On the road again

Baker’s Square.  East Side.  Tuesday, 11:30 AM.  “Milwaukee is a microcosm of the issues faced in America.”  Political polarization, pockets of extreme poverty contrasted with pockets of extreme wealth, unemployment, and more.  Demographically, Milwaukee is one of the most diverse cities in the nation.  Check out these stats from city data.    

Black alone - 233,325 (39.2%)

White alone - 220,219 (37.0%)

Hispanic - 103,007 (17.3%)

Asian alone - 20,553 (3.5%)

Two or more races - 13,307 (2.2%)

American Indian alone - 3,408 (0.6%)

Other race alone - 819 (0.1%)

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone - 195 (0.03%)

2011 marked the first time in US history that minority births outnumbered white births.  America is growing increasingly diverse, which is a great thing for the gospel, and Milwaukee is already incredibly diverse.  It seems to me that Milwaukee may be one of the cities in America that God could use to chart the course for the church in America in the next generation.  The challenges of polarization and the opportunities of diversity position churches in Milwaukee to have a significant impact on the church in this generation and beyond.  Pray for the churches that are here and the ones that are yet to come! 

So where did I get this little tid-bit of information?  From one of my friends from high school.  We have had a great week in a number of different ways.  I have been able to reconnect with some old friends that I haven’t talked with in forever.  I was able to have lunch with one and help another move into a new apartment.  It’s encouraging to see familiar faces! 

This past Sunday I was able to participate in two of the four worship services that epikos engages in.  It felt pretty good to play a role in leading God’s people to worship Him.  It was also very helpful to remember what the “pre-speaking” jitters feel like!  I’m going to be preaching at Woodridge Community Church this next Sunday.  My experience at epikos helped me remember that I need to be very mindful to not bulldoze the congregation!  (Anyone remember my sermons from before 08? :-)

Other than that, I’ve been keeping on pace with meeting with people like crazy to continue to get a feel for this city.  Kristy has had a good week too.  She was able to connect with a few different pastors’ wives.  Being relationally wired, it was refreshing for her to engage in a few heart to heart conversations.  Beyond that, Kristy was able to get herself on the roster to help out at an inner-city outreach this Saturday.  She’s been itching to jump into serving out here and we’re grateful that she is going to have an opportunity soon. 

From here, we begin the bittersweet process of saying goodbye to new friends and packing up the house and van so that we can say hello to some old friends.  This is probably going to be the last blog I write for a while as we are headed home next Friday!  I’m not sure where I’m going to take this blog from here.  Far more people have been tracking with “on the move” than I was anticipating so I’m not sure whether or not I will continue to blog in the future.  If God does call us to plant, though, then I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on how that progresses through this blog.  If anyone was wondering where we are at in the discernment process, please check out last week’s post, “decisions, decisions.”   Since this will be my last post for at least a few weeks, I thought I should close the loop on the story that has probably gotten the most attention: The Neighbors Upstairs. 

It hasn’t necessarily become more comfortable sharing this duplex.  After our neighbors texted the landlord requesting that we don’t send any more cookies or notes, they emailed her saying that text was just a joke.  Odd, right?  I don’t know if that was actually the case as their body language has continued to silently scream “stay away!”  So that’s what we’ve done.  They have indirectly made it clear that they don’t really want to have a relationship with us, so we’ve respected that.  If God would open a door in the next 8 days, we’ll be sure to walk through it. 

Thanks for tracking with us, praying for us, and supporting us.  I hope that these weekly posts have encouraged you and revealed more of God’s glory!  It’s all for Him!    

 

Decisions, decisions

Part of me wishes we had a miserable summer.  I wish we would have found that urban living just isn’t for us.  I wish we would have been unable to connect with people.  I wish that pastors and ministry leaders would have given us a cold shoulder.  I wish that this city was so saturated with gospel-centered churches that there was no need for more.  If that was our experience, then making a decision would be a lot easier.  But that hasn’t been the case. 

We have had our challenges, to be sure, but overall this has been an encouraging summer.  We’ve been received with open arms by churches and ministry leaders.  Conversations at parks have come easily.  Multiple people have said they want us to keep them posted on how God leads us because they would have interest in joining us.  I’ve been able to reconnect with a friend from high school that I haven’t talked with in at least five years and he shares some of the same dreams I do.  And while there are some 2,500 churches in this city, there are only a handful of gospel-centered churches.  And many of the churches in America are somewhere between decline and crisis.  Despite the challenges that we’ve faced, it seems as though God could use us in this city. 

