November/December

The Light is well on its way. We are having weekly Sunday services that are going well. We are still meeting at the University of Baltimore and have had a fairly consistent, if small stream of visitors. That has been both exciting and frustrating. It’s exciting to see the regular faces, but frustrating in that we have had difficulty in getting the vast majority more involved and committed to The Light.

Many of our core group are tired and burnt out from the Launch and all the work that has gone into getting the church started. The constraints of our room and the burnout have meant that we have settled into a consistent rhythm with our Sunday Services already. While that makes things easier, it does pave the way for predictability and routine-ness in the future. However, with a calling to be innovative and creative, we are resisting that. But it can be difficult. Needless to say, everyone is looking forward to the holiday break – a chance to start off a new year with new vision and passion for what God is calling us to do.

So, we are finishing off the year by planning our 2008 Outreaches, coordinating when we can host missions teams from our faithful partners. This brainstorming and planning stage is ideal for laying the groundwork for looking ahead and reclaiming vision. In preparation for this, we have a getaway planned for the Core Group on the first weekend of January to reflect and evaluate and plan ahead.

Not everything, however, is so difficult. We have added a couple of new people to our Core Group – literally, our first couple, Jason and Nikki Rhodes. Not only do they bring new energy and ideas to the group, but they bring worship-leading talent and a heart for ministry. Jason works with computers and Nikki teaches in a nearby library/elementary school outreach program. And more specifically, Jason will be joining the inaugural class of our new Internship Program at Grace Life.

Which leads me to more exciting news! We are finally beginning a formal Internship Program amongst our Grace Life network of churches. While we have had a few interns over the years in various capacities, we haven’t always had the time or the resources to develop them as well as we would have liked. But we have finally reached a place as a network in which we can.

The program is geared for people who are exploring ministry as their full-time profession, and we have 4 people who are starting this process with us: Matt Kim (who is in his final year of Seminary, getting his MDiv, and has been with us for several years), Jason Rhodes (who, with his wife, Nikki, has just joined our Core Group at The Light), John Kovacs (who has been with us for a few years, and is awaiting confirmation as a US/C2 missionary), and Jesse Johnson (who with his wife, Rachelle, has just joined our network staff part-time as Worship Director).

Given that we are in our third church plant, and planning our fourth, we have many different roles and opportunities for each of these folks to get their feet wet, to explore the type of ministry God may be calling them to, and to gain experience in church ministry itself.

By mid-December, we will be finished with our lease at the University of Baltimore, and are looking for a new space – whether a different room within UB, or an entirely different location altogether. As I wrote in my last post, we have begun to feel limited in the space we currently use. It limits how creative we can be as well as the setting/atmosphere we desire to create.

Ultimately, our vision is to have a place that is our own, that we can use as a gallery and café, open to the community all week, and have a worship center in its midst, or in another part of the same space. This would be a first for the city of Baltimore, for any church to be open for something like that.

I’d like to update y’all on the Global Impact Conference I spoke at in Mississippi, in early November. Thank y’all so much for y’all’s prayers. I had a great time sharing there, and even saw some of our partners. I was also able to connect with new church leaders and pastors. It was exciting to see so many people and churches who were excited about missions opportunities abroad and here in North America. I appreciated the invitation to be a part of that and to share with everyone what God is doing in Baltimore and in the Grace Life Network. I also had time to visit and speak at another church in MS, and catch up with some of the people who came to last summer’s missions trip. It was very encouraging, and I always look forward to going back to visit more of our friends there, now. More than the partnerships we are developing, I am so thankful for the friendships (and getting my fix of catfish! And pecan pie! Thanks to Paul Harrell and Nan Suggs, I got my fill of that Southern specialty as well.)

New Series: Growing as a Christian

For our recent series at The Light, about Growing as a Christian, a few of our folks got together and made this video:



Great work Jason, Alison, and Sarah!

The Launch!

