providing a litttle christmas help and cheer

The CORE Church of Troy has been approved by the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign as a distribution site. We are now registering families to receive toys for their children. If you live in the Troy area and would like to register please call the church office at 518-274-8080 or Pastor dave's cell phone @ 518-526-6079, or you may e-mail us at corechurch@gmail.com

When you call, please speak clearly. Please provide the name, age and gender of each child you are requesting toys for. Please provide a contact phone number and/or e-mail address so that we may keep you informed of important dates and information.

If you live in Troy and do not have a church to fellowship with, we'd love to have you come and visit. We are a small but growing congregation with a heavy emphasis on building relationships. We are very informal in our style of worship. Come as you area!

Paying it forward...and we need your help

Inner-city ministry is my calling and passion w/a particular interest in children's ministry...don't really do that for a living, per se, doesn't pay much, so I do odd jobs, etc to pay the bills. When I say "children's ministry," many people get the idea of puppets and polished Bible stories with flannelgraph figures. But in my neighborhood children's ministry is vastly different.

We operate an afterschool homework club where many neighborhood kids come and hang out. Many great conversations are flowing, and we are meeting new kids every day as kids tell there friends about the CORE Church and Pedestrian Outreach CenterWe planted this inner-city mission church in 2006...not an easy mission field by any means. Lots of needs; scores of single mothers on fixed incomes, many kids w/o fathers who seem to cling to all the attention we can give them...needless to say everywhere we (me and my family) go we often have a ton of kids who want to go with us. Tonight it was a concert at my son's school and we had a half dozen extra kids w/us. Seeing how hard some of these kids have it doesn't make lt any easier. There's a part of me that wants to rescue every one of them from the ugliness they often experience...but I'm only one person. How much can I do? I pray for them, offer them a hand of friendship, and our storefront mission church has become a safe haven for many of them to come to when they are going through the tough battles of life.

Often, these kids share things with me that leave me speechless, and I thank God every day that He has put me in such a place of trust...that these kids have someone to turn to when the horrors and terrors of life turn their way.

I remember these streets, for they are the very streets I once ran and played in. But it was a different time, and not nearly as dangerous in this neighborhood...or so they say. I remember a place not much different at all, and there were a few adults who took an interest in my well being, who went out of their way to make my world a safer place to grow up in. So perhaps it is my turn to pay it forward, and to show these kids a better way...to continue offering a hand of friendship...a shoulder to lean on...someone to listen to them and applaud in the midst of their seemingly small victories.

What is my reward? What is my pay? a happy child who grows up to reach their potential...and here's how you can help.I'm asking my Facebook and Twitter friends to consider investing just $5.00 or $10.00 in this ministry, as we reach out to these great kids and their families.

We are seeing fruit, as many of the parents/guardians of these kids are visiting our mission church/outreach center, and some great conversations are flowing as we build relationships with these children and families.

Your best gifts can be made out and sent to:

CORE Church of Troy

36 109th St.Troy, NY 12182

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or for further info. If you'd like to have me come to your church and share our mission and ministry w/you and your congregation, just let me know

518-526-6079 (cell)

518-235-0370 (home)

518-274-8080 (office)

e-mail: corechurch@gmail.com

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!

PREPARE TO PLANT: everything I wish I knew about church planting, before I started to plant

I'm in the process of writing a manuscript for a book about church planting.

I know what you're thinking, church planting friends and friends of church planting, "Do we really need another book about church planting when there is already a plethora of books covering every facet of church planting known to man?"

As I began to search Christian Book Distributors, Amazon.com and a host of other book distributors, I could not find any books covering the subject I have decided to write about. There are plenty of books that touch on this subject, but none that deal specifically with what I believe to be a critical point for church planters and potential church planters to grasp before they enter their mission field. I even sent a facebook message to my FB and church planting friend, Ed Stetzer, who is, perhaps, the leading authority on church planting in all of North America. I figured if anyone would know of resources pertaining to my subject of choice, he would.

His response to me?" David, I don't know of any resources like that."

So what is the subject I would like to write about? Here it is...drum roll please!


the church planter first being planted by God, in the community God has sent Him to, before he plants the church God has sent him to plant.

This subject was born out of nearly four years of experience of planting the church God has sent me to to plant. Having never planted a church before this, I came to Troy, NY with big dreams and expectations, only to be crushed and bruised, battered and scattered. I have experienced every feeling and emotion known to man, and a few I never knew existed. My marriage and family life have suffered some heavy blows from the enemy. The spiritual warfare we have endured was so intense that I literally gave up and was about to walk away. Then God began to speak to me at a level I had never experienced in my 46 years of life.

"Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat, and he has, but you have endured. Now you are ready to plant My church...the one I sent you to plant, not the one you wanted to plant."

The purpose of this book will be, not merely to lay a Biblical framework for the call to church planting, (there are plenty of great books already available on that subject), but to bear witness to the experience a church planter can expect to encounter on his/her mission field. There are things I just did not know, even though I've been through seminary and had taken church planting classes, and had attended countless conferences on church planting, church growth, evangelism, etc.

