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Letter from the Publisher Righting the wrongs of the past
I’m a product of the suburbs. I grew up on the west side of Indianapolis in the early 1960s, part of a post-World War II migration from urban areas to planned neighborhoods that sprang up from what were formerly farm fields surrounding big cities. There were a number of reasons for this great migration. Ex-servicemen had access to loans to pursue the American dream, so they moved out of apartments in the city and purchased their own homes on their own
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land in burgeoning suburbs. The availability of automobiles and creation of the interstate highway system encouraged people to drive to work instead of walking or riding a city bus. A high percent of these planned communities had restrictive covenants that kept them racially segregated, while practices such as redlining (refusing a loan, insurance, or other service to someone because they live in an area that is deemed to be a poor
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financial risk) and mortgage discrimination (the practice of lending institutions denying loans on the basis of race or other criteria) kept races apart, feeding an already prevalent racism. City schools felt the effect of the migration and began to decline. Social programming such as integration and forced busing pushed more people to leave the city. Root economic, educational, and social issues contributed to crime, gang violence, and family breakdown. From our home in Speedway, Indiana, I could see the city skyline of Indianapolis, but in every other way, I was as removed as I could be. We had our own schools, our own shopping, our own library, police force, fire department, town board, parks, restaurants . . . everything. We needed to venture out only occasionally in the light of day, keeping our car doors locked and our windows rolled up with the air conditioning on. The suburban phenomenon created a third strata of living: not rural, not urban, but with the comforts of both and the perceived drawbacks of neither. Over the years, urban sprawl began to overtake these near suburbs as they were replaced by newer suburbs farther from the city. The children and grandchildren of the original migration moved farther out into larger homes on bigger tracts of land. Conversely, gentrification (the process of renovating a house or district so it conforms to middle-class tastes) began in city centers, as established racial communities were pushed out and certain parts of the city became upscale. Indianapolis is but one example of this familiar story in many cities across the nation. Even more interesting—and possibly more disturbing—is what was happening in
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independent Christian churches in this context. An explosion of suburban churches connected to our movement took place during this same time period. The church growth movement coupled with this suburban migration became a force in Indianapolis. Today, huge megachurches encircle the city. Some have relocated over the years to avoid the urban sprawl to stay in touch with these old dynamics. Recently, through the catalyst of multisite, some of them are venturing back into the city, being the church once again in neighborhoods and communities long abandoned by our movement. It’s hard, even painful, for us to see ourselves through this lens. Why are so many of our churches, particularly our largest and most successful churches, more than 90 percent white? Why are we inclined toward world missions and yet so far removed and blind to the mission field right next to us? Those of us who benefited from these social injustices have a responsibility to invest ourselves back into the places where wrongs can be righted. What proactive steps might we take to wrap our arms around these incredible opportunities to let Jesus shine?
Jerry Harris is publisher of Christian Standard Media and senior pastor of The Crossing, a multisite church located in three states across the Midwest. @_jerryharris /jerrydharris
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CHRISTIAN STANDARD —
FOUNDED 1866 BY ISAAC ERRETT Devoted to the restoration of New Testament Christianity, its doctrine, its ordinances, and its fruits.
The Staff Jerry Harris, Publisher Michael C. Mack, Editor Jim Nieman, Managing Editor Shawn McMullen, Contributing Editor Megan Kempf, Designer Abby Wittler, Designer Renee Little, Operations Kim Harris, Marketing and Advertising
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Volume CLIV. Number 9. Christian Standard (ISSN 0009-5656) is published monthly by Christian Standard Media at 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Periodicals postage paid at Parker, CO, and additional offices. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Christian Standard Media, 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Phone: 1-720-598-7377. SUBSCRIBERS: Send address changes to Christian Standard, 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Send old and new addresses, complete with zip codes, at least six weeks before delivery date.
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Copyright ©2019 by Christian Standard Media Email: cs@christianstandardmedia.com Website: www.christianstandard.com Printed in USA
TABLE OF CONTENTS —
24 b a lt i m or e Two Churches of Christ Move into New Buildings and Impact Their Communities by Melissa Wuske
32 ci nci nnat i Changing Lives and Communities by Loving Our Neighbors by Russ Howard
36 d e cat u r How We Partnered with Our Community to Reach Our City by BJ Leonard
40 ne w e ngla nd Restoration House Ministries: A Light in Dark Places by Kelly Carr
44 los a nge le s Planting Roots in the City by Andrew Alesso
I N E V E RY I S S U E 2-3 | L E TTE R F R OM THE P UB L ISH E R Jerry Harris
6-7 | L E TTE R F R OM THE E DITO R Michael C. Mack
8-9 | e 2 : E F F E C T I V E EL D ER S D evelop th e A r t an d Sk i ll o f Li s ten in g Jared Johnson
10-12 | IMAG INE Live Life Beyond
Mel McGowan
13-15 | HO RIZO N S
The Partnership of Hope Laura McKillip Wood
16-19 | ME TRIC S
Th e D ebt D ebate Kent Fillinger
20-21 | MIN ISTRYL I F E W h elp i sh Lancelot Schaubert
48
Let’s Revitalize Our Urban Churches by Michael Bowling
54
Why We Must Go to the Cities by Nathan “Chivo” Hawkins and Josie Barton
58
Mid-Atlantic States: Going Back to the City by Tim Cole
64
SPIRE: What It Is, What It Isn’t . . . and Why by Chris Moon
24-31 | F E ATURE
B a lti m o re: Two C hurch es o f Ch rist Move i nto New Bu il d in g s a n d I mpa ct The ir C o m mun i ti es Melissa Wuske
78-79 | IN TE RAC T 80 | B IB L ITIC AL LY COR R ECT E i s egesi s fo r Eve r yo n e After Class Podcast
going to the cities
Letter from the editor Cities are a key setting in God’s story. The churches in Jerusalem, Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, and many others in the New Testament were urban. And, while the Bible’s story began in a rural area (surely two people in a garden surrounded by lots of animals is rural!), it ends in an urban locale, “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem” (Revelation 21:2). Cities also present a strategic opportunity for the church today. Several statistics quoted by writers of this month’s articles stood out to me: • “The most recent U.S. Census data revealed for the first time more than 4 in 5 Americans live in urban areas” (Tim Cole). • “The United Nations estimates that 55 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and that number is projected to swell to 68 percent by 2050” (Michael Bowling). • “Five of the top six [post-Christian cities in the United States] are in New England,” a region that encompasses “just under 15 million people” (Kelly Carr). Several articles this month point to a vital principle for carrying out the Great Commission: We must go where people are, espeC H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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cially those who don’t yet know Christ. More and more, they are moving to our cities. Yet, as several writers noted, for many years independent Christian churches have not done well in cities. Along the way, we became focused more on rural communities, small towns, and suburbs. (For one reason why this has occurred, see Jerry Harris’s Letter from the Publisher on page 2.) However, as this issue demonstrates, more and more of our leaders are now moving to our cities, planting churches, and living where they minister. This month we feature stories from seven areas of the country—New York City (MinistryLife); Baltimore, Maryland; Cincinnati; Decatur, Illinois; New England; Los Angeles; and the mid-Atlantic states. These ministries serve as examples of what we in our movement are doing in urban areas. We should celebrate this and commit to do more. Nathan Hawkins, west regional director for Stadia, says in his article, “Church planting in the U.S. will need to double or triple SEP T E M B ER 2 0 1 9
from current rates to address population growth and anticipated church closures of older congregations. The American church needs to plant more than 200,000 churches in the next 30 years . . . and even more than that if it hopes to meet the needs of the unaffiliated.” And, it seems, many of those new churches need to be in urban areas. While the city offers great opportunities for the church, we must also recognize the challenges there. In “3 Challenges in Urban Ministry” at www.BiblicalLeadership.com, Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, listed these: depravity, longevity, and community. When some Christ followers think about urban areas, they naturally think of the depravity they see in news stories. While that may be true, says Stetzer, “depravity is everywhere, not just cities”! Sin and brokenness are all around, and “when sin abounds, the gospel can abound even more.” Loving a city takes longevity. Residents in too many cities have watched churches and other Christian ministries come and go. They need to know we are making a longterm commitment to walk with them, serve them, and love them. Growth in numbers may be slow. People may not seem to want the message we are bringing. They may seem too busy and too wrapped up in their own lives to get involved. We must remain faithful servants.
Finally, says Stetzer, community is key. How is that a challenge? Urban areas are typically not one big community, but a patchwork of numerous smaller communities, each with its own unique identity and often with barriers built up and even hostilities toward the communities around them. The gospel can build bridges and bring reconciliation, especially when people become believers and citizens of God’s kingdom. You will see the same challenges and opportunities in the urban-ministry stories in this issue. As you might expect, there is no single prevailing strategy that works in every urban environment, except to build relationships, listen, love, and serve people in the neighborhoods. These are the same strategies that work anywhere the church is doing ministry! Perhaps God has called you to stay where he has planted you in a rural, small-town, or suburban church. You can learn from this issue! Remain faithful where God has placed you. But I hope and pray God will use this month’s articles to draw more of his people to go to cities where he can use them in mighty ways. Go to where the people are. @michaelcmack @michaelcmack @michaelcmack /authormichaelcmack
Visit ChristianStandard.com to check out our web-exclusive content! New Every Weekday Monday | Weekly Bible Study from The Lookout Tuesday | Weekly Communion Meditation Wednesday | Ministry News Stories of the Week Thursday | Throwback Thursday from the Christian Standard Archive (1866—) Friday | Web Exclusive Related to This Month’s Theme And subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter to receive even more current news, relevant articles, and other resources for your ministry. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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e 2 : e ffe c t i v e
e ld e r s
Develop the art and skill of listening BY JARED JOHNSON
The “headquarters” of e2: effective elders is in Indianapolis, a metropolitan area of nearly 1.5 million people. Whether in the bustling downtown or in suburban neighborhoods, one never fails to see someone running around—literally and figuratively—wearing those all-too-familiar earbuds. Music, podcasts, audiobooks, and more flood the auditory canals of our fellow Hoosiers. Of course, ubiquitous earbuds also communicate this strong nonverbal message: “Don’t talk to me; I’m occupied with something more important than conversing with you.” People who wear earbuds aren’t listening to us, but they are listening to someone. Jared Johnson serves as operations director with e2: effective elders.
Could that change? What would it take for urbanites to remove their earbuds and listen to people of faith? What if we would begin to listen to them? As increasing numbers of people choose to live in urban centers, listening becomes a means to an end.
/e2elders @e2elders
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• Listen until it hurts.
Listen First Paul modeled this for us. His practice was to go to the urban centers of the first century. He wanted to take the good news of Jesus to people who had never heard of his death and resurrection. For example, in Acts 17, Paul traveled to Athens, where he walked through the city listening to conversations and observing its residents. Paul listened . . . and then he spoke. With great goodwill, Paul conversed with nonbelievers after listening to them. Human nature hasn’t changed. What worked then can work now. In the fast-paced financial and demographic crucible of an urban center—where most people are not believers, according to social scientists—listening wins the day. Like Paul, let’s listen first and speak later. Choose to give others the proverbial floor. It’s not about being polite; rather, it’s biblical and purposeful. In the opening lines of his letter, the half-brother of Jesus gave this well-known command: “You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak . . .” (James 1:19*). In the context of an urban center, living among the unreached, the art and skill of listening is a means to an end.
Keep Listening This is not intended as a platitude. Listening is truly a spiritual discipline that can try us greatly and stretch our character. The word listen appears in Scripture hundreds of times, and if something is repeated, it’s important. It should catch our attention. When Jesus was transfigured, God said to the three disciples, “This is my dearly loved Son. . . . Listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). In each of his seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus said: “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” Jesus wants us to listen. It’s a discipline to practice, a skill to acquire. We all probably have heard the admonition that prayer needs to be “two-way communication.” We must spend time listening for God’s reply. But with unreached people all around us, listening to “them” can be a profoundly grace-filled act. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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• Listen when you prefer to vent. • Listen despite being maligned . . . and while being maligned. • Listen when retaliation, correction, or even “damage control” seems like the only alternative left. Keep listening. Outcomes are not up to us. Obedience is. Listen first. Listening—giving a nonbeliever the floor for as long as they want and longer—builds a relationship into which we can, later, introduce Jesus. The time spent listening builds relational capital that can weather difficult conversations. We should expect that introducing Jesus at some point down the road will be difficult. For those who rebuff our introduction of Jesus, some would say, “Shake the dust and move on” (Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5). But such an application doesn’t fit the context of relationship-driven evangelism. Jesus sent his followers on a limited-duration, itinerant mission in Mark 6:7-13 (see also the parallel account in Luke 9:1-6). The disciples were traveling through towns, and some people refused to listen. But we aren’t passing through urban centers, we live in these spaces, pursuing friendship with our fellow city-dwellers and “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” Stay with them. Keep listening. After all, if we walk away from them, how will they see the bright light or “taste” the strong salt of Jesus’ way (Matthew 5:14; Mark 9:50)? Outcomes are not up to us. Obedience is. And irrespective of the outcomes, we should “live wisely among those who are not believers”; we should “make the most of every opportunity” and have conversations that are “gracious and attractive” (Colossians 4:5, 6). Listening can be emotionally, mentally, and spiritually hard work. And it’s worth it. Listening will build the relational capital needed. Listen, and then listen some more. Someone might choose us over earbuds. *All Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation.
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Im ag i n e
Live Life Beyond BY MEL MCGOWAN
I once lived the American dream . . . the one with the big house, the big car, and the big mortgage. To afford my slice of the “American pie,” I lived as if I were in the movie Groundhog Day. I pulled out of the driveway at the same time each day. I commuted to work at least an hour each way, barely making it home in time to tuck in my youngest child at night and rarely in time to have dinner with the whole family. Day after day after day. I spoke to my next-door neighbor once a year. The elementary school located nearby was shut down, so my son had to be driven several miles to the next school. I attended the same church where I became a Christian, but it had long since given up its Main Street address to relocate to 40 acres of agricultural land on the periphery of the city. I realize this sounds like a “glass half-empty” description, but, in fact, having grown up in urban flats, apartments, and townhomes in Europe and Asia, I felt blessed to have a home like this for my family. Still, something was missing from my American dream. I have come to understand that “something” was a God-wired hunger for community.
Mel McGowan is cofounder and chief creative principal of PlainJoe Studios. He is a leading master planner and designer of churches in America. /visioneer @visioneer
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Pop duo MKTO (“Misfit Kids and Total Outcasts”) expresses shifts in ideals in their 2014 hit song “American Dream.” Some of the lyrics: “We don’t want two kids and a wife, I don’t want a job, I just want a life” and “You know that nothing is the way it used to be, so tell me, whatever happened to the American dream?”
