plant and run
a morning of hope
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This is a morning chock full of emotions for New Orleanians. Many are sipping their coffee in disbelief, still reeling over what they witnessed last night.
The Saints are going to the Super Bowl.
My head hit the pillow pondering what the moment means to our city. I dreamt about it. I work up with it still on my mind, and it was all I could think about while I ran this morning.
It is a surreal moment that is forty-three years in the making. Forty-three or four and a half…depending on how you count.
We’ve had it rough, haven’t we? Decades of losing has seemingly spilled beyond the football field and into our lives.
Our economy and education go down the tubes. Crime and corruption steadily rise. The close-knit bonds that kept our community together slowly unravel as more and more relocate.
And then there was Katrina.
It felt like the final body blow that put us down for the count. Observers from around the country shook their heads and turned to walk away.
But we kept breathing. We shook the stars out of our head and staggered to our feet. We refused to give in.
For many of us, this feels like a morning of triumph. We have finally achieved the victory that has eluded us all these years.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the cold, hard truth is that we can’t relax, we must keep swinging.
Reality is less like the trophy ceremony and more like the tie score at halftime.
I feel less like Sharper holding up the trophy and more like Reggie right after the fumble. “It ain’t over. I think I still got another TD in my bones.”
We have been winning some battles lately, but the war isn’t over.
So as I reflect on things this morning, I believe that this is a morning of hope. We have faith. We see the future that can be ours. It is within our grasp.
If the Saints can actually make it to the Super Bowl [admit it, you didn't think it was really possible, did you?], then our city can be transformed.
The question is, are we willing to work for it?
The reason we are planting a church in New Orleans is because we believe that she can be restored one neighborhood at a time.
We’ve seen the power of the church unleashed upon our city, haven’t we? Wave after wave of churches have come into our town and lovingly helped us rebuild.
The next wave will be New Orleanians banding together and fighting together, becoming Jesus’ Hands as He rebuilds our lives, our souls and our city.
That’s really what the church is supposed to be, right? It’s a team. A rally. A brotherhood. It is the Kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven. It’s light in a dark world. It is love in the midst of hate. It is hope in the midst of tragedy.
New Orleans needs more than a new mayor. It needs a new movement of God.
We believe.
Are you with us?
Year End Giving
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Be sure to check out our Financial Update on the church plant.
As you think through your year end giving, we would love for you to consider us!
seasonal running or lack thereof
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So yesterday morning I was running on the trail by our apartment here in Little Rock. It was cold. It’s dipped below freezing for the first time this season. That is cold for a New Orleanian. I was thankful to be bundled up [beanie hat, gloves, arm warmers, layers, etc]. Nonetheless, I was just not feeling it.
It has been interesting to note how the weather affects my psyche. It is becoming increasingly harder and harder to get out of bed at 6am to hit the trail. You can imagine the cold before you even walk out the door. In fact, you can imagine it before you get out from under the covers.
To make matters worse, it feels like I have nothing to train for right now. We are past all of the Fall road races that I wanted to run and the Spring is months away.
I read an article in Runner’s World a couple of weeks ago on running only to maintain your fitness level. It feels like that I what I am doing right now. I am trying to run the minimal amount necessary to not loose ground. Progress is optional. This article seems to think that is a good objective through the colder months.
So that leads me to my musings during my run yesterday. I pondered, “Is it a good idea to make your goal simply to maintain fitness?” Is it even possible? It feels a bit like I’m spinning my wheels and beginning to slip backwards.
This isn’t really a discussion about running, it’s about life. In every area, we reach seasons where we are tired of pressing on and begin to believe the lie that we can just tread water.
Then we begin sinking.
Tebow’s eyeblack verse of the week [lol] was Heb 12.1-2:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.“
That speaks to a lot of life, doesn’t it?
Amish Buggies, Phillies Tickets & Forgotten Beauty
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Beauty is a curious thing. Something inside of us insatiably craves things that are beautiful. When we find them we capture them and hang them up on a wall in our houses. But once we finally have beauty in our grasp, it slowly leaks through our fingers. We can’t hold onto it. We find ourselves rushing past it ten times a day without even a fleeting glance. The beauty that initially captivated us becomes common.
And then we have guests over for dinner.
Our friends come over and enjoy the pot roast and the conversation and they marvel at the beauty hanging above the mantle. They stare at it and they oh and ah. They ask, “how in the world did you find this?”
We just smile while beauty comes flooding back and overtakes us once again.
Lawrence and Alf were my dinner guests this weekend in Pennsylvania. We spent four days exploring Philly and Lancaster County, reminiscing with old friends, and eating.
