Drawing Inspiration from Biographies

Recently I have really been interested in reading biographies. Last month I read The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate. For Christmas my sister, Cameron, got me Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. Both of these books are fascinating because they describe in detail people who followed Jesus with reckless abandon during their short lifetimes. Beecher contributed greatly to the abolition of slavery in America, and Bonhoeffer sacrificed his life for the sake of standing up to the tremendous evil of the Nazis during WWII. I have enjoyed reading about these two great men because their lives stand in contrast to the messages of comfort and safety that permeate modern Christianity in America. For some reason many Christians in America have bought into the idea that our lives should be built around comfort, safety, and being nice. That type of thinking drastically reduces the radical message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead, Christians should be embracing a risky, dangerous life on the edge that is sold out to doing whatever it takes to advance the Kingdom of God in a world that is set against us and an ememy who wants only to destroy us. We are all born into a world at war, even if it is a war that we cannot always see. Embracing the modern comforts of this world and obsessing over safety for ourselves and our families only leads to us being taken out by the enemy and leading marginalized lives. We only get one shot at this short life. People like Beecher and Bonhoeffer are great examples of how we can live dangerously in the callings that God gives each of us for his mission in this world.

Merry Christmas

I had a great time celebrating the birth of Jesus at the worship services at North Way Oakland today. This is such an exciting time of year for a pastor! Followers of Jesus have the opportunity to reflect on the relationship with our Savior, and people seeking after God seem to be very open to hearing the gospel message. Here in Homewood, we spent a lot of time with our neighbors today celebrating Christmas. We exchanged gifts, and we talked a lot about how we would be spending Christmas Day with our families. I know I am definitely looking forward to sharing Christmas with my girls. We are going to have a lot of fun together this year.

More Progress in the East End

The North Way East End church campus took another big step forward today... the launch team served together during the 9am worship services in Oakland for the third and final time. We have really been able to build a lot of momentum toward the launch over the past three weeks, and I am so thankful to all of our friends at North Way Oakland for their partnership and support. The East End staff has been hired, the ministry center is close to being built out, and now we are shifting a good deal of our attention to the prelaunch services in the East End beginning on January 15th at 10am. This has been quite an adventure so far!

Progress in the East End

I had a great time meeting with the East End staff yesterday at our temporary offices (much thanks to Myles Dental on Highland Ave for hooking us up with the space through launch). We dreamed together about what God is doing in the East End, and we spent a lot of time getting to know one another. It was so exciting to see everyone working together... God has brought some incredible leaders to this church campus. Here are a couple photos of the North Way East End team in action:

Also, I am greatly encouraged by the construction that is happening in the East End ministry center. The studs and drywall are up, and I can tell already that the space is going to be amazing. God will move in many ways through the space that he has provided for us to gather as his church. Construction is on track and should be ready by the end of the month. Here's a photo from a recent walk through:

This is great time to be a part of God's grand adventure in the heart of the city of Pittsburgh. And I know this is just the beginning... big things are underway in th East End!

Dissertation Upate

I haven't written on here for a while, but for good reason... I finished my dissertation first draft! All 194 pages of it! It still needs to go through some editing over the next couple of months, so I'm not ready to reveal it to the world, yet. Still, I'm excited that this big step has come. This has been an incredible challenge, and I'm one step closer to being Dr. McCabe on June 2, 2012.

A Fun Evening in the City

Last night was a great night. The evening started off with a bunch of kids from the neighborhood stopping by to visit us, and they ended up staying for dinner. It's amazing to see how the food that we have at dinner always gets multiplied to feed growing kids from my neighborhood. Last night's meat loaf and mac and cheese went a long way! After dinner, I bumped into four kids I know on my way over to worship and serve at the House of Manna so I invited them to hang out with me. North Way's East End campus had a bunch of volunteers serving at House of Manna, so it was good to be a part of a great relationship building opportunity in Homewood. After House of Manna I took my daughters over to the North Way Oakland Christmas concert. It was absolutely incredible! I am so blessed to be a part of a church that worships the Lord in so many powerful ways. Last night God was honored in many different ways, through service, through feeding hungry people, through gospel music, through Christmas music, and in many other ways. I love the calling that God has given me in the city.

A Big Weekend

This is a big weekend for the North Way East End launch team. On Friday night a group of volunteers are serving at the House of Manna in Homewood. On Saturday, the East End worship team practices together for the first time. On Sunday, East End launch team members will be serving together at the 9am worship service at North Way Oakland. The next few weeks will be fun as we develop new frienships with one another and begin preparing for worship services in the East End in January. This is a great time to be a part of something new at North Way!

Learning from At-risk Youth

Over the past couple of weeks I've been reviewing all of the interviews that I completed with at-risk young people in Pittsburgh and Honduras for my dissertation. The kids all have a story to tell, and it is a story that needs to be heard by the people in mainstream society who choose to ignore the kids. Many of the youth I talked to told me about the many obstacles in their lives that they have had to overcome, including poverty, abuse, dysfunctional schools, broken families, drugs, gangs, crimes, and isolation. They opened up about their hopes and dreams for the future. I have seen first hand how God is able to intervene in the lives of hurting people in order to redeem them. The stories of the young people I have interviewed have been full of heartbreak and hope, failures and forgiveness, set backs and resilience. I have learned so much from the tough kids I've spent time with over the years. God has given me eyes to see the beauty that comes when the smaller, painful stories being lived out by troubled youth find their place in God's Story. Transformation is a process, and there are many ups and downs in working with high risk youth. Still, the risks are well worth the rewards associated with how God has been able to teach me. Sometimes the streets are the best classrooms, and people suffering through the struggles of poverty are the best teachers in the school of life. I know a doctoral dissertation is supposed to be about me sharing information with the world, but thus far my dissertation has been much more about what God is showing me through the eyes of people who are close to God but rejected by mainstream society.

Black Friday

Black Friday breaks my heart. God has given me the privilege of becoming very close to many friends and neighbors struggling through the grind of deep, urban poverty. I often wish Christians in America with access to resources would demonstrate as much passion to steward those resources (time, money, and talent) on behalf of God with people in need as they do on themselves and their families. We disobey God when we ignore the needs of the poor so that we can have more stuff (even if that stuff comes at a "great" price on Black Friday). God calls all Christians to be radicals for the sake of advancing the Kingdom of God. Black Friday looks to me like radical behavior that lines up really well with the world's standards. A $1,000 flat screen TV is more than the average annual income of two-thirds of the people living on this planet. I don't think God is pleased with us selling out to the world.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm spending the day on the West Coast with my family soaking up the sun. We are visiting some good friends that we made when we lived in California. God has really blessed our family this year, and we have much to be thankful for. My wife, Julie, is an amazing woman who loves me well and is an incredible mother. I am so thankful for my daughters, Kyra and Sierra, who bring so much joy and meaning to life. God has blessed us with the opportunity to launch a new church and remain involved in the transformational work that is going on through LAMP. I am a much different person today than I was three years ago when I started the Doctor of Ministry program at Bakke Graduate University, and the courses I've taken this year in California, Honduras, and New York have be life changing. I am so thankful for the DMin program! I love living in Homewood, and I am thankful for the many neighbors and friends who have taught me so much while living in the city. I am thankful for so many other things... my church, colleagues, friends, and much more. Still, at the end of the day I am most thankful for my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God has given me an amazing calling in life that brings me tremendous joy on a daily basis. I honestly cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in the year to come.

Generous and Wise Giving

During the holiday season many Americans give generously to a wide variety of causes. Americans make up 4 percent of the world's population, yet we use of 50 percent of the world's resources. From that perspective, it makes sense that we would want to give away a portion of what we have. My challenge to people this year is to make sure that we are giving to organizations that are truly working toward transformation. Sadly, many nonprofit organizations start out wanting to help people and they end up in the business of raising money to retain jobs for people doing work that is not really working to empower the people being served. I see this all the time in my work with at-risk youth. Most money that is intended to help children living in urban poverty actually never makes its way to the kids. It gets used up by the adults in power who live outside the community before it ever makes its way to the kids. If the resources do make their way to the kids in need, it often gets used on programs that do not lead to a process of transformation in the lives of the kids. That's just an example, but my point is that as Christians in America we are responsible for how we steward our money, time, and influence. It's important that before we give to any cause, we investigate that cause or organization to make sure that they are being accountable to deliver on the mission of the transforming the lives of the people being served. We need to give generously, and we also need to give wisely.

The Tension in Cities

I enjoyed a great night of community building at the East End launch team meeting last night. We shared food together, built relationships, prayed, and planned for some logistics with the new North Way campus. It is such a joy to be a part of the body of Christ! As a pastor, I love to see people connecting with one another and serving together as part of God's mission to reach the world. The city presents many challenges, but also many opportunities. I met with several elders this morning for prayer walking in East Liberty, and we all seemed to sense the magnified signs of hope and signs of need that the urban environment presents. We picked up trash as we walked and prayed. A homeless man joined us to pray for a little while. We walked past thriving businesses and abandoned businesses. There is no better place for followers of Jesus to be than right smack in the middle of the tension that is present in complex urban environments. I am so thankful to be a part of launching this church!

