Weird Naptown

It's kind of hard to rescue the captive, the main theme of this blog, without understanding how a city, community or place contributes to the captive mind-set. Some would say that people are in captivity due to no fault of anyone else. This is an argument for another blog however. Since I work with the captive in Indianapolis, it is important to understand how this city works....It is important for all to understand the history and politics of their place of habitation. 

Indianapolis is a weird sort of city. It was a superb host of Super Bowl XLVI. Yet all sorts of issues vital to growth and development remain…For instance, crime is a growth industry, kids can be disruptive while shooting up downtown landmarks, the Indianapolis Police Department says they have no more budget to pay their staff and key leaders are determined to take over the Indianapolis Public Schools.

These issues seem disjointed. In reality, they are related. First of all, Indianapolis has always been a city with a strong desire and push to enhance her image. Now this is a good thing. All citizens of any city should want to see growth and progressiveness. However, politics and a slight hint of favoritism which borders on old fashion racism, tends to promote a posture of exclusiveness, not inclusion. Take for instance the public transportation system, one of the worst in America. Once the Mayor Greg Ballard got re-elected, the first thing he wanted to do was improve public transportation. He got a lot of big-wigs…mayors, business leaders and the like to generate a grand plan which included rapid transit to regional locations. I can image this assembly, entitled the Central Regional Transit Authority, sitting around grand board-rooms with catered lunches, as they pontificated about the state of public transportation. One problem, they failed to ask the people forced to use the pitiful system of transportation called IndyGo.

While the City of Indianapolis cannot seem to improve IndyGo, the planning and execution of the Super Bowl did wonders for the image of Indianapolis. However, my lasting memory of this event is the estimated crowd of about 40 African-American and Latino residents stranded in the shivering cold, waiting on IndyGo buses. As it was becoming clear, the buses were not coming on that Sunday evening of the Super Bowl, the image of hospitality reserved for the Super Bowl patrons was clear: It seemed that every charter and school bus in the city was parked nearby, awaiting the beckoned call of those attending the game while the citizens went neglected. The IndyGo office was not available to answer any telephone call despite the $150-thousand federal transportation grant received to provide citizens with four days of free rides during this event.

And now the Mayor, the Governor and appointed friends are using their united muscle for a new agenda, the hostile takeover of the Indianapolis Public Schools. However, if a police department can overspend their budget in three months and a public transportation system ranks as one of the worst in the nation, what makes a mayor even begin to feel competent to handle the challenges of an urban system like the Indianapolis Public Schools? By the way, part of the take-over plan is that the Mayor should serve in a similar capacity as a superintendent. It is easy to create charter schools where all the good and intelligent students attend. However, education in urban systems involves entrenched social problems. I feel for the many urban principals that are regularly cussed out by parents, not much older than the students. Until these problems are solved, the highly qualified teacher being sought to solve these problems will remain unqualified. If the Mayor, Governor, Indianapolis Star and Mind Trust feel as if a hostile takeover of the Indianapolis Schools is the answer to the growth and development of the City of Indianapolis, I hope they fix these social problems by bringing all to the table for solutions, not just the politically correct appointees. After all, these problems in school spill over into communities in beautiful places like the downtown canal on warm weekend evenings.

A latter/prophectic church movement

After being exposed to Kingdom Valley Ministries, Oak Forest, Illinois, where the anointed ministry of the recording-artist Shekinah Glory is based, I was enlightened. I knew there was a difference in this worship, unlike and unmatched to anything previously experienced. After attending a few more services and with a little research, I am learning what the difference is. I have learned that many churches across this nation are uniting and praying around the 7 Mountains…As a result, not only do I have a renewed purpose but a better understand of the real purpose of the latter day church. In another post, I will elaborate more on the seven mountains. However, the days of “church as usual” are no more. God is calling for the “Ecclesia,” a church greatly different from the typical congregation we find in America today. The following information was inspired from the web site http://7mountainstrategy.com/blog/.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus calls for the formation of the ecclesia, a ruling body that governed the “polis” or city-state. This is a goal for those who would be His disciples. The goal involves a kingdom on earth that would have binding and loosing powers. This goal involves the governing of the heavenly principalities as stated in (Ephesians 3:8-10, 6:10-18). Not only is this trait lacking in many believers but many seemingly fail to believe this power is possible with men. As a result, the goal of transforming earthly communities has not resulted. We are not seeing the full manifestation of God’s kingdom on Earth. Another example of how this ecclesia should differ from the typical congregation can be found in Hebrews 10:25.

