Our Response to Haiti Earthquake
The Crisis: Pictures and video of the devastation caused by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti continue to stream into our homes. Homes destroyed. Bodies everywhere. Parents weeping. Children orphaned. It is estimated that the catastrophe has left about 3 million people, a third of Haiti’s population, in a vulnerable condition.
Our Motivation: The Scriptures compel all believers to respond mercifully and compassionately to those that are suffering. Some weeks back, we as a church studied Luke 10 and the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Scriptures showed us that Jesus saw us when we were in need, lying in a ditch on the side of the road. He did not pass us by. He bound our wounds. He showed us mercy. He showed us compassion. This is the Gospel, the good news. And the Gospel compels us, “Go and do likewise.” We are to respond to the poor and the weak as Jesus responded to us in our poverty and weakness.
The Gospel is the motivation the Scriptures use when calling the people of God to give away their possessions for the sake of others. When Paul calls on the church in Corinth to respond generously to their brothers and sisters affected by famine in Jerusalem, he doesn’t employ guilt. He reminds them of the Gospel. God had given generously to them and thus they were freed generously to give as well.
And Seven Mile Road, God has given generously to us. The number of things we as a church have received for free is astounding. A website. Graphic designs. Legal work. Possibly an entire building. Let alone, the free gift of Christ. We have been given much and much is required of us.
Our Response: Let me first applaud and acknowledge that many of you have already given generously to the need in Haiti. Individually, you have given towards relief and humanitarian aid. I commend you. And now, let us respond corporately as a church family. We may just be small church plant, but let us do our part. So here’s our plan.
The church will commit $2500 from our funds towards Haiti. Over the next three weeks, we will have a collection box in our worship space. Our goal is to match (and exceed!) that amount so that we might give $5,000 towards our brothers and sisters in Haiti. This works out to 5 of us giving $500 or 10 of us giving $250 or 25 of us giving $100. We will also take time in each of our services to pray for Haiti.
Our giving will go towards World Relief. In the coming weeks, we’ll also be participating in a benefit to give towards Churches Helping Churches (more info to come). Both organizations are committed to humanitarian aid and rebuilding the church in Haiti. So over the next few days, prayerfully consider how the Lord may be calling you to participate and come prepared to give to His work.
Time Change for February 7
Just a heads up for everyone that on Sunday, February 7, Seven Mile Road will gather for worship at 11am. Some thoughts:
1. St. Mark’s Church has asked if they might “visit” with us occasionally so they can get a feel for our service. As some of the folks of St. Mark’s are considering where they might worship in the future, this will give them an opportunity to experience our community and worship with us. So, on February 7 we’re worshiping in the morning so that St. Mark’s can join us.
2. We’re moving from evening to morning services. We haven’t locked in the date or time yet. Working on those details. We’re thinking end of February, beginning of March. This will give us a “preview” of what morning services would look like. (How fun will it be to see the sun for a change)
3. This will give folks the evening free to watch the Super Bowl. As always, let’s remember that the night is a great opportunity for gospel, mission, and community. Host a party. Invite neighbors, co-workers, friends. Invite someone who might not have anyone to watch the game with. Be intentional. (No. We will never stop saying that.)
4. We have a guest preacher that day. Rob Burns, pastor of ReaLife Church has graciously agreed to be with us that morning. Rob prayed for our church on the Sunday we launched and it will be great to have him back again.
Madam Speaker, the President of the United States
www.whitehouse.gov
John the Baptist is like the House Doorkeeper at yesterday’s State of the Union address. Here’s how:
(an excerpt from this Sunday’s sermon Mile Three: Jesus)
Prayerless Productivity
Prayer is one of the places where the Lord is working on me. It’s not an in-your-face, all-the-time, kind of deal. It’s just one of those undercurrent realities. I can sense in this season that prayer – my need for prayer, my lack of prayer, my understanding of prayer – is something the Lord continually brings me back to. I think it began with a conversation with a local pastor and has been in the picture since.
Anyway, one of the things I’m learning is is that prayerlessness reveals certain things about my heart. Here are some.