Launch Team Meeting Tonight

Tonight I'm looking forward to another meeting of the North Way East End launch team at the Myles Dental offices located at 715 N. Highland Ave in East Liberty. We are really starting to pick up momentum for the new North Way location! We'll share dinner together to build relationships, I'll share a little bit about the vision for the campus, we'll split up into groups of volunteers who will be serving in different areas in the East End, and then we'll spend some time out in the community getting to know our neighbors and praying for the community. It's so amazing to see all of this come together. God is doing big things in Pittsburgh!

Reaching Social Orphans in Complex Urban Environments

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to lead a break out session at the OrphanCare Expo in Pittsburgh. The event gathers together many organizations and individuals from all over Western Pennsylvania to organize around the ways that the body of Christ can work together to reach orphans and at-risk children locally and globally. My break out session was entitled, "Reaching Social Orphans in Complex Urban Environments." We defined what it means to be a social orphan, we talked about the importance of Christians engaging in complex urban environments, and then we discussed some suggestions for what followers of Jesus can do to make a difference with these types of children locally and globally. These are some of my suggestions:

Be incarnational. Just like Jesus entered into our human context, modern followers of Jesus should go to where the kids are and spend time with them in their context building relationships. Ministry does not happen in antiseptic conditions. We need to go into neighborhoods, into schools, and into many different kinds of places in order to be able to connect with kids.

Build relationships, not programs. 90 percent of people living in cities come to Christ through relationships instead of programs. Relationships are crucial to reaching people in complex urban environments. Before anyone starts a program, they should have tons of relationships with the kids they are trying to serve.

Focus on developmental relationships instead of prescriptive relationships. We need to build assets in high risk youth instead of focusing on fixing their problems. Building developmental assets leads to resilience and empowerment.

Learn from the kids. Transformation goes both ways. Adults working with kids should be good listeners, willing to learn from the kids they are serving. This goes a long way toward effectiveness and contextualization.

Consider living in the city. Most of the world's population lives in cities, and followers of Jesus can be very effective at reaching kids when they live in the city. In my opinion, Christians should be running into the arms of the city instead of running away from the city.

Focus on transformation instead of transaction. Many organizations aimed at reaching social orphans and high risk youth start out with intentions of helping kids, but they end up fundraising and existing so that adults can hold on to their jobs. Organizations focused on transforming the lives of at-risk youth should eventually work themselves out of existence because they are so effective at empowering the young people where they are serving.

Build partnerships. Urban issues are complex, and Christians should work together to come up with complex solutions. No one church or one organization can possibly be effective at reaching at-risk kids alone. We must partner and creatively work together.

Be an advocate. Compassion is the low hanging fruit for evangelical Christians. We line up to give things to help people in need, but few of us do the hard work of focusing on why kids end up being social orphans in the first place. People like lawyers, politicians, and real estate developers can do great harm or great good depending on how much of an advocate they are for people who are impacted by their work. Christians should advocate for justice in addition to being compassionate.

Overcome the jungle mentality. Some people are called to go oversees to jungles to reach hurting children, but most of us have social orphans living right in our own cities in America. Go global, but let's not lose sight of the hurting young people in our own neighborhoods.

Overcome fear. I know many Christians in America who are afraid to get involved in helping kids in our cities because of fear. We are obsessed with safety in America. I believe that God is calling us to much more than complacency or being paralyzed by fear. Followers of Jesus can make a huge impact in the lives of many at-risk youth if we would simply take the first step to go beyond our comfort zones.

NYC Urban Immersion - Day Five

This was my last full day in New York City. I'll miss the city and the many new friendships I've made this week, but I really cannot wait to get back to Pittsburgh to be with my friends and family. I've learned so much about God's heart for reaching the city from some of the most incredible urban leaders in the world. This morning Ray Bakke lectured about how Paul went to many different kinds of cities, and he modeled many different approaches to reaching people in those cities depending on the culture and context. The gospel message of Jesus Christ never changes, but different methods of carrying forth the message should be utilized. Our first site visit this morning was to Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan where the congregation is led by a pastor named Heidi Neumark. Around a third of the population of the church is Latino, a third is African-American, and a third is white. In attracting a cross-cultural crowd, she has incorporated a lot of art and diverse imagery into her teaching and the look of the church. I gained some great ideas about how to connect with many different groups of people in the East End of Pittsburgh. After lunch we all spent time with Tim Keller, a pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. He shared with us about his journey in life, and how Christian leaders can lead effectively in complex urban environments. He has tried to create an "ecosystem" in New York that leads to sustainable church growth and planting plus effective partnerships with specialized parachurch organizations. Church plants are important for established churches in cities, and vice versa. Keller has been very effective at bridging the gap between personal evangelism and social justice in evangelical churches, and it was interesting to hear his perspectives in person. In the late afternoon we visited the studio of Makoto Fujimura, an artist who is impacting culture in New York and around the world through the International Arts Movement. Our class had a wonderful discussion about how Christians can impact culture in cities through the arts, and many of us pastors had lots of questions about how we can integrate the arts into our churches. I heard some wonderful ideas that I just might try out in Pittsburgh. For our last stop in the day, we visited NYU, the largest private university in the country with 50,000 students. We spoke to the Protestant chaplain about her role in providing spiritual support for students at NYU, a door that has opened up a lot since 9/11 caused the university to be more open to religous activity on campus. We also heard from a Muslim chaplain and a Jewish chaplain who support students at NYU. It was very interesting to listen in on the interfaith dialogue that these three campus leaders have opened up with one another. The conversations between the chaplains and my classmates were also fascinating.

We have been introduced to some of the most significant leaders in all of New York this week, and it has been a lot to take in! Today was another great day. The pastor at the Lutheran Church this morning introduced some powerful ways to connect with people from the neighborhood cross-culturally, Tim Keller provided us with some powerful thoughts, and the rest of the speakers throughout the course of the day were full of insight. I was surprised at how interested my classmates were in integrating the arts into their churches, and I was equally surprised by some of the answers the artists provided as advice to pastors. The artists suggested that instead of pastors thinking about how to use art in the church, that pastors should go to where the artists live and do their work and spend time with them in order to get to know them and learn more about their art (whether it is on canvas, or with a voice, or with an instrument, etc.). Interaction with artwork does not need to be transactional right out of the gate. We do not need to try to force Christian meaning into the world of art. Art, as with all things in the life of the church, is a gift from God.

I'm sure I will be trying to apply many things at North Way based upon today's experiences. For one, I need to continue to try to learn the context and culture in the East End of Pittsburgh as we approach our launch date. I am really thinking through the artwork and design of the East End Ministry Center. I think we could do some innovative things to attract a more diverse group of people to the church. I'm thinking murals and different kinds of artwork that are welcoming to many different kinds of people. Tim Keller encouraged us to build strong relationships with parachurch organizations that specialize in certain parts of the church's mission, and in the East End I am going to continue to connect with organizations that can help us to reach many different kinds of people. Partnerships can be really helpful to both churches and the organizations. LAMP is a great example of that in Pittsburgh. Our church has much to build on, and many areas that we can grow together.

NYC Urban Immersion - Day Four

Today was another dream day for an urban pastor! We left early this morning and traveled by bus from Manhattan to Brooklyn to visit the largest evangelical church in northeast America. Christian Cultural Center, led by Pastor AR Bernard, is one of the top five largest churches in the country with over 35,000 members. The church has a lot of diversity, and the majority of members are African-American. I learned so many things that I'll be trying to figure out how to implement at the North Way East End campus. The church places a HUGE emphasis on hospitality, relationships, a welcoming environment, arts integration, missiology, technology, and church history. Pastor Bernard encouraged us as pastors to lead from our hearts and be ourselves (not trying to be like some other pastor we may want to emulate). The church is diverse partially because their worship is eclectic with classical, jazz, and hymns, and their teaching resonates with many different types of people. They favor dynamic orthodoxy over static tradition. Their church objectives are to effecively care for people, efficiently manage resources, and enable real growth (discipleship). The time spent at CCC was truly an amazing experience, and I am so thankful that I was able to learn from such a good leader in the heart of Brooklyn. We left one of the most influential churches in the 21st century to travel to a different part of Brooklyn where we spent time at the largest and most famous church of the 19th century, Plymouth Church, which was the first megachurch in America founded by Henry Ward Beecher in 1849. During the Civil War era Beecher was widely considered to be the most famous man in America due to his unique communication skills mixed with his role as an abolitionist. The current pastor of Plymouth Church, David Fisher, was a classmate of Ray Bakke's at Trinity Seminary many years ago. He spoke to us about what it is like to lead a church with a rich tradition in an affluent neighborhood in which many people are athiests in a strong secular society. When he took over as the tenth pastor of the church several years ago there were only a handful of people attending. The church was mostly made up of unitarians who were remnants from a period when the name of Jesus was forbidden to be mentioned for 99 years. He has come to the church and they are experiencing a revival and growth to several hundred people. He talked to us about the hostility that he faces from people who worship money and are hostile toward religion. He shared several keys for modern church leaders. It is important for Christian leaders to understand culture and context, the best ministry is incarnational, leadership is helping people find God's will for their lives, we need to utilize effective theology, we must understand that we are not the Holy Spirit, and good pastors are amateur sociologists and anthropologists.