‘Something Was Missing’ LifePointe Christian Church in Elk Grove, California, knows there is more to life than the American dream. People at LCC were struggling. Some worked multiple jobs to keep up with the payments on that dream house and their cars. Others were trying to keep their marriage together. Kids were struggling with bullying, depression, and addictions. To an outsider, things might have looked great, but behind closed doors, things were tough. Life, perhaps, was a bit better for some of LifePointe’s people and visitors, but most weren’t truly happy. Something was missing. So instead of striving for an “American ideal,” LifePointe wanted to point people to Jesus, the One who offers true, everlasting joy. LifePointe asked PlainJoe Studios for our help in clearly communicating all of this. The church was moving from an elementary school building they had been meeting in to a building and campus that had been a Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership. They wanted a fresh, new brand and engaging environments for adults and kids that would tell the LifePointe story. At PlainJoe, we refer to this as Spatial Storytelling. Our team sat down with them and came up with a “big idea.” LifePointe wants their people to “live life beyond” and discover together that there is more to life than how it is typically experienced. There is life beyond the daily grind of going to work and living paycheck to paycheck. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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- IMAGINE -
A Sense of Family LifePointe articulated what a lot of churches know but don’t always say: Women will go to church before men will. The church decided to address that by branding in a manner that would appeal to a young, outdoorsy, REI-type male. Blue and orange were added to the church logo. Wood, silver metal, and natural imagery were added throughout the church. The Sacramento area is known for its mining, which fit well with the outdoors theme, so we incorporated that into their environments. We had fun creating Discovery Mill for LifePointe Kids, where kids and students learn about Jesus in a unique, imaginative space that have them begging their parents to bring them back. “What I love most about LifePointe is their relentless focus on being a family, both through the various life groups or community groups that occur in homes throughout the week and in the gathering of the church body on Sunday,” said Blake Ryan of PlainJoe Studios. “They are determined to make sure no one is going through life alone; and because of this, their organization embodies this sense that we are your family, and your home is here. I’ve seen this and experienced it firsthand.” Too many people are pulling out of their driveways at the same time every morning and heading out to chase the American dream. But why live in a dream world that never completely satisfies when you can “live life beyond”? And to those who need a place to belong, to refresh, to grow, and to find fulfillment in Jesus, LifePointe says, “Come on in! Home is here.” C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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Horizons
The Partnership of Hope BY LAURA MCKILLIP WOOD
The sun beat down on the American visitors as they made their way through dirt streets and stepped over the open sewers that lined them. Tin and wooden shanties crowded together. Whole families with five to ten members lived in one room. The smells of smoldering cooking fires, garbage, and sewage permeated the air in the slums of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.
Laura McKillip Wood, former missionary to Ukraine, now serves as the registrar at Nebraska Christian College in Papillion, Nebraska, and works as an on-call chaplain at a nearby hospital. She and her husband, Andrew, have three teenagers.
Just the week before, a 14-year-old boy, loved by many in the community, faced the guns of a corrupt police force. Shot multiple times, the boy died immediately. The visitors knew nothing of this, though. They walked the slums on a vision trip, having come from churches around the United States to see the work of Missions of Hope International and to pray about partnering with them in ministry. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
/laura.wood2 @woodlaura30 @woodlaura30 lauramckillipwood.com lauramckillipwood@gmail.com
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Touring the skills training center of the mission later that day, the Americans noticed that Mary, a resident of the slums, had disappeared from their number. The tour continued, and Mary met up with it some time later. Mary had been called away by the neighborhood “thugs,” as they called themselves. Mary had spoken to them before, but this time their message was different. Mary invited the Americans to sit down for tea, a custom carried over from the days of British colonialism, and explained what the men wanted. “Last week, a boy was killed.” Mary described his death. “People are scared. They want change. Those men begged me to do something.” As she spoke, they heard a noise from the other room. Soon, one of the “thugs” burst through the door. A ripple of apprehension went through the group. What did he want from them? The man looked at them and spoke. “If we’d had one of your schools here, he’d have been in school and would be alive, not dead. We need a school. We need a church. Our community needs God!”
A Life of Ministry This man knew the reputation of Mary and her husband, Wallace. Mary grew up in rural Kenya. Her father had two wives, and she was one of 20 children. Mary graduated from the university in Nairobi. She became a Christian while there, and God began to change her life. During college, she volunteered by working with children from the poorest families in one of Nairobi’s slums. The slums of Nairobi are among the largest and poorest in the world; 3 million people live there. The Mathari slum, for example, is only about one square mile in size but is home to approximately 800,000 people. The government does not provide electricity, water, or sewage treatment to these areas. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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People live on the $1 to $2 a day they make doing day labor; they take jobs as they find them but rarely are able to find steady work. They are uneducated and unskilled and survive any way they can. After graduating, Mary married Wallace, an accountant with Price Waterhouse. His salary supported Missions of Hope International (MOHI), the ministry Mary began, until it grew enough that he also began working there. Mary gathered 50 of the poorest 4-year-olds in the slums of Kenya and started a preschool. Each year, MOHI added a grade, and the school grew one class at a time. They added locations as opportunities arose. Now MOHI has more than 18,000 students in 21 schools. It also operates two schools for the government and two for another ministry. All of the schools are in areas of extreme poverty in Nairobi or in destitute rural villages. The students who attend their schools receive a high-quality education, but MOHI’s influence does not stop there. Theirs is a wholistic ministry, providing education for children and training in skills such as welding, plumbing, carpentry, sewing, hair styling, and computer operation for adults. With each school, MOHI also plants a church; these churches tend to the spiritual and emotional health of the people and also build community. MOHI’s philosophy centers on empowering people rather than giving them things. Western funds provide only a portion of the cost of the children’s programs. Parents pay school fees and other costs. This important element of their ministry gives parents dignity and involves them in their children’s education. SEP T E M B ER 2 0 1 9
- HORIZONS -
Growth Growth has come in part through child sponsorships funded by American Christians in partnership with Christian Missionary Fellowship International (CMF), a missions organization based in Indianapolis. CMF locates American churches interested in partnering with MOHI and sends representatives on vision trips to Kenya. These trips allow American Christians to see how they can work together with Kenyans to improve communities and simultaneously spread the gospel. MOHI also hosts short-term mission teams from Western countries. These trips are not feel-good volunteer vacations. With foresight and planning by both the Kenyans and the Americans, MOHI utilizes the skills of group members to work in ways that truly benefit the Kenyan ministry longterm. For example, if a medical team visits, they examine patients who may never have been to a doctor before. The medical personnel identify people with potentially life-threatening conditions and connect them with others who can continue their treatments, thus furthering the impact they had during their short time there. Because of the way MOHI creates community and a sense of ownership, the people band together to support one another, the schools, and the churches. This was evident when a fire ripped through one area. When fire strikes the slum, it hits hard. Shanties sit side-by-side, so fire spreads through them quickly and destroys everything. This time, the fire headed toward a MOHI school building. The people abandoned their own homes and ran toward the school, fighting the flames together to preserve it. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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Real Change The “thug” who visited the American group at the MOHI skills center made his case well. One team from Third City Christian Church in Grand Island, Nebraska, had traveled to Kenya looking for ministry opportunities. Throughout the remainder of their stay, they felt God telling them to reach out to the community affected by the death of the young boy. On their way back home, they emailed CMF: “Let the thugs know we will help start their school and a church. Tell them God has heard their prayers.” The spiritual openness of those tough guys in the slums had moved the hearts of the Midwestern Christians. The group from Third City saw the urgency and responded. In the following weeks, they organized child sponsorships for more than 240 children, enabling their Kenyan partners to mobilize quickly and start a new school in a temporary building three months later. Third City also took up a special offering that allowed MOHI to purchase land for a permanent school building and funded the start of the new church. Since then, Third City and MOHI have continued to work together to advance the gospel and meet the needs of the community. The slum is changing, one child at a time, through partnerships between Christians on opposite sides of the world. Their love for Christ and concern for people produces a community where people can learn skills they need and find the grace of God in what can be a dark place. SEP T E M B ER 2 0 1 9
Metrics
the debt debate BY KENT FILLINGER
September is a prime time for churches to start planning next year’s budget, as most use a calendar year (January to December) budget cycle. To assist in your church’s budget projections, I’ll share some statistics and summaries on giving and debt from our 2018 church survey. Among church leaders, there are two distinct schools of thought about debt. Some are antidebt and make being debt-free a primary goal of their church, while others see debt as a strategic tool to help finance the church’s vision. Whatever your thoughts, my hope is this data will help guide your thinking and decisions with regard to financing the vision and mission of your church.
Kent E. Fillinger serves as president of 3:STRANDS Consulting, Indianapolis, Indiana, and regional vice president (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan) with Christian Financial Resources.
“Money follows vision” is an old adage. Here is a newer one: “Debt follows church growth.” Our annual surveys consistently show that larger churches are more likely to have debt. For example, in 2018, 92 percent of megachurches had debt compared with only 11 percent of very small churches.
/3strandsconsulting 3strandsconsulting.com
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CHURCH SIZE
DEBT
Megachurches
92%
Emerging Megachurches
83%
Large
79%
Medium
68%
Small
41%
Very Small
11%
The total reported debt load in 2018 for the 425 churches surveyed was $849,301,519. The average debt for megachurches was more than $9.1 million compared to only $111,600 for the handful of very small churches with debt. It’s interesting to note, however, that megachurches and very small churches have similar levels of debt per worship attendee ($2,021 and $1,800, respectively). Small churches had the highest level of debt per worship attendee ($4,680), followed by emerging megachurches ($3,277).
CHURCH SIZE
TOTAL DEBT
AVERAGE DEBT PER CHURCH
HIGHEST DEBT AMOUNT
LOWEST DEBT AMOUNT
(of churches with debt)
AVERAGE DEBT PER PERSON IN WORSHIP
Megachurches
$400,558,136
$9,103,594
$26,000,000
$246,000
$2,020.78
Emerging Megachurches
$229,115,662
$4,322,937
$12,500,000
$57,000
$3,277.44
Large
$140,364,031
$2,064,177
$8,904,000
$109,000
$2,991.56
Medium
$56,521,629
$1,027,666
$4,700,000
$44,000
$2,838.86
Small
$22,184,061
$739,469
$3,200,000
$10,000
$4,680.18
Very Small
$558,000
$111,600
$245,000
$25,000
$1,800.00
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- METRICS -
Next, I looked for a possible interrelationship between debt levels and average growth rates and baptism ratios. (Only five very small churches had debt, so those churches were excluded from the summary below.)
How Does Debt Affect Church Growth and Baptism Ratios? I was curious what impact, if any, a church’s debt and total giving has on its growth rate and baptism ratio (the number of people baptized per 100 in attendance). First, I examined the debt ratio for each church, as determined by total reported income for 2018 compared with total debt. At 231 percent, small churches had the highest debt ratio, meaning the average small church with debt had a total debt load just over 2.3 times their total giving in 2018. At 118 percent, megachurches had the lowest debt ratio. LOWEST DEBT RATIO
OVERALL AVERAGE DEBT RATIO
HIGHEST DEBT RATIO
Megachurches
118%
402%
8%
Emerging Megachurches
183%
798%
Large
173%
Medium
The one-year snapshot shows that, regardless of size, churches with the highest debt ratio (250 percent or more—that is, 2.5 times or more than their total income in 2018) grew faster than churches with lower debt ratios. It’s interesting to note, churches with the lowest debt ratio level (1 to 50 percent) and those with no debt had the slowest growth rates (0.5 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively). No such pattern emerged with baptism ratios. Churches with debt ratios of 1 to 50 percent had a 6.3 baptism ratio, highest among the six categories. Baptism ratios were similar from one debt ratio level to the next, but growth rates were not.
DEBT RATIO LEVEL
OVERALL AVERAGE GROWTH RATES
OVERALL AVERAGE BAPTISM RATIOS
No Debt
1.7%
5.1
3%
1 to 50%
0.5%
6.3
1,155%
9%
51 to 100%
4.5%
5.6
142%
504%
8%
101 to 150%
3.6%
5.9
Small
231%
2,081%
2%
151 to 249%
4.0%
5.5
Very Small
134%
408%
33%
250% and Above
5.0%
5.6
CHURCH SIZE
(of churches with debt)
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Churches reported having an average of 9.7 weeks of cash reserves, well below the recommended target of 13 weeks. With 13.8 weeks of cash reserves, very small churches were the only category of churches to meet the target. Megachurches had the lowest level of cash reserves, 7.8 weeks on average. I also studied church debt ratio for possible impact on giving compared to budget in 2018. Churches with lower debt ratios were more likely to see their giving “exceed” budget than churches with higher debt ratios. Churches that reported their giving “exceeded” budget had an average debt ratio of 122 percent. Churches that reported giving “met” budget last year had a debt ratio of 165 percent. But churches that reported giving “fell short” of their proposed budget had a debt ratio of 210 percent.
How Many Weeks of Reserve Funds Do Churches Have? Darren Key, CEO of Christian Financial Resources, strongly recommends that church leaders know how many weeks of cash on hand their church has. He suggests that every church keep a minimum of 13 weeks of cash on hand, with 2 to 4 weeks held in a checking account and the remainder in an interest-bearing savings account. For the first time, we asked churches, “Approximately how many weeks’ worth of operating expenses does your church generally keep on hand in cash reserves?”
A correlation exists between church spending and the number of weeks of cash reserves. Churches that reported “increasing” ministry spending in 2018 had the most weeks of cash on hand—10.4 weeks. Churches that reported spending the “same” amount of money on ministry in 2017 and 2018 had 10.1 weeks of cash on hand. Churches that “decreased” ministry spending last year had the lowest level of cash reserves—7.9 weeks. Similarly, churches that saw giving “exceed” their budget in 2018 had the highest level of cash reserves (10.8 weeks), compared with churches “meeting” their budget (9.5 weeks of cash on hand) and churches that “fell short” (8.6 weeks).
Conclusion Here are some important questions to consider as your church leadership team reviews 2019 giving and prepares the 2020 ministry budget: • Where do we fall on the debt spectrum as a leadership team? (Do we view being debt-free as a primary goal or do we view debt as a strategic tool?) • What is our current debt ratio? • What percentage of the total annual budget did we spend on debt service this year?
CHURCH SIZE
AVERAGE NUMBER OF WEEKS IN CASH RESERVE
Megachurches
7.8 weeks
• How can we be better managers of the resources God has given our church?
Emerging Megachurches
8.7 weeks
• How many weeks of cash reserves do we have available?
