First Person with Wayne Shepherd

First Person: Milton Massie

Milton has worked in inner-city ministry for 30 plus years and God is still growing his vision for what the church could-- and biblically should-- do in reaching and serving the urban poor. Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company: FEBC National Processing Center Far East Broadcasting Company P.O. Box 6020 Albert Lea, MN 56007 Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

Duration:: 23m
Broadcast on:: 26 Nov 2010
Audio Format:: other

Milton has worked in inner-city ministry for 30 plus years and God is still growing his vision for what the church could-- and biblically should-- do in reaching and serving the urban poor.

Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company:
FEBC National Processing Center
Far East Broadcasting Company
P.O. Box 6020
Albert Lea, MN 56007

Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

I believe the challenge is for us as believers is to move from our comfort zones and to recognize that God has called us to have a heartful ministry, but this your occupation and not as believers God has called us to be ambassadors on the front line, not just being comfortable in our pews. Welcome to First Person, a weekly conversation with people from all walks of life. Who have a story to tell of God's faithfulness. I'm Wayne Shepard, my guest this week is Milton Massey of Here's Life, Inner City. I'll introduce Milton to you more fully in a moment, but be sure to visit our website firstpersoninterview.com for up-to-date information about recent interviews and even an archive of past programs you may have missed. Again, we're found online at firstpersoninterview.com. I've lived in Chicago for over 35 years. It's a great city, but like any urban area, there are some pretty tough neighborhoods. Milton Massey knows that well, but he also knows it's a mission field that is no less important than any other. He's dedicated to seeing churches and people mobilized so that every Christian becomes a multiplying follower of Jesus Christ, who's engaged in meeting the needs of the poor. Along with John Sather, Milton serves as a national leader of Here's Life, Inner City, part of Campus Crusade for Christ. I met with Milton in Chicago's Agape Center in the Roseland neighborhood, and I started by asking him about his mission in life. I believe that as a believer in Jesus Christ, my major commitment is to actually see people become multiplying reproducers of Jesus Christ from their life to the next life, bringing a person from Newburgh to maturity. That is my mission in life. That is what I mean. I want to see the great commission, the great commandment, and the great concern fulfilled in that there's one, the great commandment that we need to love, God, and love people. There's a great commission that we need to make disciples. There's a great concern that we need to be concerned for the poor. And those are the things that Jesus, in all of Jesus' ministry, they were sewn in and out of everything he did. And so here at the Agape Community Center, a part of Campus Crusade for Christ, for the last 30 plus years, where this was 1980, I served as a student first and then back in '92, took over the role of being the director, and that's been for now, it'll be 18 years in 2011. That mission of yours could have taken place and could take place anywhere, many places around the world. Yes. Why here? Why the inner city of Chicago? Why the Agape Center? Well, that's obviously as well, the power and the move and the sovereignty of God. I grew up in Chicago, and won't go into every detail about that. But on the south side, south side and west side, but mostly the south side. And my family moved in this neighborhood in '69. How old were you? I was about 12, 12 years old. And this community center, it was a staircase factory back in the '60s, and probably a little bit before that. And I used to walk past this place all the time and never knew what it was. Went with my family first moved in here, a moved in this neighborhood. And then with white flight taking a place in the early '60s, '60s into the '70s, this building was abandoned. And the owner of the building, Mr. Ken Loudenbach, was approached by his brother to give this to campus, you say, for Christ. And the bottom line is that just long story short, all that took place. Ken got involved, got involved with building and renovation and so forth. But even in the middle of that met staff, met crusade staff. When I received Christ in '78, for a whole year I attended a church right in the neighborhood. And then a year later, on my college campus at Chicago State University, I ran into campus, you say, people. And they challenged me to what was called a Christmas conference. And it was downtown of the Marriott Hotel, by the way. And I met all these committed people, college students by age, and it just blew me away by 1,500 people just being a blew me away. And then in '80, I went on my first mission project, short-term mission project right here in this spot. Three blocks, five blocks from where I basically grew up. And I mean, I could have went someplace else. I did want to go. Well, let me ask you about that. Were you intending to go someplace else? So was it in your mind to stay here in the neighborhood? It was not. As a matter of fact, my first exposure to some of the projects was at that Christmas conference in '79. And they would recruit college students to consider giving you a summer to the Lord. I went to a little presentation, and I was going to go to Wildwood, New Jersey, for a beach project. I wanted to get out of Chicago, but I met some people who were from the Chicago area due to that one staff that I met on my college campus. He introduced me to his director, a man by the name of Dave Scott. Dave asked me, what was I going to do this summer, that summer? I pulled out the brochure for the Wildwood, New Jersey project. He looked at it, and he said, "Do you know that we have a project right around the corner from where you grew up?" I'm going, "Really?" And he tells me of the place, and I showed him