We had our Launch Service on Sunday, October 7^th, and everything came together so well! In keeping with our theme and our desire to support the artists in our community, we began with a gallery show of several folks’ artwork.

We asked people to submit any of their work that they wanted to show, and they did! (You can see more of these on our website (www.gracelifechurch.com/light), under the “Creative” tab.) With coffee and refreshments, it was an opportunity to engage with our visitors and friends in a new setting, as well as ease newcomers’ transition into the service. It also allowed some of our less involved folks the chance to contribute and feel a part of The Light, by their artwork contributions.

We had well over a hundred people, several of whom were first-time visitors, and known to be unchurched. Please pray that they would return, begin to get involved with the larger life of the church, and come to know God.
We also had the pleasure of hosting a Vision Tour with MS leaders and pastors from the Jones County Association during this time. It was such a blessing to have them with us at our Launch service, to share in what God is doing here.

Thank you for praying for our Worship needs. We have had several people come forward to join in this, and have been able to share and “borrow” folks from our other churches to fill our gaps. God has brought a few new people to us who are specifically gifted in worship leading, and have been developing relationships with them as they have begun serving in this way.

Another area for prayer is that of our new worship space. We will soon come to the end of our lease (by Christmas), and as much of a blessing as our current space has been, we are finding ourselves constrained and limited by it. Thus, we are looking for our next space. We need a facility that will not only allow for a better flow from the reception area/lobby to the sanctuary, but also provide more/better space for the growth of art-worship.
There are also several technical limitations with our current room that we need better solutions to than are allowed now. Essentially, we need a room/facility that allows us to minister to people more fully.

Again, I cannot begin to thank our partners enough for their help and support:

BCMD (especially Dr. David Lee and David Jackson)

BBA

Embrace Baltimore (especially Bob Mackey)

MS Baptist Convention Board (especially Ken Rhodes, Paul Harrell, and Rob Sugg), Associations, and churches.

Your assistance in our journey thus far has been tremendous and crucial to our progress. Thank you for your obedience in God’s calling, and your love for His Kingdom.

(much thanks goes to Pastor Nate Blackledge of FBC in Ovett, MS for most of these pictures!)

September 2007

Now, just days before our service was to open, two things happened – clearly God’s hand on things.

First, we heard from the University of Baltimore (UB) about a possible Sunday meeting space. Though not cheap, the price is manageable for the first 3-4 months, and the layout/room setup is pretty good. The room has recently been renovated, and has a warm, not sterile, feel to it. There is space for our artists to set up easels as well as a large open space between the stage and the first row of seats for dramas and performances.

Second, we managed to squeeze out enough worship help from our other two churches to have a full band. Our worship leader (fresh from shoulder surgery), was able to limit his range of guitar playing in such a way as to make it possible (and put his sling back on immediately after the set), another guy got well enough to play keys, and our college church was able to sacrifice/volunteer a couple of instrumentalists, even as they were kicking off their opening service of the semester.

It’s been good fodder, though, for my opening sermon series. I’ve decided to teach through Job this first month, September. These last few months, though they don’t compare, have given me at least a small window into Job’s sufferings, that feeling of relentless attack and a greater knowledge of who God is in spite of and in light of that.

And so, we had our first service!

45 people came, which was very encouraging. That’s the best start we’ve had of our 3 churches. There were friends we had expected, a few people we had invited, and several people who just saw the signs or heard the music and came in to check us out. Meeting these new folks was definitely a blessing, and showed us once again that God brings the people, not us.

Though the numbers are always encouraging, it was the experience and feel of the service that overshadowed it all. Several people shared with me those non-tangible feelings that expressed the sense/feeling that God was there:

“It really felt like the birthing of a new church, not just starting a service.”

[Having been a part of a different, failed, church plant and contrasting it with that,] “it didn’t feel forced. It just felt right, like we were in line with what God was doing.”

