Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the tragic murders in Cleveland, Chicago, and now Ft. Hood. Why and How? What could have made a difference?

What if instead of a local liquor store, bar, pawn or gun shop on the corner, there would have been a church there instead.

I'm writing while sitting in "The Living Room" on a busy street in urban Portland, participating in a discussion on Compassion and Mercy reflecting on Isaiah 58. "Living Room" is a comfortable coffee shop atmosphere run by our ministry partner Community of Adsideo as a place for neighbors to come, talk, share, and just hang out together. Adsideo in Latin means "to sit, stand, or be at one's side". The Living Room is probably what the gospel writers had in mind when over and over again they recorded Jesus "reclining at table" just eating dates and drinking lattes with those hanging out on the corner.

When I shared my reflections on Is 58 to the group, the following phrase jumped out of my mouth without really thinking about it:

"What if there had been a house church like this "Living Room" next door to that crazy man in Cleveland? 11 women at last count might still be alive."

Ever since the news broke of these hideous acts of shear evil, I've been thinking about what those neighbors must be feeling. How could they have not seen or heard or suspected something strange was going on, next door? What kinds of feelings of guilt, shock, horror must they be going through?

But in the same breath, I ask myself could that kind of thing or similar things be going on right next door under my nose? We think we know who and how our neighbors are, but do we really? Our whole community turned out recently to a forum at the local junior high when we were informed that a registered sex offender had moved in the neighborhood. Yet every night a girls worse nightmare in our community is getting slapped, beaten, abused and worse by some of the same fathers, brothers, step-brothers, step-dads, uncles, neighbors standing in the back of that gym or sitting on the pew next to you.

So what if there were a house church on every corner? Well, for one thing, we'd probably know our neighbors a little better. Maybe one new "house rule" for every church is to rekindle the idea of doing "house visits" whereby church members and neighbors think nothing of coming over for a spot of tea, borrow a cup of sugar, where the norm is welcome inclusion not awkward isolation. We don't use our front porches anymore just the garage door opener. It would be nice to live in a neighborhood where we didn't have to lock our doors, not because we were worried about who would break in, but because we weren't worried or ashamed of them "knowing our business" and seeing all our sin when they walked in.

I was on the Southside of Chicago last weekend driving around the "hood" with an urban partner Pastor Dave. As we drove by nearly a church on every corner, mostly closed up during the week, I remarked "Isn't it amazing how many churches you find on the Southside yet it still is one of the highest areas for crime and poverty. It makes one wonder if the church as a whole is really making any difference?" This new church plant on the Southside had 80 in service that Sunday where they meet in a local elementary school. The strange and sad thing is each person had to buzz the security guard to let them in at the front door, boarded up with thick black metal bars.

Maybe we don't need a "house of Worship" on every corner which is pretty much what you find on the Southside, storefront properties buzzing with activity on Sunday morning but pretty much empty and those same corners taken back during the rest of the week by drug dealers and gang members. Maybe what we need on every corner are places like "The Living Room" manned by volunteers everyday to "welcome strangers and thereby entertaining angles without even knowing it."

Another one of our partners on the Northside of Chicago has a very simple mission statement, "called to the corner". Their church was birthed after an urban teen was shot and killed on that very corner. So a small band of Christians living together in community, on those blocks, gathered to prayer there everyday until finally they could buy that former liquor store and transform the building into a place of refuge, safety, and sanctuary.

A few weeks ago, you probably heard about the Chicago teen who was beaten and murdered by a group of kids filming the whole thing and posting it on youtube. That young man was pulled off the pavement by two Here's Life Inner City staff and placed inside the youth center until Paramedics could arrive but it was too late. He died in their arms.

In Vancouver BC where I visited recently, prostitution is legal so the ladies of the night stand on the corner church steps cause it's the best place to be seen. So let me ask again, "why not a church or house church or "Living Room" on every corner and in every block?" "Why not?" Instead of larger churches going through expensive building programs, take those same resources and buy or rent spaces, row houses, and foreclosed properties to transform them into "houses of hope" "living rooms of living water" "coffee shop churches" or just "front porch pastors - the priesthood of all believers"

Let's reclaim State Farm's tagline jingle, "And like a good neighbor, Christians are there."