 Robert and Peggy Lupton are living the American dream—in reverse. In 1981, Bob was commuting to Atlanta’s inner city, where he maintained a ministry to disadvantaged young people and their families. Each evening, after a workday consumed by the problems of the poor, Bob would drive home to relative comfort and security in suburban Decatur. He and Peggy looked forward to completing a new house in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where they could raise their two sons in a semi-rural environment similar to what they both had enjoyed as children. During a casual get-together with friends, however, Bob startled even himself when he blurted out, “If I did what I know is God’s best for me, we would move into the inner city.�?/DIV> In the days that followed, he wrestled with the deep conviction that he was being called to live among those to whom he ministered. Working in the inner city was one thing, but exposing his family to the raw realities of the ghetto was something else. “Every time I talked about it with someone, or even thought about it, I would choke up with tears. But I couldn’t escape the feeling that God was saying, ‘I want you to move into the city.’�?/DIV> He considered passages such as Ezk. 16:49 , “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.�?/DIV> Finally, Peggy and Bob sat down to resolve his conflict. After a long discussion, she concluded, “If this is your idea, I’m not going. But if it’s God’s idea, I have no choice.�?/DIV> The next two weeks were filled with emotional turmoil. The Luptons worried about their children’s safety; and their younger son, Jonathan, would be the only white child in his first-grade class. They prayed fervently and sought counsel from Christian friends. Ultimately, they agreed that instead of moving further away from the city to Stone Mountain, God was pointing them fifteen miles in the opposite direction to Grant Park, a tiny community in the heart of Atlanta. Bob wondered if Abraham felt the same way when he informed Sarah they were leaving friendly Ur of the Chaldees for the unknowns of Canaan. Years before, Bob had turned his back on a promising management career with a department store chain to begin working with troubled juveniles, first on staff with , then starting his own ministry, (FCS). Now he was leading his family away from the middle-class lifestyle. Their decision was partially confirmed when their builder agreed to fully refund the money they had deposited on the Stone Mountain house, just weeks before they had been scheduled to move in.  Homes for the Homeless Soon after they settled into Grant Park, Bob began to understand why the move was necessary. As an “insider,�?he gained a different perspective of his neighbors�?plight—how their physical needs related to their emotional and spiritual needs. In one week, for instance, three families evicted from their homes came to him for help. He found a place for one family, although the apartment was smaller and the rent was higher. The best he could do for the second family was to arrange a few nights in a “flea-bag motel.�?He had to turn away the third family. “It was difficult to watch them walk down the street, with no place to go.�?/DIV> Bob’s “last straw�?came when an elderly couple faced eviction from their home of fourteen years because the city building inspector had found sixty-five code violations. Rather than make repairs, the landlord planned to board up the structure and sell the property. But Bob called several Christian businessmen he knew, asking them to meet with him to seek a solution. Though they determined that the cost of renovating the house would be substantial, they agreed to pray about what to do. Within weeks they had raised money to purchase the property and obtained building materials—mostly donated—for repairs. People volunteered their labor, and over a four-month period more than one hundred people were involved in the project. The total cash outlay was $4,000. Under normal circumstances the project would have cost $40,000. When the house was completed, FCS sold it to the couple, issuing a twenty-year mortgage at no interest. Monthly payments were set at $100, and since the residence was debt-free, the money could be applied to a fund to help meet other housing needs in the community. At a commemorative ceremony, Bob heralded the achievement of many hearts and hands by reading Ps. 127:1 , “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.�?/DIV> In the decade since that project was undertaken, FCS has renovated existing dwellings and built new homes for more than seventy other families in Grant Park and the adjacent communities of Ormewood Park and Summerhill with a minimum of expenses, utilizing donated materials and labor from church groups, civic clubs, and even corporate supporters. Monthly homeowner payments continue to be used to build other houses. Pride for Parents Housing was not the community’s only need, Bob Lupton discovered. Clothing, food, and, particularly, Christmas gifts were beyond the means of many inner-city residents. The answer, however, was not “charity.�?/DIV> “The greatest poverty of all is not being able to offer something of value,�?Bob has learned, “and that is what we saw when we gave donated items to the poor. This was particularly evident at Christmastime, when well-meaning Christian groups would bring gifts to needy families. The kids would be delighted and the moms would generally be gracious, but the dads would withdraw to a back room. For them, these gestures of kindness were only vivid reminders of their own impotence as providers.�?