Good Neighbour

Sanctuary Toronto is at the forefront of street-level outreach in Toronto. Throughout the pandemic, they have faced incredible challenges, one of which is the dissolving and fragmented sense of community on the streets. With indoor spaces closed, subway benches roped off, park encampments destroyed, you wonder if the homeless have any spaces in which they could welcome you. Hospitality assumes that you have a space or a community to invite people into. And of course, they exist, but when the urgent and acute emergencies of street life dominate such a community, you don't have the extra space or margin to cultivate community. You got to stop the bleeding. You cut the chit-chat and get straight to the point and meet the need. Given the aftermath and ongoing struggles of the pandemic, communities like Sanctuary Toronto are presented with limited options to sustain the primacy of community in their practice. When key community members are literally dying in high numbers before you, it's hard to keep up with the ideals of a relationship-driven ministry. This is the first part of an interview I had with Greg Paul, where we begin discussing the oscillation that occurs between being a community or an agency in this season of ministry.

If there's one thing I've learned from Conan O'Brien, it's how to lean into the absurdities of life, to embrace the moments of surprise and keep pace with where it may lead. In a climate that demands preplanned strategies and fully detailed scripts, I wonder whether we are more focused on training our young leaders to execute a set agenda rather than equipping them to discern. While it may be easier to give them a script to read, the craft of improvisation may prove to be the best way to navigate the exceptional margins of society. In a space filled with pain, chaos and excitement, templates may bring a semblance of order, but the intuition of discerning sojourners may go a lot further. In this episode, I end my 3 part conversation with the Director of Youth Unlimited GTA, Scott Moore, where we discuss the role discernment plays in the way we plan and execute programs in the community. We talk about what it means to incorporate the Spirit in our methods and strategies and how we might do this together as a collective entity. Please do check out the great work of Youth Unlimited GTA!

What would you think is the single most important issue to tackle in this world? If you were given a blank canvas and asked to figure this question out, where would you begin? In this episode, we look at how economists approach this question and investigate alternative, more subjective methods to gather and analyze the experiences and data of how things are going in our programs and communities. Specifically, we look at the emerging phenomenon in the social sector to measure the transformation of participants and the community they seek to serve. How precise do we need to be when it comes to gauging human transformation? In this episode, I continue my conversation with Scott Moore, the Executive Director of Youth Unlimited GTA (YUGTA) and discuss his experience both developing and deconstructing a measurement tool that sought to gauge the level of transformation occurring within YUGTA's programs. This is the second of a three-part conversation I had with him. Feel free to check out the great work being done at Youth Unlimited GTA. https://www.yugta.ca/

When you look at job postings in the social sector, I think you'll notice an increased demand for those with some kind of specialization or credential. You rarely see postings that seek out a jack-of-all-trades. In this episode, I speak with Scott Moore, the Executive Director of Youth Unlimited Toronto, to get into the nuanced distinctions between specialists and generalists in the non-profit arena. One could say that we live in a day of specialists, people who provide a specific value add to the church or organization. In categorizing our programs and ministries, we need people who can fit nicely into those boxes to increase our impact on those targeted goals. But amidst this gradual shift, how do generalists find a place in this increasingly professionalized social sector? What gap is left when generalists are not valued as much as their specialized colleagues? How much should we factor in the person's calling and passion when it comes to community building? We obviously want someone to be qualified and trained, but how much specialization do we need when it comes to the social arena? And how much of the way we view specialization is dictated by a corporate and industrial worldview? This is the first of a three-part series with Scott where we delve into all sorts of organizational values that have guided his team throughout the years. Please check out the great work of Youth Unlimited Toronto! 

Today's episode is about surplus. I feel like the Bible has a lot to say about storing things up for later. The Bible almost promotes this ‘eat now and don't worry about tomorrow' kind of thinking, which sounds pretty irresponsible right? But what if actions, that only have impact for the moment, that don't have a multiplying effect, acts that no one sees, that no one catagloues for a newsletter, what if our acts of service was an ends to itself. These hidden acts occur regularly within the social sector, but what I've come to realize is that the acts that really get attention and reward are the ones that produce surplus, it's the acts of service that have a muliplying effect and create broader impact. And that completely makes sense in a capitalistic mindset. But what do you say to a community worker when they put in countless hours investing their time and labour into being present with a street youth who has been through unimaginable trauma. In a market-centred mindset, the cost-benefit analsysis doesn't add up. The outcomes don't correspond to the investment. In our day, the expectation is to do more with less. Not to do seemingly less with more. But when you work in the margins, when you work with the exception to the rule, efficient strategies, ones where you try to do more with less don't always pan out. In today's episode, I continue my conversation with Dr. Agnes Thomas, the Director of Catholic Crosscultural Services. We discuss these questions further and seek a way forward that acknowledges the wide spectrum of actions that impact the people we serve. You can learn more about Catholic Crosscultural Services at https://www.cathcrosscultural.org/

