The Mission Church of the Nazarene

      We're still adjusting to our new normal, which doesn't really have a normal. Sunday's vary, and we never know what to expect. We could be rushing to get more food and print more bulletins, or we could look around wondering where everyone went.
      However, there is a consistency to our Sunday mornings. On any given Sunday, if you stop by our church, you will see our front door with scooters and bikes lined up outside.

    sorry for the delay in posting... our church has exploded! Which is amazing and wonderful, but also means a ton more work. We are still learning balance, and continually having to reevaluate how we do things... we also might need to purchase new chairs. I've been working on this piece for a while. I hope you enjoy it! -Pastor Robbie

    Every Sunday morning we serve breakfast at church. I don't mean donuts and coffee, though sometimes we have those too, we have full breakfast. Waffles, sausage, breakfast casserole, french toast, pancakes, bacon, eggs, quiche, biscuits and gravy. Every week it varies, but each week we have breakfast.
     It started a bit from necessity. When we started meeting with our launch team on a regular basis, it was easier for everyone to come for meetings when there was food.
     When we transitioned to meeting for corporate worship, we decided to keep breakfast. The reason for having breakfast each week is less about practical necessity, and more about the gospel.
     I know that seems weird, what does the gospel have to do with waffles?
       Food is a universal language. We all have to eat. Most of us enjoy eating. It's an integral part of culture and identity. We eat to celebrate. We eat when we mourn. We bring others food to say "welcome" "thanks" "Congratulations" or "I'm sorry".
     Food is powerful.
     One of the powerful aspects of food is that it unites people. Something happens around a table. The playing field is leveled somehow, and we are all there as equals. We're experiencing something together. We're building relationships together, around food. I sometimes say "when our mouths are full, we are a little bit more open to listening."
      I think there is a reason Jesus met at tables so often, because something happens around food. Barriers and guards are brought down, and people open up.
     Hospitality, in all its forms, is a powerful act (something at the heart of the middle eastern culture Jesus was a part of). It is a radical act, of welcoming, of loving, of doing something life giving and necessary together, and enjoying it.
      We know we will never be the church (well at least for now) with the greatest music, the best facilities (there's a lot of work to do), or probably even the best preacher (though I can try), but what we excel at is hospitality. The art of making people feel welcome. Of not feeling like guests, but feeling like family. Like they are a part of something, and their voice and presence is beyond welcome here. One way we extend that hospitality is through breakfast.
      Food is powerful. Food is so powerful in fact, it's a part of the liturgy of the church. The wine (or in our case the juice) and the bread. The tasting of something tangible to give us a bit of the grace of God.This reminder that we hold within us the body of Christ, and then go out to extend that grace to the world as we live out what it means to be the body of Christ.
     I'm reminded of that grace every time we gather to eat breakfast. Eating food together is not a sacrament, but there is something wholly sacramental about it. It breaks down walls. When our mouths are busy, we listen a little bit more, we laugh a little bit more fully, and life feels a bit richer.
     So, we eat together every week. Old and young. Rich and poor. Black and white.
      And when we eat together, something happens. Stories are shared. Lives are united. Our differences seem to fade away in light of a common purpose, and then as we transition into the worship service with our stomachs filled, we enter understanding those around us a little bit more.
      A couple Sundays ago, I watched as the young teens in our church (which is currently the dominant demographic) gather at the breakfast table, eating, laughing, and then they pulled out a card game. They lingered there, laughing, including the others, and there was something so beautiful about that. The kingdom of God being born through the common bond of waffles and a card game. They may not have anything else in common, but for a few moments they were united, walls broke down, and bonds were formed.
     Now we are wrestling with the growing pains of what our breakfasts will look like in the future. We've had to put out cold cereal last minute to make up for food shortages, but no one wants to let go of this time. This good news in syrup and gravy. The good news that we are a big family, and all are welcome to participate. That we are all welcome to eat in celebration, and we are welcome to eat in our grief... but we are all welcome here. We are welcome at this common table.
     And that truly is the gospel, isn't it? The good news? That we are all welcome, that we all benefit, that we all can find a healing balm for our wounded hearts, or a celebratory pastry? That there is no Jew or Greek, male or female, but that when we come to Christ we are all the Children of God and those other things don't matter so much.
     So, each Sunday I look forward to young faces light up, and adults laugh and catch up around tables, because what I see is a beautiful representation of the kingdom of God in the midst of eating waffles.

