The Call to Urban Adventure

Launch Week

2012-01-27T16:44:00.000-05:00

What's life like for a pastor launching a new church location in a midst of an urban environment? The week before the grand opening is definitely crazy, but it has been so much fun! Everyone has been scrambling to get the theater and ministry center spaces ready for Sunday. I've been to launch meetings, home meetings in different parts of the city, and individual meetings with people who are either a part of the launch team or interested in learning more about the new church. I've had meaningful interactions with many different kinds of people. I mentored kids from Homewood this week, and I've spent some great time with local businessmen. I've hit the streets to have conversations with people in the East End, and I've hidden out in my office to get a few minutes of peace and quiet. I've prayed with people in buildings and out walking the streets.

This week has been a good example of how the best type of ministry does not happen in sterile, predictable environments. Effective urban ministers are able to navigate the streets and the strategy meetings in an office setting. We learn how to connect with many different types of people because there is so much diversity in the city. When the kingdom of God advances through something like a new church, we expect that there will be resistance and we persevere through it. This is the fun part of ministry... when God gives us a difficult calling and we are obedient to the calling no matter the circumstances. The more things get tough in launching North Way East End, the more I know that God is going to do something amazing through his church. The adventure takes a big step forward on Sunday moring at 10am with the grand opening. I can't wait... don't think I'll be able to sleep between now and then. The excitement is overwhelming!

Grand Opening

2012-01-24T09:31:00.001-05:00

The grand opening of the North Way East End campus is this Sunday, January 29th at 10am. We will be gathering at 5941 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 in East Liberty. I know that God is going to be glorified by this new church! Come on out this Sunday and check it out. Bring your friends! Bring your families! This will be a day to remember for a long time as God's kingdom advances in the city of Pittsburgh!

Final Prelaunch Service in the East End

2012-01-21T21:52:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow morning the final prelaunch service for the new North Way East End church will be held at 10am at 5941 Penn Avenue in East Liberty. Power will be out in the ministry center so that electricians can finish the electrical work, so we will have the kids in with everyone in the theater once again. It should be a great worship service with a powerful message. This is our last big step before the grand opening of North Way East End next Sunday, January 29th at 10am.

Contrasting Neighborhoods

2012-01-20T08:33:00.000-05:00

Urban ministry in the East End of Pittsburgh is full of contrasts. A couple days ago, I had the opportunity to go to a home meeting for the North Way East End campus at the home of a church elder in Shadyside. Shadyside is a great neighborhood with many people who will be attending the new North Way location. There are many beautiful homes, plenty of businesses and restaurants, and lots of assets in the community. Also in Shadyside, there are people who desperately need to know the love of Jesus Christ and our church is developing plans to reach out to the neighborhood in many creative ways. I really enjoyed the home meeting that included dinner, time to visit with people on the East End launch team, and time to dream about what God has in store for us.

I left the gathering in Shadyside to drive back to Homewood where I live. As soon as I arrived in Homewood, my family ministered in the streets to a man who was clearly in distress. It was cold out, and he needed help. This time of ministry only lasted for about 30 minutes, but we were able to demonstrate the love of Christ to a person in need in the brief window that God gave us. Homewood is a neighborhood in the East End that has many needs and also many assets. The needs and assets may look much different than Shadyside, but the fact remains that both Shadyside and Homewood have wonderful people that God made to be in relationship with him.

It is our goal as a new church in the East End to join God's mission to reach every single person in the city with the transforming and profound love of Jesus. The church is not a social club where we gather once a week to hang out with other Christians. The church exists to fulfill God's mission to reach the world, regardless of the neighborhood, socioeconomic status, race, or circumstances of people. This is a tremendous mission that God has given the folks involved in North Way East End to steward. My prayer is that God will give us the ability to be able to reach people in many different neighborhoods throughout the East End for months and years to come. This is going to be quite an urban adventure!

A Church "of" the Community

2012-01-17T10:03:00.001-05:00

Many people think of church as being a building "in" a community where people gather to worship at a set time on Sunday mornings. These types of churches do not really make a difference in their communities. I think that the church should be a church "of" the community where we are deeply involved relationally around issues that move well beyond the walls of any type of church building. Following Jesus is a 24/7 relationship, so the church is not just about a Sunday morning experience. As followers of Jesus, our relationships should extend well beyond the "holy huddle" of relationships with other Christians or church members to enter into every part of society throughout the week. It is wonderful to gather together at a church building on Sunday mornings to worship the Lord, but we gather together to worship so that we can go out into the world to advance God's mission to reach every part of society throughout the other days of the week. God's profound and unending love transcends space and time (or church buildings with worship services at set times). So, my great hope with the North Way East End church campus is that we will be a church "of" the community, not a church "in" the community.

East End Update

2012-01-15T22:28:00.001-05:00

Today was an unforgettable day! I worshipped God at a theater in the East End of Pittsburgh with over 100 members of the North Way East End launch team. I could really sense God's presence in the room, and I had a blast connecting with many long time friends and several new friends. This North Way church location is going to be absolutely amazing! One more prelaunch service next weekend, and then we'll be ready for the grand opening on January 29th at 10am. The East End ministry center should be completed this week, so we'll be good to go with family ministries and office space very soon.

East End Home Meetings and Work Day

2012-01-12T13:07:00.001-05:00

Last night I enjoyed my time at the first North Way East End home meeting at the home of some good friends. About twenty of us from the launch team discussed the logistics of the upcoming campus launch, which begins this weekend, and we dreamed about the future and what God might have in store for us. I heard some great suggestions from everyone... this is going to be an amazing church, and God will be glorified in many ways! There are still four more East End home meetings coming up. Let me know if you want to go. The dates are:

Thursday, January 12th at 6pm in Homewood
Wednesday, January 18th at 6pm in Shadyside
Wednesday, January 25th at 6pm in Fox Chapel
Thursday, January 26th at 6pm in Homewood

Also, we are having a big work day at the North Way East End ministry center at 5947 Penn Avenue in East Liberty this Saturday, January 14th from 8am-1pm. We need lots of help to prepare the space for our first prelaunch service at 10am on January 15th.

The Unpredictable City

2012-01-06T19:17:00.000-05:00

One of the funny things about incarnational ministry in the city is that I never know what to expect from one day to the next. Life is very unpredictable in the city, and I love it! Last night a few kids from the neighbhorhood dropped in on our church small group at our home. We shared an unexpected late dinner together, and we talked a lot about some struggles that they are having in school and also some fun things that are going on in their lives. Today I helped a mentee get to school because he missed his school bus, his mom had just had a baby so she couldn't take him, his high school requires a parent or guardian to be with the student trying to gain admittance if they arrive a couple hours late, and so I helped him get into school by appearing to be a responsible adult. I did some writing at some coffee shops in the East End. I interacted with a homeless person. Generally, I just tried to have the mindset all day that God was going to use me no matter what happened or who he brought across my path. And a lot of different kinds of people cross paths in cities. I used to live in neighborhoods where I never had any unexpected visitors. I lived there intentionally in the name of "safety." But in living in a "safe" neighbhorhood, I never realized how many interesting people and experiences I was missing out on. I love knowing my neighbors, and being a part of what goes on in the day to day buzz of the city. Who knows, I might be life long city boy!

Empowering Young People

2012-01-04T21:11:00.002-05:00

One of the most amazing things about having the privilege of mentoring at-risk youth over the past six years has been the gift of watching the mentees develop into empowered young people who are ready to succeed in life. God has opened the door to be able to mentor kids living in urban poverty, kids who are homeless, kids who are angry, kids who are desperate... the kids who would have normally fallen through the cracks of society. It has been heartbreaking to watch kids struggle through many ups and downs, but it has been remarkable to watch these resilient kids go through a profound process of transformation. Yes, many of the young people I work with face many challenges. However, they are becoming empowered to take on those challenges and overcome them. This is the work of the church in urban environments. Roberth Linthicum writes, "When the church builds networks between the poor and people of power which result in the observable improvement of the life of the poor, the gospel gains a credibility all the preaching by the church cannot provide. When self-confidence and self-respect of the poor are raised by networking to solve their own problems, the gospel gains a new hearing. It is a hearing based upon the respect the church has shown the poor. They are not objects to be ministered to, but people capable of taking charge of their own lives." I know God has big plans in store for the young people that I've had the joy of spending time with in Homewood.

East End Home Meetings

2012-01-02T15:49:00.001-05:00

January is going to be an amazing month! There is much anticipation for the launch of the North Way East End campus on January 29th. Between now and the official grand opening, I'm looking forward to four home meetings that have been set up with the launch team. We're meeting in Highland Park on January 11th, in Homewood on January 12th, in Shadyside on January 18th, and in Fox Chapel on January 25th. These meetings are open to anyone on the East End launch team, and any friends they may want to invite who might be interested in learning more about this new church location in the city of Pittsburgh. These meetings are going to be fun!

Drawing Inspiration from Biographies

2011-12-27T09:49:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-24T19:23:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-18T16:24:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-13T10:30:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-11T18:53:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-03T08:49:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-01T09:47:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-26T09:55:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-25T10:38:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-24T10:12:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-21T09:24:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-19T09:51:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-18T10:43:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-14T20:48:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-10T22:24:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-09T22:35:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-08T22:40:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-07T22:05:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-06T22:58:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-05T09:46:00.000-04:00

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

2011-11-02T20:01:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-30T11:41:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-27T11:00:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-26T08:34:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-24T14:00:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-20T10:42:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-18T09:49:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-14T00:12:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-11T21:14:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-10-10T11:17:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-08T22:10:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-06T22:48:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-05T23:15:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-03T10:56:00.001-04:00

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...

2011-09-29T08:29:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-26T10:56:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-22T22:23:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-21T21:47:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-19T23:47:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-16T13:49:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-15T16:06:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-11T23:04:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-10T10:54:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-09T10:35:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-07T22:53:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-02T12:01:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

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.

A New Year of School-based Mentoring

2011-08-30T15:20:00.000-04:00

This afternoon at the Pittsburgh Faison K-5 school I attended a LAMP luncheon for the school staff and school-based mentors. Everyone ate pizza together (donated by a local Pizza Hut restaurant), enjoyed getting to know one another, and learned more about what a successful school-based mentoring partnership looks like. Going into our sixth year of school-based mentoring, we are starting to have a pretty good idea of what it takes to impact some of the most at-risk young people in the city. Meetings like today's luncheon help to build momentum for the program before the kids arrive. If the school staff chooses not to buy in to the idea of mentoring, then the program almost always fails. If the mentors from places like churches and businesses don't buy into the mentoring, then the program fails. Partnerships are hard work sometimes, but they are so worth it. In today's culture, schools can't make it on their own. They need to embrace support from the community in the process of educating their students. Likewise, churches cannot impact the community on their own... their impact is much greater when they leave the safe Christian bubble for the sake of partnering with other institutions in the community. At the end of the day, these types of partnerships are mutually beneficial for both churches and schools. I am looking forward to another year of incredible school-based mentoring in Homewood through LAMP!

