Passionate Followers of Jesus Christ

After the worship service in the East End this past Sunday I had the opportunity to meet with members of the church who are actively involved in serving each other and serving our urban neighbors in many different tangible ways. God is moving in profound ways at North Way East End as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to be the body of Christ and to love our neighbors. It is such a joy for me as a pastor to see followers of Jesus passionately doing life together and actively seeking out the marginalized people in our city in order to demonstrate the love of God. I love being a part of a church that is sold out to the Lord, and I love seeing people dying to themselves in order for Christ to be seen in them. Our church exists to be a force in advancing the kingdom of God throughout the city of Pittsburgh, and with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit we are a force that cannot be denied. God is being glorified in the East End. North Way East End is becoming a passionate, radical group of followers of Jesus Christ who are willing to go anywhere and do anything for the sake of the gospel.

Serving at House of Manna

Tomorrow night (Friday) people from all North Way campuses will be serving together at the House of Manna in Homewood. It all starts at about 7pm, and I know those that are coming to my neighborhood to serve food and build relationships with the residents of Homewood will be blessed by the time spent there. Being a follower of Jesus makes much more sense when we serve people in need because much of God's grace is found in the places that are ignored by mainstream society. Jesus modeled during his life how to seek out hurting people and spend time with them showing the profound love of God through our words and deeds. That's exactly how we should be living now in our modern era... just as Jesus did. Christians should not be afraid of blighted urban environments... we should be running head first into the arms of the struggling people in our city.

What Does it Mean to Love our Neighbors?

Last night we invited a couple from church over to our house for dinner. We had a great time getting to know them. It was a perfect, warm night so we decided to eat outside on the back patio. We shared our life stories together, and it was fun getting to know them better. Part way through the meal our doorbell rang as it often does, and we invited five teenagers into the house to eat and hang out. I hadn't really warned our guests that this type of thing happens all the time. We had some good conversations about the calling that God has given us in Pittsburgh, and we got to talk about the kids who were hanging out in our house on a Friday night. I didn't really go into too many details, though, of the kids in our living room who have become a part of our family. Three of the five kids are brothers who happen to each have different fathers. Their mother, a woman who we had developed a friendship with through outreach in the community, died last year, and the boys are social orphans who are in and out of the foster care system. They often come to our house for refuge and peace from the streets. One is already a convicted felon and a gang member. All of the kids that visited us last night are loosely affiliated with the local gangs since they need protection from the violence that hapens right on their street.

Our biggest goal in living incarnationally in Pittsburgh is to be able to show the love of Christ conistently and relationally to people. God has called us strategically to a neighborhood with high crime and poverty, and we love living there because we feel close to Jesus when we get to share the love of Christ with people that mainstream society ignores. We experience God's grace in low places with the powerless. When we share our house with hungry people that God brings across our path, we experience God's love in greater proportions than when we used to live as though we were separating ourselves from people in need.

Loving our neighbors and serving the poor are basical foundational aspects of following Jesus. Our faith will not make sense if we fail to do these things. James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." For us, this means finding the orphans and widows in our own city where God has placed us and intentionally giving our lives away to them through service in order to show the profound love of Jesus Christ. It also means that we "keep ourselves from being polluted by the world" by walking away from the American Dream. The American Dream is essentially based on idolatry... bigger houses, bigger jobs, more power, worshipping our bodies and celebrities, and upward mobility. The way of the cross of Jesus Christ is downward mobility and rejection of the comforts of this world, and all of that so that we can experience the life-changing love of God by giving ourselves away to others. In Matthew 16:24-26, Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

What Comes Next?

A lot of people have been asking me what I plan to do with all of my extra time now that I'm no longer working on the doctorate degree. The biggest thing I've been doing is spending time with my family and friends. I take my time telling stories to my daughters. I sit and talk with my wife more in the evenings. I've been doing some recreational things like raquetball with friends... things that I've put off for a long time.

I also know that I'm really looking forward to just being a pastor without having to focus on always hitting writing or editing deadlines. I want to focus on spending time with people and exploring the East End of Pittsburgh on a daily basis. God has already opened the door for me to be able to lead our East End church staff in an urban ministry exercise. I've been able to minister to homeless people, families, at-risk youth, businessmen, a family in crisis, and many other people in different situations.

Earning a doctorate degree and writing a dissertation was an important stage of life for me. However, I have much to look forward to in the months and years to come. There is much work to be done in my city, and the church I lead is primed to make a huge difference in the city. My wife has sacrificed a great deal for me over the past four years, and I am looking forward to serving her sacrificially now. I am looking forward to serving the Lord with my whole heart in my city, and giving myself away to people. God has me on quite an adventure and I can't wait to see what is in store next.

A Successful Oral Review

My oral review went very well today, and I officially earned the doctor of ministry degree from Bakke Graduate University. It has been quite a journey working through nearly four years of classes and writing a dissertation, but it was all worth it. My goal now is to pour myself into the work that God has called me to in Pittsburgh. As Julie and the girls and I ate dinner on our back patio this evening, we were discussing what God had in store for our family next when we heard around nine or ten gun shots followed by police sirens. It was a chilling reminder that the work in Homewood and the East End is not done. God is on mission to redeem every person and place in the city of Pittsburgh, and he has given our family a calling to be a part of bringing about transformation in the city. I know God has many big plans for North Way East End and the LAMP mentoring program. I can't wait to give my full attention to this work.

Graduation Party

I'm only weeks away from officially becoming Dr. Bryan McCabe, and I'm celebrating with a graduation party at the North Way East End ministry center on Saturday, June 9th at 7pm. It's going to be a lot of fun, and anyone is welcome to stop by for desserts. The address is 5947 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15208. After four years of hard work, I'm excited to celebrate and move forward into the next stage of life!

Taking Time to Rest

Today is my day off, and I'm enjoying spending the day with Julie. Rest is so important to people involved in urban ministry because there is always so much going on all the time, and the hours are very nontraditional. I'm trying to be very intentional about taking a sabbath, and that's difficult when people still stop by the house to visit or contact me with pressing needs. I know that burn out is a big issue with people in urban ministry, so days like today are very important. I'm enjoying rest, and that's a good thing.