Over the past couple of days we went to one church that grew locally because the pastor cast a vision to impact the world globally. We went to one church that grew because the pastor emphasized prayer. We went to another church that grew because the pastor emphasized organization and corporate structures that supported the gospel message and discipleship through relationships. We visited another church that grew because an experienced minister served as a doctor to fix the sicknesses facing the church. The point is, there are many different effective approaches to church in the city. It is important for pastors to contextualize what is going on in their churches and cities in order to be effective, but there is no one right way to do church. The Holy Spirit is able to work through many different ways to advance the Kingdom of God, and we also need to celebrate his role in doing that over the past 2,000 years of Christian history. I was completely amazed by the stark contrast between the churches we visited today.

With regard to application, I gained MANY ideas about how we can be effective in the East End of Pittsburgh. We will still have North Way's DNA, but it will definitely be my role as the campus pastor to contextualize the worship experience in the East End. That means I will need to continue to spend a lot of time in the neighborhoods getting to know people and places, including pastors, churches, restaurants, organizations, streets, and everything in between. At this point I think that I am planning to walk around the East End, beginning in East Liberty, and visit every single church in order to find out more about the work that God is already doing in the East End. From a more tangible perspective, I have some great ideas about cross-cultural ministry that should be very helpful in the urban environment where I live and work. I am so excited to get back to Pittsburgh to jump right in!

NYC Urban Immersion - Day Three

Today was one of the best days I've had in a long time. I can't even begin to describe how the Holy Spirit ministered to me today, and how much God opened my heart to new perspectives on his mission to advance his Kingdom. I am truly blessed to be a part of this doctorate program at BGU. On this day I had the opportunity to spend time with some of the most influential leaders in the body of Christ. This morning Ray Bakke gave one of his classic lectures about how most money that is intended to help poor people is actually filtered out of poor urban neighborhoods to middle class urban or suburban neighborhoods. He provided a biblical foundation for why Christian leaders should care about such issues and become engaged as transformational leaders and stewards. That type of thinking is a big reason why I moved my family to Homewood in Pittsburgh. Any Christian serving the poor should go about it in an empowering way. The gospel is good news, and it is empowering. After Ray's morning lecture we visited Dr. Mark Gornick, the founder of City Seminary, a training school for urban Christian leaders that delivers a curriculum similar to BGU in that cities are the laboratories and theory is all tied in practically. A woman named Dr. Janice McClain, an pastor who immigrated to America from Jamaica when she was a teenager, shared with us about how Harlem is being gentrified and pastors like her are learning how to be effective at ministering in complex urban environments. In the afternoon we all went to Bethel Gospel Assembly, a huge multicultural church in Harlem, where Bishop Dr. Carlton Brown shared with us about how his church is doing amazing things reaching many different types of people for Christ in Harlem, in the greater New York region, and in countries all over the world. It is so amazing and inspiring to see the fruit that God is able to bring forth from churches who are missional to the core. Yesterday I visited a Chinese church that is reaching thousands of people all over the world, and today I visited a church made up mostly of African-American and Latino people who are making a huge difference in the world for the sake of Christ. Vision is a holy discontent for the way things are, and good pastors are able to be visionary. Also, there are many different ways to be effective at urban ministry. Much depends on context and vision. In the late afternoon we visited Brooklyn Tabernacle, another huge multiracial church with over 10,000 members that was started in what was once one of the most violent and dangerous neighorhoods in Brooklyn. The senior pastor, Jim Cymbala, spent several hours with us describing how the church started with only a few members and how through the power of prayer God has done amazing things. He shared with us about the importance of prayer in churches. He told us that the church must be about LOVE, or our message will get lost in all of the craziness associated with the institutional church. He encouraged all of us to be real, and not try to be actors as pastors. He also mentioned that the biggest challenge facing the modern church is at-risk youth, and that all churches should develop strategies for reaching troubled urban youth. That made me feel good that North Way has been doing just that in our city of Pittsburgh through the LAMP mentoring initiative.

There is just far too much that happened to me today to describe in this blog. I'll only be able to unpack it all over a good cup of coffee with lots of people back in Pittsburgh. God is so amazing! I honestly cannot think of a better way to learn. We learn deep theories in a classroom, and then we go out into the streets to see how that theology and theory is being applied. I was completely surprised by how authentic and engaged these amazing leaders were today. The Holy Spirit really worked through Jim Cymbala in particular to encourage me that cross-cultural church is not only possible, but essential for the growth of the church in cities in America. He also demonstrated the importance of prayer as the foundation for living out God's purposes.

I was greatly encouraged today in the three things that I am most passionate about in Pittsburgh: working with at-risk youth, missional church, and multiracial church. Today I interacted with pastors who are living out profound callings in all three of those areas, and it is so inspiring to have access to people who have been down the road that I am only beginning to go down in Pittsburgh. My heart is to continue to reach the at-risk young people that I am working with in Homewood, to continue to encourage North Way to get outside the walls of our church buildings in order to build relationships with people who are not Christians, and to remain committed to the dream of leading a multiracial church campus in the East End. All of these things are possible with God, and today my Father blessed me with the gift of encouragement and empowerment. I am ready for the next steps in Pittsburgh!

NYC Urban Immersion - Day Two

This morning started with Ray giving a lecture about God's description of a healthy city in Isaiah 65. Heaven will be an urban environment, and the cities will be characterized by happiness, healthiness, good housing, plenty of food, strong extended families, integrity of work, and the absence of conflict. Christians leaders in today's cities should all be striving to work toward the heavenly standards that God described in Isaiah 65. Modern urban churches face many challenges, however. The challenges are sociological because cities contain so much pluralism. For instance, one zip code in Flushing that we visited today has 130 different languages and New York City in general has people who speak over 800 different languages. There are over 2 million Jews, 1 million Chinese, 800,000 Muslims, 400,000 Hindus, 100,000 West Africans, and 100,000 Sikhs in New York City. All of the Chinese people who live outside of China, nearly 140 million people, represent the tenth largest country in the world. Church leaders must adapt in order to reach people in a pluralistic society. We need to figure out how to connect with many different kinds of people, not become afraid to talk to people who are different than us. The early church set an example of diversity in church leadership in Acts 13, where we see that the church leadership in Antioch contained two African, two Asian, and one European pastor. The pastors were selected intentionally to reflect the diversity in Antioch and the greater region. Churches also face structural, denominational, financial, and personal challenges in modern cities. Chris Clayman, a missionary in NYC, then lectured about his ministry to the large diapora of 100,000 West African immigrants living in New York City. He does spend some time in the West African nation of Mali, but most of his mission lies in reaching the Muslim population from Mali that lives in New York. Many American Christians rush to take short term mission trips to exotic jungles oversees, but they won't reach out to the people from many different nationalities living in their own cities and back yards. Early Christianity spread rapidly through the Jewish Diaspora, so why can't God work through us today to reach diaspora people groups in modern cities? Clayman suggested that churches need to build mission into their systems and structures so that we can be equipped to reach people in our own neighborhoods and cities. We took the subway to Queens to visit an Indonesian church called Seh Moon Baptist Church, where we took in a lecture by Tony Carnes who is a senior writer with Christianity Today and the founder of a web magazine with 1.4 millions viewers that covers religion in New York. Ray Bakke also lectured at that church, and he pointed out that each person in our churches has biological, geographical, vocational, and recreational spheres of influence. If we can intentionally influence people in those spheres of influence, then a congregation of 100 people suddenly is multiplied by four in order to reach 400 people. That means pastors and ministry leaders in cities should visit people where they live, work, and play in order to advance the Kingdom of God. After that we went to a big church in one of the three Chinatowns in New York in the Flushing neighborhood. We spent time with a Chinese pastor who has built new seminaries in New York, Taiwan, Canada, Brazil, Paris, Italy, China, and Hong Kong, he planted 15 churches in New York, Taiwan, and Brazil, his church has sent mission teams to many different countries in the world, and he has led a community care movement in New York that impacts many people every day. He showed us pictures of a cave that was dug in China to train church leaders. One of the great things about BGU is that I have to opportunity to learn from leaders in many different urban environments in many different countries in the world, and I get an amazing glimpse into the diversity of the body of Christ. This century that we are currently living in will be China's century of influence, so it is important for Christian leaders to understand what is going on culturally around the globe in order to be more effective at reaching people. The church we visited operates seven different church services in different languages to different people groups. I have a lot to learn from them!

I took in a lot of information today! I was greatly encouraged about the possibilities of building a cross-cultural worship experience in Pittsburgh. New York is a great place to learn about how Christians can be effective in pluralistic urban environments, and I heard about and witnessed several successful examples today. I am very intrigued about the possibilities of reaching diasporic people groups in cities in American, including in my urban context in Pittsburgh. I have often wondered why people in Pittsburgh often go to such great lengths to go on mission trips to Mexico and countries in Central America, but they completely ignore and sometimes even despise the Hispanic people living in Pittsburgh. We can all live missionally every day of our lives. Short term mission trips to other countries can be fine, but they should lead us to live missionally to reach people in our own neighborhoods and cities. I was amazed at how the Chinese church we visited today reached people in many different parts of their city and in other countries. It is possible to be locally and globally connected, and that skill set is effective in our modern global society.