This blog has absolutely nothing to do with our church plant. I've had lots of requests for how I got so many free treats for my birthday, so I decided I'd write it out here. Don't worry, we'll be back to regularly scheduled blogging soon! 

     I have a difficult time treating myself. Seriously. I don't like buying things (I almost always have remorse after a purchase). I constantly think that I have way too much stuff already, when so much of the world is in need, and that I'm blessed to be a blessing. I am constantly going through things, giving things away, thinking about who I can help. I'm not saying that to say "look at how great I am!" In fact, the opposite actually.
     I remember when I was dating a guy once (who had similar views about using things until they wear out, and caring for the earth, the poor, etc.) I was telling him how the sheets on my bed had holes in them (honestly I was trying to say "see! I really live what i say I live!"). I'd had them for years, and they were hand me downs to begin with, and they were completely falling apart. He kept telling me over the phone "Robbie, I'm all for not getting things you don't need, but seriously, I think you need to get rid of those sheets and get some new ones."
     It's ridiculous really, how far I take it sometimes. To the point that I have certain family members that check in on me sometimes to make sure I'm taking care of myself in the midst of my attempts to save the world! Mac gets incredibly upset, because there are days I'll tell him I forgot to eat lunch, because I'm so busy doing other things.
     I really take to heart that others come first, and so I do everything in my power to live that way. My money, my time, etc. I try to spend for the sake of God and others.
     Which is noble.... maybe... but more likely than not, it's a little insane. Because NO ONE can live that way long term. You can not spend your entire life running around caring for everyone and neglecting yourself. I have some great mentors that have tried teaching me that. One is my mother in law, who continually says, if you don't care for yourself, you are no good to anyone else. You have to have a few moments, or something in your life, that makes you feel lovely, that makes you feel confident, that makes you feel refreshed, and filled, so you can pour out yourself for the sake of others.
     I can attest to this, because when I find small ways to nurture my heart and soul, I am a much better wife, sister, daughter, friend, and pastor. Seriously.
     So one way I treat myself, is on my birthday. I'm cheap (as you may have gathered) so I like a good bargain. A few years ago, I discovered that many of my favorite restaurants give out something for free on birthdays.
      I've always wanted to do a "freebie tour" and decided this year was the year! So I'm going to show you the stops I made over the last few days (and mention a few I haven't gotten to yet) and how you can do your own birthday tour!!

Last week a pastor from our district called to interview me about church planting. It caught me a little off guard, but it was a great conversation and made me think over the past year. Ever since that conversation, I've been meditating on things I've learned over the past 15 months. So, I've decided to write a series of posts on lessons we've learned over our first year of church planting. This is the fourth and final post in the series. If you'd like to read the others they can be found here: Part 3, Part 2, and Part 1.

This is the last post in my "church planting: lessons we've learned our first year" series. This one will be a bit different. I've interviewed my husband Mac, in order to gain his perspective on what the past year as been like. Since these are the type of pictures that happen with him, I'm sure you are in for a wealth of entertainment. (Maybe I should've added that a sense of humor is great for a marriage AND for church planting. Laughter makes the dark days brighter, and if nothing else, we have a lot of laughter). 

  Last week a pastor from our district called to interview me about church planting. It caught me a little off guard, but it was a great conversation and made me think over the past year. Ever since that conversation, I've been meditating on things I've learned over the past 15 months. So, I've decided to write a series of posts on lessons we've learned over our first year of church planting. This is the third in the series. If you'd like to read the first and second posts, find them here Part 1: Is it Hard? and here Part 2: Top 3 Leadership Insights.