the brochure. He turns the brochure up and says, "I want you to fill out another," and consider this one. And so that, and I did that, May, June of '80. That's a long time ago, that's like 30, almost 30 years ago. And here got his place, you know, there's a transition coming. We'll talk about that. You're not going anywhere, but a transition of responsibilities. We'll talk about that in a moment. But so much has happened here at the Agape Center. I've seen some of the outreach personally that you do here. But something happened that grabbed national attention, literally right outside this window right here. What happened? Well, that was just the reality that the violence in this community, and not just this community, let me say the entire nation. Actually, every urban center across this land has the reality of issues that happened with this young man last year, Darren Albert. Bottom line is that there was a fight that took place, and it wasn't just a regular fight. It was mob action and a young man lost his life through a beating. And it's something that we still, as a team, are experiencing the fallout from that. But it's not known to everybody else. It's just a reality that you don't emotionally just keep going after you see something like that happen. And since that time, we've been minister to kids who were out there and who were kind of in the fray, but didn't get hurt to the degree that Darion did. He was not a part of our program, but we have regular ministry to high school students, particularly finger. That was one of those. It was actually, it's almost a year ago, this month. Such a tragedy. And there have been many other tragedies around here and all over the nation since that time. But how have you seen God work through this situation? What's an example you've seen of God's hand in all this? Well, I mean, there's so many different ways and ones to choose from. It was hard. I think that it was a way that we began to kind of have a bit of a wake up call to determine, you know, are we here for the long haul or not? It was one of those experiences where you have been given, given, given, given, given, given of yourself. And you can begin to think a little bit of an entitlement mentality, the God I'm serving you. So there should be just a bunch of rewards, you know, on this side. And should they experience something like that? But it did happen. And as a result, it wasn't just that event, but that event kind of just kicked off a ton of other things for the whole year that began to be a challenge to us. So I think it's solidified. First, it solidified us as a team. But secondly, I think as far as an example to the to the neighborhood, it's just a reality that people begin to realize what we're here for. Yeah, that was my question. Did the neighborhood wake up as to your ministry here and the hope that you offered as contrasted to the violence that took place outside your door? There are those who did. There are other ministries that recognize that. And there are even some secular organizations that recognize that. But honestly speaking, I mean, I'd say that we've been trying to fly beneath the radar, but we can't be anymore. We're not beneath the radar anymore. That event, in many instances, kind of it shoved us out in the light, even though we have to remain focused on what we do. I know there's no easy answers to this question of violence and what's going on in our American cities, particularly in the past a year or two, what it just seems to be out of control at times. No easy answers, but what is your challenge to us, regardless of what neighborhood we live? Sure, I want to be honest about that because there are two things that will remind me of in that situation. One, he said to me, "Milt, you need to keep your face of the plow. Don't get distracted. Recognize that this actually is biblical, meaning that the level of violence and the level of things is going to happen in our world." First Timothy, Chapter 4, and Second Timothy, Chapter 3, deal with what it's going to look like in the last days. And I believe we're there in regard to, at least if we're not there, we're so close, we are. I believe the challenge is for us as believers is to move from our comfort zones and to recognize that God has called us to have a heart for ministry, our service, whether you're a full-time laborer or not, whether it's your occupation or not, as believers, God has called us to be ambassadors on the front line, not just being comfortable in our pews no matter what it is. But remember that the message should never change. The methods may vary, but the message still needs to be the unchanging power of the gospel. Is it frustrating to you that the church doesn't seem to be paying enough attention? It frustrates me on this level that we in America have a brand of Christianity that is based on comfort and entitlement and is not based on a commitment to be servants and to really be soldiers. There's one verse that the Lord has been speaking to me in, well, there are three, but there's one in particular. Second Timothy, Chapter 2, Verses 3 and 4, says to endure hardship like a good soldier of Jesus Christ or endure suffering. Then he says no soldier involves himself in civilian affairs. He says why? In the ESV, the English Standard Version says his aim is to please the one who enlisted him in his service or in his army. So where is my focus? My question of the believer is where is your aim? Is it to be comfortable and to live according to entitlement, which a lot of teaching is out here and it was erroneous? Or is it to please your commanding officer because you are and to avoid being entangled in civilian affairs? In just a moment, we'll continue this conversation with Milton Massey on First Person. Next week, two guests join us. First of all, Max Lucado. To him who much has been given, much is expected. And to use that to call other people to open up their eyes to see the blessings that we have. And then secondly, Dr. Kevin Lehman. I didn't come from a perfect home, but a message to parents everywhere in this book is, hey, step up and believe in your kids. Two