The greater purpose for this book is to, perhaps, save church planters, present and future, the agony I have endured, by sharing what God has shown me through my own experience.Church planting is a process; with God, first, preparing the planter, from the inside out, before any of the usual work known to most church planters begins. When I arrived in Troy I hit the ground running, as I began putting into practice (or at least attempting to) all of the stuff I had read in the textbooks and on the blogs of other church planters. After nearly four years I have learned so much about what to do and what not to do. And I would like, by the grace and calling of God, to share this story with the church planting community in general, and more specifically, with freshman church planters; those who are newbies, who have never planted a church before but stepped out in faith, believing that God has spoken to them and sent them.

There are many church planters who have experienced similar circumstances and have given up (I have met some of you...I was almost one of you). There are others who are currently going through what I've gone through (I feel your pain and frustration). And there are still more who are about to step out in faith, for the first time, who do not know what they are in for. This book is for you.

I don't yet have a publisher or even a book deal, but I am stepping out in faith and writing the book anyway, so that those I am writing to and for can learn from my experience, and I know there are many out there who can identify with what I am about to share on paper.

I would like to hear from some of you. Share your own experience here or send me and e-mail, FB note or an old fashioned letter (snail mail)

surprised by the Holy Spirit!

Today was a day like no other. For the first time in my 15 years of ministry, I preached something that was totally unplanned. I had my sermon all written for today...planned out w/notes, illustrations, etc. I was planning on preaching from Romans 6. Our call to worship usually comes from Psalms, and as I turned to Psalm 51 and started reading it, something rose up within me, and before I knew it, words were coming out of my mouth! David's whole experience with Bathsheba, and then Nathan the prophet came to mind as I was reading this Psalm aloud before the congregation. Ended up preaching for 40 minutes about how sin creeps up on us slowly, starting out with a small temptation, like flirting with a married woman, which turns into lust, then an affair...or the love of money, which turns to greed, then to cheating and stealing...and even murder. At the end of the sermon, one man said, "That's the best sermon I've ever heard you preach in the three years I've been here."

Thank you Holy Spirit for leading me to hear Your voice and for the courage to put my planned sermon away and preach what You have given me, and for the voice to preach the Word for your glory, O Lord!

How can you help us help our neighbors and reach them for God's kingdom?

1. New informational pieces for CORE Church of Troy and our Pedestrian Outreach Center are ready to distribute. want to learn more? send me your e-mail address and I'll forward one to you. Make as many copies as you'd like and help us by sharing them with your church, family, friends, etc. If you'd prefer regular mail, send me your mailing address and I will forward this to you

2. We are starting a new fundraising campaign for Pedestrian Outreach Center and CORE Church expansion as we multiply in our city and beyond. Therefore, I am asking a God-sized favor of all my Facebook and Twitter friends. Please consider sowing financially into this frontline ministry; just $10 or $20 is all we are asking you to consider. If God puts it on your heart to sow even deeper, He will bless you for doing so. Please pray and consider. You can make checks payable to CORE Church of Troy and write POC in the memo, and be assured that every penny will be used to expand God's kingdom in Troy, NY and beyond.

In the name of Jesus Christ our Great Commissioner, and on behalf of the CORE Church of Troy and Pedestrian Outreach Center, I thank you.

Feeling like a fool

I've been feeling like a fool lately, like one person who posted on another blog recently about planting a church with no money, no people, nothing except vision from God and faith the size of a mustard seed.

For three and a half years we've been camped out in an impoverished inner-city community in upstate NY, trusting that God has sent us, yet feeling like a failure at times; most months barely scraping by financially, reaching out to the homeless and "the least of these." All the while, others in ministry, who started when we did (or after) seem to be miles ahead of us. I sometimes wonder if we're really supposed to be here. Then God sends me little signs; like a single mother w/3 kids, being abused by her boyfriend and put our of her apartment by city code enforcement, or a rowdy bunch of neighborhood kids who need nothing more than someone who is willing to sacrifice and hour or two and play ball with them.

Why would a grown man with a seminary degree give up everything to do such a thing? Sounds foolish to me and to most folks who look at it from a human perspective. But then, most times when people step out in faith and trust and obey God, they end up looking like fools; like a boy named David facing a giant with nothing more than a slingshot and a few stones, or a man named Abraham, leaving his home for a place he had never been to or seen, yet when God told him to go, he trusted and obeyed. Then there were twelve ordinary men. A few of them were fishermen. One was a government employee. Yet, they all left everything to follow a man who said and did things that seemed to be foolish, even to the religious crowd.

Truth be told, stepping out in faith requires taking risks; many times big risks, often at the expense of looking foolish. Why is it, when an entrepeneur steps out in faith, giving up everything to start a small business, the world applauds, yet when a man (or woman) of God steps out in faith, in obedience to a higher call, the world scoffs and calls that person a fool?

The Bible says,

27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).

...so that no one may boast before Him (God)

It's not about me. It's always about Him; the One who calls and sends men to do His will. When all is said and done, He is the one who gets the glory; especially when the world calls me a fool for following Him. Only a fool would follow a God he cannot see, or a vision that has not yet come to pass, for a purpose that he cannot fully grasp. But the outcome and rewards far outweigh any persecution he may receive from the world; perhaps even from the religious crowd, or even within his own family.

A better question tha often comes to mind; Why would God choose a fool like me to do anything for Him? I am humbled and amazed!

So, I'm okay with feeling and looking like a fool from time to time; perhaps more than I realize.