Large
9.4 weeks
Medium
9.7 weeks
Small
9.5 weeks
Very Small
13.8 weeks
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• Would refinancing our loan help us save money?
• How can we adjust our ministry spending to reach the suggested goal of 13 weeks of cash reserves? • Should we transfer more of our operational reserves into an interest-bearing savings account? - 19 -
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ministry l i fe
Whelpish BY LANCELOT SCHAUBERT
We had just learned we failed to secure government approval, so we would not receive a grant in time to start a project and program one of our neighbors—an artist—had been counting on. I had worked painstakingly on the grant for months, haggling with four state governments. After all of this, our artist friend came to our house with his bulldog, refused to sit and eat, and told us he was pulling the plug. I don’t blame him; he couldn’t afford to wait it out. What was most upsetting, however, was he ignored everything we’d done to try to help him. He pulled the plug on the project, the relationship, and every relationship through which he and I were connected. I’ve seen him once since then . . . to deliver legal documents that showed my eight months of hard work.
Lancelot Schaubert is a writer and producer living in New York City.
All meaningless. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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I felt betrayed. I cried. The next day, I called up one of our coaching team members—an elder— who told us to take stock, look around, and “don’t do anything rash.” Keep with our rhythm, he advised. “Don’t grow weary in well doing.” Instead of leaving town for the holiday, we hosted a 12-hour marathon Thanksgiving brunch. That seems rash, but it’s our monthly rhythm. These marathon open houses are for makers . . . a gathering for artists and neighbors out of which collaboration and culture is born and begotten. We kept our commitment to go and see a film producer we love out on Long Island. We doubled down on our commitment to host 15 baking nights during Advent. We refer to these as green nights, as we shade those dates green on the hand-sketched monthly calendar we text to everyone. At gre en nights, anywhere from 2 to 30 pe ople show up and play games or paint or make things. One evening, a high-needs person showed up alone. His gray hair was frizzy, hands were blacked from too much subway and not enough soap. His fragrance: expired aftershave. Wyeth used to live downstairs on crates. Used to. City hasn’t been so great to him, at least in terms of its systems (he’s found $2,000 in uncashed lotto tickets on the streets this year). Wyeth had an injury that caused brain damage; he has deeply ingrained habits and ignorances that, when compounded with systemic injustices and lack of connections, kept him on those crates hoarding free clothes and crockpots. Landlords found out. Kicked him out, even though he was paying rent to the bodega. Now Wyeth is experiencing homelessness. He sleeps on the bus because he knows most of the drivers at the Jackie Gleason Depot. He sleeps for eight hours in a 170-degree sauna at the YMCA because it’s warm and he’s already sweated through most of C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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his clothes. He may well die in there, a dehydrated mummy memorializing New York’s housing problem that I, for now, will refrain from ranting about (suffice to say it starts in Wall Street and ends everywhere). Wyeth came to our fourth-floor walkup often during green days. Before the artist backed out of our big project, Tara discovered that Wyeth liked pork chops. She, in her wisdom, bought some just for him. I, in my foolishness, brooded over the friend I’d lost to the failed project and failed program. A friend who knew we’d been helping Wyeth had also grown up in the neighborhood; he said, “Yeah that guy? Same story, never changes.” No one else showed that night. Just Wyeth at our dinner table. I said, “Wyeth, we have a surprise for you tonight.” “Oh yeah?” “Tara bought pork chops.” “Ooooooh, nom nom nom nom nom.” He smacked his gums. He has no teeth left. His 60-year-old face was bright. Whelpish. He giggled, quoted Beavis and Butthead. I laughed often in spite of my brooding. Then we cooked the pork chops. And we savored them with coffee. And we all had second helpings while Wyeth told us a friend upstate had been murdered by a neighbor who burned down the other house he lives in. I listened. I wept. Wish I knew where we got those pork chops. Can’t quite duplicate the flavor. . . . Submit your own 500- to 700-word essay telling of an experience through which you learned a vital ministry principle by emailing it to cs@christianstandardmedia.com with “MinistryLife” in the subject line. See more information at www.christianstandard.com/contact-us/submit-articles.
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AD KORE
LIBERTY IN OPINIONS UNITY IN ESSENTIALS. LIBERTY IN OPINIONS. LOVE IN EVERYTHING. Christian Standard Media strives to equip Christians with tools to pursue unity, celebrate liberty, and love one another.
B A LT I M O R E
TWO CHURCHES OF CHRIST MOVE INTO NEW BUILDINGS AND IMPACT THEIR COMMUNITIES By Melissa Wuske
CHANGING CHURCH CULTURE TO ACHIEVE GOD’S MISSION WOODLAWN PARK CHURCH OF CHRIST
Woodlawn Park Church of Christ is an a cappella congregation located a few miles from the center of Baltimore. Many people would consider the church to be “real urban, but to us, we are urbansuburban,” said minister Elmer V. Sembly III. The community doesn’t deal with intense poverty and other typical inner-city issues. So, “it blew me away,” Sembly said, when he learned the top two Google search topics in his area were depression and anxiety. It made him pause to seriously consider the events and series the church was promoting. But God has been preparing the church for years to meet the needs of its community. “And that’s something that the church of Christ in this area really hasn’t done,” he said. Sembly’s methodical, bold shepherding approach is poised to help the congregation live out its saying: “We are real with real problems and real solutions in Christ.” LET TING GO OF TRADITION—TO REACH TODAY The church comes from a very conservative base of the church of Christ. “It was just a few years ago that I even said myself, if someone doesn’t have a suit or a suit jacket and a tie on, they cannot serve in Sunday service roles,” Sembly said. “Growing up, you didn’t clap during service.” “Where we are now at Woodlawn Park is lightyears away from that. To some of the Christian churches, we probably look like dinosaurs,” he said, but “we are growing.” Using Google Analytics is just one example of the shift.
Sembly is convinced that much of the church at large needs to change its culture to achieve its mission. “Some of the traditions, while they may have been OK for their time and space, are not conducive for the church to grow [and] build the kingdom [now].” “The church . . . needs to refocus to be able to understand what’s important. Part of my frustration with the church is its inability to teach, encourage, motivate, and inspire the next generations to continue in the church,” he said. “It’s a frustration of love,” Sembly emphasized. He sees his role as a leader—in his congregation and beyond—as someone who helps move people forward and advance the gospel, even when it’s uncomfortable and even when people don’t understand where he’s leading them. That’s a leader’s role in culture change: “We’ve got to stand up, we’ve got to talk about it, we’ve got to be willing to bear the burden of telling the truth.” CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE A needed cultural shift is how the church relates to people outside the church, Sembly said. He’s been working at that for many years. “I’m a lifelong child of God. I was raised in the church, raised by a preacher. That has pros and cons at times when it comes to being able to relate with those who were unchurched for most of their lives. I’ve learned to develop that skill.” When the church began in 1999 in Westminster, Maryland, about 30 miles from downtown Baltimore, there were five people—including Sembly
His professional life prepared him to connect with people and train others to do the same. He was then a communications and outreach director for the National Institutes of Health—work that “focused on caring about people,” he said. He studied applied behavioral science at Johns Hopkins University, where he gained expertise in adult learning models and organizational development.
When the church grew to average about 200 weekly, it reached capacity in its building. Parking was the biggest problem. “People would actually come to worship, couldn’t find a parking spot, and leave and go someplace else,” Sembly said.
“I’ve seen how ugly the church can be at times. And I’ve seen how leaders can treat people and
In 2017, Sembly met Russell Johnson of The Solomon Foundation at a conference in Washington,
cause members to go astray,” Sembly said. “I’m really passionate about how people treat one another and how leaders lead.” As the church grew, he trained others to lead with humility and stand on God’s Word as they relate to people. He surrounded himself with “capable, smart, intellectual people” and taught them to lead with their own individual gifts and style.
The church struggled for several years, unable to find a financial partner to help them alleviate their crowded conditions.
DC. Two weeks later, Doug Crozier of TSF came to Baltimore. Crozier asked Sembly if the church had ever considered purchasing a building in the area. There was a former government office, Sembly told him, “but we know we can’t afford it.” Crozier and Sembly drove to the building, “Do you know the owner?” Crozier asked.
Unity among churches is another necessary culture shift, Sembly said.
Sembly did. “I called him on the phone, and Doug basically was able to get a deal on the building while sitting right there in the parking lot that day. I could not believe it.”
After growing to about 50 people, the church bought land in Windsor City, only a few miles from Baltimore, and built a building. Perhaps even more significantly, in 2010, the congregation merged with a church Sembly’s father, Elmer V. Sembly Jr., had led.
Sembly was excited about the building, but he was even more encouraged to see TSF “trying to help as many congregations as possible, no matter their race, ethnicity, or whatever it is.” Rather than focusing on differences, Sembly said, “they’re trying to grow the kingdom.”
UNITY IN THE BODY
S E PT E M BE R 2019
It took several years to combine the cultures of the two churches and “again get on the track of the real work of the church,” said the younger Sembly.
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and his wife and their two children. Starting so small, he said, “we had to be able to identify with people.”
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Unity like that is what the church needs to be effective, he said. “We need to come together, the body of Christ, in a more positive way to reach people today who are looking for answers and looking for the Word of God,” Sembly said. “We tend to . . . not even be on the same page ourselves on the things we have in common. . . . Our common interest is to spread God’s Word and save the lost.” That’s not always easy for people steeped in longheld traditions, but Sembly tells people, “We have no say over whether or not these people are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They have obeyed
communications, welcome stations, signage—to make the space their own and learn to connect with visitors. “While people were excited, we were not efficient,” he said, but everyone learned along the way. It’s been yet another shift in culture for the church. “We’ve got screens everywhere; we don’t have to use the songbooks anymore,” he said. The space and updated technology allow the church to connect with newcomers more easily and expand the kinds of preaching they can do. “All along we’ve been baptizing people,” Sembly said.
the gospel of Christ. They are our brothers and sisters. You can’t choose your family, but you can understand where your family is and try to support them.”
Equipped with the deep faith history of the church, a sense of God’s call for the church, and a conviction about his role as a leader, the church hit the one-year mark in its new building.
While “there have been glimpses of this unity in the past,” Sembly said, “this is something relatively new to us in this generation.”
“We’re right at the cusp of being able to address the needs of our community,” Sembly said, referring again to the Google search that indicated depression and anxiety are major issues.
LOOKING AHEAD, LOOKING OUT
Some people say the church at large is dwindling. But Sembly believes “this is a great time. God is showing us a way and a method to grow. We need to be unified.”
The first service in Woodlawn Park’s new, fully renovated building was July 1, 2018. “Our ministry is now able to breathe,” Sembly said. “It’s basically unlimited space for us at this point.” While the deal on the building came quickly, transition is a long, challenging process. Sembly and the leaders formed transition teams and rolled out “a whole slew of auxiliary services”—
‘YOU CAN’T DO BETTER THAN THAT’ INNER CITY CHURCH OF CHRIST
“We were in heaven. You couldn’t tell us we weren’t in heaven.” That’s how Eric Lorick recalls the early days of Inner City Church of Christ in Baltimore, which started in January 2014. On Sundays the church would set up for worship—and then tear down—in a rented space in a community center. “[Such] work brings us together as a church family,” he said. From those earliest days, his vision was “to make a difference, to bring hope to the hopeless. . . . You can’t do better than that in a city like Baltimore.” That vision is fueled by a life of faith. “You don’t live life without challenges,” said Lorick, “but one thing I understand about being in Christ is [that] God provides just what he said. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and he’ll add anything else to your life. He hasn’t missed a beat with mine.” A HEART FOR THE COMMUNITY Lorick was 60 when he and his wife, Andrea, started the church with a dozen people, including their son, who is now an assistant minister. “Everybody was a teacher of the Word,” Lorick said. “That was a powerful strength for us.” Before the first service, the church was already serving the community. In 2013 they partnered with a nonprofit that wanted to expose inner-city kids to water sports, to “introduce them to another paradigm . . . something different,” Lorick said. “It hit me right in my heart because [seeing another way of life] happened to me as a young man.” He recalled a job that introduced him to
different people and even led to the opportunity to go white-water rafting—“I’d only seen that on Wide World of Sports!” The event with the nonprofit was a success; it included a short Bible study. “I had two teenage boys cry that this was the best time they ever had in their life,” Lorick said. The partnership with the nonprofit is entering its seventh year. The church now has mentoring programs for young men and women and hosts financial workshops to help people get out of debt and pursue homeownership (the Loricks and their son all have professional experience in finance). There’s a vegetable garden “we’re using to teach the children about the seasons of change with God,” said Lorick, “and also they can get out there and get their hands dirty, and they can see the fruits of their work.” The church also has a community fair with health services, backpacks for kids, free legal services, employers who hire on the spot, and information about Bible classes at the church and elsewhere. “Everything we do is about spreading the borders of God’s kingdom,” Lorick said. “We’re using whatever means we can.” Lorick has more ideas for the future, including a scholarship fund to help meet students’ nutritional needs in college and classes to help men learn to read. A LONG-TERM HOME The church spent two years in the community center, and then moved to a shopping center. After a few years in that location, a change was
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needed. The church was growing, but their finances couldn’t sustain the high rent much longer. “God’s always placed in our path what we need when we need it,” Lorick said. That’s when Lorick found out about The Solomon Foundation. “They really blessed us,” Lorick said, “because they said they don’t do churches under a hundred people, and we had only built ours up to 70 members. But our offering and our books were impeccable to the point that they really couldn’t see not financing this church in the city.” With TSF’s assistance, Inner City Church of Christ was able to buy an existing church building (with a house on the property that would be used for education and fellowship) and finance needed renovations. The structures are on a 1.3-acre site. “It’s almost impossible to get that amount of land in the city.” By owning rather than renting, monthly expenses were cut by $3,200 a month. “We’re right in the middle of the neighborhood. The houses are on all four sides of us. [My wife and I] raised our family right here in this neighborhood for 25 years.” The Loricks, who have been married 45 years, moved out of the city when they became empty nesters, “but our hearts never, ever left Baltimore city.” Lorick sees a gift in being able to strike up conversations with neighbors, especially the kids who play on the church property. “As far as they’re concerned, it’s theirs,” he laughed. The immediate area has seen three churches come through in three years, but he assures neighbors Inner City Church is here to stay, and the attitudes of those who live nearby are beginning to change. “We’ve got to prove ourselves to be good neighbors,” he said.
at church and in the community. “They see me scrub floors and scrub toilets,” said Lorick, who just began to draw a partial salary this year. “I’m a trench person. I was a deacon first. That’s thankless work. I’ve never stopped being a deacon.” When it came time to raise money for the building’s down payment, Lorick knew the congregation would come through. “We’re not a congregation of people with high salaries. We’re just average, everyday struggling [people].” Church members loaned from their 401(k)s and gave money they’d saved for upgrades to their own homes. Within weeks, they’d met their goal. IMPACTING THE CITY Now that Inner City Church of Christ has begun to put down permanent roots in the neighborhood, they are looking to fulfill their vision—to plant other congregations in the city. “Our goal is to go deeper into the city.” Lorick is training leaders in his congregation and across the city. He’s also supporting ministers in other parts of the city, including a minister in Sandtown who began ministry there shortly after the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. “He was going to be my assistant minister,” said Lorick, “but God said no.” The city is Lorick’s home, but doing ministry there is a choice. “This is a missionary work,” he said. “Nobody wanted to stay in the city.” But he knows the salvation God brought to his life is exactly what the city of Baltimore needs. “I’m a recovering addict and alcoholic for the last 31 years. I say God saved me just for this.” The Loricks relished the early days of the church, and they also love leading the church in this new phase. “We’re living our best life,” said Lorick. “It’s a wonderful time. I’m on a spiritual high. I love the challenge.”
