So I picked up a new hobby lately.  I’ve actually been working on this hobby (or should I say habit) for a few months.  I thought since we don’t have alot going on with our move I should at lets keep everyone informed about our life.  Here is a piece of pop art I made from one of Summer’s pictures.  As I learn new skills I will post my work.

I love podcasting.  I wish I had good content to share but there are great people who do have good things to say.  I remember when I would have to pay hundreds of dollars a year to hear the content I hear today.  The world has changed.  I thought I would post some of the podcast I’m listening to these days.  I know I learned about many of these from other friends so maybe you will learn about a podcast from me.

Catalyst Podcast
Church Leaders Insights (Nelson Searcy Leadership)
Community Christian Church (great multi-site church)
Emergent Podcast
Mars Hill Bible Church (Rod Bell)
Mars Hill Seattle (Mark Driscoll)
NewSpring Church (church in the Carolina’s)
North Point Community Church (Andy Stanley)
The Journey Church (Nelson Searcy – Manhattan Church)
The Village Church (Matt Chandler – Dallas)
Fermi Project (church leaders experimenting w/ ways to positively contribute to culture)

Side Note:  Radiohead (now other bands are following) are doing something new with the sale of albums – giving the purchasers the choice.  They aren’t asking a particular price for their album but leaving it up to you to pay what you want or nothing at all. 

Would it be cool if churches did the same?  I know some churches are offering their message series, etc on open source – but wouldn’t it be amazing if we all helped each other reach people but offering our goods (graphics, logos, small stuff) at the purchaser’s discretion or for nothing at all? 

Austin in October! I can’t think of a better month in central Texas. Something about the weather dropping below 80’s and the grass turning golden that is magical. The trees still clothed in life and the flowers wearing color with the air soft and the sky warm. The children race up and down the sidewalk and the homes are full of visitors. What is there not to love?

I went walking tonight and the neighborhood couldn’t be more alive. I listened to the new Radiohead album “In Rainbow”, I’ve actually can’t stop listening – it’s addictive. I passed two homes tonight about four houses apart – one house the front yard was full of people dressed in orange and gathered for the UT game. The other home the kids played and the adults spoke with smiles while holding bibles with freshly pressed shirts. As I passed both homes I was listening to “All I Need” where Thom Yorke’s voice is gentle and captivating. The song starts low and gasping for something, but strong and cogent by the end. The song is about a person who feels second place in their relationship. One of the lines hit me like bricks, “I am all the things that you choose to ignore.” For some reason I don’t feel like I fit with either group, but I wanted to stop and laugh with both. But I don’t know if I fit in either world anymore. But as Thom concludes in the song:

It’s all right
It’s all wrong
It’s all right
It’s all wrong
It’s all right

I’m finding my balance somewhere between Jesus and Paul.

So you’ve probably noticed we removed the name of the location we are moving.  We felt that maybe not everyone knows that needs to know in the location.  The world is much smaller these days, blogs move quick over the internet and people don’t get all the information they need.  So we are waiting to repost the location until we feel everyone who needs to know – knows.

Since we agreed with God (funny statement) to leave Texas and move to Missouri I have thought a lot about Austin. I’ve actually grown to love this city which I think every believer should do…love their city, pray for your city. But I’ve really been thinking about how to reach a city, any city. How do you make the biggest difference? I don’t know the answer! But I know what is not the answer – the way we’ve always done it.

There is a quote I read that made me laugh, because it illustrates how foolish we can be toward people. It demonstrates how selfish and thoughtless we are when it comes to what we value and sharing those values. A Texas politician (I don’t know his name) said this as a response to Spanish as a second language, “If English was good enough for Jesus, its good enough for them Mexicans.” That is so sad because you can see how he views Jesus and “them Mexicans” all in a few words. Kind of reminds me of this picture of Jesus my mom had hanging at our front door when I was a child – He was Angelo and had nice brown, wavy hair. I thought Jesus was Angelo (like me) and shared my view of the world until I was seventeen.

I want to be a missionary to our city. That sounds strange but America isn’t a Christian nation, at least not the Christ I serve. I could give hundreds of reasons why I say that, but the most important is the fact we think we have it all figured out and God’s on our side. We assume because we prosper that God is blessing us – but that is the furthest from the truth. The Pharisees thought they had it all figured out too, and Jesus had a lot of interesting names for them.

The most interesting thought I had about this comes from Adolf Hitler. He said, “I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.” This man was histories leading figure for war, pain, suffering, and death and he really believed he was doing the Lord’s work. How often do we believe the same thing? If God isn’t punishing us, He most be preserving us – right (wrong!)?