First of all, we met with individuals or groups from five churches (Pike Creek Bible Church, New Hope Community Church, Christian Fellowship Church, Calvary Church, Grace Fellowship Church) and two universities (PBU and Eastern). All sent mission teams down to New Orleans after Katrina.
Spending time with old friends was life giving. It was so thrilling to be reminded of the stories of lives around the country impacted by “the Katrina experience.” We probably have underestimated the number of people whose lives were redirected by a week down in New Orleans.
Maybe now more than ever, we need to be reminded of those stories. We need to know the faces that they remember helping so that we can return to those rebuilt homes and continue the story. We need to beckon them to come back down and maybe knock on those doors with us.
Walmart Parking Lot
Secondly, we team preached at Grace Fellowship Church on Sunday morning. Frankly, it is a ton of work to team teach through a sermon, but it is also a ton of fun. We learned a lot about each other and about team. Once we start the new church, I think that it will definitely be worth our time to preach together like this every once in a while. But on a regular Sunday, we’ll just rotate who preaches each week.
Finally, Alf and Lawrence got a chance to experience Crystal’s roots. We spent a majority of our time in Lancaster County and stayed with my in-laws. We chased Amish buggies into the Walmart parking lot [yes, they shop there], ate at a small town firehouse turkey dinner fundraiser and went to a Phillies game.
got tickets outside the stadium about an hour before the game for face value. Jesus provides. lol.
It was bittersweet to be around all of Crystal’s family and home culture without her, but in a way it was really good and healthy for me. I got a chance to see things through Alf and Lawrence’s fresh eyes.
I love my wife. I love all that makes her who she is. Perhaps part of it is how different her roots are than mine. I know that God has fused our
backgrounds together intentionally.
So a lot of things came together for me this weekend. Team…family…Katrina…calling…
It’s a beautiful thing.
relational learning
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Yesterday on the plane I read another chapter in Practicing Greatness by Reggie McNeal on self-development. He describes what he called “intentional learning networks” as the venue for all of us continue to develop and learn.
The residency program would fall under this category of “learning networks” as opposed to the more traditional classroom environment.
Here is a snippet of the chapter that intrigued me:
“Another factor pushing the development of the learning community is the ascendancy of relational learning in the postmodern world. Intriguingly, this development actually goes back to the way education was done in the premodern world, when teachers and pupils were much more closely bound together in a learning relationship. The mass standardization of the modern era (courtesy of the advent of the printing press) shifted the emphasis in education to curriculum, with didactic instruction that supplemented textbooks. The teacher became central as the disseminator of information, the expert passing on knowledge to those who did not have it. In relational learning the learners help to drive the process by framing the learning agenda (based on the learner’s challenges) and by taking responsibility for learning outcomes. The relationship between mentor and learner sets the ‘load limit’ of information that can be exchanged and the speed limit of how fast knowledge can be developed. If significant trust and authenticity characterizes the relationship, then a broad range of issues can be more easily addressed and at a quicker pace.”
I think this is huge for the way we do church. How does this affect what it means to develop someone as a leader in the church? How does this affect the way we view the discipleship process of every Christian? Good stuff to ponder.
Chase Oaks Trip
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So I’m down in bayou country for the weekend. I just finished a 10 mile race [Middendorf's Manchac Race. Ran a 1:18:07] and just showered up at my Mom’s house in Algiers.
Boy, has it been a good weekend. I wanted to take a couple of minutes and fill you in on what’s going on.
There is a group of 21 people from Chase Oaks Church in Plano down. This is their…I don’t know…seventh or eight Katrina mission trip. Lots of familiar faces and old friends.
But this trip is different. The energy and excitement is palpable.
Chase Oaks sees it.
This crazy idea to plant a church and turn short-term mission work into long-term church work is something that they understand and they are ready and willing to fight for it.
Over the past couple of months, we have been humbled as we have watched this church pick us up and carry us on their broad shoulders. Yes, they are supporting us financially, we are thankful for that, but they refuse to merely mail a check. They are spilling their blood in this city.
Over the past couple of days, they have been divided into three teams…
The first team has been at Alf’s House. They have caulked and painted the exterior, installed the hardwood floor and basically put all of the finishing touches on 4910 Arts St. They will help to move-in the Nelson family today. Mike Martin [one of the team members] said last night in our meeting that he is a little dumbfounded with how much work they completed in 48 hours. He said, “I don’t know. It just flowed.”
What I see is a group of people that understand the sacrifice that Alf and Aly have made to return to New Orleans. They are thrilled to play a crucial role in getting the Nelsons into their house and empowering them to focus their attention on entrenching themselves into the Gentilly community. That passion is fueling some serious sweat power.