     When people ask me what is the biggest lesson I've learned over the past year, I always talk about prevenient grace. 
     Prevenient grace may be an unfamiliar word to you, but it's a common word in our faith tradition to talk about the grace that goes before. The grace the Holy Spirit extends to people, before they make a commitment of faith. The grace that brings about good, truth, and love in places, maybe without even recognizing that God is the source of good, truth, and love. We believe that it is ever present and that it is a gift for everyone. That it calls to everyone. That it is at work always, in lives and communities throughout the world. 
      One of the beliefs we came into this adventure with, is that God is already at work in this community through the prevenient grace of the Holy Spirit. There is sometimes this misconception that when someone does missions work of any kind, at home or abroad, that "we are bringing Jesus to them". That we somehow own the monopoly on Jesus and that he is not present in that place until we show up. 
      That's completely not true. 
      We know that the Holy Spirit is moving in ways beyond our understanding. That when Jesus came to earth, he brought the kingdom of God to earth as well, and though it's not fully realized yet, it is still very present. 
       So, when we arrived to Hammond, we approached it with the idea that we would look for where the Holy Spirit was already at work in the community, and we would jump into that. 
     We had no idea what we were in for. Because while we could articulate what prevenient grace is, and what it might look like in a theoretical sense, I don't know if we would have given you concrete, astounding, almost miraculous examples of that until we dived into this adventure of Church planting. 
         When we first moved, there was a tremendous amount of work to be done. The yard needed to be cared for, the buildings needed some TLC, and we spent the first couple weeks we were in our house, working on putting everything together. Since I had shingles, we received a significant amount of help from family. 
       While they were out weeding and doing other lawn care one day, a couple of ladies stopped by to say hello. My mother in law came back in and said "You have some skeptics. They keep asking what's going to be different this time." So, we prayed, that our skeptics would not only lose their skepticism about us, but that they would become our biggest supporters, and they have! 
       One of the ladies who was unsure of who we are and what we were doing, has become one of our biggest advocates to the neighborhood. She vocally supports us, and offers her help whenever she is able. 
       Prevenient grace.
       After our building got cleaned out enough to be usable, I came home one day after work, and Mac told me that some ladies had come by to ask if they could use a room in our church for Al-Anon meetings to take place. I met with them, talked with them, and it was a great fit for both of us. We didn't seek them out, they sought us out. Now, women are finding hope and healing, and our building is being used more than once a week. 
       Prevenient grace. 
      Prior to moving, I read that 2 out of 3 of the libraries in Hammond (a city of nearly 80,000) had closed. I knew that access to books is one of the big determining factors in school success, drop out rates, and subsequently, poverty. So I thought it would be amazing to install a Little Free Library on our property. After moving, I realized just how far away the remaining library was from our neighborhood. We had a substantial amount of books left in our building, and so we thought it was worth a shot to offer this to our neighborhood.
           We didn't have the money for a while, but then I remembered that someone had gifted us some funds shortly after we moved. Using that gift, along with some mission trip funds, we were able to purchase a library and install it in front of our building. 
         There has been no end to the positive impact this has made. Neighbors have brought their own books to swap in and out since the first day. I've met multiple neighbors, and had many conversations with them at our little library. I've had several neighbors tell me how grateful they are that we put it in, how much it made their children's summer, and what an asset it has been to the neighborhood.
        Prevenient grace. 
         This summer, we planned a Vacation Bible School. We had absolutely no idea how it would turn out, but we decided just to test it out. The first night we had 0 kids. We prayed, we passed out more flyers, and by night 4 we had 13! 
          Prevenient grace.
           The kids felt so loved and cared for at VBS that many of them started coming to church services on Sunday, on their own! They get up, and walk to church, with little to no parent intervention. Some are so excited to participate in communion, and learning more about the grace of God that extends beyond prevenient grace to saving grace. 
             Prevenient grace.
        At the beginning of the summer we put in a fire pit. It's sort of an out of the box thing to do in an urban neighborhood church yard, but we thought it might just be crazy enough to work. 
        A couple weekends ago, we had a bonfire with a church that partners with us, and now the kids who have been coming to our church got to be the hosts, and minister to others. 
       Neighbors walking by stopped by for a hot dog, a s'more, and conversation. 
         Prevenient grace. 
        The grace that goes before us, and that calls people is so evident here. The ways that God has brought people to us, the ways that God was already at work, and we were just able to jump in. We didn't set out thinking that many of these things would happen within our first year, and the few things we had thought of, have ended up being more successful than we ever could have planned. 
      God's grace is present in our little neighborhood in Hammond. The kingdom of God is alive and growing in Hammond, we just keep praying for the wisdom to see it, and the strength to hold on for the great ride. We didn't bring Jesus here, but we are so privileged to get to see him at work in the lives of our neighbors, and help sow more seeds of the kingdom here. 

  Last week a pastor from our district called to interview me about church planting. It caught me a little off guard, but it was a great conversation and made me think over the past year. Ever since that conversation, I've been meditating on things I've learned over the past 15 months. So, I've decided to write a series of posts on lessons we've learned over our first year of church planting. This is the second. Make sure to check back for the next posts in the series. 