SERVANT LEADERSHIP “My prayer has always been that God makes us a strong congregation,” and not just one that is adding to its numbers, Lorick said. Many in the congregation work several jobs, while also following the Loricks’ lead by serving
Melissa Wuske is a freelance editor and writer. She and her husband, Shawn, and their son, Caleb, live and minister in Cincinnati. melissaannewuske.com @melissa.wuske
“EVERYTHING WE DO IS ABOUT SPREADING THE BORDERS OF GOD’S KINGDOM. WE’RE USING WHATEVER MEANS WE CAN.”
CINCINNATI
CHANGING LIVES AND COMMUNITIES BY LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS By Russ Howard
Of the countless strategies we have to reach and restore people to Christ, none are as simple, profound, or powerful as Jesus’ simple command to “love your neighbor” (Mark 12:31). For more than 20 years BLOC Ministries, an inner-city ministry on the west side of Cincinnati, has done just that. The people live where they serve. BLOC’s roots reach to the hollers of Kentucky where Dwight Young was born and raised. Dwight met his wife, Stephanie, at Johnson Bible College. Together they served churches by working with teenagers in Louisville, Knoxville, and eventually Cincinnati.
profit. They had no board and no money, but they trusted in God’s leadership and provision. They formed BLOC Ministries that fall. BLOC began with Bible studies in 16 schools and three after-school programs operated in partnership with churches near the schools they served. Leading Bible studies before school and programs after school demanded 12-hour work days from the couple. Two years into the ministry, they were overwhelmed and exhausted.
After that, the Youngs decided to focus their work, and they began in the village of Cleves, a small community on the Ohio River. They Early on, Michael, a student in their church min- opened an after-school program and conistry, asked if they would plan service opportuni- nected with at-risk students during hours and ties with a faith-based nonprofit organization in hours of playing games together, fixing and the urban core of Knoxville. They agreed as long riding bikes, doing homework, and eating a lot as he initiated contact. They gave him a phone of pizza. The ministry grew. By 2005, BLOC’s number, not expecting him to follow through. renovated church building housed their extenBefore they knew it, their youth ministry was sive youth programming, tutoring space, job working in the inner city four days a week. training, and more. COME AND SEE
OPPORTUNITY IN THE URBAN CORE
Several years and five children later, the Youngs led a student ministry on the west side of Cincinnati, and God moved them through one simple Bible passage. In the opening lines of John’s Gospel, he tells of two men who were following Jesus and wanted to know where he was staying. Jesus invited them to come and see (John 1:35-39). In this simple story, the Youngs heard God calling them to “come and see” his plans for them. God invited them to join him in loving and serving the poor and needy in Cincinnati.
During this same season, God provided opportunity for BLOC to start after-school programming in Price Hill, a diverse community in the urban core of Cincinnati. Like many inner-city communities, Price Hill struggles with crime, high unemployment, dilapidated housing, and extreme poverty.
In May 1998, Dwight told their church they would be leaving in September to launch a non-
“I love Price Hill, but there are challenges to loving Price Hill,” says Chris Staser, director of ministry operations. “It’s the number-one incarcerated youth area in the city. Price Hill is number one in heroin use, and with that comes sex trafficking. The child homelessness rate
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is through the roof. But more than all of that, there’s a deep spiritual need.” BLOC’s leaders and volunteers see hopelessness on every street, but they believe in the power of hope and in the power of Christ to save, and that’s why they seek out the most neglected neighborhoods. BLOC launched an after-school program in West Price Hill (on one of the most dangerous corners in the city), and God continued to open doors. Today, BLOC runs programs for kids and students in Cleves, West Price Hill, East Price Hill, and Lower Price Hill. Drive through the neighborhoods and you’ll see BLOC buildings seemingly on every corner. They provide job training through industries like woodworking and T-shirt printing. The BLOC Sports Performance Center offers professionallevel training and mentorship for middle and high school athletes in preparation for college academic or athletic scholarships. BLOC’s arts center gives kids and students opportunities to participate in dance, drama, painting, ceramics, and creating their own original music in a modern recording environment. BLOC coffee shops operate in East Price Hill and Cincinnati’s City Hall; it often lands on lists of best coffee shops in the city. The Price Hill shop provides a space for people who are living and serving in the community to gather, connect, and partner in what God is doing in the neighborhood.
Their extensive ministries for women include such things as prison ministry, hospitality homes for women on the streets, and transitional housing for women who are getting off the streets. Amanda Rogers works with teenage girls through a program called Girls Wanted. She has lived and served in Price Hill for 11 years. “What we really want is a relational connection,” she says. “We want them to feel heard. Feeling heard leads to trust.” Like all BLOC staff members, Amanda does more with the girls she serves than just lead a two-hour program once a week. Her girls are in her home. They love joining her in the most mundane tasks: cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping. She smiles when she says, “My girls know where I keep the dishes.” After two decades, BLOC continues to put their best effort into reaching and connecting with kids. “When we reach the kids, we reach the families,” Dwight says, “And when we reach the families, we reach the neighborhood.” FINDING A FAMILY, A FAITH, AND A FUTURE
WE LIVE WHERE WE SERVE
In about 2008, a 12-year-old named Keion walked into a BLOC after-school program in his neighborhood. He had fun playing games and riding bikes through the building. More importantly, he found people who cared about him. It was a safe place, and he came to trust Andrew, a young staff member.
BLOC’s ever-widening operations hold true to the principles of ministry learned early on. Staff members remain committed to one-on-one relational ministry and living in the neighborhood where they serve. Discipleship is the heartbeat of the ministry.
Andrew learned that Keion lived at home with his ailing mother, who had suffered multiple strokes. Keion took care of her. There was no father in the picture, and Keion’s three older brothers had moved out. Keion kept the home together until his mother could no longer stay there.
“Opportunities to love people don’t end at 5 p.m.,” Dwight Young says. “By being neighbors with the people in our community, we become trusted friends. We have more opportunities to daily be the hands and feet of Jesus.”
When his mother was taken to a permanent care center, Keion, 14, slipped into homelessness, like many kids in the community. He sold his PlayStation for food.
Neighborly love runs through all their programs.
At this same time, BLOC launched their first EPOH house, a residence for students who have
WHEN REACHING ORDINARY IS While Andrew and the other supervisors provided EXTRAORDINARY a safe home environment, academic support, and While Kieon’s story borders on the extraordinary, life skills mentoring, other BLOC staff members BLOC celebrates all the ways God transforms the who lived on the same street invited Keion into people and communities they love. their lives, including Chris and Kelsie Staser. “There’s a culture now that if your life isn’t Keion began having dinner in the Stasers’ home extraordinary, you are a letdown. In Price Hill, one or two nights a week. Soon he was eating when a person has an ordinary life, that is huge meals with them even more frequently, borrowing their car, and babysitting their kids. They gave deal,” Chris Staser says. “To go from where they are to ordinary is extraordinary.” He recounts a him a key to their home. story of a young man from the neighborhood who Keion saw Jesus on display in his new home and now works at a local fitness center and is receivin the neighborhood, and a profound spiritual in- ing a promotion. terest awoke in him. He engaged in lively converThey celebrate it when they overhear a local busisations with his new friends, read Scripture on his ness owner say, “I remember how bad this street own time, and started talking with God. On April was before BLOC showed up.” They give thanks 1, 2015, Keion was baptized. when a gruff man begins to volunteer with their food pantry and remarks, “This is the year my With the support of Andrew, the Stasers, and the neighbors began to smile at me.” They praise God rest of the BLOC family, Keion graduated from when a teenage girl who has struggled to survive Dater High School and was offered a full-ride notices other people who have needs and wants to scholarship to Cincinnati Christian University. go serve them. While at CCU, Keion studied psychology, worked in the admissions department, and served as a This year, BLOC is training churches and shortresident assistant. term mission teams how to show the same type of love in their own neighborhoods. Everyone One night, Keion showed up at the Stasers’ home has neighbors, and everyone can love them. with a life-changing request. He looked at them BLOC wants every follower of Jesus to know and said, “I want you to be my family.” He didn’t how to love his or her neighbor so that everyone know this was something they longed for but didn’t feel the right to offer. Soon after, Keion was everywhere can experience the absolute fullness of life in Christ. adopted into the Staser family. After graduating from college, Keion moved to Lexington, Kentucky, for an extended internship with Southland Christian Church. Today, he’s come full circle. While he’s discerning what God has next for him, he lives in his old neighborhood and leads one of BLOC’s after-school programs. He says, “I can see myself in these kids.” This is the power of God’s love shared neighbor to neighbor. Listening to God’s call to “come and see,” Dwight and Stephanie Young couldn’t have imagined a homeless 14-year-old boy from Price
Russ Howard serves as director of church partnerships with BLOC Ministries, as lead minister with Owensville (Ohio) Church of Christ, and as cohost of the weekly podcast, The Morecast. He lives in Price Hill. @blocministries @owensvillecc @themorecast @BLOCMin
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Hill would one day find a family, a faith, and a future.
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nowhere else to turn. EPOH is hope spelled backward. Keion’s friend, Andrew, became one of the first supervisors for the boy’s home. Keion moved in shortly after it opened.
DECATUR
HOW WE PARTNERED WITH OUR COMMUNITY TO REACH OUR CITY By BJ Leonard
In 2004, First Christian Church in Decatur, Illinois, was at a crossroads. Attendance was growing and programs were working, but something was missing. A poll of the congregation and leadership revealed a common burden to reach out and make a difference by serving in our community. The state of our city and public schools had become similar to many urban settings across America. Due to rising crime rates and falling property values, many people with financial means had left for surrounding towns. The stability of their family relationships and positive community engagement left with them. As the issues facing hurting families and neighborhoods overflowed into the public schools, a second exodus began; parents either moved out of the city or enrolled their children in private education. The vacuum of investment and stability only intensified the problem, and the stigma deepened. About this time, missional writers and speakers began to ask, “If suddenly your congregation ceased to exist, would anybody in the community notice?” We began to pray, asking God to lead us in reaching our city. NO -STRINGS-AT TACHED MINISTRY IN SCHOOLS God responded in a big way. Soon, the superintendent of Decatur Public Schools observed, “We have dozens of schools in need and hundreds of capable churches. Let’s pair them together.” The One Church One School Initiative was born. Later that year, two pastors from our church walked across the street to Parsons Elementary to meet the principal and ask, “How can we help the school?” The principal’s response was simple. The
school needed to borrow a sound system for an event. The church took one over and the partnership with the school began. The key to the success of this initial interaction, and many since, was that the church entered without an agenda. The number of volunteers at the school grew, and we developed greater trust with the teachers, staff, and district administration. In 2006, with school and parent permission, we launched an after-school program called Club 305 to help students with math and reading. The program began with 16 students. The mission of Club 305 was, and still is, to instill hope by creating a stable learning environment, establishing positive relationships, and pointing to the hope of faith and community in Christ. Many of our students are vulnerable and from difficult family situations. We have always sought to keep the leaderto-student ratio low to better invest on a personal level with each student. Club 305 is now in its 14th year, and the number of students and depth of relationships has grown. Over the years, we have seen students grow academically and watched them and their families come to faith. It has been a ministry of listening, caring, and faithful planting, often without seeing immediate fruit. MOVING INTO THE NEIGHBORHOOD In 2012, God challenged us to go where our students and families lived. We were drawn to Jesus’ words about loving our neighbors in Luke 10. We were a church of mostly upper-middleclass people from the suburbs. It was one thing for students and families to come to the church
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building, but to go to their neighborhood would be a big stretch. The following year, we identified an inner-city neighborhood called “the Block” and began to nurture relationships there. Ministry included meeting neighbors and hosting parties to build friendships. It would have been tempting to quickly start doing projects to help the neighborhood, but we wanted to make sure we were focusing beyond tasks. We wanted to know, love, and reach the people of the neighborhood. Eventually we began planting orchards, beautifying vacant lots, and helping residents with various needs. People always came first. As we established great friendships with residents, it opened the door for further ministry. We obviously were excited, but God was not finished. He placed a burden on my family to become literal neighbors. Through his provision, the church acquired a house in the middle of the Block, and an army of volunteers made necessary repairs. In 2016, my wife and I moved into the house with our four young children. Living in the Block has required unexpected sacrifices and offered unique ministry opportunities. When people hear of shootings or drug busts, they ask if we are scared. At times, there is fear. But we don’t want fear to drive our decisions. John 4 says Jesus was not afraid to go straight through Samaria, and God used his encounters there to change a whole community. Being committed long-term and ministering from within a community bring about credibility and depth with people. Our prayer is that our community will be changed. We know it will happen one individual and one family at a time. PARTNERSHIP PRINCIPLES During our time of community missions, we have learned several principles in developing a school partnership or neighborhood ministry: Stick to the primary agenda. It is tempting for churches to go into schools or neighborhoods with an agenda to help in exchange for having
“access” or to hand out promotional materials. Instead of serving to make someone a Christian, we should serve because it is what Christians are called to do. Begin by asking questions such as, What are the needs here? How can we help? What does the community desire? We can be open about our faith, but we shouldn’t be forceful. By doing this in our context, we have gained the trust and respect of students, teachers, and families. In the face of every crisis at the school or in the neighborhood, we have been invited in, as people turned to the church for funerals, counseling, and other support during times of great need. This is why we are here. Influence culture. Community missions provide an opportunity not only to influence children and families, but also to influence culture. Teachers have a difficult job, so we do our best to love the students and maintain an optimistic attitude, influencing teachers to do likewise. In the same way, whether I am planting flowers, having neighbors over for a meal, or spending time playing outside with my kids, I am influencing the culture of the neighborhood around me. Instill dignity. When we moved into the neighborhood, we noticed a low sense of dignity due to the transient nature of many residents and the poor perception from the outside. From the beginning, we demonstrated that our neighborhood was worth investing in because the people living here have value. Our ministry has required considerable investment and sacrifice, yet only a small number of people have begun attending our church. However, for those who have been reached by the ministry—the former addicts and prostitutes, the hopeless, the orphans—it has meant a life change. These people are worth reaching. Prepare for change. In the beginning, there may be a sense of “us” and “them.” But as people being reached in the community begin attending church events, the communication must reflect that “they” are becoming a part of “us.” In our context, we quickly moved away from such terms as “they” and “them,” choosing instead to say
Make it personal. Community missions has a way of changing how people see the world and inspires them to take a similar posture in their We often remember Paul’s words: “Therefore, my own lives and places of influence. Many people dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing who serve in our ministry say, “I can do this in my own neighborhood.” We have a saying: “Every move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work
block needs a one, and every one needs a block.” A house in an at-risk neighborhood isn’t a prerequisite to loving your neighbors. Imagine if every neighborhood in your community had just one person or family who made their neighborhood a place of mission and to show and share the love of Christ! This is what Jesus instructed us to do in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Find open doors. Our story is unique to our church and community. Community needs, opportunities for involvement, and the strengths of a particular church can differ greatly. Therefore, a simple copy-and-paste approach will not work. Rather, it must be a pray-and-look approach. The key is discerning your unique gifting and calling in the midst of your community’s needs and then praying for an opportunity to meet those needs in a faith-led way.
of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). We know our work is to join God in his larger mission. With this in mind, we continue in our ministry of obedience, faithfulness, and trust.
