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The book’s premise is that Christians are to be “salt and light” (Matthew 5) in the communities in which we live. Its purpose is to put those of us who love Jesus and are sustained by a vital relationship with Him in direct “hands on” contact with suffering and injustice in our community.

Why is that important? Several reasons come to mind. First, as Christians journey with Christ into a bruised and broken world, we become different people along the way. We come to the end of ourselves. On the journey, many of us repent of cold hearts, love of “stuff,” prejudice and little faith. Most of us are pushed to our knees by the trauma we encounter. Our hunger (even desperation) to see God move in our midst grows immeasurably. And as He answers our somewhat timid “beginner” prayers, we are amazed, deeply grateful and increasingly loyal to Him for His provision. Nothing in life beats knowing God this way. That is why we gain so much by getting “hands on” with our community. And we are the poorer to the same degree for the lack of it.

If that isn’t enough, the journey introduces us to real-life heroes. You may know some great people, but wait until you meet a few of the heroes who empty themselves for others every day right here in our city. Heroes who walk alongside the former offenders, the AIDS patients or the mentally ill. Wait until you meet the teachers in our nontraditional schools! Or the black pastor from the inner-city who, with nothing but faith, rises at 6 a.m. to pray for his community. Or the single mom with a family who trains passionately, despite the distractions, to give the gift of job skills to the unemployed. Or the mother of three who spends most of her days translating for and aiding low-income Latinos. Space does not permit me to tell about those who minister on our streets to the homeless or set up shop in our public-housing developments, to love and empower people every week of the year. You need to meet the heroes who “hang out” with the skateboarders with nose rings or those that spend countless hours with newly arrived refugees whose tragic stories would make you weep. The list of heroes is endless.

And they are everywhere. Some work for nonprofits, others work for government agencies, while many don’t work for anybody because there is no pay for what they do. Being around them has humbled and changed all of us who have met them. Walking with heroes, life on the “broken world tour” with Christ seems deeper, richer and more worth living. People tend to hug more, to say “I love you” more and to give more freely to each other. On the journey into our community, even salvation feels more authentic . . . it really is good news for broken lives.

But travelers on the journey with Christ into a broken world aren’t the only ones to benefit. People we meet along the way are touched as well. Some are transformed.

How is that so? Because when people who love Jesus come face to face with suffering and injustice, God Himself comes face to face with the same. Not that we bring Him there, for He has been there already. But we bring Him there in the sense that He becomes tangible, touchable. He has “our skin” on.

And therein lies the hope of this book.

What hope? That “God with skin on” will get involved!

Not that we are the hope. But rather God is the hope . . . we just provide the human body. The great mystery of our faith is that God chooses to indwell His people and to use us. And when that occurs, life is forever changed for them. In this encounter, purpose, significance and even life eternal follow.

“God with skin on” . . . can you imagine?

Can you imagine if “God with skin on” began to build relationships with the 1,500 or so people dying with AIDS in Knoxville? A wife whose husband brought the disease home to her during her pregnancy told us how rejected she felt by her community. Her son was born HIV-positive. Eventually she was voted out of her church and asked to withdraw her son from the school he attended. That story would have had a different ending if “God with skin on” had been involved.

Can you imagine if “God with skin on” began to come alongside the roughly 4,500 struggling single mothers with children under 18 who live in poverty in Knoxville? One of these moms told us, “Life is tough. I’m doing well in school, but I lost one semester’s work to a car wreck and had another setback when my son was hospitalized.”

What if “God with skin on” began to regularly take a meal to the old woman living alone in deep poverty whose faithful husband died eight years ago leaving her languishing in the stillness, trapped in her ever-increasing dementia? There are over 6,000 elderly living below the poverty line in Knox County.

Imagine the difference “God with skin on” could make living in the same neighborhood as the grandfather raising his two grandchildren because his daughter is in prison and her boyfriend, their father, refuses to get involved. Currently about 4,700 children in our community are being raised by their grandparents.

What if “God with skin on” sought out and began to encourage the former offender who returned home to Knoxville only to find the neighborhood church filled with people who have forgotten (or never understood) that they too have been “former offenders” in God’s eyes? Without a real friend, the former offender faces continual rejection and tries to muster the courage to believe in God and find some hope despite his worsening state of affairs. Soon he will give up and violate his parole just to return to the safety of a world he feels much safer in.

Can you imagine if “God with skin on” began to build and staff residential homes for the several hundred prostitutes who are living (or dying really) on the streets of Knoxville, who so desperately need to find some Hope? In the process of doing our research, one told us “The problem with a prostitute is that she has nobody.” Currently there are no “God with skin on” ministries to prostitutes in Knoxville.