     One of the questions that was asked of me, was "what are the top 3 leadership insights you've gained planting a church?" I'm sure I said um about a thousand times, but I actually knew right away what I thought.
    I'm not a huge fan of lists like "top 3" or "top 5" or "5 steps" of or to whatever, but there are definitely 3 prominent leadership skills I've noticed as being invaluable this year.

Flexibility. I thought of this one right away. This is something that has been a cornerstone in ministry (or life for that matter) as a whole, but has been especially helpful church planting.
      Every day is different, and things rarely (if ever) go as expected. There must be flexibility in your approach, or you will go crazy.
      There are a few ways this has played out in our ministry.
     The first is just in renovating our building. There is a reason people site home renovations as a reason for divorce. Now make that home a nearly hundred year old church building, and it's a recipe for disaster. Everything took longer than expected, EVERYTHING! Cleaning took twice as long, because of pests, so not only did everything need to be vacuumed, but you needed to wear a face mask, and bleach the shop vac AND the area after cleaning. Painting took longer than expected because first we had to removed stuff off the walls, (which took days in and of itself) and then there was sanding and patching. You get the point. Our schedule and time line had to be somewhat flexible or we would have drove one another insane. Being flexible allowed us to stay married (hooray) and our leadership team to not hate each other by our launch, despite how exhausted we were.
         And that's just with the building. Flexibility applies to the ministry as well. People are not easy to control, and even if they were, that's not the best method of ministry. That means that sometimes you plan things that don't work out at all. Sometimes expectations are not met. Sometimes things don't fit our urban context, or the specific age group. When 5 kids show up on a Sunday morning, and kids outnumber adults in church service, suddenly flexibility is needed as the sermon has to be reworked on the spot to engage them a little more. Or, when we were trying VBS for the first time, and the kids were nervous to come inside the church. It was important to go to them, to change our schedule, to completely rework what VBS looked like, or we would have missed the ministry victories and beauty of that week due to our need to be rigidly on task.
           Lastly, there must be flexibility with the schedule. Being co-vocational means that I must be creative with my time. Sometimes that means studying during lunch break, a lot of time that means reading the sermon text on Monday and not getting to write it until Friday (or Saturday... or sometimes Sunday morning). It's not ideal, but it's life. Being rigid would only continually cause frustration. Now, there is necessity in planning and balancing life and work, but if that planning gets in the way of engaging with my family or with my community, it becomes a hindrance and not a help. Feeling guilty about not staying on task, would only be one more hurdle to jump, and we already have enough of those, so I try to be as flexible as possible, while still getting things done.

Humility. This may be the most important leadership skill when church planting. Everything must be approached with humility. Everything.
     It is an arrogant thing to walk into a neighborhood and tell people what's wrong with their lives based on a few statistics and demographics you read. It is an arrogant thing to assume that everyone in your church planting area is un-churched, and it is arrogant to assume that those who are un-churched know nothing of God or faith. If we had done any of those things, our work would have ended before it began.
     There's an old saying "God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason" this applies even more so to Church planting. You must always listen first. You must always intentionally listen, and the listening may take weeks, or months, or years, before you earn the right to speak into that person's life, but you must earn that right. That takes a lot of humility. And once you've earned that right, you still have to be humble enough to love them without strings attached. They may never come to church, they may never follow Christ, we must be humble and respectful enough to love them in spite of that, because Christ does.
     It takes a significant amount of humility to ask for help. To realize that the task ahead is one that you can not do on your own, that you need Christ first and foremost, but that you need other people as well. Everything is a group effort. Church planting should never be an island, and if it feels that way, it may be because there isn't enough humility present to ask for help. Sometimes that's just asking someone to pray, sometimes that's asking for money (though we've been grateful to not have to do that much.... yet), sometimes that's asking another pastor over for dinner or calling another ministry couple to vent too. This is important, and we need to have the humility to do so.
      You must also have humility when looking at the people around you. It is incredibly easy to judge. Just the other day Mac and I were talking about how difficult it is to not judge people when watching them make unwise food choices at the grocery store. We come into that situation incredibly privileged, to have parents who taught us how to cook, who educated us about good nutrition, who taught us that pre-processed foods aren't worth the money, etc. Not everyone comes from the backgrounds we do. This could be said about multiple situations we encounter on a regular basis. Hammond is different than where either one of us grew up. Very different in many ways, and we continually have to check our biases and privileges at the door, to humbly view people as the beloved of God. To view people with different eyes. To be less judgmental.
      It is incredibly humbling to realize that maybe our views of poverty, of urban culture, of food insecurity, of race, of gender, or whatever other biases and views we might have are wrong, BUT it's incredibly necessary to be humble enough to admit that. We can't grow if we don't, and we certainly can not sow seeds of the Kingdom if we come from a place of arrogance. Christ became human, he served alongside humanity, as humanity, to show the extent of God's great love for us; we must do the same, no matter how many times it takes for us to mess up, ask for forgiveness and start again.

