Five years of decision compressed into twelve months. This is how I describe the engagement season before marriage. The engagement season is full of excitement and anticipation. Mixed in with that is also a vast amount of decisions about the wedding day. Such as:

Where to get married? Who to invite? What to eat? What to wear? What goes on the registry? What music? What can we afford?

If a couple can learn how to make those decisions, stay compassionate, and put each others needs before their own, then they have allowed the engagement season to prepare them for marriage.

The process of planting a church reminds me of the engagement season. I’m looking forward to many years of ministry and many Sundays pastoring. Mixed into this excitement has been a billion decisions to make in only a few months. Decisions are an inevitable part of this season and an expected part of leadership. Leaders make decisions–many of them.

In one week the day we’ve been preparing for will arrive. I want to approach this day just like I approached my wedding day with my wife Stefanie. We invited friends and family to pray for us each day of the week. The prayers were focused on our wedding day and our marriage. We saw all of those prayers answered on our wedding day and we’re living them out in our marriage now. So would you join Gallery Church Sowebo in praying for us this week? Here is how you can pray:

Sunday: Pray that our primary goal would always be to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Luke 10:27

Monday: Pray that we would become a church family that loves each other deeply. 1 Peter 4:8

Tuesday: Pray that in all things we would walk in obedience to see God’s good and perfect will done here on earth.  Matthew 6:10

Wednesday: Pray that we would never lose sight of the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19

Thursday: Pray for the people of Sowebo to place their faith in Jesus as Lord. Romans 10:17

Friday: Pray that we would mature in our dependence on God’s Spirit. John 16:13

Saturday: Pray for revival. John 10:10

 

As a young boy I would always look out the window whenever someone moved into the neighborhood. My neighborhood was a bit different in that we didn’t welcome people into the neighborhood with cookies. Our neighborhood welcomed people by inviting them into our way of life.  It was certain that the ill effects of my neighborhood would quickly introduce itself to each family that moved in. I knew that whoever offered the first invitation would more than likely have the greatest influence on the family. And I, along with my siblings, wanted to be the ones to extend the first invitation to the children of each family.

I can remember one particular family that we befriended when they arrived. The boys in the family weren’t tough–at all. However, as we grew older they wanted to fit in and be tough like everyone else. I know at least one of them didn’t live to see his twenties.

The same mentality I had as a little boy staring out the window is the same mentality I need as man ministering to the city; because the same tension still exists in our communities. Evil is actively looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8) and we should be actively looking for someone to disciple.

The challenge is that it’s much easier to invite people into our church building than it is to invite them into our lives. But the church body is made up of many brothers and sisters who find life in Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 5:1-2). So we should be looking out of our windows to find people that we can invite into this Life.

 

 

 

 

One of many fond memories of my four years leading high school ministry was our mission trip to Nogales, Mexico. A family from Timonium moved their family from to Mexico, to start a ministry among the people of Nogales.  This community is stricken by severe poverty and as you drive through the neighborhood you would could not identify the house of the family from Timonium. It fits in with the rest of the community. But when you walk in the home there are two beautiful brick chapels in the back and a Greek amphitheater that overlooks the city.

This place is called Cuirim house.  Cuirim is Celtic for incarnation and this house physically represents the truth that Jesus came and lived among us and at the same time embodied divine glory.

On July 20^th the Gallery Church in Sowebo will meet in a building that fits in our community. I actually think many people drive by the building without knowing all that takes place inside. I am grateful that as we live out the gospel we will also occupy a building that communicates the gospel.

I am amazed to look back and see how the Lord has worked everything together. I had no idea that my experiences with a godly family living and serving their community in Mexico would be a tangible example of how I would do the same in Sowebo. God is good.

These are some pictures of the building and some friends discussing how Sundays will look. Thank you to everyone who has prayed, spoken an encouraging word, and financially contributed. This is only the beginning and we’re grateful to have a good start!