Asset-Based Community Development is a powerful movement that has shifted the paradigm of so many attempting to work for social change. In reflecting upon my experiences in this framework, I realized the subtle ways the market and the vocabulary of capitalism infiltrate such beautiful values. In my conversation with Dr. Agnes Thomas, the Executive Director of Catholic Cross-Cultural Services, we work through these important questions to discover the discrete ways community development has been commodified to maximize impact in the social arena.

In thinking through modern interpretations of progress and excellence, Tim and I discuss the role the church plays in navigating the private and public spaces of society. Is there an ideal system in which the church should situate itself in? Does the church simply transcend and suspend above the systems of this world? Does in embed itself in all? How does kingdom, family and neighbour work itself out through the church?

Have you ever had to set boundaries with a close friend or a family member? In such relationships, there's an intimacy and a trust, yet there's also unspoken parameters. In the social sector, where depressions, loss and victories are shared between clients and professionals or staff and supervisors, the line between intimacy and professionalism is always shifting. In this episode, Tim Day, national director of Waybase, helps us to orient the way three human systems determine our expectations in a community. Whether it be a system based on competency (weak serve the strong), a family system (strong serve the weak) or an individualists system (serve the self), they each contain an expected mode of behaviour that does not translate between systems. Tim lays out what occurs when we esteem one system above the rest.

In this episode, we discuss the role that strategic thinking, big data and metrics play in the human dimensions of care. In other words, how do ivory town ideas engage with matters on the frontlines. I'm joined by Tim Day, the Director of National Engagement at Waybase to understand the way he intersects big data with the tangible realities on the ground. Waybase is an online tool whose vision is to enable Christian ministries and individuals to work together more effectively to improve people's lives and communities. Their focus is to create “impact networks" by offering easy-to-use, data-powered digital tools that highlight causes in local communities, that are able to support local events where leaders can collaborate together, measuring impact, and providing analytical insights.  In this conversation, we probes deep into the underlying assumptions that support this kind of approach. I ask whether measurements and data-driven strategies really address the complexity and nuance of those who fall through the cracks? Aren't these the very people who are the rarity or the exception that fail to fit into standardized solutions that these big picture tools create?  This is the first part of a series of episodes I will have around this topic with Tim. Hope you enjoy!

As we consider what it is to be a good neighbour to the general public, particularly those on the margins, this episode asks us to consider what it is to be a neighbour WITHIN the church. As divisions continue to grow amidst our polarized world, it seems necessary to consider how the church can lean upon the words of Christ to find a route towards unity within. Unity might not be the sexiest topic out there, but it sure is necessary for our day. I talk with my good friend and mentor, Dr. Rick Tobias, where we explore the parting words of Jesus in the book of John and how he lays out the missional significance of being unified as one body. This is the last episode of our first season of Good Neighbour Podcast. If you don't catch the ending of this episode, please know how thankful I am for each of you who took the time to listen to these episodes. I hope it was able to stimulate some ideas and conversations in your spheres of influence. Please be sure to look out for our second season in the coming months and click on our social media links (youtube, facebook and Instagram) to view highlight clips of past episodes.

As the former director of a busy men's shelter downtown, my guest Dion Oxford is familiar with the nuances of servant leadership. But as you'll hear in this episode, Dion's battle with MS (Multiple Sclerosis) has gradually given him new perspectives on power, empathy and what it means to BE served. In this episode, we discuss what it means to be friends with clients, we explore institutional limitations for care and what incarnation looks like for people who are not familiar with pain.  Dion is now a certified spiritual director and regularly meets with people who want to talk about their lives through a spiritual lens and he writes an honest and insightful blog which he contributes to regularly.  Video clips of this episode will be uploaded shortly. 