Thick Skin and Soft Hearts. I am unsure of who first taught me this phrase in relation to ministry, but whoever it was, I am grateful, because it has been a phrase I go back to over and over again.
       Ministry is hard. It doesn't matter if that is teaching a Sunday School class, running an after school program, teaching at a christian daycare, pastoring a church, or church planting. People are messy, and broken.
     There are times when I come home from school, and I tell Mac about a student who was particularly difficult, or who told me about their life at home, and he gets teary eyed and says to me "how do you not just bring them all home at the end of the day?" And I say "because I can't."
       I physically can not take every kid with a rough home life home, and even if I could, we don't have the emotional or financial resources to care for them. It is heart breaking. My heart grieves over and over again for many stories I hear from day to day.
       When my al-anon ladies come in each week, I work in my office, and I can often hear their sobs from the other room, and my heart breaks again.
        My heart breaks, it grieves, it mourns, and bleeds for so many wounds here and around the world, and that should never ever change. If it does, that is the day I should leave ministry. Having a callous heart is not the heart of God, a God who mourns when we mourn.
     However, in the midst of that world I must live, care for myself and my family, and be a pastor that can pastor her people. If I end up in the fetal position on the floor of my office, I am no good to anybody.
     That's where having a thick skin comes in. I have to be strong enough to wake up each day, to do the tasks that God has called me to. There is a time and a place for falling apart, but that time is generally not at 8am Monday morning, or 10am on Sunday, that time is usually during prayer, as I lament to God the breaking of my heart for a broken world. That's often with Mac as we reflect on our time here, and our day to day life. Sometimes that time is with close trusted friends and family, who get it, who get me, and who get the task we are called too, who bring me back to the reminder that I do not have to carry these burdens alone, but there is a community (the Church) who walks with me, and a Holy Spirit who gives me strength.
       The other area where having a thick skin and a soft heart is necessary is when dealing with difficult people.
      It happens. It happens more often than you think, that someone is critical. Someone tries to tell you that your entire ministry philosophy is wrong, I've had someone go as far as to question how much I love Jesus. It truly gets ugly sometimes.
        Sometimes as Christians we believe it is our call to be a doormat, maybe there is a time for that, but that time is never when you are caring for your flock. I don't like confrontation, I don't like it at all, but it is sometimes necessary, and it is sometimes impossible to avoid.
     I have to be able to stick it out, to stand my ground, to be able to state clearly what we are doing and why, without reverting back into that fetal position in my office. If I become a sobbing mess in front of that person or people, I lose credibility. I become a horrible shepherd, because I need to protect and care for my flock, and sometimes that means standing up for them and for what we do.         However, if I ever get to the point where I am too big for criticism, where I care nothing for what others think, I've lost my humility and my soft heart. Every word shouldn't wound me, but I need to still have the ears to hear, and the humility and wisdom to see beyond the shrapnel hurled in my direction. Because soft hearts are able to recognize when they are wrong, and to move in a different direction. Soft hearts are malleable to the Holy Spirit, and are able to be flexible and humble. Soft hearts are able to grow.

      These are the top 3 leadership insights I've found helpful this year, but they apply to any ministry, and are helpful in life in general. There are many other skills I could list. I'd love to hear if there are any leadership insights you would add, or if you have found one of these skills particularly helpful in your ministry. Leave me a comment, I'd love to read them.

And, if you missed my first post in this series, you can find it here: Lessons We've Learned our First Year: Is it hard?

   

  Last week a pastor from our district called to interview me about church planting. It caught me a little off guard, but it was a great conversation and made me think over the past year. Ever since that conversation, I've been meditating on things I've learned over the past 15 months. So, I've decided to write a series of posts on lessons we've learned over our first year of church planting. This is the first. Make sure to check back for the next posts in the series. 