More information for Cuirim House in Mexico can be found at www.cuirim.org

 

 

When people ask how the church plant is going my usual response is “Amazing”. And God is doing amazing work. At the same time I’m being stretched and some days are hard. Sometimes the biggest obstacle is myself. I know it’s not popular say (or write), but here it is:

Life is hard.

I know this isn’t encouraging but it’s the honest experience for many people. And if a real God can’t exist in real life, then what hope do I offer? So how do I explain my faith in these difficulties in my life and to the people I encounter in my city? Paul wrote these words in 2 Thessalonians 3:5:

“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”

I sincerely want my heart to reside in God’s love and I preach this all the time. But how often do I desire to have my heart in Christ’s perseverance? Honestly, my response to hardships are about me making it through instead of me knowing Christ in His perseverance. This journey of faith has taught me that Christ must be our sole reward in all things; not our comfort and preferences.

I want to be a man whose leadership builds disciples that say, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11).

Here is the good news: Life is hard…but Christ has persevered (John 16:33).

Every year I celebrate with someone who is graduating from high school. It’s a moment of great accomplishment and anticipation for the next stage of life.

Today I am also reminded of the multitude of teens who didn’t walk across the stage this year. Right now it seems that there’s no hope for their future.  In addition, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of young women and men in our state who have experienced the pain of sexual abuse and are reeling from the trauma in their lives. Right now it appears that there’s no healing in their future. I’ve encountered some of these people in both suburban and urban communities.

It’s important that we pursue, embrace, and love our teenagers for who they are right now. Our deep love for them will cover a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Their stories may have a dismal start but they can have a glorious finish.  

I believe that every community has a Maya Angelou. This week Maya’s life of perseverance, forgiveness, and hope came to an end at the age of eighty-six. As a young girl she was raped and as a teenager she didn’t graduate from high school. But as an adult she was revered for her wisdom, endurance, leadership, teaching, fluency in five languages, brilliant prose and profound poetry.

I believe there are many girls and boys who will endure great pain and accomplish great feats. If only we could see them for who God has called them to be rather than who the world tells them they are right now. 

 

 

I know that church planters are supposed to have a target group

I know that this target group should look the same, make the same (money), and act the same.

I know that this approach is somewhat easier because it’s easier to attract similar people

I know that ministry with and for people of diverse backgrounds is difficult.

I know.

But…

I believe that God desires people from every nation to be drawn to Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20).

I believe that if on the day of Pentecost the Spirit enabled people to hear of the glory of God in their native tongue then He can do it today (Acts 2:1-13).

I believe that when different people come together for one Person, the world will know about the love of God (John 17:23)

I believe that we can see so much more of God when we seek to know Him beyond our cultural experience (John 4:23).

I believe that Baltimore is primed to see these beliefs become what we all know as our reality.

That’s why I’m grateful for the people in this picture and those who will be a part of the church in Southwest Baltimore. God is drawing people with similar hearts from various backgrounds together for the single purpose of displaying His glory!

Over the next 25 years I would like for it to be normal to see sons bury their fathers. In Baltimore too many young men are being buried. Of the 66 murders in Baltimore this year, 45% have been men aged 20-29 and 26% have been men aged 30-39.* A historian once said,

“In peace, sons bury their fathers.

In war, fathers bury their sons.”

This definitely isn’t a time of peace. Unfortunately, many of the young men dying in Baltimore don’t have fathers around to bury them. So my hope is twofold: To see sons bury their father would mean that our young men would live longer. Second, it means that the fathers would be actively present in the lives of these men. It means that violence would decrease as people come to know the peace of Christ (Ephesians 2:14). It means that fathers would live in the home and provide stability by the work they do inside & outside the home. It would mean that violence and abandonment would no longer seize the future of our families. Instead, longevity and legacy would propel our families into a more prosperous future.

I want to see young men live and older men lead.

*Statistics are found at: http://chamspage.blogspot.com/2014/01/2014-baltimore-city-homicides-list-and.html

Where is the strong leadership that we need in our world today?