One guy, who shared with a core group member that he hadn’t felt moved even to participate in worship for a long time, was standing, arms raised high in praise, during closing worship. Needless to say, I definitely feel that the tide has turned!

We now have 4 services under our belt, and are avidly seeking feedback from the folks coming, as well as leading from the Lord as to how we can make the service better/more appropriate. We have more people outside our core group who are eager to get involved, and are trying to figure out the ways and hows to integrate them as we move forward.

And this leads me to “What’s Next for The Light”:

We volunteered with Baltimore City’s annual Book Festival (http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/) at the end of September, and were able to coincide this weekend with outreach opportunities. Given our phenomenal experience with Artscape, we were praying that this would be beneficial for us and a blessing to the city of Baltimore.

We are getting ready for the official launch on October 7^th. We are anticipating a great turnout and are excited that several partners (here and from Mississippi!) will be able to join us for that.

And with that, I cannot let this opportunity pass without taking a moment to thank those of y’all who have been tirelessly praying for and supporting us.

A special thanks goes to our friends at the Mississippi Convention (especially Ken Rhodes, Paul Harrell, and Rob Sugg), Associations, and churches, whose partnership with us has been so instrumental in getting us where we are so far. We have been truly blessed to have y’all along for the journey and the encouragement y’all have given has been crucial. God has been faithful: at our lowest points, it seems that an encouraging email will show up, spurring me on; or when our finances can stretch no further, a check will arrive in the mail. Knowing that y’all are supporting us… I cannot tell y’all how much it has meant to us and our team. Thank you.

August/September Part 1

Well, the heat has been on for us. You may recall the lists of trials we were suffering at my last post. That seems to have been just the beginning. Throughout the end of August and the first week of September, it seemed like it was never going to end.

*queue “sad-story” violin music*

Issues with my house are still ongoing, complete with a new leak in the roof. In addition to this, my wife and I got a flat tire in each of our vehicles within days of each other, and I personally developed an eye infection and came down with strep (which I then passed on to several in our core team).

Our 4^th Mississippi team did not come, and we had to shift gears rapidly in terms of how to advertise, outreach and cover the area in prayer. We also didn’t receive enough funds for our meet-the-community-event, and have had to re-tool it, which we are still working on. The finances across our three churches got tighter and we had to evaluate our funds versus our staffing resources. We went through a difficult process of “trimming our staff” and communicating that to our larger congregations. That is easier written than done, because it was fraught with much heartache and honest examination of giftings, callings, and obedience to God. Clearly, this added to my stress and sleepless nights, as these aren’t “just employees”, but people who are and have been a part of our church.

We were planning a “soft-launch” first service for September 9^th, with the official launch still scheduled for Oct 7^th. (This “soft-launch” September is designed to be a great time in which we can play around with the format, try out some different things, and give people practice in roles they have never filled before.) Our “/Sundays” had served their purpose well, and we were ready to move forward to regular Sunday services.

But there we were, one week away, and still no location! Not only that, but of our 3 churches, and 4-5 usual worship leaders, we lost all of them for Sept 9^th due to injury, illness, or “randomly” bad schedule conflicts. Then our worship team, that we had formed out of people who were interested in being part of the church plant, again, for one reason or another, changed their mind and were not going to be part of the church plant. Thus, no worship team. It felt like the proverbial “thirsty man afloat in the salty ocean”: a plethora of talent amongst us, and we could use none of it for starting our weekly Sunday services.

To be honest, the frequency and nature of it was almost comical. We considered rescheduling. We weighed the options and listened for whether this was God changing our timing, or an attack meant to distract us. Rather than get discouraged, we continued to pray, plan and do what we could to find solutions to our difficulties. We knew that Baltimore really starts to move in the fall, and that we needed to be in place and ready. To be caught unprepared as the city picks up in momentum could be devastating. So, we continued to fundraise and talk with various supporters. We felt God calling us forward, to step out in faith no matter what happened...