distinct personalities in one program when you join us next time with Max Lucado and Kevin Lehman here on First Person. Let's continue our conversation with Milton Massey. We're talking about Second Timothy 2, verses 3 and 4. What is our aim in life and who are we serving? I mean, it's one of three verses that God has been speaking to me about because I realized that it is easy to develop a heartened heart. And then two, it is also easy to have your thoughts led astray by the evil one as he cunningly deceived Eve from appearing some of devotion to Christ. Well, I have to challenge myself with the same verse from Second Timothy. What is my aim in life? Is it to be comfortable? Is it to please somebody else? And we have in this ministry with Campus Crusade, but here's life in the city. We're here in Chicago locally. We have experienced a level of success over the 30 years that has brought us consistency, integrity. People know who we are, who know what we do. And the bottom line is that you can just think that, okay, this is it. And we don't want to change. We don't want to be challenged. We don't want to lead on a level of the capacity. We don't want to see us get to the point where we're we're drawn on by others for more ministry. This is very fresh to you because there's transition happening in your life right now. Now you're not going anywhere. No, you're going to stay in this office overlooking this neighborhood here in the Agape Center. But God is leading you into another arena of leadership, isn't it? Yes, right now over the last, there's actually been the last two years or so that our ministry under Campus Crusade, his life, has been in a leadership transition. And as a result of their or a succession plan, as a result of that myself and a colleague of mine from the Twin Cities, John Sather, has been named as the National Director for our ministry. I've been named as his associate. And so it means that my emphasis or a lot of my focus is going to become more national and even global in terms of what I'm supposed to do here. Why not leave the neighborhood and go to some national office and do that? That'd be excellent to do it. I mean, that's what we do. That's what that's what we tend to do in the most in most instances. But John and myself and our servant leadership team have a commitment to seeing disciples being made not only among the people that we lead to Christ, but disciples being made among the staff who are already involved in ministry and among pastors and leadership in churches. And in order for that to be fresh for us, we have to keep our feet on the ground. Somebody has to still have their feet on the ground. Our servant leadership team often and minions consists of people who have had field experience. And one of the realities that we're beginning to see is that if you lose that field experience, you forget what it's like to be on the ground. So a 30,000 foot view is necessary to keep the troops moving. But at the same time, that person from that 30,000 foot has to keep their feet on the ground to be able to understand what that field person is going through. So we got to somewhere, there's got to be a meeting of the two. And that's one of the reasons why we're structuring this so that myself as a national director, having city director experience, I can stay fresh. I can speak to the leadership about what the field needs. And at the same time, I can keep the vision of what the leadership, whether you should wants us to go in the field. That's a good principle in any arena of life, including ministry, I think. Was it a tough decision for you though? Absolutely. I mean, you talked about wrestling with that, I struggling with it, truthfully from a personal level, I'm comfortable. You'd spent how long here? 30 years. I mean, by the time it was, I'd say by the time it'd be, I would have, in 2011, I would have been the director for 18 years, but I came into this ministry at about 23. Did you think maybe you might have to leave to take on this new responsibility? Well, I mean, usually within crusade and within other ministries like this, the issue of moving people around and having people leave when that is a, it's kind of a standard practice. Normally what happens? Normally what happens. But when you, when you talk, there are two ministries that I think are twins. And I think that's ministry in the city and ministry overseas. And in both of those ministries, you need consistency. They're both mission fields. They're both mission fields. And both mission fields, you need consistency. People are used to folk just being transient. When there's consistency, people begin to, it may take people a long time to recognize that. But if you've been a mainstay, they pay attention, they're open, even if they've kind of gone along in their life, maybe even gotten away from what you taught them, they recognize, wait a minute, you're still here. You're still here. And that's important to them. So it's not only for stability, but it's even for future recruiting. So we can get people to understand when you commit yourself to this, you need to be willing to commit a life to it. But did you struggle? Oh, man, I didn't, I mean, one is because of the fact that I like what I'm doing. I mean, I liked leading as a city director. I mean, I could do it without, this is going to sound terrible, but I could do without trusting God, because it was so habitual, it was just something I just did. And that's there in lies the area of the need for growth. Maybe that's why God pushed you in this direction to teach you the lesson, huh? Exactly. Exactly. So I'm in that process. I'm learning, I'm in a program that crusade is doing for future development of leaders. And so simply, it's just basically helped me grow personally, as well as this increase in my capacity, but not just in terms of performance. That is one aspect, but it's really about personal spiritual and emotional growth. Tell me more about crusade's vision for developing young leaders. That's over the last, actually five going into six years, there's a program called senior leadership initiative. The campus