Excited for India

It's official. We're going to India from August 8-19. The flights have been purchased, and Julie and I are in full planning mode for the adventure that God has in store for us in India. This will be part vision trip where we will learn more about what God is doing through our North Way East End global partners, Jose Joseph and Sarah Banks Joseph, and part teaching trip where I'll be serving as a professor at the School of Urban Mission in Trichy with my friend, Muthu.

I am excited about this trip because God has given me a passion for cities, and a passion for God's global mission. I love the work that God has called me to in Pittsburgh, but I also love to travel and participate in the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in other countries. As the Lord presents opportunities to be a part of his global mission, I am hoping to continue to be stretched and grown in my faith.

We are seeking both prayer and financial support for this trip to India. If you are interested in supporting us financially, just email me at bryanm@northway.org and I can give you the details on the logistics. If you would like to pray for us, at this point in time please pray for us as we prepare the week-long curriculum for teaching at the SOUM in Trichy, pray for God to be in the details of our trip planning, and pray in advance that God will do a mighty work in our lives and in the lives of the people we will be visiting in India.

Back from Vacation

I had an incredible vacation with Julie and the girls last week. We adventured together. We spent some amazing quality time with friends and family along our journey to Florida and back. We were all grateful for the rest and relaxation after another intense year of urban ministry, school, and all of the other parts of our lives in Pittsburgh.

Rest is such an important part of leadership and ministry. I never feel bad about getting time away to rest from the grind of urban ministry. The time away allows me to reflect on everything that God is doing in my family and in the ministry that God has called us to in Pittsburgh. Serving in a leadership role in building God's church comes with many responsibilities, but it is also fulfilling to see God work in amazing ways. Having spent a week away from everything, I was thankful to jump back in when I got home.

Things seemed to pick up right where they left off. We have been receiving visitors at our door. We had a great worship service in the East End. There has already been ministry time, mentoring time, and good family time together. I am excited to see what God is going to do through the rest of this summer!

Upward Mobility and American Christianity

American Christians live in a culture that values upward mobility and advancement throughout the course of a lifetime toward the American Dream. The values of upward mobility, as far as I can tell, do not seem to align with the values of downward mobility that were modeled by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. The authors of the New Testament went to great lengths to describe how followers of Jesus might live in a world that held strongly to values that ran counter to the values that Jesus modeled. I am sure that early Christians struggled to hash out their faith in the midst of a Roman Empire that celebrated many of the same ideals that our modern American culture holds up as important. In other words, modern Christians living in America must be willing to learn how to live out their faith in Jesus in ways that look different than the values of the upwardly mobile American Dream narrative that provides the framework for our existence.

This concept may be difficult for Christians living in America, and downward mobility is not necessarily something that we can accomplish on our own will. We need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to live passionately for Jesus in a culture that celebrates evil and idolatry in many different forms. So many things can become idols to us if we don't pay attention... money, sex, power, media, sports teams, smart phones, etc. Americans can make idols out of bigger homes, nicer cars, bigger retirement plans, and so forth. In our obsession with becoming rich, we can sell out the pursuit of an authentic relationship with Jesus. We remove the parts of Christianity that make us feel uncomfortable, anything having to do with suffering or the downward mobility of the cross, and we embrace the heresy of prosperity doctrine or trying to manipulate God to get the material things that we want in this life.

The solution is to recognize the temptations within the culture around us, and to ask God to empower us to discern which things in our society might ultimately harm us or draw us closer to Jesus. It is hard to have a close connection with God when there are so many idols in the way. We need to reject a comfortable Christianity, and embrace the actual gospel of Jesus Christ as Jesus modeled it for us. It is also crucial for followers of Jesus in America to pray, read our Bibles, and surround ourselves in Christian community with people who will hold us accountable. We need to make tough choices that may alienate us from our friends and family members. Still, I think that we should be concerned as Christians if our lifestyles mirror the upwardly mobile values of the culture surrounding us. We must thrive in the culture, but not be of the culture. This is a profound mystery that can only be revealed to us by God. And, as God promises, we will find joy in the midst of challenging circumstances.

Is Your Church As Diverse As You Would Like It To Be?