God's Mission To Cities

2011-08-27T14:03:00.000-04:00

I am really looking forward to leading North Way's East End campus in Pittsburgh because I believe so strongly that the church should be playing a significant role in complex urban environments. God is calling Christians all over the world to join his mission in reaching cities, which currently make up over 50 percent of the world's population. God is equipping ordinary people like me to be able to make a difference with our lives in places that many people avoid due to fear or complacency. God is on mission to redeem cities, so followers of Jesus should be willing to join that mission.

Mark Gornik writes, "If it is the church's mission to speak of and witness to hope and redemption, to life against death, and to peace over the violence of the powers, then the following agenda, while partial and preliminary, is important for the church in our cities. Our frame of reference is a vision of God's new city of peace; our practices are rooted in the gracious demands of God's reign; our sense of what is possible is engendered by the Spirit. And our most basic commitment is than any agenda must meet the demands of reality as experienced by the streets." - To Live In Peace

A Week of Dissertation Writing

2011-08-25T22:46:00.000-04:00

This is a big week as I'm writing out as much of my dissertation as I can during this last week of August. I honestly can't wait to finish this project. I have learned a lot in this DMin program over the past several years, but now that I am in the home stretch I am realizing just how much work it has been and how much of a strain it has been on me and my family. It's not that I'm complaining... I brought this on myself! It's just that I am ready to experience life without having to read or write academic material constantly. I can't remember the last time I watched TV or did "normal" things in life because so much of my spare time has been consumed with reading and writing. I'm ready for June 2, 2012 (BGU graduation).

Healthy Relationships

2011-08-24T21:11:00.000-04:00

Dating relationships are very important to the young people that I work with in Homewood (as they are with most teenagers in any environment). One of my main objectives in living incarnationally in Homewood has been to model a healthy marriage for the young people that we work with, because it's easy to talk about abstinence and making good choices but it's much more difficult to model certain behaviors consistently over a long period of time. Lots of outsiders come to Homewood to talk to kids about all kinds of different perspectives on dating relationships and sexuality. While I want to be careful not to devalue that type of work that does help some kids, a lot of the "talks" the kids get from outside organizations go in one ear and right out the other. The young people in Homewood face overwhelming pressure to become sexually active at a young age. To overcome those tempations, the kids need adults who will invest in them to help them understand healthy relationships.

This past weekend I was taking a long car ride with a few mentees and they started asking me all kinds of questions about my marriage to Julie. They were fascinated by my marriage! They told me all about their perspectives on dating, and they really wanted to know what I thought about certain issues that they were dealing with. God opened the door for me to be able to speak into issues of dating, sexuality, and marriage for these young people. I am able to speak into my mentees' lives because after six years of building meaningful relationships with them, I have earned the right to be heard and I have modeled a marriage for them. For a long time, some of my mentees called Julie my girlfriend because they didn't have a category for wife. Many of them had never had a marriage modeled for them. By being present in this community for a long time, my hope is that just as there are lots of men willing to speak to the young people in Homewood about unhealthy relationships and doing what feels good, that my presence in Homewood would allow me to be available to young people to talk to them about God's plan for healthy relationships and families. I am thankful for the platform that God has given me, as a pastor, to be able to speak into that area of my mentees' lives so that they at least know about the difference between right and wrong and unhealthy and healthy relationships. I don't take the kind of influence that my presence in the community allows me for granted.

A Weekend of Urban Ministry

2011-08-21T17:03:00.000-04:00

It's been another crazy weekend of urban ministry. Our basement flooded again on Friday during a huge storm in the East End of Pittsburgh, but it turned out to be much less damage than last month because our brand new water heater didn't break and we hadn't started repairing things from last month's damage so we didn't lose much. We did get to spend a romantic Friday night scrubbing and bleaching our basement floor from the sewage water... always fun! The weekend got much better after that, though, as yesterday we took three LAMP mentees to the lake to go boating and tubing. We all had a blast! Today was the LAMP BBQ after church at North Way Wexford, and we had a great turnout of LAMP mentors and mentees. The kids all loved playing in the church's youth room, and it was great to connect with the mentors who do so much incredible "behind the scenes" service through mentoring. Mentoring can sometimes feel lonely because it mostly happens in one on one relationships, so it is good to gather together periodically to support and encourage one another. Now, I just need to rest and enjoy my family time tonight because tomorrow evening we're taking a bunch of friends and LAMP kids to a Pirates game. This is shaping up to be a full summer!

Breakfast in the East End

2011-08-18T10:49:00.000-04:00

This morning I walked into a restaurant in the East End of Pittsburgh and I saw two men from North Way having breakfast together and discussing the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. These guys were sharing their lives with one another, and that is such a healthy thing for followers of Jesus Christ. The world encourages men to go on solo missions, somehow taking on the world by themselves while destroying themselves along the way. If culture encourages men to isolate, God encourages men to join arms with fellow brothers in Christ for the journey through life. We can't do it alone. It's impossible. One of the reasons I am so excited about launching the East End campus is that I get to have the great privilege of joining arms with some amazing Christians, like the two men meeting this morning, who are passionate about being a church that makes a difference in this city.

Is Every Christian Called to Serve People in Need?

2011-08-17T18:53:00.000-04:00

Recently some friends of mine asked me if my calling as a follower of Jesus is difficult. I think that, clearly, my calling is difficult at times. It comes with a cost. However, it is my opinion that God gives all of his followers difficult callings. Many times Christians choose to be disobedient to the difficult callings that God gives them in order to embrace a more comfortable cultural version of American Christianity, but that still doesn't change the fact that when we enter into a relationship with Jesus we are called to become deeply involved in his mission to reach the lost in this world. That is one of our main functions in this life... to reach people who are hurting and in need of a Saviour.

Many Christians will disagree with me, and I'm okay with that, but I think that all believers in God are called to serve the poor in one way or another. Our callings to the poor may look very different, but from my perspective it appears that Jesus wants all of us to be in relationships with people who are struggling in this world. When a Christian who is not involved in caring for the poor becomes "convicted" in their heart after reading a book about serving the poor, watching an inspirational movie about sold-out followers of Jesus giving themselves away to marginalized people, or listening to a speaker passionately describe their work with people in need, that may be the Holy Spirit prompting them to get involved relationally with struggling people. God's church is the hope of the world, and when we fail to live out that function we are being disobedient to our Creator.

The concept of serving the poor, and living out difficult callings, goes much further than giving money to charities. Giving money to the church or charity is simply good stewardship of what God has given us to steward. Also, we must go much further than simply talking about the poor. Everyone seems to have a cause nowadays because that's the cool thing in our affluent culture, but God wants us to give ourselves away to the poor by building meaningful, long term relationships. Don't get me wrong... there are many people who are also called by God to reach middle class and afflent people (I could argue that we are all called to do that as well). However, if we fail to build relationships with marginalized people then there may always be something missing in our hearts and in our faith because we are missing out on a lot of what God wants to do through each of us in this short life that we are given to steward. The best thing to do to overcome that is to listen to what God is asking us to do, and then go and do it. Sometimes we don't need to wait for a program, we just need to go to where hurting people are and start talking with them and listening to their stories. If we remain obedient to Christ, then he will show us what to do from there.

From Ideal to Ordeal and Back Again

2011-08-16T19:10:00.000-04:00

Things have been pretty tough in Homewood lately. After living in Homewood for three full summers now, I'm learning that summer is difficult because violence is at its peak and the young people that we work with need us more than ever because they are out of school and often left alone to grind out an existence in the midst of urban poverty. Plus, my wife and I know that we have come under some pretty intense spiritual warfare this summer. I know that we have an enemy that hates that we are following Christ with all of our hearts, and that we are making an impact for the Kingdom of God in this neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Where the enemy has a vision for desperation and destruction, we know that God has a plan for the people in our neighborhood to prosper and overcome their hardships. After six years of working in Homewood, I know that God still wants to work through me and my family to reach people with his profound, life-changing love.

Julie and I had to laugh this morning when we woke up to the news that something bad had happened to us, we prayed about it, and within probably half an hour God had taken the "bad" situation and turned it into a positive so that God would be glorified. Lately, God seems to be working like that every single day! It's almost too much to take. If fact, many incarnational leaders end up quitting after a year or two because this whole incarnational urban ministry thing is almost too much to take. We feel very often like sometimes this is all just a big fiasco, and life would be easier if God would just give us a more comfortable calling in a more stable location. Sometimes Julie and I long for the days when life wasn't so hard on a daily basis... the days when we thought we were safe and secure on the path of the American Dream and God got a hold of us and showed us the calling that he has given us to reach young people in Homewood and people living in poverty in the city of Pittsburgh. This calling is difficult, but we're not about to quit. We know God's up to something... it's just a matter of us staying the course and being obedient.

In his classic book on incarnational urban ministry, Sub-merge, John Hayes describes how incarnational workers among the poor initially experience the jubilation of the "ideal" for a short period of time before struggles begin to make life an "ordeal." When we first start serving the urban poor, "We feel liberated from the 'real world' and its drive to get ahead and we find new purpose in working for eternal results among the most needy. For a few of us, the danger and risk of ministering on the streets adds a glamour that contributes to the ideal. Eventually, the ideal gives way to the ordeal. Typically, the ordeal comes to us in the form of unmet expectations and culture shock... Unfortunately, the ordeal is a season during which many Christian workers among the poor burn out and/or check out."

So, life in Homewood often feels like an ordeal. It just seems like too much to take sometimes. But, we can choose how we respond to the ordeal. When the realities of urban ministry set in, it's important to learn what God wants us to learn in the journey through the desert and come back through the other side ready to make an even bigger difference with our lives. The only other option is to quit and try to run back to life as we knew it... and that's not something that we're planning to do. God desires to work through us in our adversity. That's how he operated all throughout the Scriptures. God works through us best when we endure through tough times. Or, as John Hayes describes it, "The long journey across the desert is His way of starving our last attitudes from Egypt, or in some cases, the hangover of consumer Christianity. He tests us in the desert to see if we will sacrifice our new freedom for security. The ordeal is really the process of hammering our ideal into His ideal." A few years ago, I stopped living the American Dream and I embraced the gospel of message of Jesus Christ without the baggage of cultural Christianity. I am free from cultural captivity, and I wouldn't trade that in for anything that this world has to offer. I know this tough season of urban ministry is simply a matter of the cost that comes with joining God's mission to reach the lost in this world. And, for me, that's what this one short life is all about.

Another Incident in Homewood

2011-08-15T16:15:00.000-04:00

My doorbell rang last night at 11:30pm, and I knew right away that something strange was going on. One of the young men from my neighborhood, a seventeen year old senior in high school, stopped by to let me know that his younger brother, a fifteen year old boy who is involved in LAMP, was in the hospital. The mentee had been walking around with some friends in a part of Homewood that they probably shouldn't have been walking around, a feud had escalated, some shots had been fired, and the mentee was hit by a car while he was running away (at least that's the version of the events from the older brother's perspective). The mentee had been taken by ambulance to children's hospital, and his mom was over there with him, leaving the older brother and several other kids that I know to themselves on their block trying to figure out how to respond and wondering how their brother and friend was doing. This is the third shooting in the past week and a half that has impacted kids I'm close to in Homewood. These are the types of things that happen to pastors involved in urban ministry. It's hard to know how to respond. That's why it is important to be connected intimately to the Holy Spirit, because there are no simple solutions on how to respond to complex, urban issues. In the case of last night, I decided to drive my young friend home so that he made it there safely. Then, I drove over to the hospital to visit the mentee and his mom to see if I could find out any additional information about his health status that I might share with his brothers and friends back in Homewood. Once I went back to Homewood, I stopped at several houses to share the information and kind of deescalate their anger a little bit. I stayed for a while to talk about things, and then I went home. I also called the mentor to let him know that his mentee was in the hospital and to pray for the situation. The mentee seems to be doing OK, by the way, but I'll be finding out more information about his status when I visit with him today.