On the other side of the equation, part of me wishes that we had a miserable church back home.  I wish that we were unloved and unfruitful.  I wish that we had a dysfunctional leadership team and a toxic work environment.  If that was our experience, then leaving home to plant in Milwaukee would be an easy decision.  But that’s not the case. 

We are a part of a wonderful church family that we love.  We have an incredibly healthy leadership team, an efficient and empowering ministry strategy, an established leadership development system, and most importantly, we know we are loved and we love our church family deeply. 

So where do we go from here?  We are in the great but unfortunate position of needing to choose between two seemingly good options.  We have no reason to leave, but we do have reason to go. 

It’s important to recognize that this decision will affect far more people than just our family, our church family, or the Milwaukee area.  However God would lead, the decisions we make will have ramifications that will spread throughout and beyond our denomination and across generations.  What would New Richmond Wisconsin look like had Mike Evans never left the Chicago area to plant Faith Community Church?  What would Hudson Wisconsin look like had Larry Szyman or Tim Porter left to plant a new church in a new community?  What might Prescott Wisconsin look like now that Israel Haas has begun planting TORRENT?  What might New Richmond look like with me?  Without me?  How about Milwaukee?  The decisions that we make affect far more people than just the ones directly involved.  This is why we do not and will not make decisions in isolation. 

When making decisions, the safest place to be is under the care and protection that God has established - the elders of the local church.  God has entrusted the ultimate care of his church, the followers of Christ, to the oversight of called and qualified men in a local church (Acts 20:28, Hebrews 13:17).  This is where we start.  The elders of Faith Community sent us here for the summer.  I will provide them a detailed report including a number of indicators as to our potential fit, a response from pastors and leaders in Milwaukee to my ministry strategy, and Kristy’s vantage point on our experience and plans.  At the same time I will be in conversation with the elders of Woodridge Community Church.  It’s my conviction that if at all possible, an elder council locally needs to oversee a new church plant.  In our situation, that means that we will submit ourselves to the oversight of Faith Community Church and a local church in the Milwaukee area. 

After the elders review my reports and continue to converse and pray with us, if the lights are green, then Kristy and I will go through a church planter’s assessment.  The assessment is intended to determine if a potential planter has the skill set and stability to lead a church plant.  If we get to that point and the assessment confirms what we have perceived, then we would begin taking the formal steps to plant a church.  Most likely, this wouldn’t happen until mid-September.   

If at any point in this process we would determine that God is leading us to remain in New Richmond and contribute to the work He has begun there, then that’s what we will gratefully and joyfully do.  We have not made any firm decisions.  We are very much in the middle of the discernment process.  So please pray for us.  We still have two weeks left here.  During this time I will have the privilege of sharing some of our story with Epikos Church and preaching at Woodridge Community Church.  These will be key steps in building relationships as well as giving churches exposure to me so they can have more information to be praying on as they contribute to discerning God’s call on our lives.  Beyond this, Kristy is going to connect with different organizations in the city to gain firsthand experience investing in the kinds of initiatives that we would intend to if God leads us here. 

I do not know what the future holds, but I do know this.  Regardless of where we go or what we do we will experience failure and fruit because we are being carried by a faithful God.  And because God is faithful to His Word we can have full confidence that He will continue to transform our hearts to look more and more like His – for our good and His glory!

From the other side

Note: The following was written by the most beautiful woman in the world, my lovely bride!

Last week Elijah was in the middle of a feisty stretch. After the third day of pouting, spontaneous and irrational melt downs, and consistent huffing and puffing, I sat down with him on the side of the playground, and wearily asked, “Elijah, what is wrong? Why are you so mad?” He responded, equally weary, “I just miss my friends, not new friends, my old friends, that I know!” I could see the longing in his little face, for the people he knows, for the people that know him, and have loved him so well, for the only home and community he has ever known.

Looking into his sad blue eyes, I saw something familiar. My own longing, my own heartache.  In theory, heading off into an urban adventure seems ideal. You have the luxury of only considering the benefits of it all. Being here this summer has been wonderful in so many ways, but as reality settles in and month two continues, in Elijah’s words, “I just want my friends!”

Rewind with me for a moment…When our twin daughters were born, we were so desperate for help, we were plunged into community more deeply than ever before. It felt at times that our doors were revolving. Our home was so filled with love and care, prayer, encouragement, and support so consistently, from so many people.  In the midst of greatly needing our church family, God gave me a deeper understanding of how imperative it is that we live in this life together. We need each other and when we try to live separate from one another, not allowing our needs to be seen, or taking an interest in others, we cannot function as we were created to. Having been thrust fully into the arms of our church, and now being away, it feels as if my heart is not quite intact.

