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Messy, awkward, missional church

Jesus speaking:  “Just imagine that you want to build a tower. Wouldn’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to be sure you have enough to finish what you start? 29 If you lay the foundation but then can’t afford to finish the tower, everyone will mock you: 30 “Look at that guy who started something that he couldn’t finish!” Luke 14 - The Voice

In the early years of this century, between 3,500 to 4,000 Southern Baptist churches were closing their doors every twelve months.  I imagine the pace has risen even higher ten years later*.  Simply put: The congregation has become too small to support the overhead.  The church doors have gotten too expensive.  

One discussion that keeps repeating itself is the call for churches to become more missional, more involved in the immediate community and more strategic about outreach.  One item I'd personally like to see mentioned more often is the need for churches to release themselves from the burden of speaking with their property and instead focus through action with their hands.  For several decades, churches found their identity and credibility within the community the same way affluent individuals did.  In other words, success was measured by the car they drove and the home they lived in.  Likewise, the sooner a congregation built a building, the sooner you had arrived.  And a "keeping-up-with-the-Jones" mentality set the pace.

  Whether it was affordable or not.  

For the church, the new auditorium attached legitimacy to the ministry.  Many times, whoever had the newest, largest Worship Center in the city received bragging rights and unofficial championship.

Today's climate is changing.  People are more jaded; maybe even snake-bitten.  The tabloids and reality television have peeled back the facade.  People have seen enough Cyrus/Kardashian-like stories to suspect (or imagine) disconnects.  And so many of a younger generation have already lost a home or a job due to the recession.

Church needs to find those avenues to reach more for less.  Leaner.  Cheaper.  Economical Ecclassia. 

Our credibility needs to come out of more fluid sources than brick and mortar. 

But it's messy.  Having church this week in a nifty locally-owner coffee conclave is a great partnership; people already there listened both casually and some intently.  Quoting the Bible while the barista was grinding espresso beans and pounding to clean the espresso filter basket is distracting; well, it was for this 58 year old.  

But oddly, I noticed it wasn't necessarily distracting for the younger cafe' patrons.  

I'm surmising that they, after all, have been doing homework with music and television cranking in the background for years.  I, on the other hand, insist on turning off the radio when I get lost while driving.  And, after all, it would defeat the partnership if the owner's business slowed while we were there.

One lady who had chanced her way in, heard us singing "One Thing Remains" and IMMEDIATELY wanted to know who had written it (Jeremy Riddle).  She approached me as I was standing up to teach.  I paused briefly and pointed to have her ask one of the band members.  She found that person and immediately sat down between the video projector and the screen with her back to the light.  It didn't bother her a bit.  Maybe the warm light met a need.  Regardless, her shadow was nine feet up the wall. Everyone just saw and smiled knowingly.  One person wrote me later that she was designing a t-shirt along the lines of "Missional Church - Embrace the awkward".

Just as a generation is coming up that decides that owning a house is no longer  the hallmark of having arrived, we, as a missional church, need to discover ways to speaking louder with our effort, than our steeples.

* Ed Stetzer, Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2003), p. 10.

Cash Mob Church!

Acts 10:34-36 

Peter: It is clear to me now that God plays no favorites, that God accepts every person whatever his or her culture or ethnic background, that God welcomes all who revere Him and do right. You already know that God sent a message to the people of Israel; it was a message of peace, peace through Jesus the Anointed—who is King of all people. 

The term "cash mob" hasn't caught on YouTube like flash mobs.  A cash mob is where a group of people target a particular local, community business and bless the owner by designating a window of time to stop by and spend some money. It's not meant to look like the Apple store on the morning the new iPhone comes out but it IS intended to give the local business a small shot in the arm. Think more like the movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, "You've Got Mail" and the need for both the small, personal "Shop Around the Corner"  as well the Fox Super Bookstores.

DTPHX Church is having a cash mob next Sunday afternoon, (March 23, 2014) at 4pm.  We are having church; yes, real live, one-hour Worship time at Fair Trade Cafe-Roosevelt, 1020 N Central Ave. Micaiah Sawyer is singing an acoustic set; we'll sing along too.  The children can be with Colleen's crew for their own personal event about 30 feet away within eye-sight.  They can even listen to the music for awhile then have time for their age-appropriate event.  I've got some good news and insight from my personal study of Acts 10 as it pertains to DTPHX that I will share.  We'll have WiFi so absolutely we'll receive our offerings.  You can ask questions.  We'll also be outlining events for the Easter Season.

www.azfairtrade.com  

Fair Trade Cafe-Roosevelt location

Roosevelt location

1020 N Central Ave

Is it reasonable to leverage the costs that our church might pay for a building in order to be church in a local community?