I can't wait to get back to Pittsburgh to continue to work cross-culturally with LAMP and in the North Way East End community. I'm being very intentional about God's pluralistic heart, and I hope our church can continue to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and live out that kind of diversity. Pittsburgh has many different neighborhoods that are often separated from one another, but I really feel that my role as a pastor in Pittsburgh is one of a bridge builder and reconciler across cultures. That includes reconciliation across races and socioeconomic status. I am so thankful for the many models of ministry that I am experiencing this week in one of the most amazing cities on the planet... New York. Also, with regard to application, I am hoping to visit many of the people who are planning to be on the East End launch team at their places of work and recreation over the months to come. That should really help me to get to know people, because people in cities often emphasize their vocation and recreational activities. I am really looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

NYC Urban Immersion - Day One

We started the day off early today by taking the subway from my sister Cameron's house to our BGU class meeting place at the Metropolitan New York Baptist Assocation. We had the opportunity to meet 30+ new classmates and friends. Dr. Ray Bakke started the day off with a lecture about New York, and then we all divided up to go to different churches in the city. I attended worship services at Bethel Gospel Assembly, a church that takes up an entire city block in Harlem. The church was pretty diverse with a strong African-American and Latino presence in the building. The songs were many of the same songs that I am familiar with at North Way in Pittsburgh, only the style was very different. The songs all had a strong gospel feel. I asked lots of questions about how the church is intentional about being cross-cultural, and how they design their worship. I have not spent much time in pentacostal churches, so it was an enjoyable experience. We ate lunch at a soul food restaurant in Harlem, and then we watched the New York City Marathon for a while. All afternoon we toured around Wall Street, the Occypy Wall Street movement, Federal Hall, NYSE, St. Paul's Church, Trinity Church (the second richest church in the world), and the Customs House. Ray lectured a lot along the way. We then took a ferry ride to and from Staten Island as we watched the sun set on a perfect day in New York. In the evening we watched a documentary about the history of New York City back at the MNYBA.

Today was filled with a great deal of walking, which was fine since it was such a beautiful day. Walking is the best way to get to know a city. That's true in NYC and in Pittsburgh. One of my favorite things to do in Pittsburgh is walk around the city to get to know people and places. I really enjoy the BGU learning model because what we learn in the classroom is carried over into the streets. I picked up on a couple good lines that Ray said while we were walking around the city. He pointed out that the church has two functions: to be a sign of and an agent for the Kingdom of God agenda. There are several different models that are effective in cities. He used the metaphor for urban ministry that some ministries are like bicycles and some are like 747 airplanes. Depending on the context, either approach is effective or ineffective. Small churches can do things in cities that big churches cannot do, and vice versa. Storefront churches can provide a family structure for people in need, while cathedral's can speak truth to power. As Christians in the city, we should value the many different expressions of worship in the city. The diversity in New York is amazing! I am really enjoying getting to know so many people. I have classmates from all different parts of the United States, and other countries such as Brazil and Thailand. I met several campus pastors a multisite churches today, and I also met several people working with at-risk youth. I even met a guy from Chicago who launched a faith-based mentoring initiative with high risk youth in Chicago five years ago. We had a lot in common, and I love having access to these types of leaders.

I learned many transferable principles today. I need to continue to walk around the East End of Pittsburgh to get to know my community better. One of the key points we discussed today was that most churches in cities operate in silos. The pastors and church members rarely interact with people from other churches and ministries. Transformational leaders are bridge builders and reconcilers, so it is my responsibility as a pastor in Pittsburgh to build bridges with other churches and Christians in the city. As the East End campus is launched, it will be crucial for me to continue to be present in the East End as a reconciler while also remaining focused on the details associated with a new North Way campus. Every church has gifts, no matter the size, scope, or history of the mission. It's part of my job as a pastor in the city to identify those gifts.

Presence in the East End

My calling as a pastor in the East End of Pittsburgh is so unique. The region I serve is a diverse area with many different kinds of people in various stages of life. Yesterday was probably a good example of the unique skill set that is required of urban pastors. I went for a walk with my wife in East Liberty, and we had several conversations with people as we grabbed lunch at Whole Foods and strolled past Starbucks, Target, abandoned buildings, and locally owned small businesses. We are really enjoying getting to know our neighbors in East Liberty, and God is opening up many doors for conversations as we walk around and get to know people. In the afternoon I spent time with some local developers from the Pittsburgh region who are involved in massive construction projects that are planned for Homewood. These guys shared their vision for the transformation that is underway in Homewood. After they left I went out into Homewood to spend some time with people in the streets and I ended up bumping into several friends, one of whom is a Muslim. He has spent a lot of time over at our house over the past couple of years, but we lost touch with him recently when he moved to a different neighborhood. It was great to catch up with him and see how he was doing. Next, I ended up putting myself right into the middle of two dramatic situations. As a pastor, I found myself deescalating a potential incident involving gun violence between two teenagers. I also visited a mentee's house right as he was in the midst of an argument with his mother. I got him out of the house for a couple hours so they could both cool down. These are the kinds of things that make my job as a pastor in the city so unique. Cities are complex with many different kinds of people and environments. The only way to really be effective at ministering to urban people is to hit the streets. It's important to be present with people in real time, not holed up in an office in front of a computer. Urban ministry is not for everyone, but for those who have been called it is an amazing thing to be a part of. God is often able to work through me on a daily basis to accomplish his purposes, and when I wake up every day I have no idea what to expect. The East End of Pittsburgh really involves me giving up control of my life every day in exchange for complete surrender to God. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing with my life!

God is a Good Father

Recently I have had a lot on my plate in working with LAMP, launching a new campus in the East End, living incarnationally in Homewood, and writing a disssertation. Although this season of life has been difficult in many ways, I have also seen how God is carrying me through everything. Just in the past couple of days, God has blessed me in tremendous ways and answered prayers in some pretty dramatic ways. All I can think about is that God is a good Father. He loves me so much. God knows what is best for me, and he is really working through me in this period of my life to achieve his purposes. I would be completely lost without the love of my Savior!

Building Relationships Across Cultures

The Harvest Party in Homewood on Friday was a big hit! Hundreds of people from Homewood and many other neighborhoods came together to build relationships around a special event for families and friends. These types of things are so close to the heart of God. God designed human beings to be in relationships with one another that bear fruit in the Kingdom of God. That includes building relationships across cultures, racially, socioeconomically, and in many other ways. Christians should be leading the way in this area, but too often we lag behind as Sunday mornings are culturally segregated and disconnected relationally. One way Christians can overcome this reality is to plan for worship together that is cross-cultural. However, special events are also helpful in drawing cultures together so that people can enter into an environment where they can build relationships. This happened on Friday night at the Harvest Party as people from many diverse backgrounds came together to enjoy one another's company. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of. God is so good to open those kinds of doors for us to build community with one another, and hopefully the seeds of reconciliation through relationships took one more tiny step forward.

Harvest Party on Friday

Over 700 residents of Homewood have signed up to attend the Harvest Party in Homewood this Friday night from 7 to 9pm. This event is so much fun! We'll be playing games, jumping in inflatables, eating tons of good food, and, of course, going through the trunk or treat line to get yummy snacks. I know I'll be there with Julie and my girls. The North Way East End launch team will be there serving and building relationships with people. If you live in the Pittsburgh area, I hope you'll come on out to join us and take part in the fun. The event is held at the Pittsburgh Faison School (7430 Tioga Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15208). And we love visitors to our home, so feel free to come to Homewood early to hang out at the McCabe house that's right next to the school.

The Life of an Ordinary Radical

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to somebody for the first time about the incarnational urban ministry that my family lives out in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The person asked lots of questions, as many people do, and I just really enjoyed the platform that God gave me to share about the amazing mission that God is up to in Homewood. The concept of incarnational ministry is so simple... Jesus came into the world 2,000 years ago and he modeled a perfect life. Jesus modeled the standard to which every human being should aspire to live. He lived out the ultimate lifestyle of presence. He didn't shout down from the clouds with a heavenly megaphone. He became like us. He entered into our context and our human experience. He became present. He was present with the powerful religous people of his day, and he had some harsh words for them so they wanted to kill him. He was present with nonreligous people all the time because they were the ones who needed the good news. He was present with adults, kids, sinners (all of us), rich people, poor people, powerful people, marginalized people, sick people, prostitutes, drunks, and just about everyone in between. People, people, people. Jesus' life was all about relationships with people because his mission involved ushering in the Kingdom of God for the sake of every single person who has ever lived. So, just as Jesus entered into other people's contexts and became the ultimate servant of others, then we should enter into other people's contexts and become the servants of all. That's the ultimate expression of what it means to follow Jesus during the short life that God gives us here. We love God and love others well.

