I have called Chicago “home” for more than 38 years when my parents moved our family here from downstate Illinois. I admit that the winters can be brutal, but overall, there is no place like Chicago! The city has many wonderful people, a world-famous skyline, beautiful parks, popular beaches, great entertainment, championship professional sports teams, and yes, awesome food. Chicago is truly my kind of town. As a Christian, I have to add that Chicago is unparalleled when it comes to the houses of worship, soul-stirring singing and of course, uplifting preaching! If you need it, want it, or can imagine it, Chicago has it all.
Unfortunately, Chicago is also as well-known for the violence that leads the nightly news casts and makes the headlines on an all too regular basis. At the time of this post, the Chicago Tribune reported the following gunshot statistics: Jan. 1, 2015 – July 24, 2015 = 1,493 shooting victims. By comparison Jan. 1, 2014 – Dec. 31, 2014 = 2,589 shooting victims. That is 4,082 shooting victims in less than 19 months.
Those sad and staggering statistics caused me to wonder what would happen if I issued a “Challenge” asking individuals to spend 40 days to help change Chicago? A challenge that reached across social and economic barriers. A challenge that, like the violence and the pain it causes, is not limited to any political, racial or ethnic group. A challenge that, should it be accepted, can help bring change to the place millions of people love and call home. What if others joined me and accepted the Challenge to Change Chicago?
In the military, a challenge is the demand of a sentry for identification or a countersign needed to enter a secure location. In essence, it is the response one provides to prove that they belong. God says that we belong:
The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Psalm 24:1
God has not turned any of His earth over to the enemy. He wants, expects, and I would even say, demands us to rise to the challenge and prove we belong by taking authority over what belongs to Him and has been trusted to us as caretakers.
The Challenge to Change Chicago (3CChallenge – as I call it) involves three simple actions over 40 days from Monday, July 20, 2015 – Friday, August 28, 2015:
1. Social Responsibility
Men and women are challenged to spend 40 days mentoring young men and young women, as well as at risk boys and girls. As you mentor them, deposit seeds of hope, share new ways to handle familiar problems and mold a different way of thinking. Unfortunately violence often breeds more violence. Some are only doing what they have seen modeled and do not know any better.
Allow your mentee to understand that they have the potential to be a positive contributor to the community in which we all live.
Teach them how to write a business plan, plant a garden, register to vote and many of the other things that will help them be socially responsible.
2. Economic Reform
Community leaders and business owners are challenged with providing viable employment opportunities. In addition to that, also help develop the skills that are lying dormant in some of Chicago’s very talented young men and women.
When we ask someone to put down a gun, we should have something to replace it with.
The challenge is to employ the now socially responsible citizens as part of the solution to help Chicago truly be “The City That Works”.
3. Spiritual Renewal
Christians are challenged to spend 40 days witnessing in an effort to help introduce and bring others to Christ.
The solution to curb the violence we are experiencing in Chicago begins with a true change of heart.
In Psalm 51:10, David wrote “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” When I was a child, we used to sing a song which said “What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought. Since Jesus came into my heart! I have joy in my soul for which long I have sought, since Jesus came into my heart!” The whole premise of the 3CChallenge is that if we can change the heart, we can change the home. Once we change the home, we can change society. Once we change society, we can change our streets.
The 3CChallenge will culminate with a three-day tent revival, August 26 – 28, at 7:00pm each evening. This wonderful event will be held on the corner of Kolin and 16th St. in North Lawndale. The revival services are free and all are welcome to attend. I hope that all of the readers in Chicago will accept this challenge to help change the city we call home. Even if you do not live in Chicago, you can take this Challenge where you live.
Above is my solution to curb the violence and change Chicago. Will you accept the Challenge to Change Chicago? What is your proposed solution to bring lasting change?