Article feature photo courtesy of The Decatur Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. BJ Leonard serves as missions pastor with First Christian Church, Decatur, Illinois.
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Join God in his mission. Prayer must be the foundation of our work in our communities. There is no other hope apart from God’s work. People who are new to volunteering at Club 305 routinely say something like, “We get only four hours a week with these kids, and then they go back to situations that are so unstable and toxic.” In the wake of yet another shooting or tragic event, I sometimes think, Is there any way we can make a difference in this neighborhood? Yet, we know that God is indeed at work.
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“our friends at Parsons” or “our neighbors in the Block.” The shift is in communication as well as culture to include things like the children’s check-in process, preaching language, awareness of background stories, the cost of events, and even staffing strategies. For our church, the weekend worship gathering now looks different because of our work in the community.
NEW ENGLAND
RESTORATION HOUSE MINISTRIES: A LIGHT IN DARK PLACES By Kelly Carr
“We cannot ignore going to where the people are.” That is Eric Lee’s succinct summation of the current urban church-planting focus of Restoration House Ministries in New England, where he is executive director. A focus on urban areas was not a stated goal when RHM started, Lee notes. When former executive director Dan Clymer founded RHM in 1996, the aim was simply to plant where there was a dearth of churches. Some have estimated that only 5 percent of the just under 15 million people living in the six states that comprise New England—Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island—are believers. RHM planted churches in rural and suburban areas, but as the years progressed, leadership found themselves considering more urban plants. “We’ve gone where we see opportunity and need,” Lee says.
REACHING COUNTLESS CULTURES People far and wide head to big cities in New England for educational opportunities, so RHM church plants have diverse outreach opportunities within their grasp. “New England is one of few places in our country where you can fulfill the Great Commission without leaving your backyard,” says Chris Hall, lead pastor with Reunion Christian Church in Boston. “We’re near Berklee College of Music, and students come from all over the world. They also plan on going back, so we have the opportunity to share the gospel in this limited season. It’s like being missionaries all the time, and it’s a cool place to be.” Drew Thurman, the newest RHM church planter, serving with Renaissance Christian Church in Waltham, Massachusetts, agrees.
In a 2017 study titled Cities, Barna listed the most unchurched or dechurched “post-Christian” cities in the United States, and five of the top six are in New England. Clearly the gospel is needed in these urban regions, and RHM is filling this need with planters who are passionate to go into cities.
“The immediate houses around ours represent four continents, and a simple walk around our neighborhood will fill your ears with countless languages and cultures. As you might expect, the socioeconomic gaps are immense too,” he says. “We have a neighbor who drives a Tesla “I grew up in the Midwest, so my first visit to New and several others who attend a local food bank England was love at first sight,” says Jared Cowgur, where we serve. As difficult as it is to do ministry an RHM church planter who serves as leadership in a place where traditional forms of church have little social standing, the idea of impacting such and teaching pastor with BridgePointe Christian diversity can be challenging, to say the least.” Church in East Providence, Rhode Island. “I longed to be a part of making the gospel attractive and accessible to this part of our country that so desperately needs spiritual renewal. I am convinced the change that begins in the cities will eventually pervade this great region of our country.”
As with all church endeavors, trial and error has worked best in New England. For example, RHM planted culturally specific churches for a time, with all services conducted in a foreign language to meet the cultural needs of a specific region. But these churches saw little growth.
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“Monoethnic forms of churches, with the best of intentions, have not . . . been highly successful,” Lee notes. They discovered that the founding families in these churches love to worship in their native language and to use practices from their home countries, but younger generations of those same families prefer to attend an American church.
“These are not small groups,” he explains. “They operate as a spiritual family in the day-to-day of life and live out God’s mission in a shared capacity. We decided that the best way to disrupt culture wasn’t through an attractive worship gathering, but by placing a network of faithful, spiritual communities all across our city that are embedded in the daily rhythms of life.”
Therefore, now, rather than launching an entirely separate church aimed toward a specific group of immigrants, several RHM churches have created culturally specific community groups that offer people from other countries
People in Waltham who are resistant to joining a traditional church prefer to begin their faith journey at Renaissance small gatherings. As the community meetings continue to gain traction and people begin to develop deeper trust, Renais-
a chance to have weekday gatherings in their preferred language, yet still participate in the main worship services and remain part of the body at large.
sance’s goal is to bring everyone together for worship in large monthly gatherings.
OVERCOMING DISTRUST AND TRANSIENCE A huge hurdle New England churches must overcome is distrust of organized religion that permeates the area. RHM church planters must approach ministry from creative angles to fit their ministry context. In Massachusetts, Renaissance launched its church with a grassroots approach of community gatherings rather than one large weekly worship service. Thurman describes these as microchurches.
“We’re willing to try new approaches to have longer-lasting and greater results in urban settings,” Lee affirms. Hall and the Reunion team in Boston face another urban challenge: transience. About every three years, they find the entire congregation has shifted because people come in for jobs or education but then leave. “It makes it tough and sad because just about every year you’re losing (or really sending out) a good percentage of the community you have come to know and love.” For a while even Reunion’s worship space had a feeling of transience. Their first affordable location, a Hilton hotel in the Back Bay area near Fenway Park, didn’t allow much time for set-up
CREATING A MINISTRY NETWORK RHM does more than help churches begin—it connects churches to sustain ministry. “Some of the hardest work of planting is sending a team into an area that doesn’t have many churches,” Lee admits. So, he tries to connect leadership of new plants with veteran RHM planters who have faced similar situations. The RHM team has group gatherings for their church planters twice a year, one in northern New England and the other in the southern region. The purpose is to lift up one another and celebrate spiri- houses everywhere, so it makes for a good tual victories. RHM plans discussions and brings in illustration to say we’re out there trying to be a lighthouse in a dark part of the country.” speakers to challenge everyone’s development. Hall appreciates that he can bring his whole team to the gatherings to learn both from church planters and seasoned pastors. “It’s a great chance to get to know other leaders and other churches in the area and share best practices,” Hall says. “I can’t speak highly enough of the need to have a network of people who are trying to do the same thing you’re doing. RHM has been that for us. You can’t do it alone, and you can’t just be with the people who plant with you. You need other people you can talk to and learn from.” Cowgur has found that partnering with RHM brings long-term blessings.
And so, though the cost of doing urban ministry in New England is especially high, Lee and the team at RHM, plus the church planters they support, continue to press onward—shining the light of Christ in an overlooked region of our country— because that is where the people are.
Kelly Carr, former editor of The Lookout, enjoys sharing and shaping people’s stories as a writing and editing consultant in Cincinnati, Ohio (EditorOfLife.com).
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“Church planting is hard in every context. This is even more true in the cities of New England. I directly attribute the stability and sustained growth of BridgePointe to the pastoral, financial, and missional support provided by RHM in the early Reunion eventually turned to Blackstone Elemen- years of our church.” tary School, which they had partnered with on previous projects. A new and beautiful relationTAKING LIGHT TO A DARK PL ACE ship began. Reunion installed sound, lighting, Lee remembers venturing into New England for and other technical equipment permanently for the first time while on a mission trip from his worship services. Blackstone uses the equipment former ministry in Texas. for the school’s theater and dance programs. The church is blessed with no more set-up and tear“I fell in love with the region as I saw the need,” down, while the school is blessed with resources he says. “Here in New England there are lightto boost their limited budget.
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and tear-down. Plus, it attracted a good number of vacation travelers, but that “made it hard for people who were living in Boston to see us as a safe place to connect,” Hall says.
LOS ANGELES
PLANTING ROOTS IN THE CITY By Andrew Alesso
process of launching a new church with the help of Stadia Church Planting. We moved to Silverlake—a trendy, up-and-coming neighbor“Ha ha. Yeah, something like that,” I responded hood filled with rock stars, famous movie direcnervously. tors, and homeless encampments under every “I’m surprised you’re being so nice to me,” she said. overpass. The neighborhood is next to Dodger And then—with no hint of sarcasm—she asked, Stadium between Hollywood Hills and Down“And you really don’t hate me?” town Los Angeles. “Wait. So, you’re a minister, right?” she blurted out in the middle of our book club’s group discussion.
I’d recently started the book club as a way to meet people in my city. I moved to Los Angeles to facilitate conversations like this. She had just told the group she was an evolutionary biologist. I had just acknowledged she must have a fascinating job. “Wait. Why would I hate you?” She explained she didn’t know any church people personally, but every day on her way into work she walked past picketing, screaming protesters who sometimes threw bananas at her. “I’m trying to cure diseases to help humanity,” she said, “but they hate me because of what they think I’m doing to their religion.” I apologized for how she’d been treated. She was amazed. She could hardly believe I didn’t hate her.
City life is energizing. I live in the entertainment capital of the world with professional sports, music, comedy, art, book signings, and so much more right down the street. I love meeting people from many different walks of life. The diversity and culture of city life are incredible. But city life can be hard too. It is incredibly cramped and expensive. We sold our house and doubled our monthly payment to move into a one-bedroom apartment in East Hollywood. We can hear our neighbor’s television at all hours. There are more than 9 million people in Los Angeles. This is just normal life for a whole lot of people.
A CHURCH FOR THE CITY
City life is fast-paced and transient. People either work at big-time, control-your-wholelife jobs or they are hustling with multiple jobs to pay the rent. One quarter of our neighbors work in the arts, which is a never-ending grind because every relationship is a networking opportunity. Forty percent of city residents are from another state or country. One in four residents has no high school diploma. The long work hours, social climbing, transience, and distance from family add up to this: People are incredibly isolated.
I moved to Central LA with my wife, Katie, and son, Dax, in December 2016 to begin the
Imagine being surrounded by people all the time but being desperately lonely.
Several weeks later, I shared the gospel one-onone with a guy who had been at the book club that night. He told me about his life. He shared different details, but the same story. He said, “I understand about God’s justice and standards. I just never would have guessed in a million years that Christianity is about loving your enemies.” Then he said, “I’ll have to think about whether I want that,” before quickly changing the subject.
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The city’s residents press on because of their dreams. But when life can’t match the dream, they need family and they need hope. We all do. God designed the church to meet this need, but most old church buildings are being turned into housing and clothing stores. Affordable housing gives people some hope, at least. What has a church ever done for them? WHERE’ S THE CHURCH THAT DOES GOOD? My journey to planting a church in urban Los Angeles started when I was a teen and would visit
my mom in a women’s recovery home in East Hollywood. She told me about the change God was orchestrating in her life. I discovered God had the miraculous power to put our broken family back together. I also discovered how much poverty and desperate need exists in the city. But the city also has many educated, liberal, career-aged singles and young families who are changing the world. They genuinely want what’s good for society, but they aren’t sure what God or church has to do with that. I decided to name our church “Thrive” while eating brunch with my sister in West Hollywood. We didn’t grow up in a Christian home, but we started attending youth group together while teens. I got really involved. She had some negative church experiences before leaving to pursue her goals in the city.
I enjoyed serving on staff at a suburban megachurch for the previous eight years, but knew of few churches reaching the city. Who was showing God’s love to the poor there, or to the single, educated world-changers like my sister? I asked her, “What do you think God feels about you?” “I don’t believe in God,” she reminded me. “I know. That’s fair,” I said. “But if you did, then what would you guess?” “Well, I feel really bad about myself when I go to church,” she confessed. “I guess he’s mad at me . . . or maybe he’s just ashamed of me?”
My sister doesn’t hate God—doesn’t even believe in him—but was concerned God hated her. It was a common story throughout the city. It’s not enough for a church to have a good band or a dynamic preacher when the Video Music Awards are happening across the street. If I thought God hated me, it would take a lot more than a preacher and a band to get me in the door. We knew that if we were ever to lead our neighbors to faith in Jesus, our church must help them believe that the God of the Bible is actually for them and that his laws are beneficial to them. That’s why our mission is to invite our neighbors to belong, contribute, and thrive in the family of God as we make Jesus our Savior and King. This requires selfless Christians who believe God’s provision is found by seeking first his kingdom (Matthew 6:33).
We’ve found God’s words to the Babylonian exiles to be helpful as we proclaim and demonstrate the gospel in our city. God told his people, “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce” (Jeremiah 29:5). For Israel to make an impact in Babylon, they needed to put down roots. In a fast-paced, transient setting we need churches and church leaders ready to build a life with people. I’ve already seen four new churches come and go in my neighborhood. We can’t just be a flash in the pan. Success
requires consistency and stability. Too often, people and churches throw resources at urban ministry and then pull back when they realize the return on investment falls far short of a suburban outreach. Our cities need people committed for the long haul. God also told the exiles, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7). God wanted the exiles to love and pray for their enemies. He wanted them to do good. At Thrive, we say our whole community should miss us if we leave. To that end, we serve the needs of kids through our local schools. We’ve remodeled a teacher’s lounge at the school where our church meets. We deliver groceries to families with needs, and we pray for them in their homes.