The second team has focused on helping one of our partners: Crossroads Missions. In fact, Chase Oaks is the reason we are partnered with Crossroads [one of the staff, a guy named Bruce, is related to a Chase Oaks member]. Crossroads has focused them on helping at St. Roch Community Church. [If you recall, I blogged a couple of months back about St. Roch.] The team has focused on preparing St. Roch’s church facility for today’s visit with some key partners from Florida [in town for some football game].
What I see is a group of people who are strengthening some relationships that are important to us as a church plant. We absolutely love what both Crossroads and St. Roch are doing in the city! We want to support and partner with both as much as we can.
The final team as been doing street ministry with Lawrence. Lawrence has taken 5-6 team members down into the French Quarter each day armed with McD’s hamburgers. God has blessed and they have come home with some awe-inspiring stories of doors blown open to minister in a significant way to the homeless population of New Orleans. Oh, and it doesn’t stop there: they might be taking two individuals back to Dallas with them to connect them into rehab programs at Union Gospel Mission.
I see a group of people who share our passion for the homeless population of New Orleans and seek to provide holistic ministry that meets the physical, emotional and spiritual needs that exist in their lives.
In short, Chase Oaks is literally part of the team that is planting a church in Gentilly. We couldn’t be happier.
This is not ya momma’s church plant. This is post-Katrina New Orleans where you can not only partner through prayer and financial support, but you can come down and join the team. This is a movement of God’s Spirit that extends beyond the borders of New Orleans and into churches all over the US.
We need Chase Oaks. And we need you. We can’t do this alone.
running peaks and valleys
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Man, one thing we have learned thus far about the Fellowship Associates Church Planting Residency is that it ebbs and flows. Some weeks are just packed out with activities. We have recently hit a busy season. Thus, I haven’t had time to post here much.
Rather than updating you on what I’m learning in the program [I'll try to do that in a series of posts over the next couple of days], I figured I’d let you know how my running is going. I have recently hit an interesting patch that is probably pretty common for runners.
So let me tell you all about it…
About a month ago, I ran 14 miles on a Saturday morning. It was a great run. In fact, it was the furthest I’ve ever run in my life. I have to admit, I was kinda amazed at the pace I kept up for 14 miles. Not only that, it was the culmination of a really good week where I was setting PRs left and right. I was running on a high. Felt really, really good.
Then I started hitting some snags in my running routine. We went on a couple of road trips, I got sick, I had a couple of bad blisters, the Residency schedule got busy. All that added up to me missing some of my runs and losing some ground. I felt all of the momentum I had built starting to slip away. Thankfully, I was still getting in enough runs to not lose everything, but I definitely felt like I wasn’t at the same level I had just been a week or two before.
I guess that is the nature of running. I guess that is the reason why most runners design these intricate training schedules that lead right up to race day. When you peak, it’s a peak. You can’t hang around on the mountaintop all that long. The key is to peak at the right time.
my new kicks
So I feel like the last week or so has gotten me back to where I want to be.
What made the difference?
First of all, I bought new shoes. [That always helps a runner to be excited.] Part of my downfall over the past couple of weeks was realizing that my old shoes weren’t working for me anymore. It’s time for me to go with something lighter with less support that is more conducive to a mid-foot strike [landing on the middle of your foot rather than on your heel]. I’ve learned that I’m pretty light for a runner, I have an efficient stride and I keep a fairly fast pace. All that means that the expensive shoes with all of the extra cushion and support hurts me more than helps. [By the way, I've also learned that Target is the best place to shop for running socks that are cheap and good. New socks help too.]
Secondly, I simply focused on what I needed to do to get back on track. I ran. I ran even when I didn’t feel like it. Some days, honestly, weren’t fun at all. Then, like magic, on Thursday I was running and all of a sudden it hit me: I feel good again.
I do wonder how true that is in many areas of our life. Do we try to go all out all of the time? Do we ever attempt to figure out how to create schedules that allow us to peak at the right time? The reality is that all of us have busy seasons of life. Do we manage our stress well?
What about from a spiritual perspective? If we are honest, none of us live on the mountaintop, do we? We have highs and lows. Do we think about how our actions and decisions help to determine when those occur? Do we think about what we need to do to pull ourselves out of the ditch?
For me, this year is about learning. I’m learning a lot about church planting and what church could look like. More than that, I’m learning about me. I’m realizing all of the mistakes I have made in the past and seeking God’s help to redeem my inadequacies and use me to bring restoration to New Orleans!
the NOLA Church Plant logo explained
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So perhaps you’ve noticed that we unveiled our “logo” for the church plant. I’m really happy about it. It was designed by our friend Samantha Carr. She did a great job.