Stay Tuned for the next episode: Aug/Sept Part 2 “Our First Official Sunday Service”

Newsletter July/August

Well, things are moving along here in Baltimore. We’ve been very busy since I last posted, and I have A LOT to tell “y’all”.

The biggest thing has been the arrival of 3 out of 4 Mississippi missions teams scheduled to arrive this summer (the 4^th is scheduled for a few weeks from now.) The first, in mid-July, was from Clear Branch, and after spending several days helping with the Lee Street Memorial Baptist Church, Brother Raymond and his team joined us for our first “wave” of prayer walking and promoting the church. I was able to take a couple of days away from my family vacation to fly up and greet the team, as well as share our vision for this church with them.

Considering the media-saturated culture that we live in, we wanted to be very wise with how we announced this new church. As I mentioned in my last post, Bolton Hill and Mount Vernon are in the arts district of Baltimore, and accordingly, that community values creativity and aesthetics as core ethics. To ignore these values would not only violate our own desire to honor the Creator, but also falsely convey that we disrespect and are disinterested in what this community values. So as we planned the three promotional waves, we were mindful that we were walking a thin line between the extremes of generic, commercially-produced promotions on one side and sub-standard fare on the other. The mode of our announcement would say as much if not more than our announcement, itself. Weighty things to think about with just a flyer, right? :)

And again, God has been faithful. Our core group has planned the 3 waves to coincide with the help from these Mississippi missions teams, around the theme of 3 different parables. The first wave referenced Matthew 17:20, and faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains, by constructing mustard seed packets. Our core group designed 3 different, beautiful labels for mustard seed packets with an announcement that a new church was coming to the area and our contact information on them. We then assembled over 1500 small envelopes, filling each with a small amount of mustard seeds and applying the labels. They looked beautiful. Our hope was to give the people of Bolton Hill and Mount Vernon a small gift that would give them pause rather than just tossing it away.

And the team from Clear Branch helped us do this. They walked and prayed with us in both of these neighborhoods, and helped us distribute the seed packets on doorsteps, in cafes and apartment buildings. Building on our previous prayer walks, I am confident that this was integral in preparing the way for us in the coming weeks.

The 2^nd wave of hand-outs spun off a different set of parables: those of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44 -46). Again, our team crafted 3 different designs, and this time, we made them into bookmarks, tying a small pearl-like bead on each one.

The team from Utica (led by Bro. Eric McMahon) overlapped with the team from Holly Springs (along with Bro. Rob Sugg of First Baptist Jackson) in late July, and we got to work with both, as the former was finishing up and the latter was just beginning.

This second wave coincided with Artscape (http://www.artscape.org), billed as America’s largest, free, public arts festival. Not only is Artscape a premier arts festival, but it is situated exactly in our 2 neighborhoods, Mt. Vernon and Bolton Hill. This was a prime, God-given opportunity to get involved with what the community was already doing. We contacted Volunteer Services with Artscape and asked how we could help. The Volunteer Coordinator, Heather, was overwhelmed by our willingness to fill in whatever empty roles she had. Over the two days, our teams worked in 2 areas: the Family Art Park (helping with the LEGOs and make-your-own-art for the kids) and taking demographic surveys of festival go-ers (Heather’s biggest need).

I cannot emphasize enough to you how big a help this has been for us. To be able to establish such a friendly and positive relationship with the City of Baltimore, even in this small area, has been very encouraging for us, and Heather has expressed great interest in not only working with us again, but even putting in a good word for us where she can.

Evangelism and advertisement were placed far on the backburner for this event, knowing that many people have a misconception of Christians as pushy and agenda-driven. However the Southern accents of our Mississippi brothers and sisters prompted many folks to ask where they were from and why they were volunteering at Artscape, in Baltimore! All of our volunteers wore a simple button with a light-bulb on it, and if people asked, they only had to point to it, and talk about the new church. What an opportunity!