1. Prayerlessness reveals that deep down I have an inordinate amount of confidence in myself. Self-confident people don’t pray. They trust that their might and the power of their hands can get things done. There’s a certain desperation that has to be born in your heart for you to pray. Prayer happens when I get to the place where I am helpless and desperate for God. I need God. Till then, I keep grinding it out. Prayerlessness means I have greater confidence in my ability to handle marriage, parenting, ministry, life than to seek God in those things. Helplessness drives me to prayer. Self-reliance keeps me from it.
2. Prayerlessness reveals that I will continually settle for manufacturings of the flesh rather than manifestations of the Spirit.
3. Prayelessness reveals that after all these years of being a Christian, I still don’t really get prayer.
4. Prayerlessness reveals that I value productivity in an ungodly way. I often neglect prayer because I have things to get done and can’t afford to “waste” time. There are so many times where I have opted for finishing one more task in the day than to leave it undone so that I can spend that time in prayer. I go Martha over Mary. I need to be productive. But why? To please a God that I don’t approach, talk to, or commune with in prayer? That doesn’t make sense. Ultimately, my productivity is so I can feel good about myself and justify my sense of worth. My sense of self-worth is still tied so tightly around what I accomplish and what I can produce rather than what Jesus has accomplished for me. Rather than resting in and receiving an identity given me by the Gospel through the efforts of Christ, I am still trying to achieve my identity through my own effort.
As I’m trying to fight this, here is a prayer I often pray as I drive home at the end of each day. “Lord, I have not finished everything I wanted to get done today. And I have not done everything as well as I wanted to. Thank You for another reminder that I am not You.” An A29 pastor taught me that. It’s simple, but it has been balm for my soul.
5. Prayerlessness reveals that I have not learned the lesson of Sabbath. The great step of faith in Sabbath is that without working, God will provide for His people. Israel is not permitted to go and gather food for one day each week. And they are to believe that God will provide for them and meet their needs. I work and live as though everything rests on me rather than being safe left in God’s Hands. I confuse the reality that God doesn’t need me to do anything. He gives me the privilege of playing for His team.
6. Prayerlessness reveals that I haven’t learned my lesson. The truth is that I don’t get done anything as well as when I do take the time to pray! Why don’t I get this? Why do I keep forgetting this? Personally, I am far more focused, less distracted, and consequently more productive after seeking the Lord in prayer. Otherwise, I touch a million things, and get 10 of them done. Without prayer, I do many things, but poorly. With prayer I do a few things, but well.
Religion sees the trees but misses the forest
When you’re in religion something funny happens to your eyes. You pay attention to the tiniest detail but miss the big picture. You see every leaf on every branch, but you miss the forest. You pay attention to the smallest stokes in the law but miss the heart and intent of it. In Matthew 23, Jesus rails on the Pharisees for doing this very thing.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”
Jesus is not against tithing. He’s all for it. It’s just that religious people will tithe out of their spice rack but neglect justice and mercy! Jesus uses a humorous pun to drive this home. He says, you strain a qualma (gnat – smallest unclean animal) but you swallow a galma (camel – largest unclean animal). The words sound similar and would have likely stirred the listeners to consider the absurdity of religion. He says, you’re the kind of people who will strain out a gnat if it falls in your cup, but you’ll swallow a camel!
Religion does that all the time. For instance, John 18 gives us this great detail that helps us see this. In John 18, the religious leaders have unjustly accused Jesus, brought him up on false charges, had him stand a sham trial before a kangaroo court, beat him, and paraded him to Pilate to slaughter him. Then listen to this:
Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.
They were getting ready to kill God, but made sure they didn’t enter a Gentile home lest they become unclean! They murdered God while making sure they weren’t “defiled” before Him.
When we’re religious, we can be the nastiest, angriest, most bitter, condemning, selfish people in the world…but we don’t smoke or swear so we’re all set. It’s absurd. The trees are important, but don’t miss the forest. The details are significant, but let’s not miss the point.
Proverbs 31 for Men
An interesting take on Proverbs 31 by Rick White (church planter in the A29 Network). If he’s right, then we men, not just our wives, need to consider what it would look like to live out the vision of Proverbs 31.
First Mile Tomorrow
We start walking the seven mile road tomorrow. You can read more here.