Summer time is a difficult time to minister with the high risk youth that we work with in Homewood. Situations that require pastoral support occur quite often, and for some reason God has chosen to work through me to reach tough kids and their families. It's a calling that I cannot ignore, and I know countless other ministry leaders in Homewood can relate. There are some pastors in Homewood who have been ministering in the midst of people's pain in Homewood for years and years. I honestly don't know how they do it, but I do know that their work is important and needed. When we are called to work with people experiencing the grind of urban poverty, we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to know how to respond to each unique circumstance. My story from last night is not a story about me... it's a story about God and how much he cares about kids in Homewood and how much he wants to demonstrate his love to people in need. God values every life that he creates, and I know God has a positive plan for every young person in Homewood. God wants to work through ordinary people like me to carry that message forward. Because of that, the urban ministry worker must be empowered, equipped, and called by God for this work. We must be ready to engage, even if it is inconvenient. I am thankful that God chooses to work through me sometimes. Please pray for my neighborhood, please pray for the young people in my neighbhorood, and please pray for the pastors, ministry leaders, mentors, volunteers, school leaders and teachers, people from organizations such as Homewood Children's Village, Operation Better Block, YMCA, Rosedale Block Cluster, and other people and organizations that are working together toward the process of transformation in Homewood. No child should have to grow up in fear and despair, and I am praying that a brighter future is coming for the kids in Homewood.

A Block Party in Homewood

2011-08-13T22:47:00.000-04:00

A small group made up of young adults from my church wanted to do a service project in Pittsburgh, so I invited them to my house last Wednesday night to throw a block party for kids in Homewood. The kids from my neighborhood had an absolute blast hanging out in our house, playing in the giant inflatable in our back yard, playing with squirt guns and nerf dart tag, playing street football, playing xbox and Wii games, and eating lots of good food. The small group did a great job of connecting with the kids and making the event fun for them, and several of them expressed an interest in becoming a mentor. The evening was a huge hit, both here in my neighborhood with the kids and with the members of the small group. The small group told me that they want to come back to Homewood and do another block party soon. I have to admit, there's nothing quite like a block party in my neighborhood!

Urban ministry has many challenges (for instance I had to help my mentees navigate through two shootings in my neighborhood last week), but it also has many rewards. The level of community that I get to experience sometimes is amazing. I think a lot of people are searching for the "real" life, and I find that "real" life quite often in my experiences in urban ministry. I'm not saying it's for everybody, but sometimes it seems like every day of my life is a new adventure with new friends and new experiences and authentic community. I wouldn't trade it in for anything. And I love to share my calling, my neighborhood and the people in it, with new people who come to visit me. Most people in Pittsburgh only have a negative perception of Homewood because that's all they see on the news, so I love it when people come to Homewood and leave having had a very positive interaction with the real Homewood... not the one characterized by violence and crime, but by good friendships and struggling people who depend on one another to get through each day. God is doing a great work in Homewood.

Calling and Leadership

2011-08-12T22:40:00.001-04:00

Today I had the opportunity to attend the videocast in Pittsburgh of The Global Leadership Summit, an international leadership training event sponsored by Willow Creek Church. Leaders from a variety of different fields shared their vision with over 150,000 Christian ministry and business leaders from around the world. The speakers were amazing, including such people as Mama Maggie Cobran (a leader working among the poorest of the poor in the garbage dumps of Cairo, Egypt), Michelle Rhee (a public education reformer and the former superintendent of the Washington DC school district), Dr. Henry Cloud, Bill Hybels, John Dickson, and Erwin McManus. Every one of the speakers was inspirational, and their content was excellent.

It takes a lot of guts to get up in front of a huge worldwide audience and share from the heart about the difficulties of leadership in a complex world. The issue of calling was a theme that ran throughout the course of the day. Some of the speakers had been called by God to work among the poorest of the poor, while others had been called to work with business leaders and CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world. An important distinction to make is that none of the speakers' callings were more important or needed in the world than any of the other speakers. God works through all kinds of people in all kinds of different contexts, from the dirt streets of the poorest communities in the world to the board rooms where millions and sometimes billions of dollars are stewarded.

It was fun to debrief that paradox of calling with a group of leaders from North Way during our lunch break. Sometimes it is great to attend leadership conferences like this because people open up about their unique callings and call all of us to join into something much greater than ourselves and what we personally think we are capable of. It's also difficult to attend leadership conferences like this because we must take a long look at what other leaders are doing around the world and question whether or not we are living up to the callings that God has given us (or sometimes if we have even heard a calling from the Lord at all in the midst of our faith journeys).

A calling is a powerful thing, and someone else communicating the details of their unique calling (whether to the poor, the rich, or anyone in between) is one of the most powerful things that we can experience as adults. We either become disoriented in our lives or inspired to continue on in the work that we are a part of. That is the tension that all Christian leaders live in every single day that we wake up and face the day. If we are real with ourselves, we wonder if we are doing enough to live deeply in the calling that God has given us. If we are living deeply in that calling, we wonder just how it is that we are supposed to sustain ourselves in the midst of the strain, suffering, and difficulties that come with tough callings (God is in the habit of giving us those tough callings if we are really listening to him). At the end of the day, it is important that we take all of our issues to our Heavenly Father. We stand before him, and him alone. We should not gauge success by worldly standards, and as I learned again today, the best leaders are those who are able to live out the calling that God has given them regardless of the costs during this short life on earth. We only have one shot at this life, and we need to live life to the fullest according to God's purposes no matter where he has called us.

Some Perspective

2011-08-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

I have a big deadline coming up this week for my dissertation, so I have been writing like crazy lately. I have been stressed out by the project, and about half way through my day today I was throwing a little pity party for myself in my head when the doorbell rang. It was one of my mentees in Homewood. He stopped by to tell me that his mom had been shot, and that she was in the ICU at a hospital in Oakland. He didn't have any way to go visit her, so he asked me if I would give him a ride to go see her. Suddenly, the problems in my head with my little dissertation project didn't seem like such a big deal in the whole scheme of things. I gave him a ride to the hospital and we were able to kind of talk through how he was doing with everything. His mom is going to live, but she will be recovering for a while. It's amazing how the city provides perspective in life. I used to think that my life was difficult, but I know that my mentees and neighbors face suffering in life that I could never possibly understand. The level of resilience and courage in my mentees is absolutely astounding sometimes. I wish the rest of the world could see what I get to see in them. Their resolve to persevere in life is inspiring. So, at the end of my day today, my project deadline still looms on the horizon but it's really no big deal, relatively speaking. It's not life or death. My heart is heavy for my mentee and his mom tonight, and I'm definitely praying for them.

Reaching People for Christ

2011-08-08T10:26:00.000-04:00

Yesterday at church I had the opportunity to pray with several people as they accepted Jesus' profound gift of salvation. Of all the adjustments to being a pastor that I am experiencing this year, this was the best role to step into because it's the main calling that all of us have as followers of Jesus Christ. We are all called to build relationships with people so that they might come to know God more deeply. All Christians should learn to become familiar with evangelism, even though evangelism takes on many different forms depending on life situations. God is on mission to redeem the world, and he has a part for every single one of us to play in that grand adventure. That narrative is what defines our life purpose. Most of life will not make sense to us as human beings unless we view it through the lens of God's mission to reach the lost in this world. That narrative clashes with the American Dream narrative, though, because the American Dream narrative that we live in communicates that life is all about us, and our happiness, and gaining more power, money, and influence. We live in a hyperindividualized culture where we are encouraged to make our selves the center of the universe. God's Grand Narrative, which was in place long before our lifetimes and will continue long after we are gone regardless of how culture shifts in the world, should provide the meaning in our lives if we are followers of Jesus. However, instead of breaking that narrative down into small principles to apply to our lives, we should orient ourselves in God's Story by searching for where God is on mission in this world and deeply engaging in that mission in those places. Christians find our meaning in advancing the Kingdom of God, not advancing our selves so that we might somehow be happier by worldly standards. Our purpose in life is to reach others for the sake of Christ.

A Bike Incident

2011-08-04T18:59:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how life can change in an instant in my neighborhood. Yesterday somebody offered me tickets to the Pirates baseball game, so I decided to take my family and one of the boys from my neighborhood who has never been to a baseball game before. Our family was excited to have an unexpected night out on the town. We decided to eat dinner before we left our house for the game, and a couple of boys from the neighborhood showed up at our house to visit just as we were about to eat so we invited them to have dinner with us. One of those boys asked to borrow the bike of one of the other boys to go to his house real quick (he only lives about 100 yards from my house). He showed up at our house about ten minutes later, without the bike, frantically ringing our door bell and out of breath with a strange look on his face. When I opened the door he said, "You'll never believe what just happened!" He hurried inside the house and explained what had just happened. He got the story out very well for an eight year old kid, saying "Mr. B... I was almost at my house riding on Amir's bike when a car drove right past me and started shooting. They shot a whole bunch of shots into the house right next to mine, so I ditched my bike and headed into my house to duck for cover. A whole bunch of cops came and they have my whole block closed off. As soon as the cops got there, I went out to get Amir's bike but it was gone. Someone stole it, and some people told me that a teenager running from that house grabbed the bike and rode it to get away from the scene." I was just glad that he was alright, but Amir was very upset that his bike had been stolen. I wasn't sure if my young friend's story was true (bikes exchange owners frequently in Homewood), so I asked him and Amir to jump in my car with me on the one hand so that I could get them home safely if there was still danger and on the other hand to see if we could spot anyone riding the bike. We did not find the bike, but sure enough there were about ten police officers blocking off the streets around where the shooting had occurred. I went right into pastor mode... that is what pastors do in struggling urban environments. We go to where the people are hurting and we pray and help out and just generally minister to our neighbors.

One of the things about incarnational ministry is that when something bad happens in my neighborhood, I feel it. I hate that there are gun shots that close to my house. I hate that eight year old kids can't ride their bikes in the streets around my house without being in constant fear that shooting could break out in broad daylight at any time. I hate that my neighbors, people who I have grown to know and love, have to live in fear of violence. That kind of violence is evil, and it must be stopped. I don't want it to stop because of "those poor people who live in that blighted neighborhood." I want it to stop because it's my neighborhood, and my home, and I don't want that crazy stuff around my family and friends. It's just not right, and it's not the way life is supposed to be. And so my heart breaks, and when I enter into other people's pain I enter into holy ground. God meets people in their pain and in their heartache. There is no better place for me to be, as a follower of Jesus Christ, than ministering to my friends in the aftermath of a shooting in my neighborhood. We cannot minister effectively to people in pain if we are unwilling to go where they are because of fear. My calling as a Christian does not happen in sterile office or church environments between the hours of 9am and 5pm... it happens at all kinds of different hours in all kinds of messy places with all kinds of hurting people. A lot of transformational ministry happens when we least expect it.