/DIV> The answer came in the form of a missions project undertaken by a businessmen’s group from a northside Atlanta church. They remodeled an abandoned building into The Family Store, where new and used clothing and other items could be purchased at very low prices. A shirt or pair of slacks were sold for as little as twenty-five cents. Community residents kept their self-respect by being able to buy what their families needed, and the clerks working in the store gained marketable job skills. During the Christmas season, toys donated to FCS were sold in a special section at substantially-discounted prices. For instance, a doll that sold new for ten dollars would be offered for two or three dollars. If parents lacked extra money for gifts, they could work in the store or elsewhere in the community and receive vouchers that could be exchanged for items in The Family Store. Bob originally called the program “Dignity For Dads,�?but later renamed it “Pride For Parents,�?recognizing the desire of both fathers and mothers to provide for their families�?Christmas needs. “Talk about good news!�?he says. “It fulfills the gospel when the resourced part of the Body of Christ can enable the under-resourced part. Parents can experience the joy of giving good gifts to their children. It’s a higher form of charity, one that honors the Lord and affirms the dignity with which He bestowed all of us.�?/DIV> Renovating Lives Under Bob’s direction, many other gems are being mined through the efforts of FCS Urban Ministries. Perhaps the crown jewel is GlenCastle, a 67-unit apartment complex that houses 120 men, women, and children. It is the result of an almost miraculous transformation of what had been known as the Atlanta Stockade, a turn-of-the-century debtor’s prison. Long abandoned, it had served as a “crack house,�?where nightly drug transactions were made, before Renny Scott, a former Episcopal priest, proposed renovating the imposing structure into a residential facility. When planning began in 1987, the misery of decades was deeply etched in the concrete walls. But on Easter Sunday 1990, the opening of GlenCastle fulfilled a $3.5 million undertaking. Like other FCS projects, it was accomplished though donated materials and labor, as well as cash contributions, and without federal assistance. And it is debt-free. While physical needs are being addressed, spiritual voids are also being filled. Evangelism is taking place in Grant Park, Ormewood Park, and Summerhill, but not as Bob once expected. “We are seeing God’s articulation of shalom in the cities, not as the traditional, propositional evangelistic approach, but in a sense of reconciliation. The most effective evangelism is being done within class and culture—the poor evangelizing the poor, blacks evangelizing blacks. We have found that living out the Christian faith, fleshing out the gospel, gives it power and credibility.�?/DIV> While Bob oversees the growth of FCS into multifaceted FCS Urban Ministries—a community grocery store, daycare center, a home resources center, and counseling services—Peggy focuses on raising their children. Perhaps her greatest contribution to the community is her involvement in the local schools. Desiring a quality education for her children, Peggy started a tutoring program and provided leadership for the parent-teacher association. When she asked the principal of their elementary school if she could bring in some Christian friends to assist in the local schools in various ways, he responded, “How many and how soon?�?Over a four-year period, student performance improved dramatically as the Christian influence provided salt, light, and leavening. An Unmistakable Call Today, ten years after “fleeing�?the suburbs to find fulfillment in the ghetto, the Luptons still marvel at what God has accomplished. It hasn’t been without its frustrations—change that takes much longer than desired, people who often fail to meet expectations, and the sad realities of life among people who have been shattered by years of deprivation. Every month, Bob candidly records some of these struggles in “Urban Perspectives,�?a letter to supporters. But the positives have greatly outnumbered the negatives. Says Bob, “Part of Peggy—and part of me—occasionally feels a longing to return to the environment where we grew up. But that call is not very loud, and it grows more faint with time. Our lives are very fulfilled and stimulating. Not long ago, Peggy told me that she could not imagine living anywhere else.�?/DIV> After years of striving to “keep up with the Joneses,�?they have successfully adjusted to living in a community where they are “the Joneses.�?Upward mobility can work in reverse for people seeking to obey the will of God. In 1987 the Luptons sold their two-story home in Grant Park to move into a smaller house in Ormewood Park, freeing up more of their funds for community needs. “My biggest surprise,�?Bob points out, at age forty-seven, “was that I thought God was calling me to the inner city to help save the poor, only to discover He was calling me to the inner city for my own ‘salvation.�?I had grown up with middle-class values—efficiency, security, individuality, materialism. God turned all of that upside down. “As I encountered Christ among the poor, many of the secrets of the Kingdom were unlocked to me, which dramatically changed my life and understanding of the Kingdom.�?/DIV>
About the Author Robert J. Tamasy is national director of publications for the Christian Businessmen’s Committee of USA. He has co-authored two books and is general editor of The Complete Christian Businessman (Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1991). Robert Lupton’s reflections on ministering in the inner city have been published in his book Theirs Is the Kingdom ( Harper & Row , 1989).
Photograph by Robert Tamasy |
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