Evidences of Grace :: Feet-washers
Last Sunday, we carved out some space during our corporate worship service for people to share of God’s goodness to us as individuals and as a community. We wanted to start 2010 in the spirit of Psalm 145 and offer a hymn of praise to our God. One of the amusing moments was when Shainu shared of how the Lord has brought people to carry this ministry with us. She made it abundantly clear that I could not do all the work of church planting on my own. I think her exact words were “…there are sooooo many things Ajay cannot do.” Her point (other than to mock me) was that God in His incredible grace has brought servants to bear the burden of this work so that I am in no way carrying it alone. I couldn’t agree more.
Finances: Dennis & Jim serve on our Finance Team. These guys help with all things money and are constantly helping us mature in the way we oversee our finances. I have been spoiled rotten to have these brothers. Everything from collecting the offering, to keeping the books, to running payroll, to creating policies, to giving wise counsel for important financial decisions – they have served a vital role at Seven Mile Road. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have them running the day-to-day details of our finances. Without them, I’m pretty sure all our money would be tucked under a mattress or in a hole in the backyard. For a new church, we’re ahead of the game and it is because of the service of these men.
Nursery: Anne and numerous Seven Mile Volunteers serve in our nursery. Anne has seen her role as a ministry and we have benefitted greatly for it. We have had a fully functioning nursery from before our first service. We have a room that’s painted kid-friendly, with toys, snacks, books, playpen, tables, chairs, and everything else a toddler would need. Every week, we are able to offer parents the option of dropping their young kids off at the nursery during the preaching so they can sit attentively under God’s Word. And as they do that, they can be confident that their precious ones are being watched by folks who have gone through background checks, security-screening, and training. Anne has personally walked each of our volunteers through our Nursery policies and procedures (I can’t believe we even have Nursery Policies & Procedures). Volunteers have served with joy and look after the kids as they do their own. We don’t take it for granted, but recognize it is the service of this crew that makes it possible for me to announce each Sunday, “At this time, you can bring your kids to the nursery…”
Music: Siby owns music. That means more than just he plays for us on Sundays. It means that each week he has read through what we’re preaching on that Sunday and is thinking about what songs would make for a fitting response. It means he initiates with a list of songs and we talk through which work and which don’t. It means he’s creating the powerpoint with lyrics and images and making sure that in all ways he is ready to lead the people of God in song. He’s also developing an audition and recruiting process to have more folks serve musically. Before we got to Philly, I use to pray that God would give us a musician who is humble, gifted, able to lead and willing to follow, and theologically sound. God is answering that prayer through Siby.
Setup & Hospitality: For the most part, our men handle setup and our women run hospitality. We’ve had services now for about four months. Each week, different men help arrange the chairs, set up the speakers and audio equipment, run the projector, record the sermon and make the room ready for worship. After service is done, Winson quietly and consistently leads our guys in breaking everything down. Shainu helps lead our women as they take turns setting up coffee and snacks for fellowship after the service. It’s like washing feet. It’s simple, unnoticed, humble work. And they’ve done it like Jesus.
SoulCare Leaders: We now have three SoulCare Communities at the church. That’s so exciting to me. The beautiful thing is that two of these communities are led by people other than me. SoulCare is easily one of our most important ministries. What sheer grace from God then, that this ministry is owned and carried by several different leaders. These folks are pastoring (with a little “p”) people in our church. SoulCare is spiritual work and that 9 people share it with me is evidence of God’s grace.
There’s more, but I’ll stop there. Grateful to God for the feet-washers at Seven Mile Road.
Allegiance to Jesus Trumps Allegiance to Parents
Read this quote from Jim Elliot’s journals¹. Jim Elliot was a missionary and martyr. I read his story years ago and was captured by his devotion to Jesus. At age 22, he had a promising ministry in front of him in the United States. He probably could have been a very successful pastor or evangelist or teacher. His parents wrote to him to tell him that they were not thrilled about his call to go to the Quichuas in South America. Here was his response.
I do not wonder that you were saddened at the word of my going to South America. This is nothing else than what the Lord Jesus warned us of when He told the disciples that they must become so infatuated with the kingdom and following Him that all other allegiances must become as though they were not. And He never excluded the family tie. In fact, those loves that we regard as closest, He told us must become as hate in comparison with our desires to uphold His cause. Grieve not, then, if your sons seem to desert you, but rejoice, rather, seeing the will of God done gladly. Remember how the Psalmist described children? He said that they were as an heritage from the Lord, and that every man should be happy who had his quiver full of them. And what is a quiver full of but arrows? And what are arrows for but to shoot? So, with the strong arms of prayer, draw the bowstring back and let the arrows fly – all of them, straight at the Enemy’s hosts.
