"Why Build THERE?"

One of the first questions we've gotten as we build our home (which now has a foundation, and will begin framing tomorrow! Pics below, once google's weird errors get fixed today.) is, "why build in a more-run-down part of the neighborhood?" There are two levels to the answer of this question: one level is practical, and the other is theological - and the second level informs the first.

Practical answer: the price was right!
In looking for our new home, we had very specific criteria. For our home to be what we think a home should be, we needed...

• Enough space for a decent-sized family: biologically or adopted, we want more kiddos!)=
• A room to have people live with us: ever since taking in a poor post-college guy for a few months (like that description, David?), we very much like the idea of people living with us, whether short- or long-term - we needed a room for someone to stay with us, that was more than just a pull-out couch in the living room.
• Openness, to have lots of people around: this gets into the second level (as does having people live with us), but we believe the home should be a place of ministry - so we needed space to fit many people, in one room. People tend to gather in the kitchen and living room, so we wanted most of the living space to be "non-segmented," which most of the existing homes near downtown Fort Worth (being 80+ years old), tend to be.
• Something we could afford: the very few decent-sized, multiple-roomed, open homes in the area we're compelled to live were upwards of $500,000. Church planting and "professing" are the wrong jobs for those homes!

When we found out that a builder had bought 16+ lots in a more-run-down corner of a neighborhood that was halfway between TCU and downtown Fort Worth, and that the nature of that corner made a build affordable, and that we could build a house that fit all four qualifications, we jumped on it.

Theological answer #1: stewarding our home well
Too often in our culture, the home is seen as a source of rest, retreat, and respite. As Jess and I looked at moving into town from Benbrook, we developed the four qualifications above, to fight that perspective. Just like our time, our finances, our very lives, our homes are given to us by God, as gifts to use for his purposes, not our own. If we start to think our home is meant "for us," we've lost sight of mission and stewardship. And if "home" is the entity in which we find rest and retreat, then at least on some level, home has replaced Jesus, who is alone our true rest and who is alone our true retreat. In other words, our homes can become our idols. We likely don't think of it on this level, but in the same way as "beer = relief after a long day" or "ice cream = comfort in a hard time" display those items to be modern idols, "home = source of rest" displaces Jesus from one of his titles and roles in our lives.

It's been said that "your home is a house of mission." James 1:27 reminds us that God is the source of all we have; 1 Corinthians 9-10 speaks of our selflessness and generosity being based in the selflessness and generosity of Jesus. And throughout the Bible, you see homes as gathering places for those in the church (fellowship), and as places of refuge for those who aren't (hospitality). We want our home to be a place of ministry, of life, of celebration, of comfort, and of family - in every sense of those words. We want our home to be a house of mission; we want to steward our home well. Building where we are enables us to create the kind of home that will enable these things - and hopefully more! - to occur.

Theological answer #2: displaying redemption
The second theological reason for building in a more-run-down part of the city is that as believers, we're called "ministers of reconciliation." It's commonly heard that, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." But what's less common is the very next verse: "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:17-19, italics added). Because Jesus first reconciled us, we are to be reconcilers of the world - we are God's people, carrying out God's mission, in God's world.

Certainly God's heart in reconciliation is for people. But the Hebrew shalom (we translate it "peace," as in "blessed are the peacemakers") is more holistic - we are to seek an all-encompassing wholeness, of all things. In Jeremiah 29, God gives a glimpse of how this looks. He commands his people, exiled to Babylon for the sake of his mission, to "build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce ... multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (vv.5-7). Building houses and planting oneself into a mission field is part of the "ministry of reconciliation." "Seeking the welfare of your city" is part of God's mission.

To say it another way, to turn a run-down, empty, sad lot into a home that's being used for God's purposes - or to redeem the lot, if you will - is a practical, physical echo of the gospel. It's a physical display of the reconciliation God worked in us, as he turned our run-down, empty, sad lives into lives that are now used for his purposes - he redeemed us. In building in a more run-down part of Fort Worth, our hope is to seek the welfare of that area; to be a peace-maker - a bringer of shalom - to a rough spot in our town; to participate in the spirit of renewal that God first implanted in us, through Jesus.

I'd love thoughts, questions, and ways that you participate in this "ministry of reconciliation" as well - but that's why we're building in a more-run-down part of the neighborhood!

Pre-Foundation Pics:
Setting the forms and placing all the in-ground plumbing. Pics of the foundation pour and Charotte's footprints in our back porch will be in the next post.