The guy who works the counter at my favorite burger spot—he grew up in church but doesn’t spend time with many Christians now—gave me some advice: “Just do some good without wearing your T-shirts to get credit for it. If you’re genuinely
good to us for long enough, we’ll eventually start to trust your message.” Sounds like a plan to me.
Andrew Alesso planted Thrive LA Church in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles in September 2017. He’s passionate about Jesus, empowering others to reach their potential in Christ, and rooting for the Los Angeles Lakers. @alessoad @AndrewAlesso @AndrewAlesso
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In Jeremiah 29, God also warned the people not to fall for the simplistic, feel-good religion of the false prophets, but to trust God’s eternal plan as they suffered for the good of their neighbor. On days when it’s hard, when we feel like giving up, we rest in knowing that God asked us to love the city. We aim to do right by every person and trust God with the results. We’ve had some hard days, but he’s never failed us.
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LOVE FOR THE LONG HAUL
by michael bowling
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Our challenges in urban, suburban, and rural contexts are the same: faithfulness to biblical discipleship, a theology of the church (ecclesiology) informed by the New Testament pattern, and a God-sized view of salvation. An overemphasis on new and innovative practices of “urban ministry” is a type of “fool’s gold” compared with the real gold of the good news of God’s present and emerging kingdom. Such a focus on urban ministry could be like putting up an irresistible highway billboard that distracts drivers and causes crashes. The legal world refers to it as an “attractive nuisance.” The greatest gifts of encouragement we can offer urban churches are those God has already given in the wisdom of Scripture. “Revitalize” is a new initiative of the Center for Church Leadership designed to organize a national network of Christian churches and churches of Christ that endeavor to join Christ in the redemption of urban places and peoples. We urgently need urban churches that are filled with radical disciples of Jesus. We need healthy churches that vividly display an imagination for the way of Jesus. Look through the window of what our world is becoming and you will see urgency and opportunity walking hand-in-hand.
our urgency, opportunity, and challenge As of 2017, there were 47 megacities in the world, and that number increases every year. Megacities are urban or metropolitan areas with populations of at least 10 million. One in nine persons on the planet (which has a total population of 7.7 billion) live in a megacity. The United Nations estimates that 55 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and that number is projected to swell to 68 percent by 2050. Could there be a more urgent mission than revitalizing existing urban churches or planting healthy new ones throughout the world? Consider these three realities: Restoration Movement churches have not done well in urban areas, especially in economically challenged and racially/ethnically diverse inner-city communities. The complex reasons for this are outside the scope of this article, but some of them are at the very heart of how we steer a course forward in an urban world. As a fellowship of churches, we have always voiced a high regard for sacred Scripture. Many of us who labor in urban churches believe revitalized and healthy churches must faithfully follow the wisdom found in the Bible’s narratives. God’s wisdom gleaned through Scripture is good for all time zones and zip codes . . . urban, suburban, or rural! We serve a God who has promised to provide all we need to be faithful churches wherever we are planted. If we believe this promise, our tasks include understanding our particular context, mapping both congregational and neighborhood assets, and engaging with our neighborhoods as expressions of God’s salt, light, and leaven. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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I have a confession. I have served two inner-city congregations for a total of 35 years, yet I am no fan of urban ministry. Here’s why. The greatest challenges to healthy church communities that are dynamic witnesses to the redemptive way of Jesus have little to do with urban-specific techniques or new resources.
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pre-revitalize stories I serve Englewood Christian Church, located on the near eastside of urban Indianapolis since 1895. Our spunky congregation of about 200 Spanish-speaking and English-speaking members and their families has witnessed dramatic expressions of God’s provision. Over the last couple of decades, God has allowed us to establish an early-learning daycare of 200 children that has received statewide acclaim (including a visit from then Governor Mike Pence to sign Indiana’s first funding bill for prekindergarten, low-income children). During the same time frame, God supplied us with the resources and imagination for establishing a community development corporation which owns and manages nearly 200 units of affordable housing, produces the internationally known Englewood Review of Books, and currently is leading a $30 million development that includes space for the 1,000 students of Purdue Polytechnic High School and Paramount School of Excellence Middle School. Involvement with our neighborhood, city, and state has also resulted in not so usual projects like solar panel arrays on rooftops and a 25,000-square-foot indoor hydroponic farm. Fleming Garden Christian Church is a 97-year-old congregation in an urban/inner-city area on the west side of Indianapolis. That church’s first 50 years were filled with growth and vitality as a “suburban” church, but as the economic condition of the neighborhood worsened and became more ethnically diverse, the church suffered precipitous decline. This story is all too common as more and more suburban communities are swallowed up as cities grow. Don Thomas, FGCC’s minister over the last 15 years, says the church operated in “survival mode” for many years, but that is no longer the case. A series of bold decisions over the last few years have resulted in renewed vitality. The church began to aggressively involve itself in the life of the community. FGCC opened their building for a variety of activities benefiting neighbors. They started a neighborhood Crime Watch program. They share their facilities with a Hispanic congregation. They have purchased and rehabbed nearby houses to provide safe and affordable rental housing for vulnerable neighbors. City government has noticed this work and offered FGCC the opportunity to be a designated site for a summer lunch program. The light of Jesus is shining brightly at Fleming Garden, and the future looks even brighter. Similar stories are being told about revitalized urban churches in the United States and throughout the world. Hopefully, we will hear many such stories at the 2019 International Conference on Missions, which meets November 14-17 in Kansas City, Missouri. This year’s ICOM carries the theme, “Mind the Gap: Embracing the City.”
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we urgently need urban churches that are filled with radical disciples of Jesus. we need healthy churches that vividly display an imagination for the way of Jesus. look through the window of what our world is becoming and you will see urgency and opportunity walking hand-in-hand.
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the revitalize initiative Stories of discouraged churches and discouraged church leadership abound among Restoration Movement congregations and across many different Christian traditions. When the Lilly Endowment Inc., an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation, approached Cincinnati Christian University to become a partner in addressing this crisis, the end result was creation of the Center for Church Leadership. CCL exists as a subsidiary of the CCU Foundation. The Revitalize initiative emerged from the collective wisdom of CCL staff (led by director Tim Wallingford) and church leaders from urban Indianapolis and urban Cincinnati. The Center for Church Leadership is building a network of urban churches, urban church leaders, and urban strategists to encourage and equip fellow churches and leaders for deeper and more effective witness to the way of Jesus in urban contexts. The Revitalize initiative has begun building a network of churches and offering workshops and other resources that include coaching/consulting options, a regularly updated annotated resource list, and detailed sermon outlines and monthly blogs. Three workshops have been developed: • “Exegete—Learning the Church and Community” offers a rationale, some practices, and a sampling of helpful tools for assessing congregational and neighborhood readiness for God’s transformation. Assessment (exegesis) is an essential first step for a congregation’s strategic planning process. Churches are encouraged to be “assets based” in identifying God’s gifts to them, and to dive deeply into the specific makeup of their neighborhood and city. • “Engage—the Church as Salt, Light, and Leaven” seeks to equip churches with the critical theology and necessary tools to help them become places of influence in neighborhoods and cities. Strategies and tools are shared through interactive instruction. Participants will leave better prepared to invite their neighborhood into church life and to be more fully present in the life of their neighborhood and city. • “Evangelize—the Church and Comprehensive Salvation” provides a hopeful vision for what can and must happen in today’s cities. Biblical “good news” announces God’s kingdom come in Jesus . . . a comprehensive salvation. Neighborhoods in cities throughout the world longingly await an experience of God’s shalom, the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21, New American Standard Bible), “the summing up of all things” (Ephesians 1:10, NASB) and the reconciliation of all things (Colossians 1:20). For churches to offer their neighborhoods an imagination for the fullness of God’s salvation, we must learn to integrate personal evangelism, economic development, and community building as the full expression of our life together in community and in radical discipleship. This is especially important in urban communities where life is a visible struggle. Learn more about Revitalize resources at www.myccl.org. C H RIS TIA N S TAN DA R D
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what’s next? All three of the workshops mentioned above will be offered in a one-day format at an ICOM 2019 preconference event from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. November 13 in Kansas City. Urban church leaders are encouraged to register early at the CCL website (space is limited). ICOM’s usual quality offerings of workshops related to urban work will again be organized by Dr. Kendi Howells Douglas of Johnson University Florida. The third Revitalize workshop (“Evangelize”) will be offered at Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. December 3. Go to www.myccl.org to register for this event and future training opportunities. The opportunity to reach people with the saving good news of Jesus has never been greater. God’s “eternal purpose” is to make “known through the church” his power and wisdom to transform communities of despair into communities of hope (Ephesians 3:9-11, NASB). Let us focus the superabundant resources with which God has blessed our churches and strategically apply them where the fight is most furious and the need most immediate . . . the urban places around the world. Michael Bowling has served as minister with Englewood Christian Church for 26 years. He lives with his wife of 43 years, Lisa, and in the same neighborhood as their four sons, three daughtersin-law, and 13 grandchildren, all on the near eastside of Indianapolis.
For more information about the work of Englewood Christian Church, see articles by ECC member Chris Smith, including, “The Rise of Conversational Churches” in Christianity Today (April 17, 2019; online only) and “Becoming a Neighborhood Church” in The Christian Century (May 2, 2019). Smith is also the author of several books, including Slow Church and How the Body of Christ Talks. He also edits the Englewood Review of Books.
why we must go to the cities
by Nathan and “chivo� josie Hawkins barton
People are drawn to cities for many reasons: education, employment, entertainment, economic and social opportunities. People have also been overwhelmed by cities; the exposure to poverty, illness, and other symptoms of brokenness have caused many people to flee urban centers. But whether pulled or repulsed, the Great Commission compels us to minister in cities.
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Biblical Rationale for Urban Ministry Social justice has become such a buzz phrase that followers of Jesus might dismiss urban ministry as a fad. Yet, we have a clear biblical imperative to minister in the urban context. Ignoring this imperative will lead not only to increasing irrelevance in the church, but also to disobedience of Scripture. In the books of Jonah and Nahum, a biblical theology of urban missions develops around the city of Nineveh. After the city was overtaken by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17), thousands of Israelites were taken captive and Samaria was repopulated with people from the Assyrian Empire. The population intermixed and developed a mishmash of religion, just as we see in diverse cities today. The Assyrian practice of resettling conquered territories with a mixture of people was designed to destroy the natives’ homogenous identity and deconstruct any notion of historical roots. It is therefore not surprising that the descendants of Nineveh, the Samaritans, were despised by Jews. Despite this complex history and Nineveh’s reputation as an evil city, God referred to it as “great” (Jonah 1:2) and sent Jonah there as a missionary. Jonah was so opposed to ministry in this context that he tried to run away from God. But God did not relent. Why? The Lord clearly set a precedence for urban ministry with Nineveh. God asked Jonah: “Should I not have concern for the great city?” (Jonah 4:11). God cares for the city, regardless of our opinions. The Lord looks at cities and sees people created in his own image, and he remembers his covenant with them. For God, cities are not hotbeds of corruption and injustice to be abolished, but landscapes ripe for harvest. If God cares for the city, then we also are called to join with God in their redemption. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, Jeremiah implored exiles from Jerusalem to pray for the cities where they were sent, “for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7, New Revised Standard Version). When we join with God and serve on his behalf in the city, it benefits our communities and the people who live in them. To be salt and light in the city, and to follow the example of our Savior who “became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14, The Message), we must live alongside and have authentic relationship with the people in our communities. For most of us today, living alongside in true, in-thetrenches community means being or becoming city-dwellers. Later, Paul wrote letters to the churches in various cities; these letters were to people groups who were bound together by more than geography. John’s Gospel, meanwhile, was heavily weighted toward Jesus’ teaching and ministry in the city of Jerusalem. In fact, we are told that Jesus wept over Jerusalem, a city that was esteemed, bemoaned, and redeemed, again and again. God points to the city of Jerusalem as the archetype of a heavenly city, where people from every race, tribe, and tongue will live together side by side in eternal worship. If God’s vision for us is a heavenly city and we are called to usher in his kingdom in the here and now, we cannot ignore the importance of ministering to our cities. In short, divinely created people made in God’s likeness are our creator’s priority, and so they should be our priority. We need to go where people are—and people are in the city.
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Cities, the Church, and Church Planting At the beginning of the 20th century, 25 percent of the world’s population lived in cities; by the turn of the 21st century, that percentage had more than doubled, according to a Ministry article from 2004. Data and trends indicate urban populations will continue to grow domestically and around the world. As the world becomes more urbanized, the church must do the same to fulfill the Great Commission. Cities have been critical epicenters for the church since the first Christian congregations were established in places like Jerusalem, Ephesus, and Corinth. The early church was principally an urban movement spreading to the largest, most influential cities of the day. And Christians evangelized within those urban environments by caring for people. Rodney Stark explains this process in The Rise of Christianity: To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with widows and orphans, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity . . . [for what Christians] brought was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture. Creating a culture and advancing the gospel take work, and there are not enough workers in established urban churches to achieve this, especially when considering the population growth of cities. According to data compiled by the Pinetops Foundation, this era is the greatest gospel opportunity in American history. The Great Opportunity website (greatopportunity.org), sponsored by Pinetops, says this unparalleled shift in religious affiliation necessitates much new church planting. Sadly, it reports, the rate of church planting is near an all-time low in America while the rate of church closures is projected to increase over the next decade. Church planting in the U.S. will need to double or triple from current rates to address population growth and anticipated church closures of older congregations. The American church needs to plant more than 200,000 churches in the next 30 years . . . and even more than that if it hopes to meet the needs of the unaffiliated. In addition, there is a dramatic need to invest specifically in emerging urban cities populated by those who have left the church. Generation Z (the population grouping that follows the millennials) is the largest generation in American history and will likely increase urban density over the next two decades. Church planting is a core component of both reaching and blessing a city with the gospel. Data demonstrate that new churches are more effective in reaching younger (increasingly city-dwelling) people with the gospel. Research by Leadership Network and Portable Church Industries indicates that the majority of people attending churches or multisite campuses started in the last five years are 35 years old or younger. Stadia Church Planting is starting churches that reach young adults and families at a higher rate than any other demographic. Increasingly, God is using Stadia to plant churches in cities across the U.S. and around the world.