This is a question that I’ve asked myself many times. I delight in reading stories of great leaders throughout history and I wonder where leaders of this caliber reside today. We live in difficult times and we need leadership. But the truth is that there are thousands of people who are positioning themselves to be great leaders. Leadership books fly off store book shelves and race to the top of best seller lists. So are we really lacking leadership?

How many times did Jesus teach about leadership and how many times did he teach about serving?

What if the problem isn’t a lack of leaders but a deficit of servants. Jesus came not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). When the salvation of the world was on the line we didn’t receive a leader but a servant.  Even King David is described as serving, “God’s purpose in his own generation…” (Acts 13:36).

Then what has He sent me to do?

This has been a thought brewing in my mind and stirring my heart. As I start a church in Baltimore City, I am now seeing the great need for servants. I can serve the community by providing direction, hope, truth, love, freedom, purpose and life in Jesus. Leaders can lead from afar but servants must draw near. That’s why Christ lived among us and why I must live among the people of Baltimore!

“You cannot serve people by giving them orders as to what to do.

The real servant of the people must live among them,

think with them, feel for them, and die for them.”

-Carter G. Woodson

Have you ever read the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost? I feel like I lived out the most popular line of the poem as I drove my daughter to school yesterday.

“Two roads diverged in a [city], and I

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference”

As I approached my daughter’s school I wondered why I shouldn’t just drive her to the carpool drop off. All year I’ve parked across the street and walked my daughter to school. As a result I’ve developed a great friendship with the crossing guard and a number of parents. For a moment I was tempted to take the carpool–it would be so convenient. Then I remembered that I walked my daughter to her school for a purpose–not convenience–and the relationships have become invaluable.

So I parked the car, walked across the street, kissed my daughter, and began to walk back to my car. When I got across the street I saw the crossing guard talking to a woman who was weeping. The crossing guard immediately looks at me and says, “Can we pray for her?” So, in the pouring rain we embrace this woman and pray for God’s comfort in her grief. She was grieving the absence of her son who was murdered a year ago. He would have been 30 this year. In addition to the grief, there is the frustration that no one has been held accountable for his murder. It was such a God moment that she just happened to get off the bus, the crossing guard happened to notice her tears, and I happened to be walking back to my car. I assured her that our very encounter on that corner was God’s provision for her to be loved, heard, and embraced right when she needed it most.

I almost missed the opportunity to pray with this woman. It was a tender and powerful moment. I almost missed an opportunity to see the grief and the hurt in my city. We hear the statistics of people who are murdered (56 in 2014) and the low percentage of the murders that are solved (50%). But we rarely get to feel the lasting grief of the family that lose a father and a son. In these moments statistics move from numbers to personal tragedies.

Moments like these remind me of how God led His people when they left Egypt: “God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people around the desert road toward the Red Sea” (Exodus 13:17,18).

Yesterday I chose the road less traveled and it did make all the difference.

I admit that there are moments where I wonder what in the world I am doing. It seems so weird to lay down so much familiarity and pick up so many unknowns.

Will we find a building for us to worship in?

Will people come?

Will we find a home for my family?

Will I be able to support my family?

What will keep us from adding to the large number of empty church buildings?

I’ve found encouragement from one of my favorite scriptures. In the first chapter of the book of Joshua, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. Recently I was reminded that the objective of this strength and courage isn’t simply to be brave and do great works. The objective is to do God’s work.

God called Joshua to be strong and courageous so that he would walk in obedience to what was written in the law (Joshua 1:7). The focus wasn’t the enemy Joshua would fight, the river he would cross, or even the wall that would crumble. At this moment in Joshua’s life God was calling him to be strong and courageous enough to walk in obedience to the scriptures.

The same is true today. It will take great strength and courage for us to be faithful and walk in the truth of Jesus. Yes, there are obstacles ahead and big questions that aren’t answered. Yet, the greatest challenge is this: will we walk in obedience? If we will, the journey of faithful obedience will require us to be strong and courageous. He has promised to always be with us (Joshua 1:9, Matthew 28: 20).