     I'm asked often if church planting is harder than we anticipated and if we are ready to throw our hands up in exasperation yet. That's a hard question to answer, because the things that are hard, are not things I anticipated as being hard (except for administrative tasks... which I have never been great at. And that's not hard as much as annoying. I miss having an administrative assistant daily.). Many of the things I thought would be difficult, aren't.
      I thought that meeting neighbors would be daunting, and difficult. That it would take months, or years to have deep conversations. That however has been completely untrue in our experience. There are a few exceptions to that, but the culture of our neighborhood is very open. People are outside a lot, which makes it easy to get to know people. Mac and I are also outgoing people, which probably has helped with this, but within a few months we knew many of our neighbors names. Getting to know people on a deeper level, takes more time, but we've gotten to know some really great people, who call me for prayer, who come into my office for hugs when they've had a rough day, and who are excited to see us out in the community.
     The other thing I thought would be incredibly difficult, would be learning to live with less. Our finances have been tighter since moving, however it's not been near the struggle I thought it would be. We have very generous people around us, who always seem to step in at the right time. We have great jobs, and health insurance. All of these things have really helped in that transition, and because we really feel we are called here, and we love our neighborhood and broader community, it makes the sacrifices feel less like sacrifices.
     However, probably one of the things I didn't anticipate was the strain on our schedule. I naively thought we'd have much more time together, and a bit more control over our schedule. To be able to take weekends off (something we never really have gotten to do), and take some extra vacation time. That has not happened. If anything, it seems like we are always adjusting to a new schedule. When we first moved, we got used to the schedule of hosting groups, and my being out of work. Then school started, and I began working, so our schedule switched again. Mac then switched jobs (which was great financially) but it meant I didn't have a car during the day, so our schedule again switched. Then we started Sunday morning worship services. By the time we got used to that routine, it was again summer, with our summer mission trip schedule. Now we are back to the school year, now with 2 cars, Sunday morning worship services, and both of us working jobs that pay again.
     I knew things would be busy, and a lot of work, but I really thought I'd feel more in control of my schedule than I do. Mainly it's because we had no idea what anything would look like, now that we do, it feels a bit more manageable to get into a routine.... until we get another curve ball.
      The other difficult aspect of church planting for us, and maybe even more difficult than the scheduling, is to explain to other Christians what it is we do. People who don't go to church seem to get it, that we are here to love the neighbors, to be people of peace, grace, reconciliation and love to the people around us, and to be a catalyst for transformation in our community. Many church people don't get it... at all.
     We get asked questions like "what model of church planting are you following?" "How many people are in your church?" "But what do you actually do...." All of those questions I cringe to answer. We don't ask these questions of ourselves, we tend to just ask, are we being faithful to what God is calling us? If the answer is yes, we just keep doing that.
    The truth is, our model is Jesus, and that's about it. We don't have lots of people in our chairs Sunday morning, but we interact with hundreds of people many weeks, so Sunday is a poor way to look at what we do. We tend to not look at butts in pews as a sign of success, but whether or not we were faithful to follow Christ, care for one another, and love our neighbors during the week.
      Each day around here is different, but we do a lot of different things. We garden, we ask people how their day is, we welcome people into our home, we write, we read, we clean, we cook, we go for walks through our neighborhood, I write a sermon each week, choose songs from the hymnal, print off bulletins, answer the phone, go over budgets, go to the bank, talk to neighbors, oh, and then we also do house work and have jobs on top of that, while caring for our dog, one another, and spending time with friends and family. Pretty much our lives look like most everyone else's.
      We try to engage the neighborhood, mostly by being good neighbors and living our day to day lives as Christ followers. There isn't a magic formula, or method really, just being people who truly love Jesus and seek to live that out to the best of our ability, with our lives open to the people around us (from the grocery store, to church on Sunday, from the coffee shop, to mission trip teams). But if you want to know what we tend to live out as a model, it's this: Radical hospitality. That's it. We believe that true hospitality can change the world.
     In fact in many ways, we believe it already has. After all, it's Christ's great call to join life with him that brought us here. The call to be immersed in the life of a community seeking Christ, called the church, is a call to hospitality. A call to care for others, to invite others into our lives, and to in turn be invited into the lives of others. That's why Jesus is our model, because he was great at this. At inviting people into his life, at being present in the lives of others.
    This is what we seek to do, each Sunday as we serve breakfast, during the week as we invite people into our home, or even when we make books available to our neighbors. These are all ways we seek to live life together with our neighbors. And, yes, this is hard sometimes. It's really hard to be faithful sometimes, because we know that is a call to sacrifice, to give up our comfort, to answer the door when we don't feel like it, to walk the hard path with people. But that's the call of a disciple, to follow the path of Christ, and it would be a mistake to think that is an easy path, but we truly believe it's the best path, and so, we continue to walk it.
   
