13 Letters Curriculum Drops

The Thirteen Letters Curriculum is out. If you deal with urban youth (and I would suspect non-urban) I would advise you to get this. The guys at ReachLife.org put it out. I really believe in what these guys are about. You will get songs by Lecrae, Tedashi, Sho Baraka, Trip Lee and others. The beats and hooks are awesome and the message is going to stick. This is a good ministry and if you are not in need of youth ministry stuff then just go here to donate!

Alan Hirsch responds to Dan Kimball

Here   responding to this

For the Record I think both are right…Because we live in an interesting time. But the Crux of the argument is Missional V. Attractional (but not really because Dan is Missional as well)..anyhoo I just love this quote from Alan:

If we stick with the prevailing measures, we will miss the level of incarnational engagement with quantitative measures alone. How do we measure that? Incarnation takes time and loving presence (witness) among a people. Working with post-Christian folks ain’t easy because we have lost our credibility and have to work darn hard to regain it. I think there is much work to do here.

You have no idea how that resonates with a pastor in an urban area that is post-Christian, and post-American in a lot of senses (i.e. people from Sierra Leonne do not respond to the same things as Middle Class Americans).  It resonates because we are committed to reaching this community no matter how long it takes and whether we are sucessful according to someone else’s abacus or not.

Alan ends by saying:

The only other thing I will say is that we as believers, live by a vision of what can be…we cannot allow ourselves to be constrained by pragmatics alone. Vision precludes that and is driven by holy discontent to see a greater manifestation of the Kingdom.

Nice.

 

D

Lecrae Writes the CrossWinds Theme Song…

With a shout out to Joel and my other bros who contend for the ‘hood.  And especially to all the peep’s  at CrossWinds who know that every member is a church planter and live out our “secret” mission “To Preach Jesus where others won’t.“

I have been listening to the new CD by Lecrae and pretty soon I will review the whole thing (it is amazing!). One song in particular I want to point out before I get to that though is “Beautiful Feet”  you can read hte lyrics below.  But man this song does it for me.  It captures my life mission and hte life mission of our congregation.  Down with easy believe-ism  and “open door” theology and blessings in Christ to those who chose the difficult way and bash down the closed doors!

 

Beautiful Feet

Carlos was born in killa cali/ was walking down an alley and caught a bullet in his head that left him bleeding badly. He lost everything at that moment except his life/ he lost his hearing lost his movement and he lost his sight/ he laid there in a coma/ but man nobody cared/ the Gospel preached in his neighborhood? Nobody dared/ But los got up out the coma got and was able to hear/ a missionary shared the gospel to his open ears/ He got saved got trained got discipled/ back to hood/ you could find em preaching the bible/ He led a homie to Christ from his same hood/ part of Church plant/ come on now aint his name good/ This is blessing but Im stressing that this is not the norm/ we need leaders and belivers to help carry it on/ but who would minister in a sinister part of town/ I pray if Jesus is calling you that you would be found/

 

Eric used to go to bible study as a kid/ he got older and started doing what the hood did/ a rival gang caught him slippin tried to take his life/ but the jammed up so them beat him nice/ he woke up in the hospital singing bible songs/ praise God he had a place to learn the bible from/ but then he gets saved and wanna preach Christ they make him change his whole culture and way of life/ he gotta get him a bachelors wear a suit and tie/ go to seminary/ by then all of his boys will die/ Jesus came to invade culture outta nazereth and used a couple fisherman who people saw as hazardous/ the feet are beautiful if only they’d go/ if aint nobody in hood preaching how will they know?/ Eric is better used taught trues in his context/ somebody please plant a church in his projects.

 

In Luke 4 16 on down to 21 jesus says he’s messiah says hes the chosen one

But more than that he quotes Isaiah/ that shows our savior targets oppressed captive blind and the broke I’m saying/ had a heart for the poor had a heart for the low/ and 1st John 2:6 is way we should go/ In Dueteronomy even tho they under the law/ the tithes every third year the poor got em all/ I aint sayin you wrong if you live in burbs/ Im sayin turn your attention to the hood cause we hurting/ man if you aint burdened please pick up your word an/ tho this world is going down while we here we can serve him/ we bring this to the streets because we knew the streets/ I pray that more would be burdend to have beautiful feet/ you never knew the streets but truth is what you preach/ I pray to God you’d be burdened for beautiful feet.

