Congrats to the Himmlers!

I am so excited about some very good friends of mine who are moving to East Liberty, an urban neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, this weekend. They have an amazing story! I met Chad and Kristin at the North Way Wexford church location in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh probably four or five years ago. We first met at church, and we had a lot in common raising young children. We eventually ended up in a small group together, and they have been good friends with our family ever since. They have four children, recently adopting their youngest son from Ethiopa in a huge leap of faith. They each also serve as LAMP mentors to children in Homewood, and they serve in many different ways at the North Way East End campus as a part of the launch team. I have been so grateful for their friendship over the years... they were very big supporters of our move to Homewood at a time when many of our friends and peers thought we were crazy for leaving the comforts of the suburbs to move into the inner city. Chad started reading a lot of the same books I was reading, and he started asking a lot of the questions I was asking about God's potential calling to raise a family in the city. Julie and I were thrilled when Chad and Kristin made the decision to sell their home in the suburbs north of Pittsburgh and move their family into the inner city. We walked with them through the many ups and downs of selling their house and praying through where they would live and how they would educate their children once they moved to the city. I am happy to say that they are fully embracing incarnational urban ministry in its fullest form. They are taking a huge risk to move into unfamiliar, uncomfortable territory in order to be able to be obedient to the calling that God is giving their family. I know that God is going to be glorified in many ways by their obedience, and this is only the beginning of the urban adventure that God has in store for them!

So why would a family abandon the upwardly mobile, safe and comfortable lifestyle to move into a marginalized and transitional urban neighborhood? That kind of a calling only comes from God, but I can speak first hand that it is an incredible calling. The world is rapidly becoming more and more urban, and Christians who choose to move into cities to be used by God to advance his purposes are actually positioning themselves in great position to reach many people for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Chad and Kristin will have the opportunity to serve amongst the poor instead of distancing themselves from the poor. They'll also have the opportunity to have diverse neighbors from many different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. They'll actually have the opportunity to live in a neighborhood that is much more reflective of the diversity that is in the modern world. They are giving their four children a huge gift by raising them in the city, because the world where their children will live when they become adults is going to be defined by the urban reality. They are giving their children a great gift by raising them around other children who represent the socioeconomic and cultural differences that reflect what the world is really like. They are giving their children a tremendous gift by modeling for them how to fully live out the downward mobility of following Jesus Christ in a worldly culture that overemphasizes upward mobility, comfort, and safety. This family will experience the joy of living in God's mission all of the time. Many modern Christians take short term mission trips to third world countries to experience what it's like to live in God's mission to marginalized people, when they could be experiencing the joys of living in God's mission to the poor all of the time right in their own cities. Most importantly, this family will experience the joy that comes with being obedient to God's unique calling on their lives. I'm so happy for them! Congrats Chad and Kristin!