THOUGHTS OF AN URBAN MISSIONARY:MY PRAYER TONIGHT

IMMERSED...DYING TO MYSELF DAILY...SACRIFICE....RECEIVE MY FREEWILL OFFERING...WHOLLY SURRENDERERD...WANTING MORE...THE DEEPER I GO THE MORE I DESIRE TO GO FURTHER STILL...WITH A HOLY GOD WHO LOVES ME MORE THAN I'LL EVER FATHOM
FAILURE THAT I AM SO MANY TIMES...FLAWED YET ACCEPTED...WORTHY OF THE FLAMES OF HELL, YET REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB...I WAS A LOST SHEEP AND YOU SEARCHED FOR ME...I WANDERED FAR AWAY, YET YOU FOUND ME...WHEN I DID NOT LOVE YOU OR DESIRE YOU, YOU STILL PURSUED ME...WHEN ALL I WANTED TO DO IS LIVE FOR MYSELF, YOU TOOK A CROSS OF SHAME...MY PLACE YOU TOOK...AND SO MANY MORE JUST LIKE ME...LOST AND CONFUSED...BATTERED AND SCARRED BY SIN...NOTHING BUT EMPTY PROMISES HAVE LED THEM FARTHER DOWN THE PATH OF DARKNESS AND DESTRUCTION...I'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE...AND I'LL GOT THERE AGAIN BUT NOT ALONE...THIS TIME I'M SENT AS SALT AND LIGHT BY MY SAVIOR ON HIS THRONE...THE THRONE OF MY HEART...AS SAVIOR AND LORD...GO AND TELL THEM!
LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO...HE SAVED MY WRETCHED SOUL...HE INVITES YOU TO COME TO THE WELL AND DRINK...SIT AT HIS TABLE AND EAT THE BREAD THAT MONEY CANNOT BUY...YET IS GIVEN FREELY, IN ABUNDANCE, TO ALL WHO ASK...NEVER AGAIN WILL YOU HUNGER OR THIRST...SURRENDER TO HIM...AN OFFERING AND A SACRIFICE...WHOLLY SURRENDER TO THE SAVIOR OF YOUR SOUL...COME BE ABSORBED INTO THE BLOODSTREAM OF THE ONE WHO BLED FOR YOU...BE IMMERSED...SATURATE YOUR LIFE WITH HIS GOODNESS AND HIS GRACE...LET HIS LIFE FLOW THROUGH YOU, A LIVING SACRIFICE...COME TO THE SHORE OF MERCY...THE THRONE OF GRACE...LOOK INTO HIS GLORIOUS FACE...FIND YOURSELF AS YOU LOSE YOUR LIFE IN HIM...NEVER AGAIN WILL YOU FEEL ALONE.
JESUS TAKE ME DEEPER STILL...HOLY SPIRIT FILL ME AND USE ME...FATHER IN HEAVEN DRAW ME TO YOUR SIDE...BE MY ANCHOR...MY ROCK...MY FORTRESS...MY SHELTER FROM THE STORMS OF LIFE...BREAK THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY AS HE DESIRES TO SIFT ME LIKE WHEAT...HE'S GOTTEN IN A FEW GOOD BLOWS...AND HE STILL TURNS HIS UGLY HEAD MY WAY FROM TIME TO TIME...BUT YOU ARE MY LORD OF LORDS...MY KING OF KINGS...MY PRINCE OF PEACE...NOTHING OR NOONE CAN EVER SNATCH ME FROM YOUR HAND!
I PRAY FOR THOSE WHO ARE WHERE I HAVE BEEN...I PRAY FOR THE WAIFS WHO RUN IN THE STREET, LOOKING FOR A HERO...SOMEONE TO STAND IN THE GAP...LORD FILL ME WITH YOUR SPIRIT FOR THE TASK AT HAND...FILL ME WITH PASSION...SO THAT WE MAY SNATCH THEM FROM THE HAND OF THE ENEMY...WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES AT NIGHT I CAN SEE THEIR YOUNG FACES...FILLED WITH HOPE...DREAMING BIG DREAMS...I PRAY, O LORD, THAT THEY MAY COME TO KNOW YOU AND YOUR AWESOME PLAN FOR THEIR LIFES...AND WHEN MY LIFE IS OVER AND ALL IS SAID AND DONE...YOU ARE MY LORD...AND I LOVE YOU!
WHY YOU USE A MAN LIKE ME I'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND...YET I PRAISE YOU...USE ME FOR YOUR GLORY...YOUR PURPOSE...THIS IS MY PRAYER TODAY...FROM THE FRONTLINE OF BATTLE...HEEDING THE CALL TO THIS FIELD OF HARVEST!

My picture of missional/incarnational

My picture of missional and incarnational is living in and engaging the culture, by being who I am in the place God has called me to. This means putting my kids in (God forbid) public school. Enrolling my kids in community activities such as little league baseball, scouting, 4H, etc. and then participating with them on a volunteer basis and meeting other families who live in the same community, send their kids to public school, and sign them up for these same community activities. This isn't an agenda or a program or any attempt to be something I'm not, so that I can hone in on them with the gospel. It is a process, by which I am living in this world, but not of this world; living amongst my neighbors in such a way that they are drawn to what I have, which is peace and joy. It's about developing relationships and friendships and loving my neighbor as myself, so that as Christ lives in me, transforming my life, He also lives and works through me, drawing lost people to Himself and transforming their lives.

For me, that's what it's all about--knowing Christ and making Him known.