When I made sure the boys were alright and returned safely to their mothers, I headed back to my house with the realization that suddenly a Pirate game wasn't that important and that at best we would be late arriving at the stadium because of the drama in my neighborhood. Still, we went to the Pirate game. The enemy wanted to destroy our joy because that's what he is best at doing, but we would not let our joy be destroyed last night. We had a good time together at the game. Sometimes the best thing to do for healing after traumatic events is to do "normal" things, so maybe the Pirate game helped me feel better for a little while. My heart is still burdened for my neighborhood, though. What else can I do to work with my neighbors to continue to try to put an end to the senseless violence in my streets? How else can I help? Where is God moving in Homewood, and how can I join that work each day to contribute my small part in God's plans to redeem the world? These are the questions that keep me awake at night. The faces of my neighbors are on my mind a lot because I so desperately want for there to be a sense of shalom in my neighborhood. I wouldn't trade that calling for anything, although it's not an easy calling. I feel like I need to give up control of the circumstances in my neighborhood every single day, and allow God to enter into the places where my heart breaks for the brokenness that is all around me.

The kids all came back to our house today, and we all celebrated together because Amir found his bike. Someone had given him a hot tip on where it had been spotted, and he was reconciled with his transportation shortly thereafter. We talked about the events from the previous day, and I caught up on how everyone from that street was doing. I was glad to hear that none of my friends were injured by the shooting. And we resumed "normal" life at the McCabe house, whatever normal means anymore. Every day seems like something new, and God is always teaching me things. The streets are my classroom. And that's the tension that God wants us to live in... with one arm outstretched to those in pain in this world, and with one arm outstretched to our Heavenly Father. We are called to use our lifetimes spending ourselves on behalf of vulnerable people in vulnerable places so that our God will be glorified and his purposes will be reached through us.

An Afternoon of Strange Animal Encounters

2011-08-03T16:12:00.000-04:00

Raising kids is always an interesting thing. Yesterday afternoon when I arrived home from work I walked right into something unexpected. One of the kids in my neighborhood had stumbled upon a stray cat who had kittens in an abandoned house on my street. He had somehow managed to get a hold of one of the kittens, he brought it over to our house to show us, and then he used his business instincts to track down one of his friends and sell him the cat for $17 (I'm not sure how he knew the going rate for stray kittens these days, but that's another story). He came back to my house after the sale, shared what had happened with my daughters, and he promptly invited them to join in on his new business venture. Apparently, the offer made was that he would catch the rest of the stray kittens, bring them over to our house, my daughters would give the kittens a bath so that they smelled good going into the business transaction, their friend would then go out into the community and sell the kittens to other kids in Homewood, and then he would come back to our house and share a certain percentage of the profits with my daughters (I'm not sure if they took into consideration the overhead costs of water, soap, and towels involved in bathing kittens, but that's another matter). They had the whole plan worked out, and just as I was figuring out how I should respond to this situation, my wife informed me that our dog, a boxer named Bella, was having a false pregnancy. She had confused several of her squeaky toys for "puppies," and she was carrying them gently around the house while "mothering" them. The thought briefly crossed my mind, wondering if my daughters and their friend from the neighborhood might also be able to sell my fake squeaky toy "grandpuppies" in the underground pet market in Homewood, but I thought that might not be such a good idea. After a tough conversation with my daughters about how they are not allowed to profit from the aiding and then selling of helpless stray animals in our neighborhood, and after trying to explain to my daughters that our dog thinks she has puppies when she actually doesn't, I was ready to chalk up my afternoon as one of the most bizarre afternoons I've ever had. Oh, and I got to drop over $200 at the vet to find out that my dog really was not pregnant but only a mother in her head. I can only imagine how much it costs to take a dog to a pet psychologist! As if I needed more female hormonal issues around my house anyway! I wonder what unexpected adventures await me when I arrive home today?

Christians Engage the World

2011-08-01T00:03:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite things to do as a pastor is to encourage followers of Jesus to engage the world and be as involved as possible in many interests and activities outside of the church walls. The church is not a country club where Christians gather to separate from the world. We gather corporately so that we can worship the Lord and grow in order to be equipped to go back out into the world. Most of the life of the person who is following Jesus Christ whole-heartedly is spent giving themselves away to others for the sake of the advancement of the kingdom of God in the world. This is why I moved my family to the inner city... to be closer to the struggling people in this world who are desperately in need of God. I am hoping to model for my children, with my lifestyle, that being a Christians means that we are called to go into the world, not withdraw from the world. We should be concerned if our only friends and relationships are with Christians, because that means we are missing out on God's mission to redeem the world.

William Stringfellow wrote, "The image of Christian action in the world is that of the people of God living in dispersion in the world and in any corner of the world, finding trustworthy God's promise that He cares for all men and for each man. Moreover, Christians are free in their dispersion to intercede for the cause of any man - even one who is said by others to be unworthy - and thereby to represent in the world the intercession of Christ for all men - even though none be worthy. The image of Christian witness in the world is that of a people who have so completely divested themselves of their own individual self-interest that they may intercede - stand in the place of, represent, advocate - the cause of another, any other at all. And then, now and again, the people return from their extraordinarily versatile involvement in the life of the world, to gather as the Church to represent, before God, the world out of which they have come, in all its connectedness and conflict and change, and to celebrate as the Church the presence of the Word of God as they have known it in the world." - A Private and Public Faith

My goal in life as a follower of Jesus is to build relationships with as many "unworthy" people in the world as I possibly can, in as many difficult places as God would lead me to, for the sake of dying to my self and gaining Christ on a daily basis, so that God would be glorified by my sacrifice. Some day when I die and people gather to celebrate my life, I hope that the words used would go something along the lines of, "Bryan so completely divested himself of his own individual self-interest that he spent a lifetime interceding - standing in the place of, representing, advocating - the cause of another, any other at all." Now that would be a legacy!

Passivity or Aggression

2011-07-29T14:52:00.000-04:00

Most men struggle with either passivity or over-aggression. As a result, the people in our lives often experience pain because we fail to act or we come on too strong. There is a strong connection between living out of our strength, that is... the strength that God gives us... and living out the masculine journey effectively. These choices to live appropriately out of our strength usually come at us daily. For instance, this morning my wife opened a letter from the company that cleaned and helped restore our basement after the flood last week. The bill was much bigger than we were anticipating, and several line items on the bill did not make sense. My wife was very upset, and as she talked to me about what we should do about the bill I could feel my sinful reactions coming on. The passive side of me wanted to just let it go, thinking that we're under enough pressure lately and this was just one more thing that wasn't worth the fight. The over-aggressive side of me wanted to write a mean letter, storm into the office building of the company that had done the injustice to my family, and cause a huge stir until the wrongs were fixed. Angry words filled my heart as I pictured in my mind what I would say. It's funny, though, in that intense conversation with my wife about what we could do, I could sense the enemy pouring flames on our discussion. He was trying to harm us. Whether it was through my sins of passivity or over-aggression, it seemed that the enemy was determined to get me one way or the other. I prayed quietly in my heart for Jesus to enter this situation. As my wife and I talked through our next steps, I offered to take care of contacting the company. As a man, I took some time to clear my thoughts, pray about the situation, and then engage. The key for every man in life is that we do choose to engage. I called the company and talked calmly to the right people, and in the end we were reimbursed for the areas that we had been overbilled. I think that I was able to resolve the situation without being too passive or too over-aggressive. I lived out of my strength, out of the strength that my wife and children need from me, but I was also able to respectully interact with the company representatives without becoming too angry. Nothing will make you feel more like a man than fighting against injustices in this world, whether they are personal or if they impact many people, and doing so effectively according to the masculine strength that God has given us. There is an epic, spiritual battle going on in this world, and we all have a part to play in it. That is why God needs men to follow his ways and pursue justice daily regardless of the outcomes. We cannot be effective in the battle if we are too passive or too aggressive.

Calling

2011-07-27T22:56:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I had an interesting conversation with a young man from North Way about the topic of calling. He is trying to figure out what God is calling him to do with his life, and he wanted to gain my perspective because, he said, "lots of people talk about learning what God asks them to do but they don't actually do it. You seem to be able to hear from God and then you are actually crazy enough to do what God seems to be asking you to do, even if it goes against mainstream culture or what seems rational." I was kind of surprised when he said that, because even though I try very hard to be an authentic follower of Jesus Christ I still still struggle daily to hear God's voice and actually do what he is asking me to do. I drop the ball all of the time, and I miss out on God's purposes. However, I do try to be obedient when I hear from the Lord and as a result I would say that my sense of joy in calling is very strong. When God calls me to act on his behalf, even when it doesn't seem to make any rational sense, the feeling that I get is so strong and overwhelming that if I don't follow through with it I almost can't function in life.

I think all people want to be "real," but this world is often cruel to people who try to authentically follow Jesus so we settle for disobedience and creating elaborate fronts for ourselves that we portray to the world so that we can send the message that we've got this whole life thing under control. The scary truth is, though, none of us are in control of our lives. We're crazy for thinking that we can control things. So why do we even try? Why do we end up being fake people or fake Christians? Why do we miss out on the callings that God wants to willingly give us as we join him on his mission to redeem the world? Because there is an intense spiritual battle going on that we do not see, but it is a battle that keeps us living under control, or in disobedience, or in fear as we go through our lives. The enemy does not want us to discover our callings because we are dangerous when we do! The enemy does not want us to be real, authentic, sold out followers of Jesus because when we live like that we make a huge difference in advancing the kingdom of God. With God, all things are possible! We should not settle for being fake or being disobedient. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God, and every single one of us has the capability of discovering and living out the callings that our Creator gives us out of his amazing love for us. Calling in its most simple form means that we should not just be hearers of the Word, but also doers.

Learning from A Tough Week

2011-07-22T16:37:00.000-04:00

I am glad that this week is starting to wrap up because of all of the difficult things that have happened, but I'm also thankful for how God has drawn me closer to him through these circumstances. Many friends and family members have connected with Julie and me to support us as we navigate through repairing our basement from the flooding on Monday. My friend's passing away at 34 years older earlier this week has really caused me to reflect on how short life is, how blessed I have been to this point in my life, and how I want to continue to live every day that God gives me to the fullest. An uncle who I am close to, Craig Morris, has been battling for his life this week with cancer. I am thankful for the opportunity that I had to pray with him, and through his pain God is showing me again how fragile life is and that I need to make the most of every day.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like going through tough times. However, when things get tough I depend on God more, and I also value the relationships in my life more. For those outcomes, I am thankful. Not having hot water for a week or losing my home office are just inconveniences that will eventually go away, but the lessons I've learned this week I'll carry with me forever. A lot of people depend on me as a husband, father, friend, and pastor, but in weeks like this it's important that I learn to give up control and allow God to father me and care for my heart. Otherwise, it's all just too much to take. I am finding peace in my Heavenly Father this week, even as my heart is heavy.

