Our Common Ethos
Why Urban Neighbours Of Hope?
Too many try to detach from God and the plight of the poor,
As a gospel community we search for fresh ways to love God and our neighbours from the front line of a world mired in poverty.
Authentic hope for the world flows from God’s engagement with the poor.
Too many try to keep all options open,
With a common rhythm of life we pour our best thoughts, passions and creativity into our neighbourhoods facing poverty as an offering to Jesus.
Hope is released when we see God’s will done; in our neighbourhoods as in heaven.
Too many try to use God to gain the world’s riches,
We surrender all to Jesus so that God can raise through us Jesus-followers to fuel the transformation the world and our neighbourhoods require.
Jesus provides for our vocation of hope through our neighbours, team and ministry partners.
We know we can be among the ‘too many’ even without trying,
We know God has not given up on us, inviting us to make our lives count now and forever by not giving up on those neighbours of ours facing poverty.
This is why offer our lives to God as Urban Neighbours of Hope.
Amen.
UNOH’s Aims
Urban Neighbours Of Hope covenant together to focus our lives on:
- Loving God and neighbour
- Releasing neighbourhoods from urban poverty
- Equipping for Christian discipleship and mission among the urban poor.
UNOH’s Vision
To raise-up follows of Jesus who help release neighbourhoods from urban poverty in Asian-Pacific cities.
This renewed UNOH vision statement is an intentional return to why UNOH was birthed. In 1993 Anji and Ash Barker had this sense that they could be part of God’s answer to the cries of the urban poor. They relocated their lives to focus on loving God and neighbours in need in Springvale. A lot has happened since those days through the growing UNOH community, and yet so much more is possible as we look to the future with a fresh sense of vision.
‘To raise up followers of Jesus’
Jesus is a light that desperately needs to be reflected sacrificially and personally in new urban contexts. As we live and share Jesus with those we live and share life with, an eternal hope can light up our homes and neighbourhoods. We are not the source of this light, but our lives and homes can become like an arrow that reflects and points to the source of all hope. Urban despair and poverty can only be transformed into real hope and freedom through encountering, joining and following the risen Christ. Raising-up as many authentic followers of Jesus as we can then helps to catalyse liberating, social change movements in our neighbourhoods. After what Jesus has done for us to bring this light into the world, there is nothing we would not do for him to see this Kingdom of light come on earth as in heaven.
‘Who help release neighbourhoods’
UNOH workers see their neighbourhoods as their ‘patch’ for the kingdom coming. These are urban localities that most neighbours can walk easily and naturally around. While neighbourhoods vary in size, to see a real release and sense of village occur, the neighbourhood should not be only one block of flats nor be much larger than one square kilometre. To become a neighbour that helps release neighbourhoods from poverty, we need an attitude of doing whatever it takes to see the Kingdom come and God’s will done on earth as in heaven. Our direct role as neighbours in this release is really only completed when a community can be free with Jesus without our presence.
‘Facing urban poverty’
Poverty is about the lack of authority, power and freedom to be able to choose to live as God intends. Those living in neighbourhoods facing urban poverty then have more than simply an economic challenge; they are fighting to see the image of God restored in their lives. This is something only Jesus can fully do and means as Christians we have a unique role to play in making poverty history.
‘In Asian-Pacific cities’
Our focus is loving people who live in neighbourhoods facing urban poverty in Asian Pacific cities. Though urban neighbourhoods can be dark and despairing places, they are not all doom and gloom. They are mostly open-blue neighbourhoods who anticipate that light can soon break through. As catching basins for a nation’s lost and poor, urban neighbourhoods provide unprecedented opportunity to seek God’s Kingdom come. This is especially the case in the cities of the Asia-Pacific where the majority of people on the planet will live in the 21st century. UNOH was founded in this region (Melbourne, Australia) and wants to support UNOH chapters in neighbouring cities of this region. This includes urban neighbourhoods facing poverty on the continent of Asia and through out the Pacific. UNOH seeks to maintain a sense of being a mission for and by disciples of Jesus in this region.
UNOH’s Values
Gospel Justice
To live out God’s priority for those facing poverty and oppression.
Biblical basis: Isaiah 58, Matthew 25:31ff; Luke 4:18,19; James 2
Rationale: Since God is just, those who are victims of injustice and oppression require special attention and concern. Mercy ministry is not enough for lasting transformation; we must ask why poverty exists and address the root causes personally and socially. If poverty is about powerlessness then ‘good news to the poor’ requires the righting of wrongs, standing in solidarity with those facing poverty and addressing unjust structures.
Incarnational living
To seek God’s Reign coming among poor communities with whom we live and identify.
Biblical basis: Isaiah 55, John 1:1-18, John 21:21, Philippians 2:5-11
Rationale: God did not just zap humanity a word or concept from heaven, but ‘became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood’ (John 1:14, The Message). Programs and relationships from a distance are not enough to enable lasting transformation to occur. To take poverty personally and have a stake in the community’s transformation as Jesus does gives a real and tangible hope for God’s Kingdom to come more fully. Authentic community-building requires accessibility, frequency of contact and vulnerability, something impossible without living close by and sharing life together.
Compassion
To build authentic friendships with those facing poverty, coming alongside and responding to needs.