Go, go, go (run with those beautiful feet)

Go, go, go

Cities of God

I am reading “Cities of God” by Rodney Stark…I just started but I love this quote:

“All ambitions missionary movements are, or soon become Urban”

It has been this way since Paul,  and if you doubt it go look up the genesis of the word “Pagan.”  It is a sad fact of American and Urban history that early 20th Century evangelist like Moody decided to abandon the city…Think that had any effect?
Discuss.

13 Letters…

I just got the Reach Life Records project 13 letters.  It is amazing…If you are an urban youth worker doing discipleship you really need to check this out.  On this project each MC takes on one of Paul’s 13 letters and puts it to song..Which I would imagine was not an easy task.  But this is well done,  the rhymes are solid and the theology is out of this world.  

Soon they are going to release a curriculum that goes along with the album… you can check it out here.

This I think is so needed for urban youth workers.  So if you are an urban youth worker I encourage you to look into Reach Records and ReachLife ministries as well.  If like me you just used to be a youth guy and now you spend your doing “big people’s church” you should check it out and recommend it to your youth peeps.

The theology found here is solidly gospel based,  these are guys who understand the doctirenes of grace,  so you won’t find any semi-pelagian goobly-gook or emergent craziness.  

The Music includes Sho Baraka, Lacrae, Json, Tedashi, Trip LeeFlame and I-Lyfe.  

It is a great tool for those of us who want to see God’s glory amplified in the neighbor, so check it out.  Plus as a side note those of you who do urban ministry know that the money is always difficult to come by..these guys are really working hard for the kingdom..so help em’ out and buy their stuff.

PS:  You know we love good hip-hop and we also love John Piper..well here is Trip Lee blogging over at Dr. John’s website. Click 

Discussing the “Poor”…

My friend has a post here

Upon Further Review…The Haters are Still Wrong

This is Lacrae…and Trip Lee and I know some white folks (and we all know us white folks are the real experts in hip-hop) don’t like it because it’s not DcTalk (I do love Toby) , Jon Ruben (who is awesome btw), Kj52 or Carmen (remember that time the old white guys at the GMA gave a best hip-hop album of the year to Carmen? Anyhoo…) but these here guys are real and they are all about ministry. Check them out at: ReachLife or reachrecords . They are developing a curriculum based on the Epistles as well, so you urban youth workers might want to look it up (hint to you guys who work for me..). Plus they seem to understand Gospel…so if you are urban and reformed, your might really want to look them up. Big ups Lacrae.

PS: Meade or Amy if you are reading this this is another things Christians like for you blog: White Rappers

Dear Mo

The is no one big, magic solution to the complex issues facing urban communities today. But there are five hundred or five thousand little solutions that can add up.-Bob Muzikowski

Dear Mo,

It’s been 26 years now since we met. I really don’t remember the day. I will assume it was the first day of kindergarten. Mrs Whitey’s class. I loved her. I thought she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. You on the other hand had a thing for one of the Amandas. But the fact remains that somewhere along the way we became friends. Close friends.

On my street there were other boys, but we were never close. They picked on me. You never did. I remember so many odd facts now. The fact that around your yard you always had kittens. Oh, how I loved the kittens. It was like a kid’s wonderland. “The Land of the Kittens.” I remember other things too…like your one-eyed sister who was always threating to show me the empty socket. I was very afraid. I also remember the garage. Trash. As far as I could see there was trash. I remember the first time I saw a cockroach. It was on your plate. You just pushed it aside. I remember lots of brothers and sisters too. Brothers and sisters with fun names that working class white kids didn’t have. The Philanda’s and the Vaylas and the Darnells. What fun names. Some place, though I don’t remember now, there was a little baby named Darryle. But that is for another time.

Our worlds were certainly different. Some parents I am sure would have never let me play at your house. But that is not my parents. My dad is a lifetime underdog with a tender heart. And my mom had lived the white version of your life. Poverty, squalor and brokenness. A life that involved no dad, no food, and the only toilet a pot they carried to the back yard. Thank you Jesus for my mom and dad. Some parents would have been repulsed. Some parents would not have been able to deal with the dirtiness, the smells and the bold, and utterly unbelievable lies that were your trademark. My mom and dad, though, never drove you away. Instead they drew you in. Oh how wonderful a thing.