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City Gospel Movements (citygospelmovements.org) is a powerful force for urban ministry. The Luis Palau Association defines this work as “a united, holistic, sustainable effort by the Church to seek the peace and prosperity of their city.” These intentionally collaborative kingdom efforts are growing in cities across the United States, and our Restoration Movement heritage positions the Christian church to serve in them well. These movements often seek to emphasize Christian commonalities, including evangelism and service over denominational doctrines, and focusing on unity for the sake of mission. One exciting outcome of these collaborative movements has been churches joining together to plant new churches in cities like San Diego, Seattle, and New York. These collaborations are bearing sweet fruit. There are millions of reasons urban church planting is important, and each reason comprises a soul that may be more receptive to the gospel than ever before. Several years ago, Tim Keller wrote, “First, [city-dwellers] are more open to new ideas, and to change in general, after being uprooted from traditional settings. Second, they greatly need help and support to face the moral, economic, emotional, and spiritual pressures of city life.” We are tremendously grateful for our Christian family in rural and suburban areas. For many of us, crossing the city boundary is a difficult step. Geography defines us more than location; it shapes who we are and how and with whom we minister. In this, as in everything, let us model ourselves after Christ. Jesus focused intently on urban ministry. Christians can prioritize urban church planting as we join with God in reconciling that which is broken and celebrating what Christ has already redeemed and continues to restore in the city—through the church!
Nathan “Chivo” Hawkins is the west regional director for Stadia Church Planting. Chivo has played a key role in Stadia’s global church planting strategy, served in a church plant relaunch in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina, and led local and missions ministry in Mexico. As an adoptee and adoptive father, Chivo and his wife, Joy, are passionate about caring for children, especially through foster care. Josie Barton is the marketing manager at Stadia. Josie was on the launch team of a church in Baltimore in 2013. She still resides in Baltimore, along with her husband and three young sons.
@Stadia
@StadiaChurchPlanting
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@StadiaChurchPlanting
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mid-atlantic states:
going back to the city By Tim Cole
mid-atlantic states: part 1
After 50 Years, a New Generation of Young Leaders Spurs Urban Church Planting One of the seminal events on the timeline of the Restoration Movement occurred 50 years ago. Although tensions had been brewing for decades with their conservative counterpart, the more progressive wing of our tribe formally adopted a denominational design and officially changed their name to Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1969. In urban areas, which typically espouse a more liberal stance on theological issues, a significant portion of downtown churches aligned with this newly formed denomination. Their impressive buildings, often with massive, oversized white columns, came to personify the “social gospel,” which one of my preachers derisively described as “heavy on grace, thin on theology.” As a result, the influence and impact of independent Christian churches and churches of Christ were relegated primarily to their historical core of country churches and to the emerging number of suburban churches that were moving out and away from what was perceived as the centers of liberalism downtown. Our urban influence would remain effectively dormant for decades. Compounding that lack of presence in our cities was the relentless urbanization of the American population. When Alexander Campbell and other founding fathers synergized a movement in the early 1800s, fewer than 2 in 5 Americans lived in the city. By comparison, the most recent U.S. Census data revealed for the first time more than 4 in 5 Americans live in urban areas. The need for presence and influence in urban settings has never been greater. Over the past decade, many of our evangelizing associations have experienced a significant uptick in urban church planting. God is raising up a whole generation of young
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pastors and leaders with a newfound heart for the city. Their life verse for urban reengagement rises from Jeremiah 29:7; “Seek the welfare of the city” was appropriated as a mission statement by Tim Keller and his Redeemer churches in New York City. Waypoint Church Partners has undertaken several urban church-planting projects during this same season. Waypoint provides strategic services to Christian churches and leaders across the Mid-Atlantic region and creates partnerships among them to plant new churches. New lessons are being realized with each urban project. Each plant has a feel and flair of its own, but the common thread for all of them is their vision and value for community engagement coupled with a strong foundation of biblical teaching about the kingdom of God—in other words, “Heavy on grace, thick on theology.” For each of these churches, their connection to the community is both obvious and essential to their presence there.
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“The need for presence and influence in urban settings has never been greater.�
Area 10 Church Area 10 Church launched 11 years ago in the museum district of historic downtown Richmond, Virginia. The church worships in the grand old Byrd Theatre, circa 1928, a Virginia historic landmark. Prior to launch, the church opened a commercial venture two doors down called Cartwheels & Coffee, a parent-supervised play place serving baristamade coffee coupled with an indoor play facility for toddlers. Cartwheels quickly became a meet-up hub for local moms. In an effort to establish a more permanent presence in the community, Area 10 recently purchased and renovated an adjacent old building that serves as a commercial community gathering space. They now host staff retreats, corporate meetings, book signings, art shows, concerts, auction fund-raisers, and more.
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mid-atlantic states: part 1
Restore Christian Church
Collective Christian Church
Restore Christian Church launched seven years ago in Silver Spring, Maryland, inside the Capital Be ltway of Washington, DC. Silver Spring ranks as one of the 10 most diverse communities in the United States. Restore began worshipping in a concert venue and then a commercial co-working space, before landing at their current venue, an old Episcopal church building in the heart of their downtown community.
Before Collective Christian Church launched two years ago in downtown Frederick, Maryland, they established a partnership with the local rescue mission. Groups of volunteers would regularly staff their events and worship services. Four of the men from the mission eventually joined their launch team, arriving early to set up in the school where Collective meets. Within six months after launch, all four had been baptized.
Four years in, Restore leased a store-front property and opened a commercial coworking space, popular in urban areas. Customers purchase daily or weekly subscriptions to use the property during daytime hours for work and meetings. Their facility has hosted a Saturday morning, pro bono legal clinic, a Sunday worship venue for an ethnic congregation, and ministry to refugees from Central and South America.
Encounter Christian Church began two years ago in Columbia Heights, the most racially diverse borough within the District of Columbia. Encounter originally launched in the historic GALA Theatre, the epicenter of the community, before moving to the atrium of District Bridges, a local nonprofit organization with a mission to enrich neighborhood vitality by bridging community engagement and economic development.
The trust built through Collective’s service led the Rescue Mission to form a new mentorship program between them and the church. Men who graduate out of the mission are paired with men from the church who serve as Christian mentors during that time of transition.
Encounter Christian Church
Encounter partnered with District Bridges prior to their public launch and collaborated on events such as the community Easter egg hunt, block parties, and neighborhood movie nights. The church-planting wife (a term we’ve begun using to recognize the wife’s contribution to the project) was eventually invited to join District Bridges’ board of directors.
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virginia, seedbed for a movement Though a significant proportion of Christian churches and churches of Christ are located in America’s heartland, some of the earliest seeds of our movement were planted in Virginia. In 1792, a preacher named James O’Kelly led a group of Methodist churches in Virginia to leave their denomination to form a new group originally called “Republican Methodists.” The “republican” moniker they adopted indicated their value for local autonomy over denominational control. Two years later, in 1794, the group’s leaders decided to drop their denominational name altogether and simply call their congregations “Christian.” Roadside marker K236 stands along Route 10 in rural Surry, Virginia, near Williamsburg. Titled, “Organization of the Christian Church,” it commemorates this historic moment. The remains of the original foundation of the “Old Lebanon Church” sit nearby, likely the first church in America to be named, or renamed, a “Christian church.” A hundred miles west is Cool Spring Christian Church in rural Lunenburg, Virginia. Restoration Movement historians recognize that this is likely the originating location of “The Lunenburg Letter” made famous in Alexander Campbell’s reply to it in the Millennial Harbinger (unfortunately all the church’s records were lost in a fire in the early 1900s). A sister presumably from here started a spirited exchange over immersion and “who is a Christian?” . . . especially with regard to those in denominational churches. The Cool Spring Church was founded as a denominational church in 1775, making it likely the oldest surviving congregation in our family of churches.
mid-atlantic states: part 1
Mountainside Community Church Mountainside Community Church launched last year in a movie theatre in Boone, North Carolina, before moving to a downtown location in a local bar. A surprising partnership with the bar allows them to host a community school for mentoring and arts which they have established; the school meets during the bar’s off hours. The community school provides high-quality training in art and life skills at an affordable cost. A growing array of instruction features songwriting, guitar, art, drama, sewing, crochet, and other disciplines for local children.
Venture Church Even church plants that ultimately moved from their urban locations featured strong community connections during their season within their city. For example, Venture Church, which began in an old downtown YMCA, eventually renovated an old tobacco warehouse space in the emerging river district in Danville, Virginia. From the outset, Venture became a primary provider of volunteers for the city’s annual River District Festival. The church planter eventually became part of the planning team for the city’s largest community event and was named Danville’s favorite pastor.
Crossings Church Another example is Crossings Church, which met in a gritty indie concert venue in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. They partnered with the city as part of the latter’s court-ordered, 24-month intensive recovery program. Participants became members of Crossing’s setup crew. Those who successfully completed the program could have their jail time reduced.
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Though neither Venture nor Crossings, nor some others, exist today, the connections they had to their community serve as a model for others. Lessons learned and strides made over the past decade by these new churches and others to reengage their cities through urban church planting are establishing a foothold for more churches to be planted in the decades to come. These no doubt will be faith communities with both strong community connections coupled with relevant biblical teaching—“heavy on grace, thick on theology.” Read Part 2 in our October issue. Tim Cole is a two-time church planter in Virginia who serves as executive director of Waypoint Church Partners. Tim and his wife, Lisa, have also helped to plant churches in Ukraine and France. Tim loves to train and coach church planters to realize their God-given vision to launch a healthy new church. @WaypointChurchPartners @tim.cole.7796
SPIRE
New things inevitably generate questions. “What is it?” “Why this?” “Why now?” And “why not this other thing?”
what it is what it isn’t . . . and why
by chris moon
It’s been no different for the organizers of Spire Network, a digital platform that has set its sights on uniting and equipping pastors within the independent Christian churches and churches of Christ. The network has been working toward its first conference—set for October 8 to 10 in Orlando— and preparing to roll out its online networking platform this fall. In the middle of all of that, organizers are fielding questions about the nature of Spire and what it hopes to accomplish in the upcoming months and years. “I spend more time explaining what we aren’t than what we are,” Spire CEO Rick Rusaw told Christian Standard.
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— a focus on leaders
One of Spire’s challenges has been that its annual conference will replace the North American Christian Convention and that gathering’s nine-decade history. Rusaw calls the NACC “a legacy event.”
The genesis of Spire Network occurred as pastors and church leaders held formal and informal discussions about how best to further the Restoration Movement and its ideals.
Questioners often assume Spire is merely an annual conference they are being asked to attend, said Rusaw, who took the reins of Spire after a long run as pastor of LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado.
Some questioned whether the North American Christian Convention was the best way to train and equip pastors. There was a desire to invest in the lives of church leaders—even beyond what the NACC was able to do.
But Spire is aimed at connecting pastors throughout the year via its digital platform, which will allow people to build relationships, collaborate on best practices throughout the movement, and share content with each other.
“It is a narrowing of focus to help healthy churches grow,” said Nate Ross, Spire’s codirector of events and pastor of Northside Christian Church in New Albany, Indiana.
The platform also will provide key data for ministers and allow them to find mentors and in-person connecting points with other pastors in their area. “The whole platform is a substantive way we can take advantage of technology that wasn’t available 10 years ago,” Rusaw said. The platform will launch at the Spire Conference in October. “When you get a chance to really peel away and look at what’s coming and what’s available, I think people do get a sense of that,” Rusaw said.
Spire leaders cite a study by Barna Research and Pepperdine University showing 50 percent of church leaders drop out of ministry within five years of starting, 80 percent believe ministry has negatively impacted their family, 70 percent have lower self-esteem than when they entered ministry, and 70 percent do not have a close friend. Ross recently had a conversation with an executive pastor about the move away from the North American Christian Convention plus Spire Network’s planned emphasis on equipping pastors. After sharing some of those statistics, Ross said, the pastor agreed that the change made sense.
“It’s fair for everyone to ask why,” Ross said. The Spire Network pictures church leaders as the “spires” of the Restoration Movement. At one time, people looked for the spires on church buildings in their quest to draw closer to God. Today, people look to leaders as those “spires”—as avenues to deeper connection with God. But, Spire leaders say, pastors too often are isolated, and they lose out on the benefits that can be found in learning from one another. Rusaw says he has numerous pastor friends he connects with on a regular basis, and many of those relationships have lasted more than a decade. But not all ministry leaders have such a network. “I want to make that available to all of us out there because leadership is a lonely thing,” he said.
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—not just a conference
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—collaborations and conversations One of the hallmark elements of the upcoming conference will be how pastors connect with each other.
attendees can walk away with phone numbers and email addresses of others in their area of ministry.
It won’t consist merely of speakers sharing information from a stage. Instead, pastors will collaborate with one another by gathering together based on affinities such as church size, geographic location, and ministry interests.
“Then the conversation goes beyond, ‘Hey, see you next year,’” he said.
Youth pastors will be able to collaborate and build relationships with other youth pastors. The same will be true for those in other ministry disciplines, such as worship leaders. Ross, who is helping organize this year’s Spire Conference, said one breakout session will be designed for executive pastors. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss 10 of the most significant issues facing their ministries right now. “What we really believe—just the power of Spire—is that we don’t need another conference,” Ross said. “We need the right conversation.” And the relationships built at the conference can be extended throughout the year through Spire’s online networking platform. Rusaw said conference
Chris Jefferson, director of marketing and development for Spire, said conference attendees will get a first look at Spire’s digital platform and can begin to use it. The platform has been under construction for almost a year. The organization’s board of directors got a first look at it this spring. It will include podcasts, webinars, and information about regional “meet-ups” of pastors throughout the year. Much of the content will be free to access by anyone who signs up. Some areas will require a subscription. “It’s a great way to be part of a community,” Jefferson said. “I think we have a great opportunity to see the church advance in an extremely important and tangible way.”
discover more about
S PIRE spire.network @TheSpireNetwork @SpireLeader
Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colorado.
@SpireLeader Search “Spire Network”
UNITY IN ESSENTIALS
UNITY IN ESSENTIALS. LIBERTY IN OPINIONS. LOVE IN EVERYTHING. Christian Standard Media strives to equip Christians with tools to pursue unity, celebrate liberty, and love one another. Visit lookoutmag.com today.
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It sometimes seems like a church leader faces two possible paths: the way we’ve always done it or the way of uncertainty. It can leave you feeling as lonely as this young minister: For some time now I have felt somewhat alone in ministry. Don’t get me wrong, I have great relationships with a lot of different people, but when I look around, many churches are graying out and dying out. Many of these churches lack passion for making disciples; [they] seem trapped by destructive legalism. In direct contrast, several of my peers in ministry are leaning into a view of God that is informed by their own vague feelings and impressions rather than by God’s Word. It felt like my options in ministry were to captain a sinking ship or to jump onto a vessel that is rapidly careening off course. How could these be my only two options? You may also be convinced that a focus on Sunday services is not enough—that great preaching, praise, and programs will no longer suffice. Even if your church is ministering to the poor during the week, it still might seem unfulfilling. If you feel this way, know that you are not alone . . . and that we can help.