We All Need Good Friends

2011-07-20T21:37:00.000-04:00

For the past three or four years I have been meeting with one of my best friends for coffee every Wednesday morning for an hour or two. We talk about life together, we read the Bible together, and we pray together. He's about my age, and we are at similar stages in life. We have the kind of relationship where we can tell each other anything, and we're the kind of friends who look out for one another in this life. Every man needs to have good friends like that who are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder in the cosmic battle between good and evil that defines so much of our lives every day (whether we realize it or not).

Good friends stand by us and are consistent whether things are going well or not so well. Over the past several months I have been experiencing a lot of good things... with my family, professionally, academically, and with reaching others for the sake of Christ's eternal purposes. I have enjoyed that season tremendously, and I am thankful for how God has profoundly blessed me to be able to experience so much joy in this life. Then, beginning with this past weekend, I seem to be being hit by one wave after another of difficult life circumstances and bad, heartbreaking news. Still, when I met with my friend this morning our time together was like a breath of fresh air as I have been going through a tough week. I know my brother in Christ has my back. Our time together was well-needed! I know that God is going to get me through this tough time one way or another, and I am glad that good friends are surrounding me for this journey through life.

This is a crucial concept for all grown men who follow Christ... the temptation is for us to go through life on a solo mission, but God wants us to surround ourselves with trustworthy friends who can join with us in the great journey through life. The movies may glamorize solo missions, but God is not a God of solo missions. If we do not have deep, meaningful relationships with our fellow brothers in Christ who are willing to speak into our lives, then we will be dead meat if we step out into the world alone. God wants to work through our close friends to strengthen us and equip us for the battle in God's mission to redeem the world. The battle is real whether we are working as a businessman or as a pastor at a church. We need to hold each other up. The concept goes much further than the cheesy version of "accountability partners" that many churches hold up as the standard for male interaction. Life is hard, and we need much, much more than accountability. We need friends who will stand in the gap for us. I am so thankful that I have a few friends like that. I wouldn't trade that in for any cheap, surface friendship that this world has to offer.

A Flooded Basement

2011-07-19T14:59:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how quickly plans can change in life. I had set aside a lot of time this week to write my dissertation, and Julie and the girls went over to Ohio so that I could have some clear time to think and research. This type of writing requires a lot of access to the books and articles I've accumulated throughout the course of the DMin program, so I settled down in my downstairs office where all of those resources are located so that I could focus and get some work done. I popped on my headphones, cracked open my laptop, leaned back in my work chair as I've done probably hundreds of times over the past three years, and just as I got started something caught my attention. A small wave of water on my basement floor was moving rapidly in my direction. Before I could even think to react, it had spilled over into my office and I had to scramble to pick things I was working on up off the floor. Apparently, a huge thunderstorm struck outside while I was working in the basement and the sewer system in my part of Homewood backed up so that all of the basements in my neighborhoos were flooded out by several inches of sewer water. As it happened, my heart broke because a small group from my church had spent hours and hours of time finishing my basement earlier this year. I watched helplessly as in an instant the entire basement carpet and trim that took months to install were destroyed. My heart broke, not so much for the stuff that was in our basement, but for the many kids in our neighborhood who spend so much time hanging out in our newly finished basement. It serves as a game room for kids in Homewood... a safe place for them to get out of the summer heat and spend time with their friends.

When the flooding started to receed, and I was done scrambling to get a few valuable things off the floor in the basement, I made my way upstairs and sat quietly looking down at the floor with my head in my hands contemplating the meaning of life. Why does stuff like this happen? Why does life have to be so hard? This was a huge, time consuming set back that would draw my focus away from my dissertation... at least for the short term while we deal with this. This setback would keep us from being able to help more kids in Homewood for the near future. Where all of those volunteer hours spent finishing the floors in our basement a waste of time? Then I just went quiet for a while, searching for answers in my head. And that's right where God met me and worked on healing my broken heart. God ministered to me in those moments, and slowly I started to release the things of this world and immerse myself in God's eternal purposes. I became relieved that God would take a situation that the enemy meant for evil, a strong blow to our work in Homewood, and turn it into a something positive that he will use to reach this world for his glory. I'm just not sure how that is going to happen, yet, but I know it is going to happen. Stuff is just stuff. I don't care at all about the stuff that we had accumulated that may have been flooded in our basement. Every single thing that I think I have actually belongs to God anyway. I'm just a steward of what God gives me to utilize for his purposes. The stuff can be replaced. I should not be asking myself "why" when something like this happens. Instead, I should be asking myself "what?" What does God want to do with these circumstances to achieve his purposes.

I know that God is in control. I trust him with everything... that's the only way to function with life in Homewood. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I should expect persecution from the enemy who hates my soul and wants to destroy me. However, God has overcome the enemy and I will one day experience the joy of victory over evil that I know is coming. In the mean time, I need to continue to be obedient in all things. I am hoping that my dissertation will help a lot of at risk youth around the world, and I'm not going to let this little basement set back keep me from writing it. I know that opening our home up to kids in Homewood is something that God has called us to do, and this little basement set back isn't going to keep us from fulfilling that calling. I know how this whole human drama works out... things will be hard, but God wins!

The Loss of a Friend

2011-07-18T11:07:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine from high school was killed by a drunk driver over the weekend. He left behind three children and a wife who he loved very much. From my understanding, he was a follower of Jesus so he is in a better place right now. Still, I know things are going to be very difficult for his family for a while. He left behind quite a legacy as many people were inspired by how well he loved life, loved his family, and loved others. He had a great sense of humor, and he was able to build friendships with just about anyone he came into contact with. My friend was 34 years old when his life ended, but the relationships he built in this life will last for eternity. His legacy provides a great reminder for all men. There are many things in this world that would seek to destroy us and pull us away from God's purposes, but we can overcome those things and love others well if we choose to serve the Lord. Life is short, whether we live to be 34 or 94. We get one shot at this thing. Let's make it count by loving others well.

Ministry in the City

2011-07-14T16:13:00.000-04:00

When I first started working with LAMP over five years ago, one of my favorite things to do was to get to know my city... Pittsburgh. Growing up I did not spend very much time in the urban environments of Pittsburgh except for sporting events or museums. I love Pittsburgh! And, I love showing people around Pittsburgh now. I really enjoy exposing my mentees to learning opportunities in this dynamic city, and I enjoy visiting different places with family and friends. God is giving me a heart for the city, and I feel like my eyes have really been opened to God's ways of moving through the complexities of urban life.

Now that I have a love for the city, God has given me the great privilege of casting vision for North Way's new urban campus in the East End. Even though the campus will most likely not launch until this winter, I have been intentionally scheduling one to one meetings with people who are considering making that campus a church home. In my mind, there is nothing better than dreaming about doing church in the city, and then actually having God work through me to implement those dreams! That's what gets me going every morning!

If we pay attention, we can find amazing joy in the callings that God gives us. That is why it is so tragic when people land in miserable jobs and stay in those miserable callings or circumstances for years. God has much more for us in life than painful exercises in vocational futility over years or even decades. God designed each of us to have unique skill sets that we offer the world. So why do we settle? God wants to bring us joy, to have us enter into our places of passion and calling based on fulfilling his purposes for reaching this world. I would have never dreamed of being an urban pastor when I was growing up, but God has brought me to this point because he loves me and he wants me to experience the richness and fullness of life while he works through me in the city. I am loving this opportunity in Pittsburgh!

Reflecting on a Prayer Journal Entry

2011-07-11T21:49:00.001-04:00

Reflection is an important part of leading. Summer time is a great time to reflect because the pace of life slows down a bit and many people take time off to recharge. One of the things I like to do when I reflect is take a look back through my old journals to see what God has done in my life over the years. Recently, I stumbled upon a journal entry that I made on March 6, 2006. At the time, I did not know anything about LAMP or Homewood or urban ministry or mentoring or a doctorate degree or being a pastor at a church. Even though I didn't know any of the details of what God was going to do, I knew in my heart that God was about to break through in a big way in my life. At the time I was unemployed, I had no health insurance, we were struggling financially, and yet I knew God was somehow orchestrating the situation for his purposes.

Here's the prayer that I wrote to the Lord on that day over five years ago: "Lord, where will you take me? I want to live for you from my heart. I want to serve you... to impact as many people for you as I possibly can. Help me not to focus on the circumstances or living for this world again. I need to hold you at the center of my life. I know you created me for this time and for your purposes. Please show me. I'm ready! I feel you in my great times and in my pain. You are woven throughout. I want to adventure with you, to experience your beauty and majesty once again. Please watch over my family and protect them for me. Draw them closer to you. Have them experience the journey with me."

God is so faithful! My life since that day has been an amazing adventure, a journey that I would not trade for anything. The journey has not been easy... it's been a challenge. But, I can see that God orchestrated the entire journey! When we choose to give up control of our lives, to embrace the radical message of the gospel of Jesus Christ with reckless abandon, and throw ourselves into God's mission to reach the world, then we get to experience the richness and joy that comes with intimacy with our Creator. We find meaning in life when we sell out to the Lord with everything that is in us. God wants to give us the desires of our hearts when our desires align with his purposes.

Signs of Transformation

2011-07-10T22:36:00.000-04:00

It's important in urban ministry to celebrate break throughs in people's lives. Any signs of progress are cause for celebration. This weekend I experienced many seemingly small victories. One of the boys in my neighborhood was released from a long stint in a youth detention center / boys home and he was reunited with his family on his mother's birthday. He came right over to our house to visit with us, and my wife, Julie, helped him and his brothers to bake a cake and make home made birthday cards for their mom. I went with the boys to deliver the birthday cake to her, and her face lit up when she saw how thoughtful they were. It's been a hard year for this struggling family in Homewood, but on that evening everyone was happy to be reunited with one another. The next day one of the boys in that family came over to share about a difficult situation in their life that they are trying to navigate through. He was very angry, and instead of acting out violently he decided to come over to my house to talk to me and cool off. That was a huge break through for him! In the past he has shown up at my front door all banged up from street fights where his anger had escalated. This time I listened to him, helped him pray through his anger and emotions, and I was even able to give him his first Bible and help him find out what God has to say about anger and conflict. I love to have the amazing privilege of giving a person their first Bible! It's the best feeling in the world! Then, this evening one of my mentees called me to tell me that he is going to be serving as a volunteer for a week at a Vacation Bible School at a big church in Pittsburgh. He is a relatively new Christian, and we have talked in the past about serving but this is one of the first tangible steps that he has taken to serve Christ. I am so proud and excited for him! I know God is going to show up and meet my mente right where he is at in his faith.

The things I'm describing might seem small, but they are huge to the young people involved. Transformation in cities is a process... an often difficult process. Yet, as author Jack Dennison points out, the process of urban transformation gives us hope. "The hope of city transformation is invigorating. None of us wakes up in the morning and says, 'If I live in a run-down, mediocre place, that's OK by me.' We all want to live in neighborhoods that are safe and free of discrimination. We want our schools to be places where real learning takes place. We want our justice system to serve everyone fairly. We want economic opportunity to be available - really available - to citizens of every class, kind and condition. And most of all, we want people to hear and respond to a call to radical discipleship - one that fills our cities with people through whom Jesus lives. Reports coming in from all over the world tell us that this is possible. But to get there requires transformation of individuals, of congregations and of the Church of the city. Then as our churches work together as one Body, the evidence is compelling that God can and will bring transformation to the cities of America and the world." - City Reaching

A New Wave of Mentors

2011-07-08T15:05:00.000-04:00

Over the past two weeks 46 people from my church have signed up to become LAMP mentors! This is great news because there are so many children in Homewood who are waiting for a mentor. The kids in Homewood keep asking me, and I have been so excited to tell them that they could have a mentor soon. About half of the people who signed up to mentor are men! This is going to be a long summer trying to make all of these matches!