In other words, the church should not function just to fill seats for church growth on Sundays. The church should have a united agenda to turn this world order upside down (Acts 17:6). There is an extensive history, starting in the late 19th century, where the church serves only as a place for the rescuing sinners for a secluded life leading to heaven. The church lost a major part of the mission to change and engage the world. The church took on a mission to  resist and protect herself  from the world.

God is calling His latter day church to do something much more radical: Engage the world, govern it and affect the culture. Yet according to the web site mentioned above, “Church attendance in this nation is at an all-time high; however, cultural effectiveness is at an all-time low!” What wrong with that picture?

The church is supposed to disciple nations with global influence as listed in Genesis 1:28 and Matthew 28:19. As a result, when churches focus continually inwardly instead of outwardly, Para-church ministries have to be established to reach neglected city communities…Smaller-sized church tend to have more cultural influence than a “mega-churches. Could it be that many mega-churches are have become gathering places with very limited influence in the heavenly and earthly realms?

So here is a test to see if your church is making an impact, functioning as an ecclesia or as a typical American congregation. Is your church concerned with:

• Being comfortable and conforming to the status quo?
• Having a personality-driven leadership at the top or having the vocational calling of all its members? 
• Training people for all of life or just church life?
• Changing the surrounding community or only the individual souls?
• Being at war against demonic entities in the heavenly spheres or simply at war with each other?  
• Sending people out to serve their communities or calling for communities to attend Sunday worship experiences.
• Bringing the kingdom of Heaven to earth or just satisfying their members with joy in their hearts. 
• Being sanctified to serve others or being saved for the sake of sanctification.
• Preaching that Jesus rose from the dead to “fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10); or that Jesus rose from the dead merely to save individuals from hell.
• Influencing each of the seven cultural mountains of society or not influencing any, never having even heard of the mountains?

Why this Blog

Welcome- When my writings are not sporadic but instead tied to a purpose, I rejoice. I have written about several topics, all of the seemingly unrelated. So when I consider the purpose of this blog as a platform to publish, I have to consider the central theme of why I write. I also need to consider what the reader can expect to receive by reading this blog.

I wrote in 2012 that the purpose of this blog has been altered to replace an older one that I published called, Bridgethegulf@blogspot.com... I changed to this format to broaden the scope. The new name, cnickersonbolden.blogspot.com, better speaks and identifies and purpose of these writings. These writings are a reflection of who I am and what I've been created to do.

I have one book out on Amazon, Bridging the Gulf: Understanding and Ministering to Hip Hop Youth. That book offers direction and encouragement to those entering youth work. But that book is not all that I desire to talk about. For that matter, I have written about a great lesson in Black History in another book, Indiana Avenue: Black Entertainment Boulevard. My next book seems unrelated to everything else. It's called, Prayer Wheel Churching. So for that matter, the domain name needs to speak of all things one can expect from C. Nickerson Bolden in 2012 and beyond.

However, in 2014, I have gained understanding of Biblical language that describes what I do, the work of mercy called "rescuing the captive." Certainly our young people are in a state of captivity when its hard to succeed in school, stay out of jail, live without a father and find a job. I firmly believe that the history of the thing can certainly help understand the solutions for present problems. And I also believe in the importance of prayer as a solution to being rescued. So all of these writings do tie together in  light of my mission to rescue the captive. Hopefully that is your mission too and these writings will bless you in the process.
God bless and look for more in 2012