God's Neighborhood is chiefly a journey. Scott Roley, once a rising contemporary Christian music artist and song writer, reaches back to his childhood, moves us through his growing up years and on into his adult years, asking us to join him on a life journey, a spiritual journey. He pauses along the way, asking the questions, "What providence placed me here? What does God want me to learn?" Like he asked while living in Washington DC, "What providence placed me in a neighborhood close enough to Washington to view the Capital dome? What should I be learning, seeing, thinking?" But, Roley doesn't stop asking the question in Washington DC-he asks these questions at every turn, every venture throughout his life. Eventually, Christian music ministry gave way to a different kind of ministry. Roley pens it best, "God's Neighborhood is about understanding and participating in Christian community. It describes a response to the biblical mandate of care for the poor." In reading God's Neighborhood, we are asked to join the author as he leaves his life of privilege, then seeks church ministry, and eventually moves into a disadvantaged neighborhood. There, we learn with him and his friends (among whom is another famous Christian artist, Michael Card) what "loving your neighbor" actually means. What it means with feet and hands, namely community development and racial reconciliation. "We must look into the eyes of poverty," Roley exhorts, "and examine the heart, soul, and psyche of it. People aren't just in need of drug rehab, roof over their heads or decent food to eat. They also require the dignity of true and relevant education, affordable health care, and living wage opportunities." And yes, this from an Evangelical Christian. Roley writes, "The journey of our hearts into racial reconciliation and community renewal from Hard Bargain to Mount Hope is a moment-to-moment decision to place faith and trust in Christ. It is why we strive for the renewal of our streets, rehabilitation for our crumbling homes and lives, the revival of real relationships among the least and the lost, and redemption for all through our Savior Jesus." Roley invites us to share the same journey, a journey that exemplifies Christian hope in caring for the disinherited and renewing our communities, one neighborhood at a time. This book, although very easy to read and fast paced, is dangerous-a book, not for Christians who are faint-hearted, or comfortable in their complacency.
Congratulations to IVP! And God bless the Empty Hands Fellowship. This is the book of the summer, a non-fiction reminder of what God's Kingdom should look and feel like. This is one of those rare books that makes you smile, cry and think at the same time.
Do not, however, be fooled by the title. This is not a story of a smiling middle-aged man in a cardigan sweater, sitting around entertaining his neighbors with his Martin six-string. This is a challenging account of one man and his family living in pursuit of God's grace in true community. And we are invited to join with his many friends to enter into that same pursuit of real connection.
With loving tenderness, Scott demonstrates the way we should be living with our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as those who we are reluctant to call our neighbor. A vulnerable, transparent account documenting the trials and triumphs inherent in efforts of racial and relational reconciliation.
It took me a little over three hours to read it. The stories are so compelling, well written, and interesting, I did not want to put the book down. Interspersed among the stories are thought-provoking jewels for all of us desiring God's best for His Kingdom. They are biblical perspectives that are being lived out every day in Franklin, Tennessee.
And as I write these words I know that Scott and his bride of almost 30 years, Linda, do not limit their interests to middle Tennessee, but are ministering in villages in the Andes mountains of Peru in pursuit of enlarging God's Neighborhood.
This book demands a sequel with Paige Pitts' and Denny Denson's voices added to Scott's.