Jesus is the one who inspired my family to live incarnationally in a world that is in desperate need of Christians who will love God and love others well. In our particular case, God called us to Homewood. It is a wonderful calling. It is an amazing, astounding, profound, joyful calling filled with so much purpose and meaning in our lives. God has given our family a huge gift in allowing us the opportunity to reach people in Homewood that most people in our city and in our world ignore. Over the past several years we've developed friendships with rich people, poor people, powerful people, and marginalized people. My wife, my daughters, and I have developed meaningful friendships with thieves, homeless people, prostitutes, addicts, convicted felons, drug dealers, graffiti artists, elderly residents who have lived in Homewood for over 50 years, single moms living on government assistance, dads struggling to make ends meet because of the lack of good paying jobs in my community, kids who sleep on the floor and only have one change of clothes, orphans, widows, and just about every other kind of person in between. This calling has not been a burden. It has been the great joy of my life to serve my neighbors.

People are curious about my family's calling to incarnational urban ministry because it is countercultural. As Christians, our lives should be countercultural. If our lives look exactly the same as everyone around us in the world, which they often do in the American church, then something is drastically wrong. Following Jesus should make us all radicals because Jesus was the ultimate radical. People killed him because he was such a radical. Our lifestyles as Christians in America should be radical, but instead most of us choose to conform to the world. And it is a choice. We don't just randomly end up separated from the people who need the love of Jesus. We make a choice not to interact with them. We makea choice not to go into poor neighborhoods and to avoid people who are different than us racially and socioeconomically. We make a choice to live in places where we have virtually no interaction with our neighbors. We make choices that keep us from loving others. We choose not to be incarnational in a world that desperately needs it, and so we choose not to be like Jesus. Isn't that the point of following Jesus in the first place? And I'm not saying that everyone's calling should be like mine in Homewood. God calls each of us to go into different places for different purposes that align with his mission to reach the lost in this world. What I am saying is that as Christians in America, if we're not careful, our lives won't look any different than anyone else in our culture. We won't be radicals, we won't be present with the people who need the love of Christ, and we run the risk of missing out on the purpose for which God has placed us on this planet. And we might miss out on the joy that comes with the downward mobility that Jesus modeled so well for us, instead choosing to somehow find joy and meaning in the smaller stories that the world tries to manufacture for us to live in. Yes, I'm a radical. But I'm just an ordinary radical. And that's how God made me.

Nehemiah: A Good Example of Urban Ministry

The North Way East End launch team meeting this past Saturday morning was so much fun! Around 60 people gathered in a completely unfinished ministry center space in order to learn more about how God is calling us to join his mission to reach people in the East End of the city of Pittsburgh. I had the opportunity to share from the Bible about Nehemiah, who set a great example of what it means to be in a relationship with God while joining into mission in the urban context. Before Nehemiah did anything to rebuild Jerusalem, he actually went there and spent time, his heart broke, and he humbled himself before the Lord while praying and fasting. The attitude of humility is crucial in launching a new church location in a city. In Pittsburgh, the Holy Spirit has been working in the East End for a long time. There has been some tremendous work going on the city for many years, and North Way will seek to join the good work that God is doing in the East End. Just like Nehemiah, we will pray and be sensetive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We will seek to be good neighbors and love others well. We will seek to reach people with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. These things are so simple, but they all spring from a foundation of prayer and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. The next step in the adventure is another launch team meeting on November 18th from 6-8pm in the East End ministry center location. I can't wait to be with everyone again!

East End Launch Team Meeting

This Saturday is the big day! The North Way East End launch team is gathering from 10am to noon at 5947 Penn Avenue in East Liberty. If you are planning to be a part of the East End launch, I hope you'll join us for this time together. I'll be casting some vision, going over some details, and then mostly we'll be connecting with everyone and plugging people into areas where they are passionate about serving. We'll also be praying a lot for this new adventure. Oh, and we'll have food. What more could you want for a Saturday morning? Come on out and be a part of what God is doing in the city.

A Week of Writing

I'm taking some time away this week to write my dissertation. If everything goes well, I'll have a completed rough draft very soon. I am really enjoying being at this point in the doctorate journey because I get to focus on doing something that I love to do... write! Writing is almost like a healing outlet for me because so much happens in my life with urban ministry. If I hold it all in I tend to get frustrated at times, so writing helps me reflect. Reflection is an essential part of leadership. We can't always be moving forward. Sometimes the most effective thing we can do is slow down and take a look back on what God has done for us. Also, a big part of leadership is taking others with you on the journey, and writing helps me to be able to do that. As God teaches me things about life, I intentionally share those things with others hoping that maybe God will work through my experiences to encourage others. Yep... it's shaping up to be a good week!

The Meaning Behind a Worn Out Doorbell

We've had a lot of visitors to our house in Homewood this week, which has been a common theme for the past couple of years. We have a constant stream of visitors who ring our doorbell. Tonight I took Kyra and Sierra to get a movie at Redbox, and as we were getting into our car parked on the street in front of our house something caught Kyra's attention. It was starting to get dark outside, and she noticed that the neighbors' houses on either side of our house had their doorbell buttons illuminated. The light in our doorbell wasn't on. It was broken. Kyra pointed it out to me, and she said, "Daddy, we've had so many visitors since we moved to Homewood that the light in the doorbell is broken!" We all had a good laugh as we realized what that meant. Our home has been opened to many people. Honestly, I can't remember a day when we haven't had a neighbor visit us since we've lived in Homewood. It would be really weird if we didn't have somebody eating dinner with us, or playing games in the backyard, or discussing the meaning of life on our front porch. We've met hundreds of different kids through that worn out doorbell. That doorbell has known the fingers of prostitutes and homeless people, mentors and mentees, school principals and pastors, small group members and family members, and just about every other kind of person. Our family never knows who to expect from one moment to the next, and we like it that way. That lifestyle is what following Jesus is all about. God wants to work through us to reach many different kinds of people at many different hours of the day and night. In its most simple form, our doorbell light is broken because God wants us to love our neighbors.

An Average Night in Homewood

One of the greatest things about incarnational urban ministry is that I get to keep up with meaningful relationships much more effectively than when I was commuting into the community where I work. Last night was a good example. Last night around 8:30pm a senior at a local high school stopped by to spend some time with me. His mom died a few weeks ago, and I've been helping him to work through things that he's experiencing as a result. If he was just a kid in a program that I was working, then our entire relationship would be developed mostly on my terms during regular business hours. Instead, I live in the same community as him and he knows that my wife and I have an open door policy. He is welcome to stop by and visit with us any time. Our relationship is a true friendship... not one of a youth worker delivering services to a recipient. Last night a third grader at the school right next to us where our church has a mentoring program stopped by to play with my daughters and eat dinner with us.  I'd bet that he's had dinner with us close to a hundred times since we've moved to Homewood, and he comes over to our house to hang out with my daughters almost every day. If I was just working a mentoring program, I'd see him maybe once a week on my terms. This way, I get to build a meaningful relationship with him over time that is truly transformational for both of us. He teaches me as much about Homewood as I teach him about life. His mom is in jail and he has never known his father, so God has allowed us to pinch hit as his family. It is a great privilege that our family enjoys... simply being his friend and demonstrating the love of Christ. Also last night, one of my long term mentees stopped by to visit with us and tell us how he's doing. He lived with us for a few weeks recently, but we have been working hard to restore his relationship with his mother so that he can live with his family. I've been through many ups and downs with him. Although he is a junior in high school, he is one of my friends and I think that God has big plans for his life. He has taught me a lot about resilience and courage while persevering through difficult life circumstances. Last night I just chatted with him on my front porch for a little while, and then he went on his way.

I think Jesus likes that my dinner table is known by many people who are struggling in life. I think Jesus likes that my home is a safe place for my neighbors. I think Jesus likes the fact that I am friends with high risk kids who might end up in gangs or getting involved in the violence in my community. Just last week, a good friend of mind who lives in a different neighborhood stopped by my house for a church small group and as we stood in my back yard we heard about ten gun shots. I'm not afraid of gun shots... that's just a part of my calling that I am working hard to resolve. God has opened up the door for my family to develop many meaningful relationships with people in need over the past few years, and I am so thankful that God has allowed that to happen. Sometimes I think that my kids are the greatest asset that Julie and I have in ministry! So much for worrying about their safety... God is taking care of all of those little details of our urban ministry adventure. Although God may be working through my family to impact some people, sometimes I think that God is slowly transforming our lives according to his purposes. God is teaching us so much about how this world really operates, and these lessons play themselves out in the day to day details that the we call life in Homewood.

It's Official!

This weekend we made the big announcement at North Way that the East End campus will launch on January 29, 2012, and that we will be gathering to worship on Sunday mornings in a leased performing arts space that seats 350 people located in the heart of the East Liberty community on Penn Avenue. We will also be leasing the East End Ministry Center at 5947 Penn Avenue. The ministry center will have over 5,000 square feet of space to be utilized for Kidz ministry, student ministries, counseling, small groups, special events, LAMP mentoring space, and outreach events.