It is so important for churches in cities to get involved in impacting their communities with the love of Christ. I mentioned in a sermon recently that my church has a "go strategy," now we just need to make sure that we communicate the strategy well so that the majority of the people who attend North Way can get involved. I truly believe that the Church is the most transformational, positive change agent in the world. When followers of Jesus Christ unite to reach the world, many amazing things can happen. We are never more Christian than when we are actively showing the love of Christ to people in many different places and contexts. LAMP is just one great example of that.

Summer Days in Homewood

2011-07-07T23:57:00.000-04:00

I love summer in Homewood! Some days it seems like all of my neighbors are out and about in the neighborhood visiting with one another. Today, our house was grand central station as we had a steady stream of friends visiting all day. I know I've said this a million times, but incarnational urban ministry yields a level of authentic community that I have never experienced anywhere else that I have lived. Honestly, the best part of my job as a pastor in the city is building meaningful relationships with people who also teach me so much about life. People in my neighborhood depend on one another. I admire the resilience and courage of the friends that I have made over the past five years in Homewood.

Back From Vacation

2011-07-04T12:01:00.000-04:00

This past week I was on vacation with my family at Pelee Island in Canada. I didn't have internet or phone access there, so it was very relaxing to just get away from everything for a week. I feel rested and ready to jump back into urban ministry in Pittsburgh! I read a couple good books while I was on vacation, Heaven by Randy Alcorn and The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen. I strongly recommend both books because they help to put life and God's love into perspective. I'm sure I'll be sharing some thoughts on these books in future blog posts. This is shaping up to be a great summer!

Prayer on Saturday Morning

2011-06-23T21:15:00.000-04:00

I am so excited to gather with people from North Way this Saturday morning at 8am at the Whole Foods upper level parking in East Liberty. We will be strategically praying for the East End and Oakland areas as well as the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan region and its 2.5 million residents. We will be taking our prayers to the streets! In the Bible we discover that cities are a great gift from God to mankind. Cities are like giant magnets, attracting people from far and wide. This is true of East Liberty, one of the largest urban centers in the state of Pennsylvania. Many different kinds of people live, work, worship, or spend recreational time in East Liberty.

100 years ago, only 8 percent of the world's population lived in cities. Now, over 50 percent of the world's population lives in cities. This represents the largest mass migration of people in the history of the world. God is rapidly urbanizing the world, and this should give us a great sense of anticipation for how Christians can reach the world. God is calling us to expand our presence in the city. Christians should not be running away from cities. We should be running full speed into the arms of the city. Psalm 107:1-9 describes how we can be thankful to God for his gift of cities:

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say this - those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
Those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men,
for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

I am so thankful to God for the city of Pittsburgh. I can't wait to pray for the city with my fellow believers in Jesus on Saturday. It should be a great time!

Joy in Suffering

2011-06-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

For the past week I have been looking at the concept of finding joy in suffering as part of the sermon at North Way this weekend. The appropriate understanding of suffering is important for all Christians regardless of their cultural context. God wants all of us to die to our selves and embrace the gospel message of Jesus Christ. As followers of Jesus, we owe our whole lives to the Lord. Our time on earth is limited, so we should choose to focus our attention on things that have eternal consequences. Oscar Romero, a follower of Jesus who gave his life for the sake of others, understood what it means to suffer or even die for Christ. He wrote, "To each one of us Christ is saying: If you want your life and mission to be fruitful like mine, do as I. Be converted into seed that lets itself be buried. Let yourselves be killed. Do not be afraid. Those who shun suffering will remain alone. No one is more alone than the selfish. But if you give your life out of love for others, as I give mine for all, you will reap a great harvest. You will have the deepest satisfactions. Do not fear death or threats; the Lord goes with you." If all Christians lived with that kind of passionate pursuit of Jesus, this world would be dramatically transformed in a very good way.

Christians Act When Injustices Occur

2011-06-19T20:25:00.000-04:00

All Christians are called to act when we see or experience injustices because that kind of action is an extension of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, part of the Christian experience requires patience amidst suffering. However, we are also victorious because Christ is victorious. In Orthodox Alaska, Michael Oleksa writes, "Christians cannot stand silently by, witnessing the destruction of sisters and brothers... Christians act. In the face of injustice and oppression, it is a betrayal of Christ to remember only His suffering, and to apply this as the only appropriate Christian metaphor, the model for appropriate human response to evil. Too often, when confronted with such situations, the Church has urged silent suffering now, assuring those who humbly bear their present humiliation of some eventual, eternal reward. But Christians are also called to remember the future and to act with the Second Coming, the Kingdom of eternal love, freedom and justice, as the other guidepost, orienting and directing their lives. The Church acts and lives in the tension between what has gone before and what will be, the former being the revelation and foretaste of the latter. The Church and individual believers act as Christians, whenever they bring remembrance of both this sacred past and the future, in Christ, the Christian 'Metaphor,' to bear on a particular situation. It is the creative tension between these two poles that enables a Christian to act, and which makes the action Christian." This is a tough thing for any Christian, but the last thing we should do is sit idly by as people suffer. We can learn and grow through suffering, but we also have the God of the universe on our side. We must act on God's behalf so that He can be glorified through us in situations of brokenness and injustice.

We're Home

2011-06-16T10:32:00.000-04:00

We arrived home from Honduras late last night. Thanks to everyone who prayed for us and followed along with our journey over the past week. God is doing a great work with some of the most vulnerable people in the world in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, and I was fortunate enough to be able to experience that for a week. The first day back from a trip like this is usually filled with culture shock and immersion difficulties for most Americans. It's funny, but I'm not really experiencing that at all. All I could think about on the plane ride home was our life here in Homewood and the kids that we have been working with for the past five years. I really think that this is because I view my work through relationships, not programs. God is always on mission to redeem the world, and we can choose to live in that mission all of the time. That mission comes with great joy because it is our purpose in life as followers of Jesus. We may be called to different people in all kinds of different places, but the mission is the same. All Christians have that in common. I can't wait to catch up with all of my friends in Homewood this week because is moving here, too.

Honduras: Day Eight

2011-06-15T01:05:00.000-04:00

This was our last full day in Honduras, and I know I am really going to miss this country when I am gone. I have met so many amazing people. I've heard heart breaking stories of orphans struggling to survive, and I've heard the joy that can be found through resilience in Christ amidst difficult circumstances. I saw many signs of need, and I saw many signs of hope. I met street thugs while I was here, and I met street saints. God is moving in cities all over the world, and it was a joy for me to be able to spend some time in His stream of mercy and redemption here in two world class cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. I've made new friendships that may or may not last for a long time here in this world, but I know many of the friendships will last forever as we spend eternity together. We'll probably share stories with one another about these adventures in Honduras this week. And we'll celebrate together with God for all of eternity along with the people who He worked through us to reach for His sake. It is amazing to think that people, including myself, would choose to get caught up in the false gods and idols that this world has to offer when we could be spending all day, every day, living for eternal purposes by fulfilling our callings to serve our Lord with complete abandon. My big prayer for my return to Pittsburgh is that God would continue to open my eyes and break my heart every single day for the people in this world who are suffering and lost. I will pray that God would be good enough to somehow continue to work through me to achieve His plans. I'm also praying that God will give me the words to describe what I've seen this week in Honduras so that more followers of Jesus might throw themselves into this great work.

Honduras: Day Seven

2011-06-14T01:15:00.000-04:00

It's getting kind of late tonight, so this update won't be as long. Lisa Anderson-Umana, a long time missionary in Honduras supported by North Way, visited with us at the hotel tonight. We had a great time catching up, and I know her kids enjoyed the swimming pool. This was a full day. We visited a church and Buckner community transformation center in a barrio by a river in Tegucigulpa. In just one year of being opened, the community center has served over 400 children. They also reach out to the families of the kids who are involved in the center. The center is mostly built upon volunteers from the community, the church, and people from outside the community who work together to meet the holistic needs of the people living in poverty. I noticed a great sense of hope in the people I interacted with, even though the center has not been around very long. I was able to interview kids, parents, business owners, and many other people involved in restoring the shalom in this neighborhood.

I really enjoyed interviewing the pastor and his wife at their church after we had walked through the community. He has been a pastor in one of the poorest communities in Honduras for 13 years, and he has been through a lot during that time. He has personally led gang members to Christ, and led them to life change through God's transforming power. He has also built relationships with gang members who terrorized the community and died violently. I had a meaningful conversation with him about how difficult it can be to work with high risk youth. He wept as he shared about the burden that he has for the kids in the community. I share his sense of burden in my interactions with some of the high risk youth in Homewood. Young men die violently in my nieghborhood just as they do here. I really respect this pastor for moving his family into the neighborhood where he pastors in order to be an incarnational presence. Being in the midst of difficult environments helps us to reach the people in the community more effectively. I will have much to share about the many different people I have met today, but for now I need to get some rest because tomorrow is going to be another intense day.

Honduras: Day Six

2011-06-13T00:32:00.000-04:00

Today was mostly a travel day from the city of San Pedro Sula to the capital city of Honduras, Tegucigalpa. We did visit a Nazarene church this morning led by Pastor Victor from the Las Brisas community transformation center that we had visited earlier in the week. Many of the children from the slums that are a part of Las Brisas were present at Victor's church. He is an amazing man. He works full time as a teacher at a public school, leads the Las Brisas center, and pastors a church of around 100 people. And I thought I had a lot going on in Homewood! This little church has dramatically impacted the community around it. They are so committed to serving people outside the walls of the church that they have a big sign on the wall on the way in that reads, "We Gather to Worship," and they have a big sign on the wall on the way out of the church that says, "We Leave to Serve." That mission is simple, but it pretty well sums up the purpose of all churches.

I was so encouraged to see that the children being served by Victor's church also were welcomed to worship with the church. Many churches have been built on the homogenous growth principle, which many well-meaning people have tried to explain to me but that I still don't understand and it's a method of church growth that I personally believe to be unbiblical. The basis of the concept is that people like to go to church with people who are just like them, meaning the same social class or race or however you want to quantify sameness. With that in mind, homogenous growth churches don't even try to be diverse. They just try to reach one particular group of people that are comfortable with one another, and they design the worship experience and all the programming according to that one way of thinking or being. Most churches wouldn't come right out and say that the embrace the homogenous church growth movement, but still, as Dr. Martin Luther King once pointed out, Sunday morning remains the most segregated part of our society. Pastor Victor's church truly embraces people who are different from one another, in this case socially, so much so that kids living in extreme poverty are welcomed right into the church with all of the other members. They are, in fact, celebrated for being there. In my mind, this is the purest form of what it means to be the body of Christ, the Church. There are a few churches in Pittsburgh who have figured out how to be cross-cultural, but that issue remains a challenge for most churches. If we go to church to worship, and everyone we gather with looks just like us and everyone has just about the same level of income or worldview, then we should probably challenge ourselves to ask why that is happening. The world is a diverse place, and Christians should be leading the way when it comes to building relationships across cultures instead of settling into our own limited comfort zones.