¹ Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot, p. 132
Reflecting on a Tremendous Gift
Here are some excerpts from a letter to our Core Group after taking some time to process the St. Mark’s vote.
…the church voted in favor of the proposal and to move forward with allowing mission and ministry to continue through Seven Mile Road Church.
Stunned. Amazed. Awe.
Here’s what that means for the immediate future. It means that the church has voted in favor of moving forward with dissolving St. Marks, transferring the property to Seven Mile Road Church, and allowing members to decide whether they would like to join our church or find a new one. It means that we would need to form some kind of committee between the two churches to work through all the legal matters, contracts, agreements, etc of transferring the space. If all that goes well, then sometime next year, St. Mark’s would vote again to make this decision final and sign the papers.
Here’s what that means long-term and some reflections as I am trying to process all of this.
1. We have much work to do. By this, I don’t mean all the work that will be involved in figuring out how to receive the property (legal issues, contracts, etc). Nor do I even mean all the work on our end to maintain the property (raising funds, paying bills, financially pulling it off, managing property, security systems, painting, upkeep, repairs, etc). Ultimately, the church is not buildings or acres of grass. It is people. So the most work will be in loving and shepherding and caring for people. Even if the people of St. Mark’s Church go through with all this, they will do so with great hurt and pain. So much of their identity is wrapped up into St. Mark’s Church. We will need to be a community that goes over the top and breaks our backs in loving and welcoming any of them who would like to join Seven Mile Road Church. We have preached a great deal about being a community that receives people like Jesus. God may be giving us an opportunity to do precisely that.
2. We have much to gain from St. Marks Church. Should all this go through, what we will inherit of priceless value from St. Marks is not property, but people. Please know, from the depths of my heart, I do not care about buildings or grass. They will all perish and none of it can be taken with us when this life is over. Property is good as a servant to mission. It is a horrible master. While property has missional value, what does excite me is that we might inherit some of the people of St. Marks Church. I don’t suspect that all the members will come over, but some may. It would be so incredibly healthy for our church to have older people who will add to the diversity of our church. We have prayed for years that Seven Mile Road would be a multi-ethnic, multi-generational church. If this were one ways that God would answer that prayer, let us be delighted. Let us also be humble. We have made clear to St. Marks Church that this would not be a merger of any kind. We will continue to plant Seven Mile Road with all its distinctives. However, let us be ready to learn from the saints of St. Marks Church. Many of them have been following Jesus before we were born.
3. We have much to celebrate. I sincerely hope you are having as much fun as I am in being caught up on this ride the Lord has us on. How exciting is it to follow Jesus and see Him work! Who are we that we should be a part of any of this?
The people of St. Marks Church will tell you that they have been through a lot in the last several years and find themselves in a very unhealthy spiritual state…If we had taken a vote for this same proposal back in July, it would have been a unanimous “No.” But that God has done something in their hearts over these months is amazing. Think about what is on the table for a moment. St. Marks is considering letting their church die and handing over everything to a new church for free so that mission and ministry might continue! That kind of stuff doesn’t happen. Picture some of the churches you grew up in. Could you imagine your church deciding to give everything up to a new church, with people of a different race, for the sake of mission? Yet that is the work that God is doing in St. Marks. So here’s what I want us to celebrate. Not a building. Not acres of grass. Celebrate the work of God. The Gospel is true. It does change hearts. It does transform. It is miraculous in bringing life where there was death. It accomplishes what is impossible with man. I don’t know if eight months from now, we will have this property. But what I do know is that God is at work and He’s changing hearts and causing people to love Jesus more than themselves. That’s amazing. That’s worth celebrating.
4. We have much to be thankful for. When you sit down with your family to pray and give thanks, thank Him for being faithful to us as a community. Like a good Father, God has continually provided for us His children. Again, I don’t know if all this will go through, but I am being reminded that God is good. Our hope is not in inheriting land. Our hope is in God. His character is good. He loves us. He gives us more than we deserve. Let us not forget to be thankful. Look at the words of Deuteronomy 8. Read them. Hear them.