I want to start a Missional Church. That means I want to learn and appreciate the local culture and share Christ in their own language (less words, more action). I think Charles Dickens said, “Missionaries are perfect nuisances and leave every place worse than they found it.” I agree with his assessment because there are two dangerous temptations each of us face when confronted by a stranger (someone who thinks and acts in a way that is foreign to our cultural or religious practices). The first is a desire to transform that stranger into our own image, endeavoring to obscure and replace their cultural and religious practices with our own. The second is to exclude and reject the stranger entirely, viewing them as a threat which must be guarded against. In one the stranger is rendered into a clone while in the other they are made into an enemy.

It is our personal challenge to seek to listen and learn from those who are different from us, instead of understanding ourselves as those who have mastered truth. We desire to learn from the beliefs and practices of those who seem foreign to us. We don’t claim that all beliefs and practices are of equal value any more than one can claim that what ‘we’ (whoever ‘we’ may be) believe is absolutely true.

So how do we live missionally and evangelize? We will demonstrate how one may faithfully ask, seek and knock by making this a necessary part of our own lives. By following the words of Augustine when he wrote, ‘God is He who gives God’, we realize that we cannot give God but rather, by demonstrating openness and humility, creating a space where the Holy Spirit can give God. In this way an evangelist can be understood as one who is open to God at all times and encourages others in this way of being – helping to produce a clearing where Holy Spirit is free to give God.

I’ve been wrestling with planting this new church – no I don’t feel I missed God – I feel maybe God missed the best person. I question if I can start a community for people to find Christ, a church that is missional, a purpose bigger than meeting on Sunday mornings. I want to be apart of starting a church that in the city…for the city. Can I really do this? Does God believe in me? Can I believe in myself? Then I realize all my questions are about “ME” and what I can do and what God can do for ME.

God really doesn’t want a church started by a Lone Ranger and his Pocahontas. I’ve never been apart of a church started by a sole pastor, I’ve always apart of the team- teams start churches. But the type of church God is organizing is much different than many of my contacts have ever lead. I wonder who God is calling to be apart of our team? Because I realized last night as I drove home on IH 35, “I can’t and won’t do this alone – I don’t believe God is asking me to do it alone!”

I’m praying for these people God is speaking to. I know the gentle voice of God and I know how it never goes away. We make a lot of noise to drain out the words – but when silence approaches the gentle voice of God is still calling. I know this scenario so well because I’ve made the noise for over a year now and He has kept speaking.

The city we are going to is not small and full of people searching. Some of these people know of Christ, some have accepted Him into their lives but have no community to worship, and some are seeking God. There are some people God is asking to be apart of something better than themselves, something they never considered themselves doing. I look forward to meeting this team, laughing together, crying together, and seeing lives changed – TOGETHER.

Do you recollect moments God spoke to you, I do! I recall the instances God made decisions for my future clear…or at least that is how I remember them. I can see the sanctuary that I received my calling to ministry, the chapel seat in the balcony at Central Bible College when I resolved to attend school, my conversation with God about moving to Philly and the trip that sealed the deal was just as unmistakeable. It’s not hard to see in my mind’s eye the drive to Austin that made my decision easier. Every decision was a step of faith. Never was I promised a salary for my time starting churches, but never did I stop trusting God. Sometimes all you have is faith and trust. His never forgotten me and always provided. Faith and works aren’t opposites, they are partners. James reminds us in his epistle that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” So we trust in God and give Him our total cooperation by doing our part.

Summer and I are cooperating with God and stepping out in faith – choosing a new path in our journey. We both agreed in July that we are not being called to any other ministry but starting missional churches. That thrilled my heart because it’s important my wife is doing ministry with me and agrees with our calling. Family first and ministry second, right? So we started speaking with friends and leaders about our next place of ministry. We shared that we wanted to be apart of a multi-site church, part of starting new venues for worship spearheaded by more established churches in the city. My friend and mentor from Philly called me and wanted to know more details about our desired ministry. He is feeling called to start a second venue in his new city of and felt our time was divine.

So our journey is taking us to Missouri. Not the place I would have selected but once we saw the city, felt the character of the community, and heard the vision for the city we knew He had our hearts. We have no idea how we will afford to live and minister. There is no money in the budget for our salary, but we can’t allow money to be the issue. God is bigger than we are and His calling is richer. Jesus himself said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…(Luke 10.2). He didn’t say “there’s not enough money,” He said “there’s not enough laborers!” The truth is I believe people want to invest in kingdom minded ministry if they can catch your vision and understand your plan.

In the next months we will ask many of you to help support the church plant. We are being mothered by a local more established church, so they cover the cost of doing ministry, but we will need to raise support for our salaries. Summer and I both hope to devote 100% of our time to connecting with the community, which will require not working 40hr/week secular jobs. Some of my future blogs will involve our journey, our plan and the vision for the city.  I hope you can join us on our journey.