I have many things to take away from my time in San Pedro Sula. My heart broke for the kids that I interacted with, I was able to interview a lot of people, and most importantly, God moved in mighty ways and He blessed me with the eyes to see His love for some of the most marginalized people in the world. I really am hoping that I will be able to return some day. In the mean time, I am now in Tegucigalpa and the Lord has new experiences in store for me during the remainder of this trip. God is a God of risk and unpredictability, and that is what I am embracing this week. I have been struck by the profound majesty and bigness of God since I've been in Honduras. I am feeling stretched as a bridge builder, with one arm out to the world and one out to my crucified King to whom I owe my very life. It's a great way to be stretched though, for sure. We can't be stretched when we're living in comfort. Let the stretching continue!

Honduras: Day Five

2011-06-11T19:07:00.000-04:00

It has been a long week so far. I completed 31 interviews in the previous three days, so with this being Saturday it seemed like a good day to take a little break from the intensity. We slept in for a little while this morning, and after that we visited the central market here in San Pedro Sula for the gifts for our daughters. After shopping we enjoyed a yummy traditional Honduran meal that was prepared by some people who work in the central market. In the afternoon we picked up a bunch of snacks and crafts for the girls at Casitas, and we spent most of the afternoon visiting with the girls there. It was very hot and humid, but we looked past that in order to spend some good, quality time with the girls. It's hard to believe that the girls live in such difficult circumstances day after day, and I know they were happy to have visitors. I did interview a couple more kids while I was there, and they also claimed not to have any consistent, one to one visitors. There is such a huge need for mentoring in these institutions that we've visited this week. We need to really pray that mentoring takes off here. Tonight we're going to a big, multisite church here that Bill told me is very similar to North Way. I'm very excited to worship with my new Honduran friends, and I know that this church is very interested in mentoring.

I definitely got a lot out of the visit to Casitas today, but I can tell that God really reached my wife through the experience of being with so many young ladies who are experiencing such struggles in life. One little girl could not talk, but she desperately wanted to make a bracelet out of yarn for Julie. Julie and I haven't talked too much about coming back to Honduras, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to come back some day. One of the strangest feelings about being here is that this is not really too much of an "escape" from our lives in Homewood. The degrees of material poverty are different between the kids we serve in Homewood and the kids we have interacted with here in Honduras, but their tremendous needs remain the same. At-risk youth just want somebody to spend time with them, invest in them, and show them that they matter in this world. I have learned that it is very hard to convince Christians in Honduras to get involved with these kids here, and it continues to be very hard to convince Christians in Pittsburgh to care about kids in Homewood. The problem is, it's not my job to do any convincing to somehow get people to care. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict people for being disobedient and dismissing the most vulnerable people in our society. I am praying that God will continue to keep this burden on my heart, and that the Holy Spirit will continue to work through me prophetically to shed light on the injustices that are happening to high risk youth around the world. This week has definitely helped my passion to grow, and I am praying that many children will be served and God will be glorified by my research in cities around the world.

Honduras: Day Four

2011-06-10T18:56:00.000-04:00

Most of the research that I have done this week has been with boys, so I was looking forward to gaining some perspective from girls today (so, too, was Julie since she's been traveling around with our group of men all week). I have been looking at how Christians can work toward transforming the lives of at-risk youth, and today I was able to speak with girls who are pretty far along in the process of transformation at a transition home for six girls run by Buckner International (a Christian nonprofit that does a lot of work with orphans here in Honduras similar to the other organization that we have been spending time with, Orphan Helpers). The girls in the transition home were former residents at Casitas, which is a government run orphanage for tween and teenage girls. We visited Casitas in the afternoon. I was able to interview all of the girls at the Buckner transition home, and five or six girls at Casitas. There was a stark contrast between the two places we visited today. The girls in the transition home seemed to have much more hope for a healthy life and future, compared to the girls in Casitas who seemed to just be in full on survival mode as they tried to get through each day. The girls from the transition home were hand-picked to go there because of their leadership potential and their willingness to improve their lives. In my time with them I tried to capture what it is that is the difference between them and the girls at Casitas who are still struggling so much. The only real reason that the girls could tell me was "God!" I know there is much more to it than that, but clearly God is at the center of the life change that is happening in the girls in the transition home. Also, several Christians from Buckner have discipled and supported the girls to help them learn how to follow Christ and lead a more healthy lifestyle. Several of the girls from Casitas mentioned that they prayed and sang songs to God, but I could tell in talking with them that they still had a hard time applying their faith to their lives considering the extreme circumstances they lived in. I am hoping and praying that more Christians, as mentors, will be able to visit the girls in Casitas every week and spend time with them.

Many of the girls I visited today, at both locations, have been victims of sexual assault, abuse, and neglect. In a way it was difficult for me to spend time with them, because I am a father of two daughters and I can't even imagine my daughters having to endure the pain that these girls have had to go through at such a young age in life. When I think about the pimps and men who took advantage of the girls here, the only word that comes to mind that really does the situation justice is "evil." Any man who would hurt or abuse an 11 or 12 year old girl is evil. Several of the girls had babies with them at the facility, and it was heartbreaking to think about how their babies are going to struggle given the rough start they've had in life. I know that there are short term mission teams who come to spend time with the girls at Casitas, but I am really hoping that a church-based mentoring program can be started here. Just like the boys, the girls told me that they don't get regular, weekly one on one visits from Christians in San Pedro Sula. I know that Christ-centered mentoring would go a long way toward transforming the lives of these girls. If the body of Christ would rise up in San Pedro Sula, in Pittsburgh, and around the world, we could collectively have God work through us to bring His light to the most vulnerable people in our world who suffer needlessly. Instead, we are often indifferent to the plight of orphans, widows, and the poor. It honestly breaks my heart. My prayer is for the hearts of people who are too busy, or too distracted, or too popular, or too caught up in material things, or too caught up in work, or too afraid, or too consumed with their own nuclear families, or too comfortable, to be broken by our God who is on mission to reach the billions of people who are suffering in this world. As God's heart breaks for injustices and indifference, let my heart break also.

Honduras: Day Three

2011-06-09T23:33:00.000-04:00

We ate breakfast at the hotel this morning, and then we headed out to El Carmen, a youth detention center for boys who have been accused of many different types of crimes ranging from robbery (the most common) to homicide, gun violations, rape, drug trafficking, kidnapping, and gang activity. My goal was to learn more about these inmates and how the center is operated. When we arrived, some of the boys were roaming around the campus while others had to remain locked in their rooms because their behavior was not good enough to be let out. The head school administrator gave us a walking tour of the entire facility, a tour that she had the time to do because these kids do not have any school classes even though this school year was supposed to begin in early February. The government has not released the funding that they need to have instructors, so things have just been held up. Without any school classes, the boys are left to just pass the time in whatever ways that they can think of. A workshop with tools sits empty because there is nobody to teach the kids. A classroom that has been set up to teach the boys how to bake is locked up because there is nobody to instruct them, and also because the complex has significant water problems (Orphan Helpers has been partnering with them in trying to fix it). Along our tour I stopped and randomly interviewed several of the boys. I asked them lots of questions about life, what it's like living there, if they thought they would like to have an adult come and spend time with once a week (a mentor), and what their hopes and dreams are for the future. Those boys were at various stages of transformation... some were still hardened (especially those who had recently arrived), while others had received Christ and made moderate progress in terms of their behavior and positive outcomes. I interviewed the pastor from Orphan Helpers who works in that facility, and he suggested that I interview two of the boys who the pastor had really gotten through to and who were pretty far down the path of getting their lives turned around while wanting to serve Christ even in the midst of what have to be some of the roughest conditions that any human being might have to endure in life. I am really looking forward to writing about these kids and the adults who work with them in this detention center. Both the kids and the adults would benefit tremendously if local churches and Christians in general would invest in them, but instead the youth detention center is considered to be a place where bad things happen or else people are just indifferent to how broken the system is. Even short term mission teams that come from the US are often afraid to go to this facility. My friend, Pastor Bill James, told me that North Way was kind of like that when they first went to Honduras a few years ago. Now, when they are in Honduras many of the people on the team actually look forward to going to El Carmen because they have come to learn that these boys are just boys and they need love and attention just as much as the orphans in other facilities. I believe that I will be able to build a powerful case for mentoring in this facility through my dissertation research. The Holy Spirit's presence was felt in the detention center even in the midst of such brokenness.

I could go on and on about the amount of research that I was able to do in El Carmen, but there was much more to our day. In the afternoon we visited with a pastor named Victor who leads a community transformation center and school called Las Brisas. When our small van arrived at this center, tons of kids ran up to us and just started hugging us and screaming and jumping around. It was crazy! The children were literally overjoyed at the sight of Pastor Bill James, and I could tell that he was right in the midst of his calling when he was with them. Although the kids were somewhat attentive to Julie and me, I could tell they were kind of looking past me to see if anyone else was in the van. They started chanting in unison at the top of their lungs, "Randy! Randy! Randy! Randy! Randy!" I finally had to ask Bill what they were doing, and he said that because Bill was here they were also expecting North Way member Randy Blincow to get out of the van as well. Apparently, my friend Randy, who has been to Honduras on mission teams, has rock star status here at Las Brisas, and the kids were disappointed that he wasn't on this trip. Another mission team from Texas arrived shortly after we did, however. They had been there all week so they were able to engage the kids in a bunch of activities right away. Our North Way team slipped into Pastor Victor's office to talk to him about the center, and I interviewed him for a while. He then gave us a walking tour of the community that this center serves, which has 65 children on scholarship from the slums along the river a few hundred yards away. Honduras has some of the poorest people in the world living here, and we met a few of those people today. We also prayed together. I was inspired to see Christians serving among the poorest of the poor. When I asked Victor if he thought all pastors and Christians should serve the poor, he said that of course they should. It's not just something nice to do for others. It's clearly required of us based on the Scriptures. He then read us Isaiah 58, which was so encouraging to me and Julie because we have gone back to that passage of the Bible over and over and over again since we started working, and escpecially living, in Homewood.