There are three ways to get involved in supporting the East End launch:  join the East End launch team, join the East End prayer team, or donate items for use at the ministry center. The next East End launch team meeting will be held on Saturday, October 22 from 10am to noon at the East End Ministry Center. The East End launch team will also meet at the East End Ministry Center on Friday, November 18 from 6-8pm.

I am having so much fun with this campus launch! I know that God is already moving in the East End of Pittsburgh, and it is going to be a joy to continue to join that mission to reach people. I live in the East End, I am committed to this community, and I can't wait to see what God has in store. It's going to be quite an adventure.

A Mentoring Celebration

Today I celebrated another full year with the first mentee that I was matched with in Homewood. We have had so many good memories together. I was with him early on when he was suspended from school a lot and struggled with his grades, and I have been with him as he has become a very good student and young man. I have learned a lot from him in the five plus years we've had a friendship, and he tells me that he's learned a lot from me about how to be a man. I praise God for the time that he has given me with my mentees, and I look forward to seeing the kind of men they will all become one day.

One of the most important components of mentoring is longevity. Unfortunately, many mentoring matches end prematurely. That almost always harms kids, and the kids who have bad mentoring experiences would have been better off if the well-intentioned but uncommitted mentors had never entered their lives. Sometimes it doesn't matter what we say or how we think we can control the outcomes of the mentoring relationship. What matters is that we simply show up and spend time with our mentees consistently over a period of years. A good mentor can forever alter the course of a young person's life.

Maintaining a Relationship with God

All North Way small groups are currently going through a series called 24, which focuses on how we can be effective as followers of Jesus with managing our time and being effective at ministering to others in spite of demaning schedules. Our small group met tonight and we engaged in a great conversation about how Jesus responded to adversity during his life. We are just getting started in the series with our small group, so it will be exciting to see where God takes us.

The topic of time management and busyness impacts many people. Many of us feel as if we cannot effectively follow Christ because we are so busy with trying to manage life. Sometimes we even become too busy because we engage in so many church responsibilities. When we take our focus off of the Lord and put it on our tasks or things that make us busy, then we miss the point of just why it is that we are doing all of those things in the first place. Days and weeks can go by without us stopping to reflect and spend quiet time with the Lord. Following Jesus is about a relationship to be experienced, and not a list of religous demands and tasks to be implemented efficiently.

And so that is what I have on my mind as I jump head first into launching a new North Way campus in the East End of the city of Pittsburgh. I want to make sure that I keep my relationship with Jesus as a priority during the busy campus launch season, and I also want to have God work through me to be able to help people be able to build their relationship with God. At the end of the day, God is moving and it is my job to be sensitive to where he is leading. It's not the other way around, where I lead and ask God to bless my plans.

Literature Review

I recently completed my dissertation literature review.  I read and reviewed fifteen books related to different approaches to transforming the lives of at-risk youth.  For anyone interested in checking out a wide variety of perspectives on impacting kids, here's the list of books:

Reclaiming our Prodigal Sons and Daughters (Larson and Brendtro)
Rethinking Adolescence (D'Ambrosio)
A Fragile Foundation (Search Institute)
Whatever It Takes (Tough)
Standy By Me (Rhodes)
On Your Own Without a Net (Osgood, et.al.)
Managing to Make It (Furstenberg, et.al.)
The Miracles of Mentoring (Dortch)
Hearts and Hands (Rodriguez)
A Framework for Understand Poverty (Payne)
The Way of the Wild Heart (Eldredge)
Youth At Risk (Olsen)
The Least of These (Ruthruff)
To Own a Dragon (Miller)
Code of the Streets (Anderson)

Football, Food, and New Friends

One of my favorite job responsibilities as a pastor and mentoring program leader is meeting new kids who have no idea who I am or what I'm all about. Yesterday my mentees invited me to organize a pick up football game with a bunch of their friends who I had never met before. We drove around to all different parts of Homewood and the East End in search of kids to round up for the game at Westinghouse Park. I must have met ten new teenagers yesterday. I always laugh to myself when I'm with my mentees and they introduce me to the new kids as "their friend, Mr. B." Their friends just say "hey" and then they start right into their usual conversations with my mentees with all of the unedited cursing and crass talk that comes with it. My mentees and I have this thing where we'll usually let that go on for a minute or two to see if the friends pick up on me being a pastor and mentor, and that their crude words might somehow harm my innocent ears. What's funny to me now is that I don't even have to ask the kids to stop anymore... my mentees will just kindly inform their friends that "Mr. B's cool, but you shouldn't talk like that around him." Their friends are usually perplexed by my presence but agreeable. We hang out together for a while, and then all of a sudden I'm "in" and the friends start begging me for a mentor. They'll do anything to sign up for a mentor. They'll ask me to be their mentor, and my mentees will forcefully remind their friends that they've overstepped their bounds. They can sign up for a mentor, but Mr. B's taken.

After the football game yesterday, three of the kids I had just met asked if they could go to church with us. A few hours earlier they were cursing up a storm when they first met me, and now they were pleading to go to church with me. It still amazes me how God puts me in those situations, and I never take it for granted. God has given me a passion for building relationships with people who are not Christians, and as long as I go where God asks me to go then he keeps bringing people to me. God is so good! We all went out to dinner and then we went to church together, and the kids had a great time. We had some interesting conversations about God and life and a whole bunch of other stuff. Plus, the car ride to Oakland was hilarious because if you've ever been on a car ride with five sophomores in high school then you'll understand what I'm talking about. These guys were cracking me up, and by the end of the evening I felt like I had made some new friends. I'll be sure to follow up with them this week if I can. And that's how the Kingdom of God advances in this world... one relationship at a time. Being used by God to reach others is the great joy of my life.

Location Coming Soon...

This week I had the opportunity to walk through the potential North Way East End location (we're hoping to make the official announcement about the location on the weekend of October 8-9, so it's top secret, classified information until then). I've walked through the space several times now, and I can't believe how much excitement God is giving me for the East End. I can close my eyes and imagine deep worship, strong teaching, excellent family ministries, and life changing relationships in action... all because God is orchestrating something new. This is going to be such an incredible adventure! There are amazing people involved in the launch, and there are amazing people to be reached in the many diverse East End neighborhoods. I love being a pastor in the city!

A Late Night Visit

This was a long weekend. On Saturday I was at a LAMP cultural training all morning (15 new mentors... woohoo!), and then Julie and I took a whole bunch of kids from Homewood to a Pittburgh Penguins hockey game.  On Sunday I hosted four worship services at North Way Oakland. In between all of those things, we have been investing in four boys in Homewood whose mom passed away suddenly at the end of last week. To say that I was tired when I got home at 9:30pm last night would be an understatement. I just wanted to chill out and relax on the couch. That relaxation time lasted for about 30 minutes, and apparently God wasn't done working through me yet.  Our doorbell rang at 10pm and I looked at Julie and said, "I don't know if I have anything left for anyone right now. Can you check and see who it is?" If it had been a visit from a neighborhood kid for a snack or just a visit to say hi, she would have chatted for a minute and then sent them on their way. Unfortunately, when kids visit us after 10pm it usually means something bad happened in my community... somebody got shot, or they got beat up, or something bad is happening in their home and they have nowhere else to go. In the case last night, one of my mentees who I have been building a relationship with for six years stopped by because he had nowhere else to go. His family was in crisis, and he needed a place to sleep last night. So, tired as I was, I invited him in to stay the night. We fed him and helped him talk through his life circumstances for a little while.

We have built enough trust with many people in our neighborhood that they know that our home is a safe place for them to go if they are ever in need, whether they are hungry or thirsty or homeless or in danger. This is such a crucial component to our faith as followers of Jesus Christ. God desires for all of us to be in relationship with people in need. In Isaiah 58, God says, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard." God is not interested in a bunch of religous activity from us. True faith involves us giving ourselves away sacrifically to the poor, among many other things. The problem is, we must actually be in deep, meaningful relationships with people in need if we are planning to live out God's call to serve them. If we distance ourselves from the poor due to fear or busyness or anything like that, then we are intentionally missing out on one of the most profound parts of our faith in Christ. Even though my work is difficult sometimes, I experience an amazing connection with Christ when I open my home up to people in need. It brings me tremendous joy to be able to serve others incarnationally as Jesus did.

The Loss of a Friend

It's with a heavy heart that I write this evening. One of the mentees in the LAMP program in Homewood lost his mom unexpectedly to a heart attack. She was 42 years old. I had the privilege of knowing Angie because even though she only had one son who was officially in the mentoring program, her sons all spend a great deal of time at our house. She was a family friend, and she kind of served as the neighborhood mom for her block in the row homes on Hamilton Avenue in Homewood. She had neighborhood kids in her house all the time, and many of them came to her for unconditional love. She will really be missed by many people, and she was a huge asset in Homewood.