I was asked recently how things are going with leading a cross-cultural church. My answer was that the church that I lead in a diverse, urban environment in Pittsburgh has made tremendous progress toward becoming a church community that is reflective of the communities around us. We also have a long way to go in order to become a more diverse group of followers of Jesus Christ.

Our leadership at North Way East End is committed to developing and leading a diverse church. On any given Sunday morning, you will find people from all different walks of life. We have business leaders, homeless men and women, entrepreneurs, single moms, doctors, lawyers, contractors, university students, young families and young professionals, empty nesters, high school drop outs, PhDs, small business owners, people getting by on public aid, and many other types of people. We have members from all over the world, such as Haiti, England, Switzerland, Africa, Korea, and China. We are becoming more diverse racially, as our African-America, Asian-American, and Caucasian members continue to attend our church in search of a truly cross-cultural community that is committed to living out the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In spite of our progress, we still have much room to grow. We have intentionally established diverse leadership at the church, and we explore many different expressions of worshiping God together. Still, relationships are what are most important when it comes to church diversity. Real, authentic relationships that transcend our differences are the key to long term success when it comes to reflecting the beloved, diverse community that we read about in the Scriptures. These types of authentic relationships take time and trust in order to be build effectively.

Planning and implementation only go so far when it comes to cross-cultural ministry. The biggest foundation that we must continue to build at North Way East End is prayer. God leads all of us into diverse community through the reconciling power of the Holy Spirit which unites us to one another. I am thankful for the increasingly diverse urban church community at North Way East End, and I am encouraged that God is going to continue to do a mighty, reconciling work in our midst.

A Visitor at My Door

The doorbell rings late on a Sunday evening. It's a 17 year old young man from my the next street over. He's one of reasons we moved into this urban neighborhood. He's a person whose story has intersected with my story. Our journeys through life are connected because God caused our stories to collide.

He was a fourth grader who was falling through the cracks at his school when we first met seven years ago. He was in trouble all of the time, he missed a lot of school, and he was failing miserably academically. At that time, I was just a guy who had moved back to Pittsburgh to raise my family closer to my extended family. I was unemployed at that time, regretting ever leaving the good life I had in California. I had been searching for a job in education for over a year to no avail. I had showed up at this elementary school to volunteer to help my church get a mentoring program up and going. Little did I know that kids like this, in this little neighborhood, through a mentoring program that looked like a long shot, would actually change the path of my life forever.

On this particular evening, my young friend has no sense of urgency as to why he decided to stop by my family's house for a visit. There have been plenty of those "urgent" visits in the past, but on this evening I'm guessing that he has just stopped by because he wanted to visit with us. He always has an open invitation to stop by to visit us, or to eat dinner with us, or just to have a safe place to escape from these streets for a little while.

He is huge now, seven years after I initially met him at his elementary school. He has tattoos all over his body. His pants sag below his waist. He attends an alternative school for "bad kids." He has been locked up in the youth detention center four times. He has a probation officer because he has committed crimes in order to survive. He's probably the kind of kid that people go out of their way to avoid who lives on a street in a neighborhood that people go out of there way to avoid.

I don't see him that way, though. I don't see him as bad or dangerous or stupid or any of those things. To me, he is valuable. He is a chosen one. A follower of Jesus Christ, created in the image of God. He has a soft heart, even though he acts tough. He is an orphan. His dad abandoned him when he was four years old. He remembers his dad's last words to him on the way out the door were, "What are you crying about you little bitch." Then his dad went to jail and he didn't see him for a long time. His mom told her young son, "I'm your mom and your dad, now." This little guy would get his mom a card on Mother's Day and Father's Day because he honestly thought of her that way.

Then, on a seemingly ordinary day a couple years ago, his mother died unexpectedly in her son's arms. Confusion. Tears. Anger. Pain. In an instant, he became an orphan. He became one of the ones that Jesus values the most. I grieved with him. His mom was an amazing woman. She was the neighborhood mom on Hamilton Avenue. And, just like that, she was gone. He has bounced around between family members and friends since then. He's bounced around between schools. He's bounced around between being locked up and being free. He still follows Jesus passionately. I know. I was there when he gave his life to Christ. I gave him his first Bible. I discipled him. I walked with him through all of the ups and downs. I'm committed to walking through life with him.