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Guys, I fear forgetting the Lord our God. I’m scared that after receiving all these blessings we will say in our hearts, “Look at what we’ve accomplished. Look what our hands have gotten us.” Give thanks to God and ask that He would keep our hearts from being proud. Whatever comes of all this, let God’s kindness continually humble us. If not here, He will provide another place for us to worship. So let us be thankful that He is faithful and generous and good.
5. We have mission to keep before us. Should this go through, the challenge before us is to never lose sight of our mission. This property is a wonderful blessing if it advances our mission. Otherwise it is a curse. Our prayer will need to become, how can this property be used maximally for the advancement of God’s kingdom? How can these buildings help us connect with people in the neighborhood and city? How can it be used to build relationships? How can these grounds serve the people of Philadelphia? How can this space house our mission? My great desire is that Seven Mile Road would be like the church in Antioch in the book of Acts. Antioch is this great church that becomes a hub for mission. It’s the church that sends out missionaries and helps plant other churches. Wherever God leads us, we need to ask Him to save sinners, disciple saints, train leaders, raise pastors, send missionaries, multiply planters, and plant churches through our ministry here.
There’s probably more to say, but I’ll stop there. I love you in the Lord and love serving Jesus with you.
With you for Jesus,
Ajay
A Tremendous Gift (Part 3)
Below are excerpts of a letter published in the January-February 2010 newsletter of St. Mark’s Church. It is written by Curt Welty, president of the St. Mark’s Consistory. He has given us permission to post his letter here. Rejoice with us over what God is doing among us.
A great deal has happened since the last newsletter came out. The consistory and the congregation have had honest discussions and meetings about the future of St. Mark’s…We had talked about the possibility of selling the property and moving to rebuild our congregation. Most of the consistory feels that this is not an option since all we would be doing is to prolong our death as a church…So this comes down to what can we do from here?
In some honest discussions with each other and with Pastor Thomas we have moved in the direction of transferring the property over to Seven Mile Road in late Spring or early Summer. We have a lot of details and a lot more discussions among ourselves, Seven Mile Road, and legal representatives to find out what and how to do all of this. This was not an easy decision for any of us. It was not an easy thing to admit as president and the voice of the congregation that the end of our life as a congregation will most likely be over soon. God can work a miracle somehow, someway to keep us alive as a congregation but I feel that God has given us a way to move on with dignity and with a sense of victory. In this decision to allow St. Mark’s to fade and die a dignified death and allow Seven Mile Road to take our legacy on as a gospel centered and missional church, can allow us to be faithful in taking of our gift of property and ministry that God has given us for 130 some years. The doors of Seven Mile Road would be open to any of us who would want to share our faith, experience, passion and compassion with a younger, energetic and missional church.
I understand that Seven Mile Road and I are asking a lot of St. Mark’s in giving up everything we have worked on over the decades here and are not receiving much in return. What I am seeing here is a chance for a young church that is focused on missional work, on reaching out to the community that surrounds us, to focus on being the voice, and hands and feet of God in this section of Philadelphia. We have a chance to pass on our legacy of compassion and faithfulness in thick and thin to this young and inexperienced church. Even as we dwindled in size and finances, we have continued to reach out in compassion and faithfulness to help those who need help nearby or across the globe. Yes, we could do an incredible amount of good by selling the property and giving the proceeds away, but we can also do an incredible amount of good by allowing Seven Mile Road to continue their ministry and by extension, our ministry here at 525 Welsh Road. May we trust God for everything in this time of change. Let us continue to pray and to be open to the paths that God has laid before us.
Your consistory president,
Curt Welty
A Tremendous Gift (Part 2)
So picking up where we left off…
The arrangement with St. Mark’s was for me to continue preaching for them until December (this month) and then sit down to talk about our futures together.
By the way, let me mention that in being with them every week for six months, God did a work in my heart. Initially, I figured I would be preaching for them so that Seven Mile Road could have a place to worship. But over the course of six months, God gave me a great love for the people. I don’t know if you can preach to people without God giving you a love for them. Thankfully He did.
Anyway, we began to talk through possible directions for our two churches to go. The obvious option was to simply part ways. We could thank God for the time He gave us together but go our separate paths. After much prayer and conversation, we submitted a proposal to St. Marks about a different path to pursue. We called it “Death and Resurrection.”
