Concise Oxford | How we measure success

Dion Oxford | Our primary mission?

I‘ve been thinking a lot again about how we as Christians measure success. I know I’ve written about this before, but I feel the need to explore my own thoughts on the topic again.

What has God actually called me to do? Has He called me to save souls? Is that how I measure success? Has He called me to feed hungry people; to provide shelter for folks who are homeless; to clothe people who need clothing? Do I measure my success based on the number of people I help get off the streets each month? Am I a failure if no one that I meet falls in love with Jesus and prays a particular prayer?

If that’s how I measure success, then I guess I’ve been quite successful. I can quote those stats out the proverbial ‘wazoo’ and impress audiences wherever I go to speak.

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The Concise Oxford | face of Christ

Am I a fraud asks Dion Oxford

It was Tuesday, a wintry January morning in Toronto at 7am. I had started a new day and had scheduled a breakfast meeting at 7:30am downtown with a friend of mine who also works alongside folks who live on the street. So I set off on my bike, riding to my destination in the dark. It was wet, slippery and just plain miserable. I was getting drenched from the splatter. I just wanted to get to where I was going.

Then it happened. While I was sitting at a red light, a young girl appeared without warning, out of nowhere, and looked me in the eye. She said, “I don’t need any money sir”. I just stared at her with nothing to say. She looked about 16 and was very clearly homeless or close to it. She went on to say, “I’m pregnant and I’m hungry and I was wondering if you would buy me breakfast at McDonald’s.” I looked and noticed we were right in front of the golden arches.

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The Concise Oxford | huh?

Luke 17:20-37

Every once in a while I stumble across a passage in scripture that really confuses me. And if I’m busy (which is too often the case) I make an empty promise to myself that I’ll go back to the passage later and try to figure out what is being really being said.

Other times I will read a passage and feel that it doesn’t quite line up with my own theology of grace, forgiveness and redemption. When this happens I usually convince myself that I must be misreading what Jesus is saying. Surely He couldn’t possibly be putting around such judgemental ideas? So I quietly forget that passage and go back to making my composite picture of who I want Jesus to be.

Well, Luke 17:20-37 is one of those passages. I’ve been working through Luke as part of my Lent discipline this year, and when I read this section I had no idea what in the world was going on. The only concrete thing I could initially grab onto was that faith continues to be a mystery for us. However, as I made a commitment as part of my Lenten discipline, I have continued to read this book and take the time to dig a little deeper and try to figure it out.

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The Concise Oxford | lies and the tooth fairy

The Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Santa and Jesus

The title of this post sounds like the opening line to a really bad joke. “Have you heard the one about the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, Jesus and Santa Claus at the bar late one night?” (Usually when I hear a setup like this, I want to run away. It’s not because I don’t like a good joke now and then, but it inevitably leads to what feels like an eternity of more jokes either from the same person or from other folks trying to compete with their funnier joke. I just hate those times. And it’s usually me that’s the spoilsport by agitatedly pronouncing that I’m sick of the jokes already.)

But I digress; back to the topic at hand.

I have a six-year-old daughter, Cate. She’s beautiful. She brings me joy unspeakable and she pretty much owns me. She’s going to be an artist like her mother and a musician, which I’d like to think I had something to do with. She’s always dancing and singing and creating something. Her mind is that of a six-year-old: imaginative and open to ideas.

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The Concise Oxford | no myth busters

our infatuation with celebrity

Some of you will know of a show on the Discovery Channel called Myth Busters. Well, it seems as though one of the two main guys on the show looks a lot like me. Correction; it seems as though I look a lot like that guy.

And awkwardly enough, on a very regular basis I get stopped on the street by someone who asks me if I am that guy.

It all started a few years ago when my waiter at our local pub asked me if he had seen me on TV. It was the Monday after the week I had been on one of our local Christian TV channels every day doing a little segment on our inner city work here in Toronto. I felt pretty important that I had actually been recognized on the street for being on TV. I had a friend with me, and I was unable to stop grinning in my response to that waiter that, yes I had been on TV every day in the previous week.