I'll tell you up front, this is messy.  It's a pain.  It takes time to establish the relationships of trust.  And yes, it's an experiment.  Fair Trade's capacity is 75 people.

Now you do have a role to play ... you need to spend some money on food and/or coffee.  Get the idea?  Here's a sympathetic, community-oriented business, single-mom-with-two-children owner who's willing to allow us free use to meet for church at her establishment this one time.  We need to bless them, showing the generosity of the Body.  That means tipping, etc, etc.   I'll be putting out invites (the owner, Stephanie suggested I do this) on the tables of Fair Trade hours before our event to give any patron an idea of what's going on and their invitation to watch what it's like to Worship... and for the baristas ... the owner... just someone who happens by or a skeptical patron.

Can't come by at 4pm?  Then, if the Holy Spirit prompts you, stop by Fair Trade and spend a few generous dollars ... and tell them you are doing this because of this connection.  I've given them a guarantee to show good faith.  Ultimately, it needs to be a win-win.

Dozens of points go through my mind to being church in front of the community where they are living.  But I'm going to resist the temptation to write them here.  I'll leave this one up to your own imagination.  You are welcome to write your own in the comments section below.

(The Lightrail has a station right across the street.  Free parking in the garage to the west of Fair Trade Cafe).

Giving up death for life!

John 5:24 I tell you the truth: eternal life belongs to those who hear My voice and believe in the One who sent Me. These people have no reason to fear judgment because they have already left death and entered life. 

Our first conversation began over a cup of coffee at one of the many (fabulous) espresso venues in the downtown Phoenix community.  Being a husband is hard enough.  Add being the father of two brilliant daughters both under the ages of five makes it impossible.  Now adding the complicated work responsibility that comes with being a firefighter means you are living long days.  Life is easy to slip into autopilot.  Life is not bad, just dangerously routine.  

Fortunately, this young father was willing to seek professional guidance at the early signs of need.  And that led to a conversation with a psychologist who had recognized there was something being overlooked.  From there the doc suggested he include a spiritual element to his quest that led to our first coffee.

As my wife and I begin our mission in downtown Phoenix, we want to be a voice for baby boomers.  This is a wonderful time in life, flexible and seasoned from our own experiences.  It is a chapter when our responsibilities of raising our children are complete.  It is a chapter when finances aren't the first thing you think about as you buy someone else lunch or iced caffeine.  It is an opportunity to venture into new ideas.  And, it is because of the genius and generosity of the Cooperative program that we, as church planters can cultivate these conversations, living church as a verb in front of java patrons and in front of residents of our own condo.  NAMB makes this possible by being partnered to help support us.

On February 9, 2014 Eli and his wife, Kristin gave witness of their new life in Christ by being baptized.  It was in the pool on roof of our condo, with their two little girls dancing there along the steps in the water with them.  Sixty knowing faces applauded and a half dozen residents of our condo watched in curiosity.  Simultaneously, as I baptized Eli, Colleen also baptized Kristin.  It was an illustration of a renewed marriage to each other and a declaration of their commitment to a new life in Christ.  Our chapter had begun as a prayer of accepting Christ at a table ten feet from the espresso machine.  It is where the two of us meet every week now studying Men's Fraternity videos and materials.

Church for a post-modern, downtown generation is pushing to look different: Baptism where
neighbors can observe;  Bible study where patrons can overhear; Worship outside in front of community.

 One of our growing questions: How can our church continue to be lived out directly in front of others to be seen and vicariously experienced?

February is a month of LOVE

(c) Budweiser - Puppy Love

Romans 12.2

Do not allow this world to mold you in its own image. Instead, be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind. As a result, you will be able to discern what God wills and whatever God finds good, pleasing, and complete.






The world competes for our attention as much as possible every day. If the information I researched is correct, advertisers shelled out $4 million for a 30 second commercial during this 2014 Super Bowl. Common logic would lead one to think a professional company would not pay out that kind of cash unless they knew the pay out was worth their investment. In the same thinking, LED billboard signs are popping up alongside the highways to catch our eye. The majority of my snail mail and emails are consistently attempting to catch my attention to sell me something.