So what is the answer? Never leave New Richmond? Leave, but stop feeling? As I have been praying and processing through this, I can’t help but consider the many times that the writers of the New Testament books of the bible expressed the deep pain of separation, as they moved from place to place, leaving  the sweet community they had built to go share the good news of Jesus.  So what is the purpose of community? To settle into a safe, encouraging, comfortable corner of the world? Or is it for something bigger than our comfort?  When Ephesians 3:17-19 talks about being “rooted and established in love, together with all the saints,” a significant implication of this is that we would know this love in such a consuming way, that it would pour out onto others. That we would expand our circles of influence so that increasingly the world would know that God is good, that he actively loves us, and is engaged in the smallest and biggest details of our lives, that he is our Savior, our hope and the very reason that we live. 

Though I often long for home, I am so grateful for the opportunity this summer, to experience and learn about this beautiful city, to together with my amazing husband, seek out what God might be calling our family to. God has shown us incredible grace in our time here. Multiple pastors, leaders and individuals in this area have sacrificed their time, energy and resources to generously and genuinely invest in our family, helping us to determine what God might have for us here. This has truly been a gift and an encouragement. Wherever God has us, whatever he calls us to do, he is worthy and he is enough.

Dearly loved friends, we thank you for your love, prayer, encouragement and support whether at home or away. We pray, that together, we would all know more and more how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. That we would know his great love for us so well that we would trust him and surrender every area of our lives, joyfully, freely running whole-heartedly, after him.  Our creator, our savior, our redeemer, our sustainer, our perfect, ever- present love! 

This can't be good

At midnight my wife’s phone lights up from what would appear to be an urgent text.  Typically, when people text or call at that hour of the night, the news isn’t good.  And this wasn’t good news.  About a week before “the text of midnight” we had new neighbors move in upstairs.  They pulled into the driveway and started unloading their car while we were eating dinner, so I went outside to introduce myself and offer to help.  They had just flown in from Indonesia and seemed pretty tired, declining my offer to help.  We had some food left over after dinner so Kristy went upstairs and offered them what we had left.  They declined that offer as well.  As a few days went on we started to get the impression that they didn’t really want to have anything to do with us.  So Kristy made some cookies for them and wrote a note apologizing for our noisy family and offering to help them in any way we could.  No response was given.  A few more days passed and Kristy was baking again.  As is her custom, she packaged up a few cookies for our neighbors and left them on their mailbox.  It was the midnight following that delivery of cookies that Kristy’s phone lit up with a text from our landlord that read, “I’m really sorry to have to relay this message but your neighbors asked that you stop sending them cookies and notes.”  I have a feeling that the next few weeks are going to be kind of awkward in our little duplex. 

If only this was the only negative experience we had this past week.  On Sunday we needed to leave a church service early.  So I went to the Sunday school area to pick up Elijah.  When I got there, the teacher didn’t know where he was.  She checked in a couple different rooms and then found him.  When she did, he came running out to me with his head down and his arms up.  I immediately knew that something was wrong.  I asked Elijah what happened and he told me that a boy pushed him into the wall in the bathroom, grabbed him by the shirt and wouldn’t let him go.  Now, this isn't a criticism of the church or ministry, in fact, I think it's evidence that they are doing a good job.  Because when churches are reaching people and allowing them to be real, there are going to be real issues.  But for me, to hear Elijah struggle to get these words out and feeling the fear in his little body as I held him just made my heart break.  It kills me to think of what was going through my little man’s heart as he felt completely alone, vulnerable, and physically hurt.  He hasn’t experienced anything like this before. 

We understand this is just a part of raising little kids.  I sincerely hope that our experience will be able to benefit us and others in the future.   But it is so hard to watch our kids go through hard things even for the good of other people.  Me?  Sure.  I’ll go through something hard or painful to help someone else.  But offer my kids?  Not a chance.  And then it hit me like a flood. 

“How deep the Father's love for us,

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the chosen One,

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,

My sin upon His shoulders

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that left Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom.”

This week has been challenging but good.  I’m grateful that God has allowed us to experience what we have.  The reality is that in church planting, we will experience far more people who ask us not send them any more cookies than people who offer us their numbers so that we can keep in touch.  And the greater reality is that God loves us so deeply that He would willingly put His Son in harm’s way, leaving Him alone, vulnerable, physically and spiritually broken so that we would never have to be alone and through His brokenness are made whole.  What a great privilege we have to point people to this God who grants us eternal freedom at the cost of His Son.