My daughters think of him as their brother. He is overprotective of them like he actually is their older brother. My wife thinks of him as her son. He is not our son, obviously, but my wife thinks of him that way. He is an orphan. How can she not avoid having her maternal instinct kick in? He may not look like the orphans that we all see on TV from far off countries, but he is an orphan right here in our midst, right here in our country, in our city, in our neighborhood. He is becoming a part of our family. He is becoming a part of our story.

My friend's visit last night did have a purpose. It was a God-ordained purpose. He talked. I listened. I talked. He listened. He drank a soda. I sipped on some ice water. He ate ice cream with vanilla wafers (his favorite). We sat at my kitchen table. We talked about all kinds of things... school, girls, tattoos, guns, music, his brothers, getting robbed, fighting back, probation, culinary classes, pets, and all kinds of other things. We talked about God. God was interwoven throughout the conversation. God was with us the whole time, actually. Jesus has been there throughout the seven years that we've known each other. God has worked through people like my young friend to give me a passionate calling and a profound sense of purpose in life. God is doing a great work in the life of my friend. I can see it, even if nobody else can. I love watching God work in his life. I praise God for unexpected visitors at my door.

Signs of Hope in Pitcairn

I had the opportunity to spend some time in the neighborhood of Pitcairn last night at the home of Gary and Carol Agate. The Agates have an amazing incarnational ministry. They moved to Pitcairn to be able to reach out to the kids and families there, and they are mobilizing volunteers from local churches to get involved in the work. Last night I got to be a part of the community meal that they share with a bunch of kids in their neighborhood. The kids powerhoused slopply joes and homemade french fries while the adults built relationships with the kids. We spent about 30 minutes with the kids on a little Bible lesson and some "real talk" about life. Then after the kids left I hung around for a while to talk to the adults about the challenges of incarnational urban ministry and how to build transformational mentoring relationships with kids over time. The entire evening was so much fun.

God is doing a great work in Pitcairn, and he is doing that great work through followers of Jesus Christ who are simply being obedient to the calling that God has given them. The ministry is built on relationships, not necessarily programs. The ministry points the young people toward a relationship with Jesus Christ. The ministry is being contextualized to the neighborhood. The leaders are truly trying to find out where the Holy Spirit is working, and they are joining that work. If more people like the Agates would reach into other Pittsburgh-area neighborhoods, we would see God literally transform this region. I was thankful to get a small snapshot of what God is doing in our city last night. I am encouraged to pray that God will continue to raise up more leaders in Pittsburgh to participate in transformational leadership in urban neighborhoods.

Why Raise Children in a City?

My daughters attend an elementary school in the Pittsburgh Public Schools that is very diverse. They have friends representing many different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. When my daughters grow up, they will live in a world that is greatly defined by urban and multicultural realities. With that in mind, it is important to me that I raise them in an environment that is urban and multicultural. We are pretty intentional about these things, and I love to see how this philosophy plays itself out through personal relationships.

For just one example, my youngest daughter has developed a friendship with a girl whose parents are both originally from Cuba. The parents moved to Chile, then Germany (where their daughter was born), and finally to the United States. We developed a friendship with the parents through their daughter, and now our families are becoming good friends. A couple months ago, our friends moved from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. They invited us to visit them this past weekend, so we took them up on it. We had an incredible time! We received tremendous hospitality. They truly welcomed us into their home. They cooked authentic Cuban food for us. We toured the DC area together, and we navigated the city with ease. It was a wonderful weekend, and these relationships all developed because we chose to raise our daughter in an urban environment and put her in a school that represents the diversity in the city.

People sometimes will ask me if I'm "sacrificing my children on the altar of my ministry in the city." My answer is not that I'm harming my children by raising them in the city, or just hoping that they get by without too much trouble. I'm actually giving my children a great gift by raising them in the city. Regardless of where they choose to live when they are adults (urban, suburban, rural, etc.), my daughters will know how to navigate cities and they will know how to authentically build relationships with people who are from different races, cultures, and socioeconomic status. The city is serving as their classroom.