crusade began to start. Our mutual friend, Bob Teedy. Bob Teedy, exactly. He's one of the one of the design members of that particular initiative. And the question came to them or the realization that crusade is aging. It is a middle aged organization. And because of that, if we don't begin to pay attention to the future, whereas our relevance in the next five years, the concern is that are we preparing leaders who have our values of the history of crusade, but at the same time, how is that being matched with this current culture and where God wants to take us in the future? Let me just stop you there because that issue that campus crusade for Christ is wrestling with needs to be addressed by many organizations. Absolutely. I mean, the church needs to continually pay attention to that as well. Our commitment to the great commission, to the great commandment, to the great concern is a mainstay. But how is that lived out in this current culture that is Comcast speed in this change? Yeah. Yeah. Everything's changing rapidly. Rapidly rapidly. So, so, yes, it's something that the church, as a matter of fact, one of the just side notes, one of the kind of findings I've been involved in as a result of the some of the research we've done or this period program we've done this research, we began to talk to people who are from the Southern Baptist Convention. As we talked to that leadership, that leadership represents a mainstay stability. Southern Baptist Convention. I mean, we're talking some of the best well-known preachers and well-known churches and people who send people to missionary work all over the place. But they're concerned about how they will be relevant five years from now and what this current culture, how this current culture responds to the gospel. How do we approach it? And we began to listen to them begin to concern them. It was a wait a minute. If they're concerned about it, we better pay attention to this too. You know, as I hear you describe this, this two levels of leadership, one, the fly over, you know, the 30,000 foot level and then boots on the ground. Boots on the ground, right? The communication and the lessons go both ways. Yes, they do. Yes, they do. Well, one of the things that's very real is that you want to make sure that your leadership 30,000 feet, you know, come in or fly down once in a while, come in for landing once in a while. So, to do the same way, okay, am I on the right track? Are we going the right direction? How am I doing as a leader? That kind of feedback, feedback is necessary. From the person who was on the ground and flew on the ground, they need to continually establish and remember or not just establish but maintain trust. Trust in their leadership is not trying to leave them astray because everybody just gets so caught up and busy in whatever they're doing. And it's important for us to have a meeting of the minds. Where do we come together and reevaluate and say, hey, here's how we're making progress. Let's celebrate. Okay, here's areas where we can see more fruit produced. Is this also an opportunity to see your ministry multiplying a sense that others will come alongside you to pick up the local responsibilities while you take on some of the national responsibilities? So that's another opportunity for growth on their part. Yes, it is. Here's a reality. You can be so focused. And as I said, for 17 years being a city director, that I wasn't really thinking about leadership succession directly or intentional. I'm thinking about as Moses is going to happen, right? Yeah, he's going to show somebody up. Here's his present. Here he is. He wants to be a leader. No, leadership that actually is effective and leadership succession plan plans that are actually that are actually successful are those that are focused focused on in many instances, growing and cultivating their own leaders intentionally. Are you training someone to take your place? Yes. Are you training someone to take your place? There are some people right now have identified. They are in this year. They've already been identified as the ones who replaced me. Those individuals will be groomed even more intentionally over this next year. And so I'm committed to that, but not only for them before our entire team, and we want this to become part of the DNA of how campus could say works. How are you replacing yourself? Are you thinking five, 10 years from now? And who's going to be the person who's going to sit in your spot? And where can you yet be in a position where more fruit can be produced out of your life? It's a John 15 passage where Jesus says, not only, he says this to the Father's glory, that you bear much fruit. And then he says, so proving yourselves to be my disciples. The challenge for me from that passage is that I can say, Jesus, I have fruit already. What are you doing? I mean, here's fruit right here. What's the issue here? And Jesus is like, yeah, I see it, but I want more. It's not as a taskmaster, but it's to the Father's glory. So who am I here? Again, what is your aim? Is it just so I can say I've got a nice comfortable ministry or is it so that more fruit can be produced with the masses more? I really appreciate Milton Massey and the challenge to all of us today. What is your aim in life? Who are you serving? If you'd like more information about here's life in our city, a ministry of campus crusade for Christ, visit our website firstpersoninterview.com for links and more. This conversation today with Milton will also be archived on the website if you'd like to share it with someone else. What's coming up next week? A couple of authors will join me. Between them, they have written dozens of books with millions in print. So two conversations next week. First, Max Lucado will talk about his writing and his passion for outreach in Africa. Then Dr. Kevin Lehman on how to have a new you by Friday. Two very different personalities would join me next week. Check it out online at firstpersoninterview.com. Now with thanks to my friend and producer, Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepard. Join us next time for First Person. You