Next Post- top 3 leadership insights I've gained year 1 

     I really love the first day of school. I love the entire feeling of going back to school; the sales on school supplies and the stacks of yellow pencils at the store, watching the kids walk down the sidewalk with backpacks that look as though they will tip them over, and the ever so slight scent of fall in the air.
    Many people look at years from January through December, but I have always looked at the beginning of the year, as the beginning of school. My years are always scheduled that way, probably because I was in youth ministry for so long right after being a student, and now because I substitute teach.

    Today is the first day of school, and I love it. As a church in the middle of a neighborhood, we are really trying to think of ways to engage with our neighborhood.
    At the end of the school year, I came up with the crazy idea to have popsicles for the kids after school, which you can read about in an earlier blog. We decided to do something along the same lines for the first day of school.
    We decided it would be fun to give all of the students walking by on their way to school (we have neighborhood schools here, so nearly everyone walks) a small gift. Last weekend, my helpers put together around 50 gift bags each containing pencils and erasers, with a tag that said "Happy First Day of School!"
      It's a small gesture really, and with some donations from others, it cost us very little. We wanted to think of something small, that could make a difference, even if the only difference was to make someone's day a little bit happier. 

     I sometimes take the local church for granted. I grew up in the church, it was (for the most part) a place of comfort and support for me. When I began working as a pastor in churches, I found this support even more important.
     There are times where support was fleeting, or absent, and even a few times hostility replaced support, but overwhelmingly the church has been a place where if I needed help I could go.
     So when my car needed a new tire a couple years ago, it was a guy from our small group who showed up and replaced my tire while we were out of town. I was surprised, yet at the same time, that's what church does, steps in when you need help and support.
     I've always considered myself a part of the church, because I have always been included from a young age in the life of the church, with parents who emphasized that church wasn't solely a place we go, but something we participate in.
     The other day, my eyes were opened to how much I take that for granted.
      Our church, The Mission Church, partners with another Nazarene church on our district, Duneland Community church, who brings a group of young teenagers on a regular basis to serve alongside us. They launched their school year with a 24 hour service retreat with us this past weekend.
     It's a lock-in, but with a service aspect. Which is really amazing.
     We invited everyone from our church to come out on the Friday night of their arrival for a bonfire, and to spread the word to anyone else in the neighborhood who would like to come.
     The boys from church showed up early, in great anticipation of meeting kids around the same age as them from another church, and to play games.
     While we were setting everything up, and waiting for their arrival, I told the boys "You guys have to remember to be good hosts."
      They got very excited and replied "Wait? Are we hosting them?"
       I responded with "Well this is your church isn't it. And since our church is hosting them, and you are a part of this church, then that means you are hosting them."
      Then the smiles really started. They got really big eyes and said "This is our church! This is our church too! We get to host them! We are the hosts!"
      A lump caught in my throat a little bit, at how excited they were to be included. To have someone say "This is your church too." They were so proud, so excited, and waited with eagerness to greet our friends with cheers of welcome.
     They sat our guests around the bonfire and took time to ask each of their names, and a few things that they were interested in. They took the time to include our guests in games and in laughter.
      As neighbors walked by, they too were welcomed into the circle. Young and old, eating hot dogs, marshmallow sticking to our faces, laughing, getting to know one another, tears in our eyes from the smoke, we were the church. Friends we just met, and friends we've known for a year. We were the Church and this was a thin place.
       The kingdom of God was so close, as one of the boys from our church said the prayer for the food, as the older kids helped the younger ones make marshmallows. As a little neighbor girl ran up and hugged me. As Mac knelt over the fire making her the first s'more she had ever eaten in her life. The kingdom of God was so visible as kids from the neighborhood begged their parents to stay just a little bit longer.
      And as I lay my head on my pillow, far later than the time I'm used too, my hair still smelling of smoke, I knew that I had been in the presence of Jesus that night, and that I had seen the Church with new eyes. I could rest with an excitement in my heart that "This is my church too!" and what an amazing church it is.