and recognizing the cultural identities of people and promoting cultural renewal.

• Committing to work in solidarity with the poor, dispossessed, uprooted people and oppressed racial, religious and ethnic minorities.

• Seeking to be mediators and reconcilers in situations of conflict and working for meaningful participation and advancement of people for their own self-determination.

• Defending God’s creation against all that would destroy it and preserving and protecting the earth’s resources for coming generations.

To face these challenges, the YMCA will develop patterns of co-operation at all levels that enable self-sustenance and self-determination.”

Imagine the humble posture of North American YMCA’s discarding their exceptionalism and turning towards global Y’s to learn in mutuality how to live out our mission in this new era of unprecedented disruption and chronic uncertainty?

Imagine the kind of solidarity we could generate in the United States if we relented of reinventing the YMCA and took some lessons from our world partners on living out the historic mission of the Y amidst these challenging times?

Challenge 21 enables North American Y’s to transcend the boring discussions of whether we should be more or less a business or non-profit focused, more or less a gym/swim or social agency.

The vision and depth of Challenge 21 could transform the spirit, energy and creativity of local Y’s, if they are brave enough to embrace it.

Here’s how different Y’s across the world highlight Challenge 21:

East Jerusalem YMCA

YMCA Europe

Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs

YMCA Africa Alliance

If you were to “grade” your Y in light of Challenge 21, what would the result look like?

If you were to connect the most exciting parts of your Y with the Challenge 21, which parts would be highlighted?

Just imagine how exciting your Y could be with a more intentional holistic focus in solidarity with fellow associations across the globe!

One can make the case that Challenge 21 is a robust, thoughtful, dynamic, transformational unpacking of our current YUSA mission statement.

It can open up a way to transcend the colloquial American political and religious anxieties; it can reconnect us with our world neighbors and the immanent love that empowers us all.

Evolution of USA YMCA logo’s

YMCA & The Paris Basis For Thriving in 2021

What will guide our YMCA in 2021? With what we think is ahead of us, with what we are preparing to overcome, with what must change within and around us – what is our cornerstone for the Y future? Since 1855 the Paris Basis has been a foundation for YMCA’s around the world to navigate unprecedented disruptions and cataclysmic upheavals. What is the Paris Basis, and how can it aid Christian leaders in the Y to “build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all?”

What is the original animating genius of the YMCA?

What is the power source for sacrificial service, resiliency, and love that enables the Y to endure for over 15 decades globally and locally – especially here in Fort Wayne?

The Paris Basis of the YMCA is a concise yet potent agreement for shaping how a global youth movement can adapt to a plethora of cultures and unique circumstances while embodying a transcendent purpose and calling.

Here in the United States, the Paris Basis guided the YMCA amidst the violent upheavals of the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Great War, the Great Depression, World War Two, the Cold War, Civil Rights Era, Korea-Vietnam-Central America-Iraq-Afghanistan wars/tragedies, 9/11, and now COVID.

The Paris Basis was adopted on 22nd August 1855 in Paris, France at the 1st World YMCA Conference

“The Young Men’s Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young men.

Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance.”

YMCA Paris Basis, adopted at First World YMCA Conference, 1855, organized by Henri Dunant
draft document of the Paris Basis, 1855

The spirit of the YMCA leaders that drafted this document also shaped the future ecumenical movement of European and then international Christian churches.

The emphasis on Jesus Christ, his Kingdom, and harmonious relationships should not be underestimated for its significance on the growth and vitality of the Y in a turbulent and war-torn century.

George Williams, a founder of the YMCA, who embodied this kind of Christian spirit of service, was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894.

Henri Dunant, organizer of the first YMCA world council, also embodied this Christian spirit of service, and would go on to found the International Red Cross; he would be awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

The Christian spirit of service embodied by Williams and Dunant, as expressed in the Paris Basis and enculturated across dozens of nations around the world in those early decades, still exists today for YMCA’s to work together and collaborate in their communities.

It has been necessary and good for the Young Men’s Christian Association to adapt and mature over the past 175+ years.

In regard to the Paris Basis the need prevails to immerse our mission in it, as we fully immerse ourselves in the cultures of our communities. We still live in a violent, broken, yet beautiful world, as 2020 revealed so clearly to us.

The genius of the Paris Basis is its emphasis on the personal, not the abstract: Jesus Christ as our faithful God and courageous Savior; on its reconciliatory nature as revealed by Christ’s kingdom that prioritizes forgiveness, oneness, and sacrificial service.

The world doesn’t need platitudes or empty promises; it does still need real people living as peace-makers inspired by the words and works of the real Jesus Christ.