Biblical basis: Luke 10:25-37; 1 John 3:16-18; James 2:14-17; 1 Corinthians 13
Rationale: To Love our neighbours as ourselves is pleasing to God in its own right. The cost of our friendships with our neighbours therefore is not our neighbours’ souls. Those facing poverty do not need relationships that are manipulative or used as a means to get them do something, no matter how much good we think that course of action is. Jesus can be a neighbourhood’s greatest resource, but we want every neighbour to encounter and follow Christ for themselves. This kind of encounter can often only happen in the context of trusted relationships with Jesus-followers. For a neighbour to experience Christ in us first-hand and for us to journey with them no matter where it leads is a key to compassion. Compassion literally means ‘suffering with’ and so we respond to people the way Jesus would, regardless of religious labels.
Holistic in Mission
To serve the whole life of our neighbourhood the way Jesus would using Word, Deed and Sign.
Biblical basis: Micah 6:1-8: Matthew 4:23ff; Matthew 10; Acts 2:42ff
Rationale: We have been influenced by Pentecostalism’s call for the need to experience the authority of God, Evangelicalism’s call for the need to invite responses to the Gospel of the Kingdom, and Main-liner’s call for the need of justice for those facing oppression. While these three streams of Christian faith are often polarised, Jesus did them all, and neighbourhoods facing poverty need all the resources God has for them. To see God’s Kingdom come on earth as in heaven, the whole Gospel needs to affect the whole life of our neighbourhoods.
Discipleship
To love and obey Jesus as Lord ourselves and to help our neighbours to do this together.
Biblical basis: Matthew 28:18ff; Luke 9:23-27; Luke 18:18ff
Rationale: There are some things only Christians can do. Inviting people to come and follow Jesus is one of them. In the end, being good neighbours is not enough as no-one is good enough to perfectly represent Jesus. Those facing poverty need to personally encounter Jesus as Lord, and this requires intentional invitations and community support. We will not see neighbourhoods transformed without the presence and authority of Christ at the centre of its life. Just inviting people to pray a prayer and then expecting them to be ‘good Christians’ sets most neighbours up for failure. Simply helping neighbours to conform to various church sub-cultures is not enough for lasting transforming either. Christian discipleship is, at its heart, a journey that doesn’t matter where a person starts from. It is an ongoing life of repentance from sin, and loving faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savoiur. It is the direction our lives go, the drawing from the core commands, teachings and life of Jesus, and being transformed to become more like Jesus little by little that counts. Discipleship then is on-going walk of trust and obedience that is evidenced by a change in allegiance, which affects all our decisions.
Spiritual Formation
To join a life-long journey of growing closer to and more like Jesus through the use of spiritual habits and disciplines.
Biblical basis: Matthew 5-7; Mark 1:35-39; 2 Timothy 3:16
Rationale: Activism is not enough to sustain the journey of faith in the face of poverty. Burn-out, cynicism and defeatism characterised a whole generation of Christian workers among the poor. Few lasted long enough to reach their impact years. We knew we could not take God’s grace for granted or we too would end up this way. To dig deep the wells to sustain our walk with Christ among the poor requires us to make a conscious habit of prayer and biblical reflection. This prayer space changes us as we connect afresh with God and this can help transform those around us. The habits of spiritual disciplines, spiritual formation in a community and discerning prayer are cornerstones to keep us awake to Christ and his longings for UNOH and our neighbourhoods.
Team Building
To work in teams so that we can mutually affirm and challenge each other in seeing our vision become a reality.
Biblical basis: 1 Corinthians 12; John 13:34-35; John 13:2-14; Ephesians 2:10
Rationale: This vocation cannot be done alone. Isolated Christian workers can eventually lose their bearings, grow slack, or even forget the mission Christ has sent them to do. As humans we have the capacity to justify just about anything to ourselves, yet within a community we can find the perspectives, companionship and gifts we need to see beyond ourselves to the way we really are. From this vantage point, we can find what God has given to us to contribute to others’ growth. As individuals we are not the whole body of Christ, we are just a small part with a humble role to play. While at times ploughing ahead without being responsible for others can seem appealing – the cycles of community building are not for the faint of heart – we need the gifts of others if long-term transformation is to occur. Just as Jesus never sent workers out alone, we believe it takes a community to reach a community today, and we commit to serving with broader ministry teams to see this happen.
Organic Growth
To use reproducible models of nurturing, training and raising-up of new team and leaders as the means of growing UNOH workers and Jesus-centred movements.
Biblical basis: Luke 8:40-45; Acts 13:1-3; John 15:1-10
Rationale: Growth needs to be organic to the UNOH community. Just having a heart to go do something, somewhere for Christ, and then doing it with a UNOH label is not enough. This is because UNOH is more like a family than a franchise. We need to grow-up, be known and to know about this family before we can fully own the name and reproduce. Just as a virus is passed on from person to person – mutating, adapting and multiplying – only those who have caught the UNOH virus can pass it on to others. The process of action-reflection is crucial to creating awareness of how we can support healthy growth and multiplication. This conviction does slow down UNOH’s ability to expand UNOH chapters, neighbourhood teams and projects; however, these thoughtful and committed ways help give our community an integrity and closeness that we would otherwise lose.