Just to be clear, this is not the new church logo. In fact, we haven’t even determined the name of the new church. Part of this church planting process is the gathering of a core group of people who will help to start this new church. We want that group to have a hand in the selection of a name and the inspiration of a logo.
So the purpose of this logo is to help us communicate the vision and dreams of this church plant. We need a movement of people, both in New Orleans and around the country, who will rally around us to support, pray and encourage this new church. This logo is one of the tools God can use to help spark that movement.
The logo is inspired by the Crescent City Connection Bridge that spans the Mississippi River in New Orleans. For us, it is a great symbol that represents a number of things…
First of all, we our moving ministry “across the River.” Berean Bible Church is on the Westbank of the Mississippi and the new church plant will be on the Eastbank. For four years, we have sent short-term mission teams over that bridge to help people rebuild [the Westbank didn't flood].
Secondly, we want to be a church that “builds bridges” into our neighborhoods. Frankly, we are sick and tired of church being defined by merely coming together for a Sunday morning worship service. We want church to also be defined by going together into the darkest parts of our world to bring the Kingdom of God to bear upon the needs we find there. It’s time to stop standing around waiting for the needs to come to us. It’s time to cross over the gulfs in our lives that prevent us from going to the other side.
Thirdly, we love our city! This bridge is a symbol that defines our town and we want to embrace and love it!
our day with Fitz
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Whew. It has been quite a week. The Fellowship Associates Residency program has dunked us into some pretty exciting waters the last couple of days. I have hardly had a chance to catch my breath. Now that things are beginning to settle down [at least for 24 hours before Crystal and I leave for New Orleans on Thursday evening], I’m sitting in a Starbucks reflecting on what I want to share with you about the last couple of days. I could easily fill a couple of posts with stories and reflections.
I think that all five residents would hands down agree that one of our most exciting and inspiring meetings of the whole program so far occurred on Monday when we met with Fitz Hill.
Fitz Hill is currently the president of Arkansas Baptist College. ABC is a small historically black college here in Little Rock. It was founded back in the 1880s by former slaves. It is infused into an old neighborhood that reminds me a lot of the Ninth Ward [pre-Katrina]. It seems that this was the area where the first black homeowners bought their homes back in the day. Over the years, it has become overwhelmed by blight, poverty and crime.
Fitz tackled the job of President in 2006. While he has a doctorate in education, his background is primarily in coaching. Fitz was the Assistant Head Coach at Arkansas and the Head Coach at San Jose State. At the time, he was one of only five African-American division I football coaches in the nation. [One funny tidbit...when he found out I was from NOLA, he asked me where I went to high school to see if he ever recruited there. I said, "No, I'm pretty sure you never recruited at Ben Franklin." lol.]
We sat down with Fitz in the president’s board room for our meeting before grabbing lunch with him in the school cafeteria and ending with a tour of the school campus. Fitz pumped us all up with his vision that was literally being built before our eyes.
When Fitz took over in 2006 [that's three years ago], the school had about 150 students and was on the verge of shutting it’s doors. Today, it has 900 students and about 10 million dollars of ongoing construction projects to make it a state of the art school. They have purchased/acquired probably close to a dozen of the blighted properties in the neighborhood and they are turning them into dorms, offices, small businesses [run by students], GED/tutoring centers, parks, etc. They are literally transforming their entire community.
The craziest part…when we walked into the cafeteria…I literally didn’t see one female student. I almost choked on my lunch when Fitz told us that of their 900 students about 600-700 are males. Steve Snider [one of our FA mentors, who is a lifelong friend of Fitz's] later told us that when Fitz goes through the drive-thru at McDonald’s, he’ll ask the young male at the counter if he has ever thought about college and then precede to “recruit” him. Fitz told us that he travels around the regional area [rural Arkansas, northern Louisiana, etc.] and recruits black males with 15s, 16s on their ACT to go to his school. He pursues them like a college football coach would pursue a blue-chip athlete.
No one does that. No one.
In fact, I’m willing to bet that a majority of college presidents would admit off the record that they would be happy if those guys never set foot on their college campuses.
He challenged us to think long and hard about what role we can play in fighting that battle alongside of him. By we, I mean white, middle-class Christians [four of the five church planting residents are white]. He challenged us to think long and hard about tokenism [half-heartedly pursuing diversity]. He decried multi-culturalism as an inadequate solution that could potentially distract the exact group of people that have the most potential to help the cause. His words reminded me a bit of Steve Biko, the South African thinker/activist during the Apartheid era.
