“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” — 1 Thessalonians 3:12

This past week I was afforded an opportunity to experience quite an adventure in the great city of Chicago.  A team of 46 from our church community here in Tulsa spent spring break serving through a partnership with the great folks at Center for Student Missions (CSM) in Chicago (http://www.csm.org/chicago.php.).

Part of CSM’s model for short-term missions is sending teams out on an “urban immersion” during their trip.  My group of students had the privilege of going into the Lakeview/North Halstead community with the following scenario: experience the area as if you were a runaway youth.  While doing this, we were also given the task of getting to know as many people there as possible through conversation and asking a variety of questions. (What is like to live in the neighborhood?  What do you like and dislike?  How does the city attempt to help people?  The Church?  Etc.)

One thing I have yet to mention about this community is that it is also know as “Boystown” and is recognized as the first official gay village in the United States.

Before we disembarked one of the famous “L” trains for Lakeview, we talked amongst ourselves about what it would be like to be a runaway youth in our community, South Tulsa.  Initially my students talked about how much easier it would likely be to find assistance in Tulsa versus Chicago, but once we began meeting some of the fine folks in the “Boystown” area, they quickly began to sing a different tune.  What we discovered was a community of people that take great pride in caring for their neighborhood.  They were incredibly kind and eager to help.  The streets, shops, restaurants, etc. were immaculate and quite inviting.  At one point, my students commented that they would rather struggle through the challenges of being a runaway youth in Lakeview Chicago as opposed to the church-saturated community of South Tulsa.  OUCH!

The sad truth is that many well-intended Christians see the homosexual community as a disease to be avoided at all costs or something to fear on the same level as an impoverished neighborhood consumed by violent street gangs.  I am not speaking here on what the Bible says about homosexuality.  What I am speaking on is what the Bible has to say about how we are to love and treat people, regardless of how they live their lives.  Something is horribly wrong with the Church when the world at times is doing a better job of loving people than the body of Christ!

So what is your Lakeview?

Maybe you already do a good job of loving homosexual people.  However, if you’re like me, there is someone or some group that is incredibly difficult for you to love.  The answer here does not lie solely in trying harder but rather being willing and open to opportunities when they arise and seeking God’s love and peace, not just to benefit ourselves but ultimately to give away to those in need!

“Love is not just a word.  It is a measurable expression of one’s unconditional behaviors towards another.” – Andrew Marin (http://www.themarinfoundation.org/index001.htm)