The YMCA is at its best when it is personal, when it connects and unites communities, when it brings out the best in others. What makes this transformative is when it happens amidst irascible conflict, brokenness, and apathy.

The spirit of the Paris Basis originated among twelve industrious young Christian men who associated to improve the lives of workers around them living in darkness, squalor, and hopelessness.

When YMCA workers seek to embody this same spirit in its complicated context, the Paris Basis can be a guiding light and spiritual fuel as it enters into difficult and overwhelming circumstances.

The Paris Basis emphasizes some key texts from the New Testament:

– the dynamic person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel according to Luke, especially the first four chapters.

– the transformative kingdom of Christ unto which we are disciples in faith and life, described in the Gospel according to Matthew, particularly chapters five through seven.

– the harmonious relations stem from a robust and powerful vision of Jesus Christ as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane “that all may be one” as recorded in the Gospel according to John, in chapter 17, but prefaced by the call to “love one another” in chapters 15-16.

Christian leaders within the YMCA movement can draw great wisdom and strength from reflections on these three core Gospel writings, as they go about their demanding work in the community.

Like anyone else we can get overwhelmed by the upheavals on our world; the Paris Basis can be our North Star in the wilderness, our compass in the storm, our lantern in the dark.

You may not be knighted for your YMCA work, nor receive a Nobel Peace Prize. But that same spirit of Christ that animated Williams and Dunant, as articulated in the Paris Basis, is still alive and vibrant, for those willing to embrace it.

Together we can strive for more peace, in the way of Christ and his Kingdom, especially in the troubled times still ahead for our world in 2021.

The Courage To Be Misunderstood

If you’re a leader, you’ll be misunderstood.

If you care about people, you’ll be misunderstood.

Even if you serve people well, you’ll still be misunderstood.

If you’re like me, it’s terribly frustrating to be misunderstood. I have a deep need to be liked, so I have to fight against the urge to please everyone with my decisions. Whether as a leader, a neighbor, or a family-man, the risk of being misunderstood is constant.

But rather than being afraid of being misunderstood, we ought to accept reality, and face it with courage. Sure, we ought to do our best to keep things in context while being truthful and wise in our explanations. But if it’s laced with fear, you’ll undermine the trust you need to overcome the misunderstanding.

It’s courage, not fear, that overcomes misunderstanding.

That’s what we see in Jesus, as told by Mark in the gospel. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus had sent his disciples across the lake in their fishing boat while he went up into the mountains to pray. Late that night, as they struggled against the wind, Jesus came out to them on the lake. They were terrified by Jesus – how can he walk on water and why does the wind stop when he shows up?

They still did not understand Jesus. But that didn’t stop Jesus from being with them, speaking into their life, and giving them courage.

Jesus risked being misunderstood by his own disciples even as he worked to train them for his mission. It took courage for Jesus to teach them, send them out to preach and heal, to live with them, and then still be misunderstood. Sometimes they were still afraid of him!

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

If it was difficult for the disciples to understand Jesus in the first century, imagine the challenges we face in the 21st century. We are separated by two millenniums and six thousand miles. Jesus is still misunderstood in America, even (mostly?) by Christians. That includes me.

So when we see how patient and persistent (and sometimes exasperated) Jesus was with his disciples when he was misunderstood, we can imitate him in regard to those who misunderstand us.

All people have power. Some know it and use it to their advantage, often at the expense of others well-being. A lot of us don’t think too much about the power we have over others. Which means we may not appreciate how we make others afraid of us.

Our desire to be understood could be another attempt to control and exert power over others. We would be wise to pay attention to the power we have (even if we think it is impotent or misunderstood) and how we use it in regard to others.

Jesus used his power to heal, to welcome, to embody the love of God, and to proclaim the forgiveness of sins for those who would repent.

Jesus used his power to transform lives, to set people free from fear in order that they may live a life of courage and trust in the God of Israel. And the whole time he risked being misunderstood. By his family, by his friends, his his disciples, by the religious and political authorities, by his own mother.

As you sense God’s call on your life to serve him in this world, your “yes” to the Lord may result in misunderstanding.

Like all important decisions, the greater the stakes, the greater the risk of misunderstanding. But when Jesus is calling you to follow him, we can hear his words to his disciples in every generation, every nation, every storm: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

What is Jesus calling you to do with your power?

What are the ways that Jesus has been appearing to you, inviting you to trust him with your life?

In what ways does Jesus make you afraid? What are you afraid of losing as you sense Jesus making himself real to you?

What kind of courage is Jesus calling you to exude as he invites you to join him in his work to heal the world for the flourishing of all?