Life was hard for Angie, and God gave me the privilege of being friends with her over the past couple of years. She always gave me a hard time for walking around Homewood. When her youngest son was arrested and charged with a felony, God opened the door for me to be able to enter into her family's pain by walking through the legal process with them (it's a very dysfunctional legal system, I might add... I learned a lot from that experience). I drove her to visit her son when he was in placement for most of the past year, so we had the opportunity to get to know one another. I really learned a lot from her about perseverance and resilience through her life journey of being a single mom of four boys on one of the most violent blocks in the city of Pittsburgh. I was able to be present with her family when one of her sons was hit by a car while running away from a shooting incident. I prayed with her and her boys in their house many times. Her living room was holy ground, and God showed me a lot about his heart for reaching hurting people in this world through her. It seemed like God kept putting this family in my path. Angie's sons are like family to Julie and me, and my daughters treat them like brothers.

My heart breaks for Angie's four boys. They already face an uphill battle with the environment they live in, and now this is really going to be devastating for them to lose their mom who was the glue for their family. The boys have been stopping in to visit with us all evening. My pastor hat is really being utilized today as I've had to somehow help these guys to navigate through such a traumatic event in their lives. Although I don't really have the words to say to them right now, I am thankful that God prompted me to move to Homewood so that we can remain a stable presence in their lives for years to come. This is the type of family that most of mainstream society in Pittsburgh intentionally tries to avoid, but I can't think of any other people in Pittsburgh that I would rather be serving tonight. Please join me in praying for the four boys in this family... one is a freshman in college, one is a senior in high school, one is a freshman in high school, and one is in eighth grade. They need to feel God's comfort during this difficult time.

Courageous Church Leadership

Today I had the opportunity to be a part of a lot of planning meetings at North Way. It's such an intersting thing to be involved in leadership as a pastor at a church because there are so many different dynamics to church leadership. Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit's leading is always crucial, and well thought out strategies can go a long way toward helping the church to be more effective. Church leadership is relational at its core, but it is also programmatic. Healthy churches are internally strong and externally focused. There are just many paradoxes involved in leading in a church.

One of the main themes that jumped out at me today was the necessity for church leaders to be risk takers. God is a God of mystery, and followers of Jesus should embrace risk. Many churches (and Christians in general) operate out of a sense of self preservation and fear, when we should be operating out of a sense of love for the Lord and engagement in the midst of brokenness in this world. I have noticed recently that a lot of Christians are embracing fear and anxiety due to a wide variety of problems going on in the world. Why? God is in control, and he has placed each of us on the earth to live our lives at this particular time in human history in order that we might be able to fulfill his purposes.

Life wasn't exactly a picnic when Jesus entered into the world. Things were crazy 2,000 years ago just as they are crazy today. We live in the now but not yet era of the Kingdom of God. We know who wins, but we are in the midst of an epic battle. There is nothing for us to fear. Followers of Jesus should risk all for the sake of advancing the Kingdom. We are not called to live safe, comfortable lives, and when our middle class or affluent lives in America become less safe and less comfortable then we shouldn't panic and embrace fear. Uncertainty in the world means that Christians have a tremendous opportunity to engage the brokenness in this world in order to reach people for Christ. We should be running full speed into the midst of trouble in our modern culture, not running away from it in order to preserve our lives and be safe. When we risk everything for the sake of Christ, we are never more of a Christian. Modern churches simply must be led with courageous leadership or we will become irrelevant.

An Amazing Day in the City

Today was an amazing day of urban ministry. I spent most of the morning planning the East End launch, in the afternoon I had the great opportunity to go prayer walking in East Liberty with some friends from the North Way staff, and then the rest of the day I spent with my mentees from Homewood. I love my calling so much, and I can see on a daily basis how amazing God is! The more risks I take for God, the more he comes through to be able to do such amazing things. My day was not easy by any stretch of the imagination... it was pretty hard, actually. But I loved every second of it. God has equipped me with what it takes to be an urban ministry leader, and that includes filling me up with passion for the people in my city. Whether I'm meeting with people in a coffee shop or mixing it up with at-risk youth, God has truly given me a love for the streets. There is no place I'd rather be than building relationships with people in complex urban environments for the sake of advancing God's kingdom. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow to find out what unexpected and amazing things the Lord has planned for me.

A Walk in Homewood

Friday is usually my day off, and one of my favorite things to do on my day off is go on walks with my wife. We are able to do that much more often now that our daughters are back in school. One of the best things about walking in Homewood is that we get to meet new people, catch up with friends and neighbors, and learn about what's really going on at the street level in our neighborhood. On our walk today, we met an 87 year old woman who has lived in the same house in Homewood for the past 57 years. She was out working on her garden when we met her, and she shared a lot of her story with us. One of the unique aspects of incarnational ministry is how our stories cross paths with other people's stories. Our neighbor told us about some of the history of our neighborhood, and she shared with us about some of her hopes and dreams. While we were walking, a man on is bike stopped and talked to us for a while. He grew up in Homewood, and still goes to church at a little Baptist church in Homewood even though he now lives on the other side of the busway in Point Breeze. He still spends a lot of time in Homewood, and he told us about how he and some people at his church have been working to combat the crime in the neighborhood by taking pictures of people selling drugs and stealing copper pipes from the many abandoned houses in our area. He calls the police when he sees bad things go down. He even pointed out a house to us that is one of the four or five drug houses within a couple blocks of where we live. The house he pointed out is selling alcohol to teenagers... a good thing to know if you happen to be a pastor in the community who works with youth.

All cities have many signs of need and many signs of hope. This is true in Homewood. As we walked today, we passed abandoned houses, drug houses, prostitution houses, trash, graffiti, and many other signs of urban blight. We also passed a relatively new school, policemen patrolling the neighborhood, a community garden from which we picked and ate raspberries, a couple businesses that employ people in the community, a busway that transports people to downtown Pittsburgh in about ten minutes, and new homes that have replaced apartment buildings that were once overrun with drugs and prostitution. The biggest signs of hope remain the people that we meet... the ones who are working so hard in small ways behind the scenes toward the transformation of Homewood. Small signs of transformation pop up everywhere as our neighbors reclaim our streets one small act at a time. I am so happy that God has allowed me and my family to be a part of the transformation that he is leading in Homewood. Change is happening one life at a time, one home at a time, one street at a time, and one block at a time. Who knows what this neighborhood will be like five or ten years from now? No matter the outcomes, I am enjoying the process with my neighbors. Walks are a big part of the urban adventure.

Poverty in America is Increasing

Recently the US Census released a report noting that the number of people living in poverty in America has grown considerably over the past decade. A news reporter in Pittsburgh contacted me to gain my perspective on the issue of poverty in America, since I intentionally live in a community with a high level of concentrated poverty. The article should come out this weekend, but what I shared with the reporter was that a lot of the poverty in America happens out of the view of "mainstream" society. American culture is set up in such a way that poverty often occurs in isolated pockets or neighborhoods, so when a study like the one from the US Census comes out middle-class and affluent people are often surprised to know that there are so many people living in poverty in America. The number one issue facing people living in poverty in America is isolation. The people I live and work with in Homewood experience isolation from the multitude of opportunities that many middle class or affluent people take for granted, and often that isolation goes back generations in families.

From a pastor's perspective, I believe that the church should be greatly disturbed by millions of people living in poverty in America. Before we can do something about the people who are struggling in our own country, we must first face the reality that there are millions of people living in poverty. We must seek to understand to root causes of poverty, and then as Christians we have a clear biblical mandate to do something about it. So where do we begin in the process of addressing the issue of poverty in America? In my opinion, people with access to resources and influence must build meaningful relationships with people living in poverty. That means going where they are, without an agenda, and making attempts to get to know people at a heart level. Over time, once those relationships are built, then the solutions to issues facing people in need will begin to surface. Often, people living in poverty are able to identify for themselves the solutions to their own situations if they are encouraged and motivated by people who are willing to help them. Programs should always come after relationships have been built over a long period of time.

Poverty in America is complex. The causes of poverty are complex, and therefore the solutions to poverty must be equally complex. The church has a unique role to play in society in terms of serving people in need, but the church is not the only answer to poverty. People's needs are not just spiritual... the church should be about the business of alleviating poverty by taking a holistic approach to helping people. Churches should build partnerships with institutions. We should be in the business of empowering people and removing barriers that generate isolation. Compassion is wonderful, and it is often needed. However, compassion is the low hanging fruit when it comes to helping people. Christians should also be involved in powerfully advocating for people in need, giving themselves away to others for the sake of advancing the Kingdom of God and ushering in increasing levels of shalom in our world.

A Family in Crisis

I stopped by a mentee's house today to pick him up, and I noticed right away that I was stepping into some kind of dramatic situation. I entered right into the midst of a family in crisis. I was able to engage for a while, and by the end of this evening things had quieted down a bit. Still, today was a reminder to me that my mentees in Homewood experience tremendous pressure in life. Poverty can be very difficult when it must be endured over the course of an extended period of time. Pain runs deep, and struggles develop along the journey through life. One of the things that I am most thankful for is the opportunity that God has given me to be able to speak into the lives of so many young people who are growing up in the midst of urban poverty. I have worked hard to develop deep, meaningful relationships over a long period of time, and I have earned the right to be heard and be present when things break down in my neighborhood. The relational model of mentoring is in stark contrast to the programs that are intended to help people in my neighborhood but are still disconnected relationally from the community. When programs are devoid of relationships, then they are just cold programs. Many ideas have come and gone in Homewood since I've been working here over the past six years, but the relationships remain a consistent force to be reckoned with. I've seen so much life change happen in the midst of long term relationships, because, as Christians, when we really know people then we are much more effective at being able to help them. After spending some time with my mentee tonight, I dropped him off right in an area where prostitutes and drug dealers were out in full effect thinking that me driving on their turf must have signified that I was interested in their services. But, of course, I wasn't. God had me right where he wanted me to be, helping my friend and his family out. There's no place I would have rather been than to have God work through me to accomplish his purposes.