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The Concise Oxford | New Year’s Resolution

I know it’s kind of trendy these days to make fun of New Year’s resolutions. I also know why that’s the case; most people barely make it a few days before breaking every last one of them.

For me, though, every year I am heavily motivated by resolutions and often find the discipline to stick to them.

Of course, they’re usually quite fickle and often self-serving ones that relate to weight loss and improving my image and health on some level. But in the past few years I’ve managed to incorporate some ethical values into my selfish resolutions, and they seem to have worked. Last year I resolved to not eat at McDonald’s due to the evil empire that it is as well as the nasty effect their food has on my body after the initial enjoyment wears off. And I am proud to say that I made it. And I feel great about it.

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Tags: resolutions

Concise Oxford | Advent

If He’s coming back… let’s get on with it

I‘ve been thinking that for my last blog before Christmas I’d write something profound and spiritually enriching for Christians to consider in the last week leading up to the big day.

But the fact is, I feel like those words would have been empty and void of the truth of where I’m at these days. I could have pontificated and used some of the best Christian-eze you could find anywhere about how mysterious and wonderful the Christmas season is. And while those words would have been true, and while I would have believed in those words with all of my heart, in reality I don’t really feel any of it today.

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Concise Oxford | language

Dion Oxford, one of theRubicon’s bloggers, runs The Salvation Army’s Gateway in downtown Toronto, Canada. It’s a 108 bed shelter for homeless men. Recently Dion circulated a discussion document among his staff with some thoughts on language, titles, empowerment and community.
These are important subjects for all Salvation Army social service facilities.
Enjoy the discussion on what titles really mean.

I’ve been wondering a lot these days about the language we use in the work that we do amongst folks on the street. At Gateway, of particular concern lately are our position titles and whether or not they accurately demonstrate who we are, what it is we do, why we do it and who we do it with/to.

The two titles I’m mainly concerned about are ‘Case Manager’ and ‘Housing Worker’. My primary issue with the ‘case manager’ title is that we desire to view our residents as people, not cases.  We also do not see ourselves as their managers. I have less of a concern about the ‘Housing Worker’ title except I believe the ‘worker’ label has become an institutional word that is no longer helpful and often flies in the face of community building. Therefore, as a team, we have decided that these titles have to go and new ones have to come in that better describes what we are trying to do.

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The Concise Oxford | Heaven’s Rehearsal

they shall come … and sit down…

A few weeks ago, an event called “Heaven’s Rehearsal” was held in one of our local major league sports arenas. The concept was to try and have a worship service that somehow incorporates people from every possible nationality. It was to display that despite our obvious differences in worship styles, skin colour, politics and lifestyles, we are all brother and sisters united together by the saviour of the world, Jesus Christ.

More than 20,000 people showed up for the event and it was a spectacular show of unity in the body. I honestly believe the idea for this event came from a very pure place and I do think it was kind of a neat gathering of people for sure. However, it cost an enormous amount of money to pay the rental fees, and to pay for all of the musicians and performers and the bells and whistles to make it work. As a result, everyone who attended had to pay $25 for admission.
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The Concise Oxford | E & SJ

Evangelism and social justice: are we prostituting Christian compassion?

I have a good friend who runs a small ministry amongst street kids. I know very few people with her deep, compassionate heart for kids on the street. I also don’t know many people with her depth of faith in, and love for, God. Every street kid in that community knows without a doubt that this ministry is a safe place where they’ll be loved unconditionally.

She and just one colleague run that ministry all year round on less than $100,000. That includes their two salaries, all of their food expenses, and other expenses such as building maintenance and standard ministry needs.

All of the money comes from local churches and private donors. Recently, one church that has supported them for quite a few years went to her and told them they were cutting her funding. When she asked why, they said that the “missions committee” prayed about it and felt that their ministry was not evangelical enough. They didn’t feel that enough of an emphasis was being placed in “saving souls,” so they felt that their money would be best used elsewhere. This broke my friend’s heart in so many ways - and mine, too.

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