HomePDX
HomePDX
is the offspring of the Bridge. It was found by Ken Loyd as a church for the
homeless in Portland. Soon it morphed into a broader ministry to the homeless
of Portland. Ken might be best described as a friend to all people with his
broad smile and love for everyone and anyone. Ken lives an intentional life of engaging
marginalized people. When you see him with his skeleton and hello Kitty tattoos
on his arms along with his gray Mohawk he is not what people conceive in their
minds as the typical pastor. Ken is probably the most intuitive and innovative
Positive Deviance Approach practitioner I have met so far. His willingness to
engage the culture of those he desires to reach by becoming a native with them
represents the highest level of respect and honor of a people group I have ever
witnessed. Ken is in the process of beginning another ministry amid the
“Travelers”[1]
and turning the leadership of HomePDX over to Bruce Arnold. Bruce has worked
along with Ken for several years now and is integrated into the HomePDX
community.
HomePDX practices and strategies
The
homeless culture, those who live outside, is a broad community consisting of
destitute men, women and children and youth who are part of the “unwanted
tribe.” The mentally ill and some addicts make up this marginalized people. Ken
entered into their culture by a practice and strategy of developing trust
through understanding their culture. Bruce Arnold has followed his example. But
Ken has learned the fine and difficult art of bridging cultures. He has learned
how to engage the homeless culture from within it. Ken states. “Everybody
deserves to be loved.” As a PD practitioner Ken has culturally fluidic
capabilities. In the eyes of the homeless Ken is a native.
When
interviewing Ken he indicated that building trust amid the homeless is all
about loving people. He said, “Everyone deserves to be loved.” Ken may not have
originally coined the phrase, but he certainly lives it out every day. He
shared that most outside groups coming into downtown are there with the purpose
of evangelizing and not loving people. Ken’s Positive Deviance process turns
conventional evangelism upon its head and takes away being purpose driven to
being people driven. Ken confided that sometimes “there is nothing glamorous
about loving people such as alcoholics, but Christ called us to love our
neighbor as ourselves.” The goal is access of the Gospel through the
theological praxis of the love of Christ.
In developing
HomePDX Ken employed much of the same practices and strategies used at the
Bridge. He integrated into the culture, essentially he went native. He is able
to understand the culture better than any of the others ministers reaching out
to the house-less in Portland.
Bruce Arnold
recently described to me his PD activities. He took a weekend and spent it
living on the streets as one of the members of HomePDX. When he addressed the
HomePDX community at the gathering on the following Sunday he stated, “I have
the utmost respect for anyone who lives on the streets.” The community went
totally silent and Bruce wondered if he had said something wrong. A community
member told him, “No one ever tells us that they respect us.” Bruce gained
clout that day amid the community.
The
community of HomePDX has self-identified itself as a church. Ken has never
called HomePDX a church, at least not amid the Portland community, but the
people who attend do. The community followed the pattern set out in Acts as
they navigated creating their own identity as “Christians.” This is further
evidence of the PD process in action amid the marginalized. HomePDX has also
designed its own practices. It recognizes those from within their midst who are
called as pastors. They have developed the practice of ordination from the
community. Not an ordination from above, but from below. This designed practice
indicates the community’s wisdom and intelligence at recognizing what the Holy
Spirit is doing and whom the Spirit calls.
As
representative positive deviant practitioners no other group has demonstrated
the high level of intuitiveness and counter-intuitiveness as the members of the
HomePDX. The team followed the steps of PD process by first, not assuming to
have the answers, but understood the community would supply the answers about
how to reach them with the Gospel. Second, it was an intuitive venture at the
grass roots level where they learned another cultural perspective that allowed
them to become one with the tribe. Third, the community had ownership of the
practices and strategies put into play and came up with the answers to
spreading the Gospel amidst themselves. Fourth, was a recognition that
conventional wisdom would not and did not work amongst the tribe of the
house-less. Finally, the community was allowed to self-identify and developed
self-regulation as well. All of this transpired through PDA leadership that was
uninformed of the practices and strategies as Positive Deviance.
HomePDX
is achieving ecclesial contextualization of the Gospel amid the homeless and
marginalized people of inner city Portland. They are accomplishing this through
the use of the Positive Deviance Approach as a way to empower ecclesial
contextualization with theological praxis. The descriptive Christology of the
Gospel is in full view at the HomePDX. The unconditional love, as exemplified
by Christ, is what drives the praxis of HomePDX.
[1]
Travelers are youth whom travel the country exploring and living off the
streets and barrowing couches whenever possible to sleep.
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