In addition to all of the work at Artscape, Utica and Holly Springs also prayer-walked the two neighborhoods (as the team before had), gifting homes, apartment buildings and small stores with our pearl-bookmarks.

It was here that we encountered our first brush with spiritual warfare. A Bolton Hill resident cited a loosely-phrased, new City ordinance that prohibits flyering and leafleting, and all-but-threatened us with the $50/handout penalty it carries. At over 2000 bookmarks distributed, it would cost us a good bit if he were to make good on his threat. After studying the ordinance, we feel safe, but have no desire to 1) be illegal, or 2) misrepresent the gospel by making a nuisance of ourselves in the very neighborhood we are trying to reach.

So this has made us reconsider our original plans for the 3^rd wave, and that has worked out for the best as well. We are now planning 2 identical events in each neighborhood, more along the lines of “meet the community”, hopefully timed with the large influx of people that the Fall season always brings to Baltimore.

Overall, having these teams from Mississippi has been encouraging to us on many levels. Having walked and prayed and worked with these teams, we feel as though they have caught the vision of what we are trying to do. This is exciting for us, and reassures us that, as our partners, when they pray for us, it won’t simply be a list of prayer topics to tick off, but things that folks will passionately intercede for, on our behalf. We also hope that it isn’t a one-way relationship, but rather a true partnership in which these teams, and subsequently their churches are impacted, and changed by their experience here and what God is doing.

[Side note: That watermelon they brought from MS was so sweet and GOOD! It was a blessing to us, too!]

This last Sunday, we had the first of what we are calling “/Sundays” (said, “Slash Sundays”). Because these gatherings are more than simply a Sunday Service at this point, we knew we needed a title that was more descriptive of what we hoped to accomplish in this time. These Sunday gatherings will function as Sunday-service/training-time/meeting-planning/cohesion-time for the group, prior to our first open-to-the-public services (hence “/Sundays”). We are also inviting potential team members for the NEXT church plant (that’s right, #4!) to join in with us, and get a head start on training and planning. We had about 20 people attend this first /Sunday and are excited about how God is moving and what He is teaching us.

But with good, often comes bad. In addition to our brush with the leafleting ordinance of Baltimore City, we have found ourselves increasingly under spiritual attack in other ways. Rather than a large, overt attack, it has mostly taken the form of amazingly small inconveniences and problems that have begun to snowball. Everything from sickness, small problems at people’s jobs, and minor theft of church property from someone’s car, to a cracked pipe in my basement that has escalated to over $5000 in damage and repairs to our sewer line (not to mention the smell!), it is beginning to wear down many in our core group. Since our fundraising is not complete, we are still looking for more partnerships. This has often left us feeling financially discouraged. In addition to all this, we still have not been able to secure a Sunday meeting space for the new church!

Though this sounds all gloom and doom, we are able to count it all joy, on some levels. As we seek God and are confident in His leading, we know that the enemy is attempting to use much of it to distract us. That allows us to see it for the challenge it is, but I must say, it sure is tiring, nonetheless!

Many people in the core group are doing well overall, but others are overwhelmed and struggling. Recent graduates are still looking for permanent jobs to secure their stay in Baltimore. Others who have not joined the group yet have expressed interest, but have not been able to move forward in their commitment. We are definitely feeling pressed as our launch date draws near. We need a lot of prayer in all areas: our relationships with God, our jobs, time, finances, families, and our relationships with each other. This is becoming crucial, especially for those of our team members who have not experienced this level of warfare before.

I personally also need prayer as I transition out of my role/involvement with Grace Life Baltimore and Dan Hyun transitions in. I am navigating new leadership areas in this change and we are continually working through how this will look, both for us and for the church. Pray for Dan as he steps into a new role and leads the Baltimore church in the exciting things God has for that church.

Newsletter May/June

¡Hola!

This is a new way that I will be communicating with all of you. I hope to update it more regularly and keep you posted as to what is happening with the church plant.

