Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Plough Quarterly • Spring 2016 63 to overtake my love for Christ. Of course, one does not have to be struggling with sexual sin, addiction, or mental illness to benefit from this sort of honesty and accountability. Still, dem- onstrating vulnerability and asking for accountability in just these areas is especially powerful in building trust and strengthening relation- ships. After all, so many of our neighbors in broken communities are struggling with these problems too. The longer I prayed with my new friends from the neighborhood, the deeper our sense of solidarity became. There are countless ways in which my race, class, and background give me privileges that they don’t have, but at the foot of the cross the only privilege that mattered was being one with Christ. I couldn’t pull rank; the questions Elder asked me in our weekly counseling sessions – questions that in many cases he’d learned from Gordon Cosby (1917–2013), founder of the Church of the Saviour in Wash- ington, DC – disarmed my excuses and forced me to find ways to keep my promises. Regardless of our level of wealth or privi- lege, those of us who want to serve the poor must learn to allow the line between helper and helped to dissolve. As human beings, our minds, bodies, and spirits inextricably work together – or are broken together. For all of us, the beginning of healing is to face our prob- lems with the help of others, in community. By learning to see our neighbors not as objects of pity but as fellow image-bearers – brothers and sisters whom we can serve and be served by – we become better able to guide one another to Christ.  foolhardy to suppose that addressing these issues will somehow magically cure a person’s addiction. Overzealous writers, politicians, and policy makers often proclaim that the answer is simple: addiction will be solved by medication, or better community programs, or prayer, or more jobs. There are too many addicts who are medicated, friendly, and spiri- tual for any of these theories to be true. In our urban mental health ministry, one place we’ve seen real successes is a support group that uses participatory learning methods adopted from the Community Health Evan- gelism program. Through this group, church members work together to find a holistic understanding of their minds and bodies, one that draws from the Bible while incorporating insights from medical science and psychology. Given that many people are hesitant to seek formal counseling and don’t want to roll the dice with whatever pharmaceutical cocktail a psychiatrist might prescribe, groups like this hold great potential for meeting the needs of hurting people in vulnerable communities. In addition, they enable participants who would benefit from medications or counseling to get to know others who can help them gain access to what they need. The second step for those of us seeking to serve impoverished communities is just as crucial: we must acknowledge our patients’ strengths and recognize how they can serve us. By offering them the power to ask hard ques- tions and to hold us accountable, we can learn to grow together with them spiritually. This helps us look up to those who can help us, not just down to those we can assist. Though I began my career intent on helping others, it wasn’t until I learned to submit to my neighbors and to accept their help that I rec- ognized how I’d been holding out for the sake of my pride, allowing my desire to be a helper The beginning of healing is to face our problems with the help of others, in community.