This day definitely wiped me out! I was so tired tonight that I didn't want to write this journal, but I'm glad I stayed disciplined. There is a great story to tell here. One of my favorite questions to ask the people I'm interviewing is, "Other people from universities and organizations from cities all over the world might potentially be learning about you from the project I'm working on. Is there one important thing that you would like to say to the world?" The answers have been wide ranging because the people I'm interviewing are at many different points in life. However, no matter how hardened people's hearts become, or how desensitized they become to the grind of crushing poverty, they still give me some incredible answers to that question. I have heard some amazing truths that come straight from the heart of suffering and brokenness, and sometimes redemption. It's hard to think that kids have to go through such struggles at such a young age, but it is happening here just as it often happens in my neighborhood in Homewood. I'm learning many similarities between the children that I work with in Pittsburgh and the kids that I'm spending time with here in Honduras. The levels of material poverty are different, but the spiritual and heart-level deficiencies are similar. Jesus is the way to treat broken hearts, but unfortunately many of these kids don't hear about Jesus because Christians refuse to obey God and go spend time with these kids. Whether it's fear, or indifference, or just plain disobedience to a clear call from the Lord, Christians are failing to join God's mission to reach high risk youth in cities. There are a few brave Christians who are doing it, but not nearly enough. Unfortunately, that's true both in Honduras and in Homewood. Why else would these boys in the Honduras youth detention center be sitting around all day with no education, no water, and few people to visit them to pay attention to them in their time of need? Why else would I have boys in Homewood waiting for well over two years now for a mentor from my church in Pittsburgh? Maybe if the kids are similar in Honduras and Homewood, the Christians are also similar between San Pedro Sula and Pittsburgh. Indifference to the poor and private, individualized religion are rampant throughout Christendom. My words may sound harsh, but those are the only words I have to describe what I have seen this week and what I often experience in Homewood. There is hope, though. There are Christians who are standing in the gap for the poor and doing heroic things all over the world by joining in God's mission to redeem people no matter the circumstances. I have met a few of those heroes here, and I know some of those heroes back in Pittsburgh. It's time for more Christians to join the work, and I hope that God will use me for the rest of my life to lead them there.

Honduras: Day Two

2011-06-08T20:02:00.001-04:00

This morning we went back to the Genesis Center so that I could interview several of the young men who live there and are helping to get the place fixed up. I only had the time to interview two of them, Gerson and Saul. I can't wait to share their stories in my dissertation! They both have troubled pasts involving gangs and crime, and now they have both experienced dramatic transformation and are on the path to become pastors (even at the ages of 19 and 20 years old). They practically preached sermons to me with the stories of their lives and the closeness that they now feel with Jesus thanks to our Lord's grace and redemption. They are leaders, and they are extremely passionate about following Christ and giving themselves away to others. This type of Christianity is a far cry from the comforts of prosperity doctrine and self help gospel that has unfortunately made its way into many churches in the United States. These young men in Honduras, former prisoners, have a profound faith that would inspire any Christian to live a life that is sold out for Jesus. In the afternoon we visited an orphanage called Nueva Esperanza where I was able to interview three boys aged 9, 12, and 13. Nueva Esparanza is a sort of transition home for children in crisis, ranging in age from infants to 15 year olds. Over 160 children live there, and we were really touched by spending time with the children and the staff members. I was also able to interview their executive director and lead child pshychologist, which yielded a lot of insight into the struggles that they face to meet the holistic needs of the children that they are serving. They work very hard, but they face many uphill battles with the young people, particularly boys, who come to them hardened by life on the streets or in slums. I hope that I will be able to share their story well in my dissertation so that more people might be prompted to invest in the lives of the at-risk children there. After that site visit we went back to the Genesis Center so that I could interview a pastor named Harold who is basically serving as the very first LAMP mentoring coordinator in Honduras. He was one of the main people who was responsible for the transformation in Gerson and Saul's lives, so he is a seasoned urban ministry practitioner who I am confident will be great at implementing mentoring in his context.

God is moving in Honduras, and I am so thankful that He has allowed me the opportunity to spend time doing research in this amazing country. This trip is simply reinforcing the fact that Christians who choose not to spend time with the poor, whether in the United States or in other countries around the world, are missing out on so much joy that is found in life in humble circumstances. I've had American Christians tell me that not all Christians are called to minister with the poor because it is one of those "optional" parts of being a Christian. I push back strongly to people who tell me that because I believe that all followers of Jesus have a biblical mandate to care for the poor and other marginalized people in our world. It is not an option, we are simply being disobedient if we fail to act. However, that concept goes much deeper than that. Beyond ommission, neglect, or disobedience, we are truly missing out on the great joy that comes with our own transformation as our own limited worldviews are rocked. We miss out on having God work through other people to minister to us across cultures, races, and classes, through His Holy Spirit. This time in Honduras goes beyond a research project for my dissertation. It goes far beyond helping to get mentoring programs going in a new country. It goes far beyond somehow helping other people in my limited time here. This visit is about how much my Lord loves me, and the great gift that he is giving me this week as I am stretched and as I learn more about Jesus Christ through the eyes of orphans and young men and women who this world writes off as lost causes. Wherever a "lost cause" might be found, that's right were we will find Jesus. Thank you, Father, for this day that you have given me. I will never forget, and I am changed forever day by day because of your grace! Jesus, please help me to be more like the people I spent time with today.

Honduras: Day One

2011-06-07T20:28:00.001-04:00

Today was mostly a travel day beginning at 3:45am Pittsburgh time, but we arrived in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with about half of the day left. This has been a great day! We drove through the city streets with our translator, Roberto, who gave us a tour of the city he loves. After a stop at a local restaurant, we checked in at an amazing hotel before heading over to take a walk through the Genesis Center with the director of Orphan Helpers, Richard Yeargain. Julie and I caught the vision for the work that is being done at Genesis, and we enjoyed meeting several of the local staff people. Five young men are living at Genesis in order to repair the property. They all come from troubled backgrounds having spent time in the boys' youth detention center that is next door, but they have all experienced the joys of transformation that comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. Tomorrow we are planning to go back to Genesis so that I can interview the young men for my dissertation project. Transformation is a process, and as a researcher it is important for me to gain the perspectives of high risk youth that are at many different ends of the spectrum in terms of visible outcomes and heart change.

The time spent in Honduras has been wonderful! The most difficult part of our trip so far was leaving our two daughters at home in Homewood while their grandmother stayed with them. I could tell going off to Honduras to work with orphans seemed to go somewhat against Julie's maternal instincts, but she was able to navigate through those emotions. My oldest daughter, Kyra, who is eight years old, had a hard time with us leaving even though she's been through this before (Julie and I have visited cities all over the world in obedience to the calling that God has given us). A few minutes before I was scheduled to leave Homewood she asked me to take a walk with her, and as we strolled down my street on a summer night in the inner city of Pittsburgh she told me that she was sad we were leaving and she wondered if we had to go. We talk to our children often about how God calls us to do hard things for the sake of His Kingdom, and when they are old enough God will ask them to be obedient and join in His dangerous, scandalous, risky, adventerous journey to redeem all of humanity to Himself. After all, that is the central purpose to being a follower of Christ... a relationship with our Lord and being sold out to His purposes. I told Kyra that God is in control, and mommy and daddy are being obedient to God's calling to go to Honduras to advance the cause of faith-based mentoring in Latin America. It's because I love my daughters so much that I am so passionate about modeling for them how to follow Christ with reckless abandon.

Christianity isn't just a religion, and the Bible isn't just a bunch of words. Kids get confused when they learn about Christianity and read the Bible, but their parents don't live out what the Bible says. When parents lead sheltered lives, and they make their kids lead sheltered lives, then it's going to be extremely difficult for the kids to contextualize and live out their Christian faith when they become adults. One of the biggest blessings I have ever given my daughters is to raise them in Homewood while our family is obedient to God's calling to give ourselves away to the most vulnerable people in Pittsburgh for the sake of Christ. I don't need to take them on short term mission trips to foreign countries or down to the local soup kitchen in Pittsburgh to feed homeless people once a year for them to experience the life that Christians are supposed to be living. I am really looking forward to the day when my daughters are old enough to join their mommy and me in God's global mission to reach the most massive migration in human history of people moving to cities all over the world (this at a time when many American Christians are rapidly fleeing cities in order to distance themselves from complex problems and brokenness). I can't wait to bring my daughters to Honduras!

A Fun Weekend and an Adventure on the Horizon

2011-06-05T12:08:00.000-04:00

This has been a fun weekend with the pastor ordination at North Way. I've had a great time talking with people at church, and the party last night was a lot of fun because I caught up with so many different people who have supported me and my family over the years. Being a pastor is a difficult calling, but it is also very rewarding. This weekend has been a tremendous reminder that I serve an awesome God. Now I'm turning my attention to Honduras and the adventure that God has for me there. It should be an amazing week! I'll do my best to keep this blog updated with how things are going in Honduras.

One Day of My Life

2011-06-04T11:53:00.000-04:00

Of all of the things I thought I would be doing when I was 34 years old, I never really imagined a day like today. God has given me so much! I woke up this morning living the incarnational life of an urban ministry practitioner in Homewood. Things were kind of crazy at my house because of my daughters, our dog, and some men from my church who are finishing off the final details of the mentoring center in our basement, so I escaped to a coffee shop to work on my doctoral dissertation for my research trip to Honduras next week. I'm also collecting some thoughts for my first ever sermon that I'm team teaching with my friend Doug Melder in a few weeks. This evening family and friends will be joining with me for my public ordination as a pastor (I officially became a pastor a couple months ago) at North Way Christian Community, and we'll celebrate back at my parents' farm after that.

Growing up, I never thought I would be a pastor, or live in the inner city, or write a doctoral dissertation, or have the opportunity to travel to cities around the world doing research and advancing the Kingdom of God. Living and working with the poor brings me great joy, investing in my wife and daughters is so amazing, learning new things constantly expands my worldview, and serving Christ as a pastor is a huge challenge. I honestly can't think of anything else that I'd rather be doing with my life at 34 years old. Life is full of surprises, risks, suffering, great joys and tremendous let downs, and everything in between. Regardless of the circumstances, or the dreams and desires that are on my heart, I know that the secret to life is to stay focused on loving the Lord no matter what life brings forth. If life comes at us one day at a time, then I am going to enjoy this day!

Why Do Some Mentoring Programs Fail and Others Thrive?

2011-06-02T12:46:00.000-04:00

Transformational leadership really matters in urban ministry. Many well-meaning Christians seek to start programs in the inner city, but far too often those programs end up struggling from a lack of effectiveness and sustainability. Sports outreach programs, mentoring programs, and many other types of outreach efforts fall apart for a wide variety of reasons. No matter what the issues are with the programs, at the center of the break down usually lies the issue of leadership.

I spoke with a leader of a school this morning who told me that they had tried to get several mentoring programs started there, but the programs were not effective because the mentors quit the program and there was no pipeline for additional mentors. That is so sad! High risk youth face many struggles in modern society, and it is a shame that those mentors chose to add to that list of obstacles that those children had to try to overcome. It would be better for people to not mentor at all than to get involved as a mentor in the life of a young person and then give up on them after only a period of months.

While the mentors in the ineffective mentoring programs might be to blame, upon closer look I would bet that the leaders of those failed mentoring programs were the cause. Good mentors need strong leadership, and strong mentoring programs usually have leadership in place that understands how mentors need support, ongoing supervision, effective training, and resources in order to be able to more effectively build a transformational relationship. Transformational leaders are visionary, but they are also hands on and deeply committed to making sure program goals are implemented consistently and effectively over time. Programs do not run themselves, as many ineffective program leaders would like to believe. Healthy mentoring programs that truly impact the lives of at-risk youth are driven by highly effective mentors who are being led and supported by strong leadership. LAMP still has a long way to go before we will be able to determine how effective our matches have been, but we are off to a good start. And I am passionate about leading well through complex circumstances so that current mentors feel supported and new mentors are always entering the program. Mentoring is too important to the kids that we are trying to reach for LAMP to fail because it was managed poorly.