Off to a great start!

I was born and raised here in Troy and tried to go somewhere else to plant a church but God had another plan that I had to surrender to. I'm seeing a huge work before us. In this city of 50,000 there are many unchurched and many college students with RPI and Russell Sage being here in a Troy. This is, as you know, an old, warn out, industrial age city. Like Albany and surrounding cities, Troy is seeing its own come back, slowly, but it's on the rebound. This is a great time to be back here in this city and to be a part of God's plan for the people who live here.

Our starting point is North Central. That is Troy's darkest, most economically and physically depressed neighborhood. When we said yes to God at the invitation to come to this neighborhood (the last on most church planting maps) God literally started giving us things. First it was our current church building, which was a Baptist church for many years and had closed its doors at the end of 2005. Then it was a 3 bedroom parsonage that we learned came with the church, which immediately solved my wife's biggest concern about where we (me, my wife and two sons) would live. Then there was our vacant lot,now known as the CORE Church Ministry Park; a third of an acre located on the street corner across the street from our church buiding. There had been a large church building there for nearly 150 years that started to fall apart. The city condemned the building and the small church group that was meeting there had to vacate the building and tear it down. They were thinking of rebuilding but that plan never went forward. After two years the city cancelled its tax exempt status and added it to their tax rolls. That church, Amazing Grace Assembly of God, thought we could use the lot for parking and outdoor ministry, so they voted to give it to us (technically we bought it for $1.00).

We started with a core group of seven two years ago and are growing slowly yet steadily. God has developed within me this vision for an indigenous neighborhood church that intentionally reaches out to the poor and disenfranchised who live in the neighborhood. Others who have caught the vision have joined us. Many children are coming to our Sunday gatherings and children's outreach events.

We are about to celebrate our 2nd anniversary as the CORE Church of Troy. God is moving and we are blessed to be in the middle of His plan for the Collar City.

A New Understanding

This is the beginning of a great vision God has given me. No, nothing strange or cult-like, just a fresh understanding . As I recently began studying the book of Acts I have begun to see the story of the church unfold with new eyes. I have read Acts more times than I can remember. Most recently I began a new journey through the New Living Translation's version.

Two and a half years ago I entered the realm of church planting. Having never planted a church before I felt ill-prepared. However, there was vision from God, coupled with a burning desire to impliment the vision he had given me. So I prayed, and prayed, and prayed some more for God to give me the confidence of those who have gone before me.

In November of 2005 my wife and I accepted the call to return to the city of Troy, New York, the place of my birth and youth, to start a new inner-city church in a neighborhood that had been largerly abandoned by the church. As we obeyed and went to the place God was showing us I began to seek a Biblical plan for planting and growing this new church, as such, the Holy Spirit has brought me back to the book of Acts, where the church began. As I stated before, I have read the book of Acts numerous times. I have read through it at least once since we came to Troy. However, I felt an urgent need to not only read through Acts again, but to embark on the most intense study I have ever undertaken.

As I started this new study of Acts I began to see it as more than just a narrative of the Church's infancy. The book of Acts is a journey. It is the story of a few good men, chosen by God to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Most of you are familiar with the book of Acts, so this won't be another running commentary; as if I could add to or improve upon the works of Matthew Henry and other scholars who have already provided us with an ample supply of explanation.

My goal in reading and studying the book of Acts, this time around, is to see church planting through the eyes of the Apostles and early church, and then apply what I see and learn to a modern, twenty-first century, Troy, New York context. After spending two years re-learning both the geographical and human landscape of Troy's inner-city I had reached a point where I began to ask God to show me how to build a church from the ruins of Troy's darkest, most depressed neighborhood.

The book of Acts is the next piece in the church planting puzzle God has given me to assemble. He has taken me back to the beginning of the church, to the very roots of the body of Christ, so that He can break down and destroy my previous preconceptions of who (not what) the church is and how the church functions. Like many church planters, I grew up with the notion that church is the place we go to to worship God. It is a building and an organization with structure. However, as I have entered the threshold of this new understanding of the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit has been empressing upon me that the Church was never intended to be what it has become. It was, from the beginning, a relationship with Christ.

In addition to this new study of the book of Acts, God has been preparing me through other means. I have been reading and digesting just about everything I can on missiology and the emerging church movement that is taking place globally. Leading thinkers such as Ed Stetzer, Tim Keller, Alan Hirsch, Andy Stanley, Mark Driscoll, Erwin McManus, John Burke, etc. have shaped my thinking and strategy to the point where I am beginning to think "Missionally," and "Incarnationally," In my own endeavor to plant a culturally relevant, Christ-centered, Biblically based, community of Christ followers.

The question that lingers in my mind during this new journey through the bookof Acts is,"How can I bring this new community of faith along in this journey?" There is so much being written these days on how to plant churches. It is mind boggling, to say the least, to keep up with it all. In the midst of my own spiritual and mental workout I am seeking a Biblically defined, simpler way to plant this church. I keep thinking about how Peter and John did it, and then Paul and his cohorts after that. Their journey is my journey; the same journey I would like to lead others on. They had a simple approach...Preach the gospel, reach for a decision, baptize new believers and assimilate them into the church, meet regularly for teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer. As they did this many miraculous, unimaginable things took place; to the point where everyone in the church was awe-struck. This resulted in church multiplication as people from the larger community were drawn to the smaller community of Christ followers. They began to impact and transfrom the community around them. All because twelve ordinary men said, "Yes, Lord! We will obey."