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At t he Renew Network . . . • Discipleship comes first. We help people like you champion relational discipleship as the core mission of the church. We show how disciple-making is the path laid out by Jesus both in his ministry and in his final command. • Relationships are vital. We are that band of brothers and sisters—that tribe of disciple-making champions—you long for and need. Renew’s vision is relational collaboration that equips millions of disciples, disciple makers, and church planters among all ethnicities. Yes, we believe God loves ethnic diversity, so we feature it in our relationships. • Biblical theology matters. You want substance? That’s good. We are convinced that lasting disciple-making movements are built on theology that requires disciple-making. Bill Hull put it succinctly: “The Jesus we preach and the gospel we uphold determine the disciple we get.” The true gospel calls for a faith that trusts and follows Jesus and gives him ongoing allegiance—it requires a faithful faith.
We can help you make the difference you hunger for in this world! Mark Moore, Tony Twist, Matt Proctor, Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, Brett Andrews, and other leaders known to Christian Standard have joined the effort. Additionally, leaders from other diverse backgrounds are participating, including Ralph Moore, founder of the Hope Chapel Movement; Shodankeh Johnson, the disciple-making movement leader in West Africa whose movement has reached more than 700,000 people in 14 years; and New Testament scholar Matthew Bates, whose books advocating discipleship are taking the scholarly world by storm. These are just a few of the champions of Renew Network. We all have unity in the midst of diversity because we hold to seven values: • Responding to God’s Spirit: We believe God is the author of renewal and he invites us to join him through prayer and fasting for the Holy Spirit’s work of renewal. • Following God’s reliable Word: We have a high view of Scripture, for from it we learn the ways of God with lasting clarity and conviction. • Surrendering to Jesus as Lord and King: Jesus is Savior, and he is also Lord and Messiah (King). He calls everyone to salvation (in eternity) and discipleship (in this life). • Championing disciple-making: Jesus gave us the perfect model of disciple-making; the principles Jesus taught in his life should be utilized as we make disciples today. • Loving like Jesus: Jesus showed us the true meaning of love and taught us that sacrificial love is the distinguishing character trait of true disciples. • Living in holiness: Jesus lived differently than the world, so his disciples and those in his church must live differently than the world. • Leading courageously: Renewal is led by bold and courageous leaders who make disciples, plant churches, and create disciplemaking movements.
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1. 2. 3.
Renew.org: Make use of our website and newsletter, which offer practical material for everyday disciples in the form of blogs, videos, audios, book reviews, and more. Coaching: Consider hiring one of our coaches. We coach church leaders (both men and women), ministers, and elders in disciple-making. We help with practical models and methods you can start using immediately. National and regional gatherings: Attend our national and regional gatherings to gain further inspiration. We will help you get connected to this great mission and vision and the people championing it.
Cultural pressures today present numerous difficulties and complexities to following Jesus. Traditional discipleship methods are less and less effective. It is a lonely, frustrating path without a tribe that knows the way to go. Too many church leaders will end up bitter or compromise or give up altogether. A movement of disciple-making disciples is the best and right path in the 21st century. It is a renewal of Jesus’ kingdom vision and the beauty of the local church, as God intends. Remember the minister who expressed his feelings at the beginning of this article? After six months with Renew coaching, he wrote the following: The relationship with my coach and the guys in my group has been one of the most encouraging things I have experienced this year. God showed me there are others who desire vibrant discipleship in a biblical way within the Renew Network. It has [been] incredibly rewarding being a participant in a group and leading a group toward genuine discipleship. Join us, as he did! Come to Renew.org, ask for a disciple-making coach, and most especially, join our Renew Gathering on November 6 in Nashville/Franklin, Tennessee.
Yo u a r e n ’ t a l o n e .
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There is an ever-increasing need within our country for churches whose heart and passion rests in reaching and saving the lost. This, in essence, is what it means to be evangelical—introducing the good news of Jesus to a dark and lost world. Our movement is growing and thriving because of a collective focus within our churches and leaders to make this the core of what we are about and what we do. Because of this, we are the fastest-growing evangelical movement in America today.
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Another growing need, perhaps just as important, is for younger, passionate leaders to take up the mantle that is being passed to them. These leaders are bright and articulate visionaries who are enthusiastic for the gospel and the kingdom of God. Yet, as important as enthusiasm and passion might be, nothing can replace the treasure of time-honored wisdom and experience of those who have gone before. Hence, it’s important in our churches for those whose wisdom exceeds their energy to come alongside and invest in the next generation of leaders who will continue the mission of making disciples of all nations. How do we do both? How can we be a movement intent on kingdom expansion and growth while also valuing the small, seemingly unseen relationships that will produce fruit in the coming generations? Thankfully, Jesus did not leave us without a model and path to follow.
IN T H E WAY O F J E S U S When we read about Jesus, we can become enamored and awed by the great things he accomplished in his ministry. After all, he taught large crowds and fed thousands. Yet, in the midst of these accomplishments, he never wavered from intentional relationship with a core group of followers. So when Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16-20), his immediate audience was that same group of followers who had spent countless hours with him and witnessed virtually all of his ministry. Teaching and instructing this core group was even more important than his miracles, for it had a longer-lasting impact. The discipleship he engaged in made for a truly kingdom-centered ministry, and it exhibited that the mission cannot be separated from the method. We know this, and yet the implications for how to maintain this focus in the midst of the demands of ministry can be a dilemma. Many good and important things pull at our time, energy, and resources . . . but that was also true for Jesus during his ministry. We must be both intentional and relational in our approach to ministry or we can easily drift away from the method of kingdom growth that Jesus modeled for us.
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R E A L- L I F E E X A M P L E S The Solomon Foundation is blessed to work alongside churches and leaders who are at the forefront of our movement and kingdom growth. Since its inception, TSF has partnered with more than 240 churches who have increased in size and influence while also following a model that emphasizes the value of relationship and intentional discipleship. Real Life Ministries is a great example of how kingdom growth occurs when the way of Jesus is foundational to the culture and mission of a church. Jim Putman and his team have created a network of churches not only in the Northwest—specifically Idaho and Washington—but now also Texas. Success has resulted from their intentional approach to developing and building a culture that focuses on relational discipleship. It takes faith, persistence, and intentional cultivation to believe that the planting of a small seed can one day produce something capable of providing for the care and needs of others. It might take even more faith to look at a tree in full bloom, much like the RLM network, and remember that everything necessary to create such a tree was present in something as tiny as a seed. And yet, Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed” (Matthew 13:31). The question is, “Do we have the faith to plant in the manner of Jesus and are we being intentional in cultivating what has already been planted?”
TOOLS FOR THE TRADE We also must ask, “How do we cultivate intentional and relational discipleship into our ministries in small ways that will lead to kingdom growth in the next generation?” Here are three suggestions for mentoring young leaders: 1. Read a book together. David Timm’s excellent book Shape Your World talks about the importance of heart and character in the leader’s life. Timms recommends transformational leadership following the 2 Timothy 2:2 model, which is the practice of passing on to others what has been entrusted to us. Carve out time to meet one-on-one with another minister on a regular basis, and use this as a springboard for discussion. 2. Read a book for a younger minister and write an encouraging letter to them sharing wisdom you gleaned from the book. A number of young pastors are raising families and volunteering within their schools
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and communities. They may not have as much time to read as they would like. You can feed a young pastor from experiences within your reading and provide a blessing to them. 3. Attend an event or conference together. Our movement offers a wide variety of conferences and events designed to bless and equip churches and pastors. Offer to provide a motel room or pay for a meal; be intentional about the opportunity these venues afford to discuss the teaching and what it might mean to their ministry and life. In short, do things, even small and unseen things, for the sake of others. Be intentional and relational.
LIFE IN THE SMALL THINGS Recently, The Solomon Foundation hosted a conference called Refresh for some pastors and their wives. It provided an opportunity to get away, breathe, be recharged, and come home refreshed. The location was relaxing, the food was terrific, and the array of speakers and workshops were designed to both encourage and equip. It was a great few days for leaders to come together to be resourced, be encouraged, and connect with others. Many of the pastors returned to thriving churches and ministries filled with opportunities for expansion and growth. Accelerate Group, led by Don Wilson and Mike Nave, is another example of leaders pouring into the next generation through spending time together, building relationships that provide opportunities to speak into the lives of younger pastors and plant seeds of inspiration. A great first step is to become involved in a group that invests in the lives of future leaders. Leading is difficult and attempting to invest in others can present challenges that make leading even harder. But life is in the small things and in the seeds waiting to be planted. Wherever you are in your season of ministry, it is never too late to cultivate a relationship with someone who is coming up behind you. If the kingdom is like a mustard seed, there is life in the small and hidden things that provide a catalyst to the type of growth that we seek in the midst of our context and ministry. Perhaps you will plant the seed that leads to the next generation of fruitful trees that our world desperately needs.
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Interact Vested in Our Leaders . . . @dstoffer (Dan Stoffer) This article has some alarming statistics (sad but true) but I am thankful for the efforts being made to keep pastors and their families healthy [“Vested in Our Leaders: The Pastor’s Project,” by Richard Creek, p. 58, July 2019]. Healthier leaders = healthier churches.
Megan Rawlings I love how this looks [“Vested in Our Leaders: The Accelerate Group,” by Don and Sue Wilson, p. 66, July 2019]! So aesthetically pleasing and great authors too!
Gone the Distance . . . Victor Knowles I greatly appreciated Jerry Harris’s “Letter from the Publisher” and Mike Mack’s “Letter from the Editor” in the June 2019 Christian Standard. I, too, have long been an admirer of “old souls in ministry,” as Jerry worded it so well. We have a righteous regiment of these “old souls” in Joplin, Missouri; these men have “gone the distance . . . carry old and well-worn scars . . . and have not withered under pressure.” I speak of men like Reggie Thomas, Bob Chambers, and Boyce Mouton, to mention only three. They still have much to offer, and all three carry deep in their minds and hearts “the radiance of the message of Christ.” I would add another subgrouping to those mentioned by Mike, and those are the “war babies”—those born between 1939 and 1945, children of “the greatest generation.” I am proud to be in their number. Some of us are still going strong even though we are now in our seventies. I agree with Mike that we need all generations working together. I plan to do just that until God calls me home.
1 reply From the Editor: Thank you, Victor, and congratulations to you and Evelyn on 50 years of full-time Christian service, which you celebrated in July! We are honored to partner with you in the gospel. We pray you will continue to walk in the steps of the Savior as you serve for many more years.
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‘Living in the Tension’ . . . George Stehle I appreciated the article by Caleb Kaltenbach in Christian Standard [“Living in the Tension: How the Church Must Respond to Sexual Identity Issues in Both Truth and Grace,” p. 34, June 2019]. I think he dealt with the most difficult subject facing the church and society today, and [he] did it in a kind yet firm way. If the church is to be the church, we must face that tension constantly. New Christians and seekers bring baggage with them, and church leaders need to have a pretty well-fixed idea of how to deal with some very knotty issues with no easy answers. My compliments to you for bringing up the subject.
Biblical Literacy . . . @theccmason (Christ’s Church) Mark Moore wrote an article on Core 52 that was featured in Christian Standard [“An Opportunity to Build Biblical Literacy,” p. 48, June 2019]. Our very own Dale Reeves has a piece in there too, talking about our experience with it so far [“Biblical Literacy: What Core 52 Is Doing for Us,” p. 52]! How cool that the book we’ve been going through this year is being released to the public soon. And what an honor!
Kendi’s Cows . . . @kbirdcarr (Kelly Carr) I had the privilege of interviewing Kendi Kemerly, a teen who began a nonprofit at age 8 to help villages overseas develop sustainability in their food sources [“Kendall Grace Kemerly: Founder, Kendi’s Cows of Grace,” p 60, June 2019]. What an amazing young lady! Young people are changing the world. @KendisCows @ChrStandard
Spotlight on Compass . . . John Allcott Thank God for Compass Christian Church, Chandler, Arizona [Spotlight article, “Elders, Staff, Discipleship Program, Prayer Culminate in Baptisms,” by Melissa Wuske, p. 46, May 2019]! They send a big chunk of cash every month to our mission here in the Philippines!
Give us your feedback! @chrstandard
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For space, length, readability, relevance, and civility, comments sent to Interact may remain unpublished or be edited. We do read them all and prayerfully take them to heart. If we publish your comment, we will try to honestly reproduce your thoughts with those considerations in mind. Where we disagree, let’s continue to keep P.H. Welshimer’s words in mind to “disagree without being disagreeable.”
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E
ISEGESIS FOR VERYONE From After Class Podcast
Do you struggle to apply the Bible to your life? Does the Bible sometimes feel old and outdated?
through a wall and appeared to his disciples. That should be child’s play for us now. Think big! You can be like Enoch, Elijah, and Philip the evangelist—all of whom floated in the footsteps of Jesus! To think biblically is to view teleportation as a real possibility. Never forget, you can do all things through Christ.
This new resource might be just what you need to jump-start your faith. Sonbeam Publishing is proud to bring you Eisegesis for Everyone. This empowering book employs the familiar technique of eisegesis so you can read your own brilliant insights into the Bible. Free from the shackles of original context, anyone can see any passage talking about—well—anything. No Bible training, no cultural background, and no historical awareness required. Now you can find your ideas all over the pages of the Bible. Consider this excerpt from chapter 3: This millennial generation struggles with self-confidence. But the Bible has plenty to say about all the things we can do. Teleportation is even on the table. Don’t believe us? Believe the Bible! The apostle Paul says we can do all things through Jesus (Philippians 4:13), and Jesus says we will do even greater things than he did (John 14:12). And what did Jesus do? He walked
It’s so easy to apply the Bible that anyone can do it. But don’t just take our word for it. Listen to what prominent pastors have to say: “This book lays out the method I have been using for years in a clear and understandable way.” —Joel Osteen “With this tool in hand, the number of follow-ups to The Purpose Driven Life are practically incalculable.” — Rick Warren Order your copy today and we’ll throw in Narcigesis for Everyone, free of charge. Why stop at finding just your beliefs in the Bible? Find your awesome self on each page. Identify with every hero, distance yourself from every villain, and soon you will love your Bible as much as you love yourself. With these two volumes, there’s no stopping what Jesus can do through you!
The After Class Podcast guys are Bible and theology professors at Great Lakes Christian College; from left to right in the logo, they are Samuel C. Long, Ronald D. Peters, and John C. Nugent. They strive to engage provocative contemporary topics with wit and careful biblical scholarship.
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afterclasspodcast.net /AfterClassPodcast @after_class_pod