I am a pastor now Mo, you know this, I have performed the weddings of most of your family. Even so, we probably have only seen each other a handful of times since High School. And by middle school we had already taken different routes. I know your life now Mo, I know you have struggled with drugs and every other kind of urban malady, so I am not sure how much my life impacted you, but Mo I want you to know that who I am today was made those 26 years ago. You impacted me. Mo you trained a pastor, and you did it well.

You impacted me Mo because you were a faithful friend. A faithful friend with much darker skin. God used you to introduce me to race. You impacted me Mo, because you were a content friend. A content friend who had so little. God used you to introduce me to class. You impacted me because you were a happy friend. A happy friend who lived amongst sorrow. Mo, I saw these things and I grew. I grew and became angry with a life changing righteous anger. Mo, had I never known you, I might have never have known that there were people who were hated for the hue of their skin. If I had never known you Mo, I may never have seen what brokenness looked like and I never would have been broken. Mo, to be broken for you was the greatest gift you ever gave me.

I still remember the day Mo. It weakens my knees still. If I think too long my breath will become short and my heart still breaks.

It was Kindergarten. It was parent’s day. My mom, of course, was there. So was every other parent. Except yours. None of the others parents were shocked. I think that they would have been more shocked if your mom had showed up. But the thing that broke me Mo was the way that your faith never wavered. Your belief that she would arrive any minute. The way you stared at the door. And finally Mo the moment that you knew and tears streamed.

It wasn’t fair Mo. People should not have called you names for the color of you skin. People should not have gossiped and turned up their noses at a little boy because his mamma did not wash him. It wasn’t fair Mo. None of it. It was an injustice. Mo, I don’t know if I ever would have known. Until the day I saw an injustice that even a kindergartener could understand: A mom who does not love enough to be there for her child. It wasn’t fair, Mo. But that was the day. The day that God put in me a godly sorrow. The day that God introduced me to a holy brokenness. That day Mo, as your tears fell, I became me.

If You are Interested in Urban Ministry and the Poor…

and Theology, I recommend who heartedly this post from my friend Joel, who even though he is GARBC still manages to love both Jesus and people who are not white. The post is a critique of Shane Claiborne and it is well done.

Some Days Suck…

Some days truely suck (sorry mom).  They are those days when nothing feels right or good.  These are the days when the same ole’ stuff happens.  The stuff that makes you question everything.  I am in one of those places now.  I don’t question God,  him I trust,  but me I have giant issues with.  I mean really all I have to show for my adult life is the ability to hang in at being a poor, not extremely effective church planter…These are the days where I feel lonely and isolated and not exactly sure what God was thinking when he called me.  I mean, I read about William Carey and how he was in India for Seven years before he saw a harvest…this is my seventh year…but what if instead of a seventh year harvest,  I am just a seven year joke? What if all this is nothing…

Parish the thought…Soon I will dream again: until then I take heart from Chris Tomlin’s new song God of this City:

You’re the God of this city
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You Are

You’re the light in this darkness
You’re the hope to the hopeless
You’re the peace to the restless

You are

Bridge:
For there is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

Chorus 1:
Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things are still to come
And greater things are still to be done here

Verse 2:
You’re the Lord of Creation
The Creator of all things
You’re the King above all Kings
You Are

You’re the strength in our weakness
You’re the love to the broken
You’re the joy in the sadness
You Are

Chorus 2:
Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Where glory shines from hearts alive
With praise for you and love for you
In this city

Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things are still to come
And greater things are still to be done here
There is no one like our God

Chorus 1:
Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things are still to come
And greater things are still to be done here

Verse 2:
You’re the Lord of Creation
The Creator of all things
You’re the King above all Kings
You Are

You’re the strength in our weakness
You’re the love to the broken
You’re the joy in the sadness
You Are

Chorus 2:
Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Where glory shines from hearts alive
With praise for you and love for you
In this city

Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things are still to come
And greater things are still to be done here