Bart Campolo, on his blog, posted this past week about a Thrift Store idea he has begun kicking around:
Just think…a place of connection…affordable clothes and furniture for poor people…some decent jobs…a hub for our community…a place to hold meetings…the metaphor of redemption…saving landfill space…a ‘Cheers’-like environment, where everybody knows your name…vouchers for those who need them…a fund-raiser for other ministry stuff…a place to hold birthday parties for people who need them…a point of entry for folks moving here to join us…a safe zone between rich and poor…summer jobs for the kids who want to grow…an approachable spot to for folks who need ‘in-the-mix’ counseling and emotional support…something that takes advantage of Marty’s and my gifts and experience…no ongoing fund-raising…
from this post: Bart Campolo: Have you considered retail?—the permalink seems to have gotten deleted, so this is the comment pagethe line about “a safe zone between rich and poor” brought a couple of comments from people who, in my estimation, misunderstood. The commenters reacted with the complaint that “staying safe” is precisely the problem with rich folks, or with the “non-poor” when it comes to the kind of contact they prefer with the poor (which is “as little as possible”). The commenters may have thought Bart was talking about a “safety” that comes with avoiding danger; or “comfort”. I didn’t read it that way at all.A few days ago, I posted a quote from Schools for Conversion (Brokering.) It’s worth reposting again, in this context:
When the church becomes a place of brokerage rather than an organic community, she ceases to be alive. Brokerage turns the church into an organization rather than a new family of rebirth. She ceases to be something we are, the living Bride of Christ. The church becomes a distribution center, a place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich come to dump stuff. Both go away satisfied (the rich feel good, the poor get fed) but no one leaves transformed — no new community is formed. People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for disrupting the status quo, for calling forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.
from Schools For Conversion, p. 29–Bart replied to these comments with clarification of the sense of “safety” he had meant:Bart Campolo: A Safe Zone Indeed
To achieve its goals, an enterprise like this would need not only to attract both rich and poor, but also to connect and humanize them to one another. That, I feel certain, requires the safe zone Jesus was taking about when he told his disciple to fear not, because he – God himself – was with them.
The “safety” is not equivalent to the “comfort” the well-off in our society feel in being separated by distance and class and the “usual comforts” we have come to take for granted. This “safety”, as Bart points out, is in the “fear not” zone; where the gift of difference is brought home; and the eventual discovery (revelation) that these walls that separate are artificial; a product of separation that is obliterated by reconciliation. I am reminded of a line from the book The lion , The Witch, and the Wardrobe, where one of the children asks the Beavers about Aslan, upon learning that Aslan is a lion “Is he safe?” : The reply: “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he’s not safe. But he’s good” The safe-zone is a reconciliation zone. It’s not a “safety” as the world expects it. It’s a safety that comes in discovering that gift awaits us.