Or can you see “God with skin on” helping the undocumented Hispanic with a family whose wife has cancer? He fears her death and raising children without her in a foreign land. Hundreds in our community, just like him, feel as if they have nowhere to turn because they live in constant dread of deportation. Many have fled deep poverty back home and want the same things we do, to make a future for their families. I cannot help but wonder how many of us would also flee deep poverty to go to the America and would also need to see “God with skin on” to believe He is real.

Can you imagine “God with skin on” giving a hug to the battered wife whose world has crashed into a million pieces as she tries to survive yet another blow and the death of her dreams? There are approximately 49 domestic violence related calls made to the police every single day in our county.

What about “God with skin on” resolutely pursuing a relationship with the 17-year-old alcoholic; or the seventh-grader sniffing glue whose parents give him money but no time (we have the second-highest seventh grade rate of inhalant substance abuse in the country); or the runaway who told us, “My dad would tell me ‘you are worthless and a waste . . . you cannot do anything right . . . you are lazy and stupid.’”

What if “God with skin on” gently built a relationship with the woman so debilitated by her mental illness that it leaves her crying quietly for hours hidden in a closet in the bedroom afraid to come out, unable even to hold her frightened but concerned young children? Over 70,000 people in Knox County struggle with some form of mental illness.

Imagine if “God with skin on” adopted the youth who has been in 7 foster homes so far in his young life gradually hardening him to the hope of ever feeling hope again. Where is the hope for a child who no one will adopt because he is just too odd or too abused or, more often, the wrong color? Currently about 400 children need new homes in our county.
The ONLY hope is “God with skin on!”

Many of these stories are told inside the cover of this guidebook. So look for them.

Although what you are about to read will overwhelm you at times, don’t forget what is really going on here. God is at work in Knoxville or you wouldn’t be holding this guidebook. He has taken great pains to reveal the need to you and to all of us who live here and love Him. Don’t be afraid. You will possibly feel even more alive and excited about God than you have in years. His power and His love will flow through you to bring hope to someone who struggles to find hope. At least that’s the promise of Isaiah 58.

More importantly, you will be broken and reshaped as well . . . into His image. That alone is priceless and worth anything you have to give up. Understand this clearly: you stand to gain more than anyone.

The Compassion Coalition hopes that you, your family and your congregation will be “God with skin on” to this city; that you will bravely walk into the places He opens up for you; and that, in so many ways, you will make it possible for people to say, “Truly, the Kingdom of God is coming to earth
in Knoxville.”

May the Kingdom of our Lord become the very ground upon which you walk.

Your brother in Christ,

Andy Rittenhouse
September 2002
Executive Director
Compassion Coalition
Knoxville, Tennessee


A Little Advice

As you seek to be “God with skin on” in our community, we urge you to proceed carefully.

• Before you begin, spend sufficient time in prayer to find out what God is saying to you. Don’t rush into anything. Move only as you feel God’s peace and affirmation to do so.

• Recognize that your relationship with Christ and faithful friends in your congregation will provide the strength you need for the journey. At times, your compassion will run dry, your idealism will be destroyed and all your patience may go by the wayside. You will not be able to endure unless you are caring for yourself by spending “renewal” time with Jesus and a few friends who care. This cannot be overemphasized!

• If your church has a “compassion director” or the equivalent (person responsible for connecting your congregation to community needs), please go talk to him or her. Share your plans. You are part of that church family and, as such, have a responsibility to move in sync with them. Your compassion director may be planning to start a ministry similar to what you want to do. Or, the timing may be bad due to other considerations. Please give deference and follow his
or her lead. God will honor that.

• Please be conservative in the amount of time you offer a ministry or agency. They would much rather have you commit less often and make those commitments than to commit more frequently and not show up. Your presence (or lack of) really does impact lives.

• Some opportunities you read about are easy to do and need little training. Others, however, might be more successful with guidance and training. If you feel like you need to get more help to get started, call the Compassion Coalition office and talk to us. Hopefully we will be able to assign you a “coach” who will walk you through the initial start-up phase. We might arrange a field trip for you, your family or your small group.
• If you would like to be notified (via e-mail) of community needs as we become aware of them, please contact our office. We will gladly add your name to that e-mail list. We would like to build an e-mail list that ties the entire Body of Christ together to represent “God with skin on” to this community.

• Pastors: If you want to appoint a compassion director and sign him or her up for our next compassion directors training course, please contact our office. We will explain the process and the requirements.