Basically (and boldly), we asked the people of St. Mark’s to consider allowing their church to die. And in it’s place, they could sow their belongings into the soil as seed for a new church to resurrect in its place (Here’s a great article on this). Instead of selling their property and a) distributing the assets to non-profit organizations or b) taking the money and moving to a different location where their current struggles would still follow them, we asked them to prayerfully consider taking the impossible step of simply giving their property away to our baby church so that mission and ministry could continue through us in Northeast Philadelphia. And then, if there were any St. Mark’s people who could wholeheartedly come under the vision of Seven Mile Road Church and wanted to be a part of us, they would be warmly welcomed.
We were asking them to let their church die so that they could give life to a brand new church. Our brand new church.
And just a few weeks ago, they voted YES.
More tomorrow…
A Tremendous Gift (Part 1)
God has been doing something wonderful here between Seven Mile Road Church and St. Mark’s. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to announce it. Before telling the story, let me give you the motivation behind why I’m writing this.
One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. (Psalm 145)
My deep hope is that you would join Seven Mile Road in praising God for His abundant goodness.
Some background on Seven Mile Road’s journey. While Shainu and I were still in Boston, we were trying to identify where in Philadelphia we should move to plant SMR. After prayer, conversation, demographic studies and the rest, we settled on Northeast Philadelphia. On one occasion, I mentioned this to Ron Hamilton, the Director for Church Multiplication of the CCCC, and he said something like, “I think there’s a CCCC Church in Northeast Philadelphia.” We went online and found out that there was a church called St. Mark’s in the very heart of our target location.
Fast forward a few months and we moved down to Philly and found an apartment in the Bustleton neighborhood of NE Philly. It turned out that our apartment was only two miles away from St. Marks. Anyway we started gathering a core and meeting in homes. When it seemed like it would make sense to move out of living rooms and into a space, our team first knocked on the door of St. Mark’s. In one meeting with the leaders of the church, they welcomed us into the area and had told us their space was available if we needed it. And so we began meeting in an empty classroom in their Education Building.
Instead of rent, St. Mark’s allowed us to use the space in exchange for painting and making other such improvements on the building. We gladly accepted and over a few weeks painted their kitchen and two classrooms. One of these rooms became a nursery for us and the other a temporary worship space.
From February to May 09, we gathered every week in that classroom. We had our first preview services there and slowly began to grow. It was becoming evident that we were going to need to figure out what we were going to do long-term in regards to space…
Some background on St. Mark’s journey. St. Mark’s is about 130 years old. Let that sink in for a moment. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade for over a century, the church has been committed to Jesus and His Gospel. Maybe because I’m in the first weeks of planting, I respect that a ton. Just yesterday I was telling someone that God is calling us to a marathon and not a sprint. Endurance is huge.
But as with every living organism and with every church, you go through a life-cycle (Here’s a great article on this). Birth-growth-maturity-reproduction-plateau-decline-death. This is the story of every living thing. In recent times, St. Mark’s Church has been struggling. For various reasons, decline and death were now at their doorstep. When we started meeting at St. Mark’s, their church attendance was down to a small handful, and soon after, their pastor retired.
St. Mark’s was at a crossroad and needing to decide the direction in which they would go forward. One option on the table was to sell the property and buildings and move somewhere else. By June, they had multiple offers for a lot of money. Incredibly, they turned down the offers and decided instead to continue their services, inviting me to preach for them in exchange for continued use of the space. For them this meant getting someone to preach without having to pay for a pastor or close. For us it meant getting to use a free space and the joyous privilege of getting to preach Jesus twice each Sunday!
And so from July of 09 till now, Seven Mile Road has gathered each week at St. Mark’s Church. Every week, I get to preach in the morning to St. Mark’s and then in the evening to Seven Mile Road.
What a gift it has been. But that’s not all. Part 2 tomorrow…
Loving God at Love Park
The following was put together by Phillip Thomas, one of the folks on our team. Phillip is leading a day for us to love and learn about the poor in Philadelphia.
Loving God at Love Park
Join us on January 2, 2010, as Seven Mile Road hangs out with the homeless at Love Park in Center City Philadelphia. We will be using this opportunity to love and to learn. We will carry backpacks with granola bars, juice boxes and clean socks that we will distribute to the homeless who live at Love Park and at the subway concourses below City Hall. Our mission is not just the distribution of the food, juice and socks, but taking time to enter into conversations with those homeless persons who will talk to us. It is quite possible that several will not talk to us, and several will want to talk to us the entire time. The homeless will include the hustlers wanting to make a quick buck off us, to those severely mentally challenged to the substance abusers.