Anyway, I just got back from our mission trip to Peru a couple of weeks ago and am finally settling back into life at home. Our Peru team consisted of people from our 2 current churches: GLC Baltimore and GLC Stepping Stone, as well as a few people from our Light Church plant. It was a tremendous trip as we witnessed God do amazing things in the small city of Huaycan, about an hour outside of the capital city, Lima.

Over the 8-day period, we presented the Gospel through dramas, puppet shows, and preaching to over 10,000(!) people, and we witnessed over 1000 people commit their lives to Christ. It was a life changing experience for the entire team to be involved in such a work of God. We were out doing ministry for 14-15 hours a day, every day, and that made the 8 days fly by. It also made transitioning back to “normal” life in ministry hard. However, things are really starting to pick up as we are just a little over 3 months away from the launch of our THIRD church plant, The Light.

Yes, we have finally settled on a name: The Light. We are still refining the meaning behind this name as a church, but as many of you know, there are numerous references to the word “light” in the scripture. Also, the art community and God’s creation cannot come to life outside of the light. So it is fitting that a church, a gathering of God’s people, would be that light to the people and the community.

Our church planting core group is working busily. We are meeting twice a week to pray, train, and plan. This last month, we have walked the neighborhoods of Bolton Hill and Mt. Vernon several times, covering them in prayer. These are the very communities in which we will be situated, as well as a central hub of the arts in Baltimore City. We have also been using our time to prepare and train individuals as well as the team. Many of our team are young (half just graduated college this year, and more are still in school), and we want to be responsible with their passion, ideals, and energy. We also don’t want them to get so busy “doing” that their personal and spiritual growth suffers. This has meant teaching and discussions not only on the nature of church, church planting, evangelism, etc., but also on developing their prayer lives and their relationships with God and each other. To this end, we’ve also taken a team-building trip out of the city into the Shenandoah Valley for camping/canoeing, which was quite an experience, and has done a lot to bind us together.

We are also hard at work preparing for the missions teams that are coming up to help us from Mississippi soon. We’ve been mapping out a strategy for announcing the coming church plant to this slice of Baltimore, and how these teams can help us do that. Baltimore is a city that appreciates being a bit different, and even revels in its kitschy-ness. The neighborhoods that we are reaching are especially immune to the ordinary, and we can’t wait to show that the world hasn’t cornered the market on the Creative.

My Trip to MS at the beginning of May was extremely fruitful. I was able to meet, reconnect, and revisit with those of you who came to Baltimore for the Vision Tour at the end of last year. And I was excited to realize that all of “y’all” who did come for the Vision Tour really did catch the vision for what God is doing through our church and especially in Baltimore. It was truly encouraging to witness how we have friends in MS who are not just partnering with us but have become advocates for the work that we are trying to do here.

The MS trip also allowed me to spend face-to-face time with great men like Paul Harrell and Ken Rhodes who have a tremendous kingdom-minded vision for mobilization and missions. I also gained a better appreciation of our denomination as a whole as I visited Gulfport and the work that our SBC has done. We continue to pray for the work being done there.

All this and to top it off “CATFISH”! Yes, all-you-can-eat fried catfish at the famous “Jerry’s”! It was an unforgettable experience, and I look forward to going back to MS.

Our most urgent prayer needs:
(1) Worship Space, which is hard to find in the city and very expensive
(2) For GLC- Baltimore, as I am transitioning out as the Lead Pastor
(3) For those coming to be part of the church plant to remain faithful and committed to their convictions and the heart that God has given them
(4) For the mission teams that are coming: that they would be prepared, that we would use their generous time and help wisely, and they would catch the vision of what God is doing Baltimore.
(5) For more Partnerships: that God would bring others around our church plant to partner together in what God is doing here.
(6) For our fundraising: that we will be able to reach our goal and especially for the next three months as we need to start purchasing electronic equipment, stage setup, lighting, projector, software, web design, etc. for the services beginning in September/October. We are anticipating an expense nearing $20,000.