It was [literally] awesome.
So I find myself asking the question…what kind of role can I play? I will be [am already?] a church leader in New Orleans. We seek to become a church that reflects the makeup of our city. We seek to become a church that tackles crime and poverty directly.
The question I must ask myself is, “why?”
Why do I want that? Is it so my white middle-class conscience can go to bed feeling content? Further, “What am I willing to give up?”
Are we willing to hand-off ministry and opportunities to others when necessary? Are we more concerned about getting glory or making an lasting impact?
Are we Kingdom-minded or are we only desiring to build our own kingdom?
I’m very happy to say that Fitz is on our schedule a number of times over the residency program. I can’t wait to hear more.
tell me about your team [part two - punt]
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I still remember the first foreign mission trip that I lead as a youth pastor. We drove down into the mountains of central Mexico to work on a youth camp that was being built by our Missionaries friends Brock and Heather Hower. It was a great trip.
Whenever we took trips outside of the US, we would open up our Youth trip to adults in the church. Lawrence “Punt” Sisung, an elder and financial investment banker, decided to come. I knew Lawrence fairly well at the time, but I had no idea what kinda “entertainment” would be waiting for us across the border.
For some reason, I think work related, Lawrence was unable to drive down with us to Mexico. He flew in the day after we arrived. So by the time he showed up, we were already getting acclimated and comfortable.
Lawrence showed up decked out for the wilderness: brand new camping jacket, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, multiple new flashlights, handheld GPS and satellite phone. Apparently he had gone to the local camping store with a map of Mexico, pointed to a spot and said, “I’m going here. What do I need?” All of the teenage boys smiled and eyed all of these camping toys that they could tinker around with for the next two weeks.
Sometime in the middle of the Lawrence’s first night, the whole camp awoke to sound of yelling outside. The boys rushed out in their boxers to find Lawrence being chased back from the outhouse by a “wolf”… the camp dog he hadn’t met yet.
Oh, we still won’t let him live that one down.
It was a great trip. As a youth pastor, I was really grateful to see this white-collar investment banker get dirty in many ways. Of course, he worked his tail off to help build the camp. More important than that, though, was the relationships I watched him build with teenage boys. By the end of the trip, he knew those boys…and I’ve watched him continue to reach out and mentor them.
By the way, we took that trip in August of 2005. Less than a month later, our hometown was under water.
And we thought building a camp in Mexico was hard work…
It quickly became apparent to the leadership at Berean that the two men would would have the time, ability and passion to lead Hurricane Recovery ministries would be Doug and Lawrence.
So we dove in together, and we have absolutely loved it. Lawrence has challenged my faith in so many ways. I think our students probably got tired of hearing me use “Lawrence illustrations” in my talks on Sunday nights. I have to admit that I have honestly never known anyone who ruthlessly trusts God quite in the way that Lawrence does. He prays a ton and then he steps out in faith. I love spending a day with him because inevitably I’ll (1) pray more than I ever would on my own and (2) be thrown into an uncomfortable and unbelievable ministry opportunity that I would never have taken.
On the other hand, Lawrence would say that he could never have survived the past four years of ministry without me by his side. He would say that many of the ministry opportunities would never have happened if I hadn’t provided the structure around him to give him the freedom to follow God’s Spirit. He would say that God has used me to challenge him.
So when the opportunity arose to plant a church. I knew that I wanted Lawrence alongside of me…I knew that I needed Lawrence alongside of me. It took Lawrence a long time to process and gain clarity on whether or not his ministry should shift to the church plant. Just recently Lawrence felt tugged to finally join our team.
So that makes three of us as full-time co-pastors/co-planters: Alf, Lawrence and I. I have to admit, I think we might quite the formidable team. The idea of planting a church together brings to us a sense of confidence that never would be there otherwise. We have all talked about what the image of a “church planter” looks like in our minds. It intimidates us. As Alf likes to say, the expectation is that a church planter is “Jesus with a red cape.” We are asking God to use our three sets of complementary gifts, passions and backgrounds together to make an impact for the Kingdom.
Furthermore, we are all friends. We love spending time together. It is difficult right now for me to be in Little Rock while Alf and Lawrence are in New Orleans. We have decided to spend every Wednesday morning on a conference call together so that God can continue to bind us together over this period of separation.
Our team, though, extends way beyond the three of us. In fact, we believe that God is calling us to weave to concept of team into every little detail of how this new church operates.
Perhaps you are supposed to be part of our team too?