Living Daily in God's Mission

Every day when I wake up, I have a new opportunity to give myself away to God. By giving myself away to God, I mean that I am intentionally making a decision to try to put myself in the background and prioritize my role in God's mission to redeem the world. So what does that look like for me on a daily basis? As a husband, I know that God has blessed me with Julie and I need to love her and honor her as much as I can. Every single day is a new opportunity to do that. One of the greatest privileges of my life has been to be married to Julie, and it's my responsibility to love her well every single day that God gives me to be with her. As a father, it is my responsibility to love Kyra and Sierra well. My daughters are an amazing gift from God! They deserve much more from me than to just be provided for and disciplined. They need me... to engage them with my heart, to love them well, consistently, every single day. My relationship with my daughters is one of the greatest examples that they have of how their Heavenly Father loves them, so it's important that I engage them with my heart as much as I can. As a pastor, it is important for me to give myself away to others by serving them with all of my heart. God did not give me the influence of being a pastor for me to abuse it by giving people lists of duties and obligations to be met. God wants me to care for people's hearts... a lot of people and a lot of hearts... as he presents opportunities. In helping people to grow closer to God, I'm also growing closer to the Lord myself. Being a pastor is not about people serving me, it's about me serving God and others in order that Jesus can work through me to accomplish his purposes. This purpose is different every single day. I could be spending time with businessmen in powerful places, or with single mom's in the inner city who might be struggling with the grind of urban poverty. No matter who God brings into my life, it is my great privilege to be able to care for their hearts and draw people into a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. As a mentor, God has given me the amazing privilege to be able to spend a great deal of time with some of the toughest kids in the city of Pittsburgh. God has shown me that he wants me to sacrifice for my mentees with my time and attention so that he can work through me to achieve his purposes in their lives. I don't just spend time with my mentees... I am a strong male influence in their lives who helps to cast new visions for them. I am helping my mentees to learn more about God's mission in this world, and there is no greater cause than that. As a neighbor in Homewood, every day God has me looking out for how to increase levels of shalom in my community. God has asked me to serve my neighborhood and my city, so I do. It's that simple. People ask me all the time why I moved my family to Homewood, and the answer is so simple... God asked me to do it so I did it. Sometimes we need to take risks, act, and be obedient when God asks us to do something that doesn't make sense and then we trust God to take care of the details when we get into the adventure. That's where life is found... in those places where God asks us to give ourselves away to others and the calling doesn't make any rational sense. We live in the age of reason, and God is a God of profound mystery. Life won't make any sense if we always wait to make to most rational decision. That's how the world operates... without faith. As Christians, we are not of this world. We belong to God. And that should shape how we live every single day that we wake up to face the world. God is on mission to reach every corner of this world. As followers of Jesus we all have a unique role to play in that mission on a daily basis, and only a heart that is fully engaged with our Lord and yielded to his purposes will be able to discern what God requires of us. We must embrace risk as the central theme of our lives. We must fully engage with others... not just the people we love, but even our enemies. God wants to work through us in all circumstances. There is no better place to be than living right in the stream of God's mission on a daily basis.

Mentor Training

One of the things I really enjoy doing is training new mentors to match up with kids in Homewood. New mentors usually have some fears or anxiety that they bring with them into the match, and over time those fears are usually resolved as they develop good relationships with their mentees. It's amazing how powerful relationships can be. Last night I trained a group of seven new mentors, including three men. What really excites me about the men that attended last night was that they are all very busy men with jobs and families and the whole deal, yet they have been prompted by God to mentor high risk youth in Homewood and they are being obedient to that call. Mentoring is all about being obedient to something that God is asking us to do, even if we don't know how it's all going to work out. That's the mystery of being in a relationship with God... he often asks us to do risky things in order to accomplish his purposes. There is no finer example of that than mentoring.

When I train new mentors, I love to share stories about my past failures and successes in mentoring. I've done just about everything wrong in mentoring, but I've also done some things right. Thanks to God, most of the kids I'm mentoring are turning out pretty well. Still, every single week of mentoring is filled with ups and downs, pain and break throughs, excitement and disappointment. Sometimes I really connect, and other times it's a big struggle. I shared with the group of trainees last night that just this week, I set up a huge opportunity for a mentee of mine. He promised he would be there, then he didn't show up. I eventually tracked him down, and the whole thing ended up working out very well for him, but it was a major battle to work with him this week. In the lives of my mentees in Homewood, I know that I am stepping into their lives to intervene when they might be on a path to destruction. That's what our LAMP mentors do, and so that's what they need to be prepared for in mentoring training and ongoing support. God is calling us to intervene in the lives of at-risk kids in Homewood so that he can work through us to accomplish his purposes.

A Day in the Life

The past 24 hours kind of demonstrate how crazy our lives are with urban ministry.  While I was at a LAMP leadership team meeting in Wexford last night, Julie was at a community meeting with Kyra and Sierra in the East End about the flooding that has plagued our basement and many other parts of Pittsburgh over the past couple of years. She spoke in front of representatives and the mayor about the issues that we face in Homewood.  She even made today's newspaper in Pittsburgh!  This morning I was back up in Wexford for staff meetings while Julie fulfilled some PTA duties at our daughters' school.  Then we met up at the Pittsburgh City Council offices downtown for a meeting with our city council rep about the flooding in the basements of the new homes in Homewood.  I met with a person later in the afternoon to talk about the North Way East End campus launch.  Tonight we had a dinner at our house for a former Bayer executive who grew up in Homewood that is receiving an award in Pittsburgh and he is going to  be introduced for that award by one of my mentees at a fancy ceremony downtown.  My mentee had dinner with the executive and his wife at our house to get to know one another.  After everyone cleared out from the dinner a bunch of neighborhood kids stopped by to visit for a while.

The thing about urban ministry is that you never know what to expect from one day to the next, and you never know who you are going to cross paths with.  The role of a Christian leader is to build relationships across all sectors of society.  In our case over the last day or so, we've built relationships with some of the most influential people in Pittsburgh in the political and business arenas, and we've built relationships with young people struggling to grow up in a tough urban neighborhood.  We've been in churches, in schools, at coffee shops, and in our home.  The city is a busy place with many different dynamics, and I think that there is no better place for Christians to be than mixing it up in all kinds of different places in all kinds of different situations with all kinds of different people.  Christians should be leading the way in culture, not withdrawing from society trying to live safe, sterile lives away from all of the action.  We should be sticking our noses into all kinds of different places.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for me tomorrow.  I am loving this urban adventure!

A Friendly Wager

Last night I found myself toting five mentees all over the city Pittsburgh (they are all originally from Homewood or East Hills, but now they live in Homewood, Homestead, Point Breeze, and the North Side). We spent most of our time in Oakland eating at the "O" and then in the South Side where we finally ended up watching a movie. When I first picked them all up, all they were talking about was girls. That's been pretty much all they talk about lately (not out of the ordinary for 16 year old kids), but with yesterday being the first day of school I thought I'd try to get them to open up about some other topics. No luck. So about ten minutes into the car ride to our first destination I made a deal with them... that there was no possible way any of them could make it through the entire mentoring time together with out talking about girls. I won't specify what I wagered with them, but let's just say it was enough incentive to gain their interest. We actually ended up shaking on it, and my master plan went into full effect. For about three minutes, nobody said anything in the car. When we arrived at our destination, we all got out of the car and within two minutes one of the boys messed up (lots of college girls walking around Oakland these days). He begged me for a second chance, so we agreed that all of the boys would get a second chance at double or nothing if they messed up... but only one more chance. We all actually ended up having a great evening of mentoring time together, just as I hoped would happen if I could somehow figure out how to get their attention. One by one, each one of the boys used up their first chance. By the end up the evening, all except for one mentee made it and I had to pay up (the last five minutes of his drive home were brutal with all of us trying to get him to mess up). We all enjoyed a great time of mentoring together.

As I reflect on our time together, several themes emerge. First, mentoring stretches me, and I learn new things, every single time that I do it. Second, mentoring is a ton of fun! My mentees always crack me up with their antics, and it keeps me on my toes. Third, mentoring requires a lot of creativity. Each new stage of development for mentees requires a new game plan from the mentor. Finally, a lot of good conversation can happen when we create the right kind of environment. As adults in the mentoring relationship, it's our job to ask the right questions and be thinking about the broader outcomes of the match so that our mentees receive the kind of support that they need in their development. That's what mentoring is all about at the end of the day.