Our job is not to judge. Our mission is to have our hearts affected that same way Jesus’ heart would be in seeing His precious creation in this sorry state.
A. We will first meet up at Winson & Asha’s home at 10am. We’ll have a time to talk, pray, brainstorm, and discuss how Seven Mile Road can be a merciful & compassionate community like Jesus. How can we love our city? How can we love our world?
B. Afterwards, around noon, we’ll be heading down to Love Park.
Facts on Homelessness¹
How do we define homelessness?
A person who is homeless does not have a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence. This person may be sleeping on the streets, with friends or family, in cars or abandoned buildings or in shelters.
How many people are homeless in Philadelphia?
It is very difficult to accurately determine how many people are homeless. It is estimated that there are approximately 4,000 persons who are homeless on any given day in Philadelphia. This includes only those who are in shelters or on the streets. It does not include those who are in transitional housing, low-demand residences, or in substandard/unfit living conditions.
In 2005, the City’s Office of Emergency Shelter and Services served 14,986 homeless people (including both single adults and family members) through its emergency shelter system. Of this number, 9,468 were adults without children, 2,011 were heads of households, and 3,507 were children. Approximately 20 percent of the single individuals and 13 percent of the families were “chronically homeless” (homeless for one year or longer or four episodes of homelessness in three years).
Who is homeless in Philadelphia?
Homelessness disproportionately affects persons of color, with over 80 percent African-American, about 15 percent White. Children in families constitute approximately a third of the shelter population on any given night. Persons under the age of 18 are the most common shelter users.
What about the people on the streets?
Although the most visible segment of the homeless population are those persons living on the streets, they are at most 10 percent of the total homeless population. In 2005, the highest number of persons on the streets was 505 (August); the lowest was 176 (January). In 1997, evening counts of the street population in Philadelphia showed an all-time high of 824 persons on the streets in the summer and between 170 and 300 in the winter. During the summer, many shelters close, which forces people to live outside and during the winter, colder weather and “Code Blue” days bring more people into shelter. These counts do not include the almost uncountable number of persons living in obscure park areas, vehicles, or abandoned houses.
We’re longing to be a community that is merciful & compassionate like Jesus. Join us we take another baby-step in that direction.
¹ http://www.projecthome.org/advocacy/facts.php
Religion keeps God’s commands but hates them
When you’re in religion, you obey God’s commands; but they are a burden to you. You keep them; but deep down, you hate them. The Pharisees were known for dotting every “i” and crossing every “t” when it came to God’s law. But they were also constantly looking for loopholes to get out from under God’s law (Matthew 23:16-22; Mark 7:1-13).
Consider these verses:
Psalm 119:47, “For I delight in your commands because I love them”
or
1 John 5:2-3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
When you’re in religion, you memorize these verses, you teach these verses, but you don’t live these verses. You don’t experience them. You don’t truly delight in or love God’s commands. God’s law is secretly your enemy because deep down you know you’re powerless to keep them perfectly and so they just become a source of frustration for you.
The Gospel is altogether different.
When you’re in the Gospel, the commandments are not what we do to gain God’s acceptance, but what we do because we have a God who has already accepted us! We are no longer under the law but under grace. The commandments are not an obligation to drag our feet through, but a way to express our love and gratitude for a God who has saved us and brought us into a relationship with Himself through faith in Jesus Christ. They are not chains to keep us down, but wings to set us free.
When we think of commandments, we think of things that confine, restrain, and restrict. We think that God’s commands hinder our joy rather than producing it. When in reality, God’s commands are like tracks for a train. Sure a train would be “free” if you put it on the beach and left it in the sand. It wouldn’t be “restrained” or “restricted” to the tracks. But it wouldn’t run either. It’s precisely by binding the train to its tracks that a train is free to do what it was made to do. A train runs best, fastest, and freest, not when it is released to the sand but when it is confined to tracks.
In the Gospel, God’s commands are not a burden but a gift freeing us to live the life we were created to live. A good litmus test for your heart is to ask why you keep God’s commands? Not do you keep them, but why? Not just do you obey God’s commands but do you love them?