These are my reflections on reconciliation and the aftermath of forgiveness (via Miroslav Volf). Too often, we fail to realize how much a conflict has impacted our relationships. How we nurture relationships AFTER a conflict is paramount to our desires for reconciliation. We can be distant or we can lean in. In this video, I attempt to articulate a post-reconciliation reality that assumes that peace will always be at arm's length no matter how close we think we are.

What does signing a petition really do? How does our faith inform our activism? In this episode, I explore the nuances and substance of what it is for people of faith to speak alongside those without a platform to self-advocate. I converse with Lorraine Lam on how her relationships with those on the streets animate her activism before city counsellors. With Angie Hocking, I work through the victim mentality churches often express in how the government relates to us and how that way of thinking prevents us from recognizing the innate power we hold to sway policy and enact systemic change.

When we think about engaging issues of poverty, we can often feel unqualified to take that first step. In hearing stories about how relief and aid can often make situations worst for those in need, many of us wonder whether initiating anything is worth doing. In this episode, I catch up with my friends Angie Hocking (The Common Table, Church of the Redeemer) and Lorraine Lam (Sanctuary Ministries) to explore how the church can effectively engage with the professional social sector. What is the church's distinct role when engaging those on the margins? What does the church offer to the charity landscape of our city? Good Neighbour Youtube Channel

Power is the ability to define another person's reality and have them operate as if it were true (Wade Nobels, paraphrased). In the social sector, despite our good intentions, I've always felt this underlying need to get the people I serve to fall in line with my prefabricated plans. In this episode, I talk with my friend Jordan Heywood and reminisce on our initial encounters on the front lines serving street-youth. We discuss our false assumptions and implicit prejudice and consider the state of the church in light of those reflections. Jordan Heywood is a registered social worker, entrepreneur, speaker, spoken word and hip hop artist also known as Orijin. His practice is called Enliven Counseling Services and you can find his music on his Instagram page.

As the church considers its identity and place in a secular and pluralistic society, it is finding it difficult to nurture a distinct function in the public square. In this episode, with my friend Rev. Sarah Han, we discuss the various tactics the church has used throughout recent history to figure out how it fits within a world often measured and validated by logic and rationality. To go further, we consider how the particularities of an ethnic church, with its sense of belonging and home, can interact with the diverse arena of the public. How does the often "thin" theology we cultivate in our private churches engage the "thick" and complex realities of the public world? When it comes to engaging the margins of society, the church has to figure out who it is and what it stands for when it's roaming the streets of our city.

In this episode, I speak with my friend Jennifer McIntyre who is the Director of Romero House, a community that walks alongside refugees as they settle into the country. We discuss the space between home and the institution when it comes to walking alongside those on the margins. How do we view those we serve? While some might see through a lens of suspicion, Jenn shares her values on approaching individuals with the assumption of trust. With that in mind, we delve into the practical implications of how a lens of "trust" alters the way an institution, community or a home functions.

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' Matt 25:43 In this episode, I interview Rachel Tulloch from Sanctuary Ministries who takes us deep into rethinking what it means to discern the body of Christ. As the passage in Matthew suggests, we are to see the embodied Christ in the "least of these." But what does this mean? How literal do we treat this passage? How far do we carry it? As I sit with Rachel, we consider the possibility of seeing the poor as a sacrament, a way of seeing Christ as we would through the Eucharist (Lord's Supper). We also consider the role of memory in the Eucharist and its correlation to the, far too many, memorials of those living on the fringes of our city.

In this episode, I take you into one of my classes where I give a lecture on a particular scene in 1 Corinthians 11:17-23. The exegesis of this chapter will reveal the socio-economic factors that impacted the way in which this new community, called "The Way," engaged difference during their most sacred sacrament, the Eucharist.

This is a little welcome and introduction to the heart and purpose of this podcast.

In continuing our conversation around poverty and the scriptures, Rick takes us to James 1:27 to discuss what it means to visit the widow and orphan.

We discuss the foundational text around the subject of poverty in scripture. This episode distinguishes between episodic and chronic poverty and Deuteronomy 14 and 15 and how the nation of Israel viewed the poor among them.

To start off this podcast, I thought of no one better than Dr. Rick Tobias, former CEO and Community Advocate of The Yonge Street Mission, to discuss the evolving landscape of poverty and the church in Toronto.