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.

Overcoming Obstacles

My wife and I have been joking that God must have big plans for my dissertation. The enemy has thrown just about everything at me to keep me from getting it done, but I'm slowly but surely moving forward. Since I started writing it this this summer, our newly finished basement was flooded with backed up sewer water... twice, there has been a lot of shootings and drama in my neighborhood where I have had to engage pastorally at hours that I would normally be writing, we've unexpectedly started the initial stages of planning an urban transformation center in Homewood, one of my biggest prayer warriors, Juanita Martin, had a stroke and passed away, and freak things like a 104.5 degree temperature this past Sunday from an unexpected illness have served to take me out for short periods of time. I could go on and on about the many distractions I've had to deal with that seem to happen daily, but I don't want to give the enemy any more credit than he deserves. Jesus is victorious in all things, and my life, especially including this project, is completely yielded over the Christ. My research belongs to the Lord... I am just a steward of the information that God directs me to. My hope is that many people will be blessed and encouraged by the amazing power that faith-based mentoring has to transform the lives of at-risk urban youth (the topic of my disertation). God is moving in America and around the world through mentoring, and I can't wait to see how God uses this project to advance his mission to reach people in need.