The author of the book of Romans pushes back against any temptation to measure one's self in the world's mirror. That mirror is distorted and purposely skewed to promote its own self-serving agenda. It's that same mirror that sees the college students and young adults as prime targets for impulse-serving credit cards regardless of their lack of credit history. In Romans, Paul prompts us to instead reboot our own mind through a life of grace from Christ so that we, in turn, will be able to figure out what God wants us to know and do.

Do you want to learn how to stay ahead with your finances??

Begin by pushing back on the world's encouragement to "get" and instead, learn what it means to "give".

During the month of February, DTPHX Church is helping promote Generosity by loving on our neighborhood. And we want to assist you in giving. This last week, my wife and I went through our small, one bedroom condo and still

discovered a ridiculous amount of stuff we aren't using anymore... suitcases (we got new ones at Christmas), shoes, GPS (smart phone replaced it), school supplies, two notebook computers (fresh installs of Windows XP) silverware, coats (how many jackets does one really need living in the desert?), and the list goes on. We scooped it all up, took an inventory using www.itsdeductible.com for a tax credit and then drove less than a mile to The Mercado of Neighborhood Ministries at 1918 W. Van Buren to drop it all off. We even had some sealed medications and diabetic supplies and legally gave them to The Neighborhood Christian Medical Clinic at 1929 W. Fillmore.


Can we help you? Need a lift in the truck?? Accept the challenge with us as we embrace what Paul writes in his encouragement to his friends!!

Loving on the Neighborhood

James 1:22

The Voice (VOICE)

22 Put the word (your faith) into action. If you think hearing is what matters most, you are going to find you have been deceived.

February is the month of love.  For the Christian, once again we have an outstanding opportunity to live out our faith in front of a broken world.  While Valentine commercialism prompts us to "buy" so you can give, we have a beautiful invitation to live out Generosity merely by giving out of the surplus of what we already have.  To be more specific, generosity in the expression of stewardship over the things God has placed in our hands.

If you wear glasses, do you perhaps have a second, older pair of glasses that you've kept as a backup pair in case of emergencies?  Did you realize DTPHX has several clinics close by that can accept those glasses, re-prescribe them to someone that has no pair of glasses?  Did you perhaps receive a new neon pair of running shoes for Christmas that relegated your second pair to the closet shelf?  Same possibilities ... Neighborhood Ministries is just one of the possibilities.  They have their own thrift store, located within a mile of DTPHX where those shoes can be recycled.  Salvation Army also has a location at 3rd Ave and W Fillmore where those clothes can also be donated.  Think for awhile:  Old cell phones and chargers sitting in a drawer; t-shirts hanging in your closet; books; stuffed toys; also unused or broken gold jewelry can be donated.  

Okay, let's be even more imaginative.   How about the leftover medications that you have at home stored away in the back of the medicine cabinet?  Did you realize that Neighborhood Christian Clinic (1929 W Fillmore) is a medical and dental volunteer-driven ministry serving the urban poor?  You can legally drop off sealed, usable medications - prescription or non-prescription - and doctors can legally prescribe and utilize those medications.  That's a superior choice to flushing them into our water system or wasting them sitting on the shelf.

Generosity is an attribute like any other... the more often you express it, the easier it becomes to manage.  

Story:  I was talking about the concept "Loving on the Neighborhood" with a friend that mentioned that he has some old bicycle frames stored at his house ... actually he has seven frames with nothing to do with them now. He was at a loss of ideas short of setting them on the street for someone to happen upon to help themselves. Fortunately, both Hood Ride and Barrio Works (within a mile of downtown) work hard at giving new life to tired bikes, getting them back on the road and into the hands of the impoverished.  So, I have a truck - my friend has seven bike frames - and together we can make much of February expressing Generosity.Barrio Bikes


Let's do this!  Contact me at dtphxchurch@gmail.com, and allow us to help you donate your items through DTPHX Church for a tax deduction.  While we can't accept everything, most items that you can give are perfectly acceptable as a tax deductible donation.
See us at www.dtphxchurch.com 

A Vision to Serve

Matthew 22:34-40

The Voice (VOICE)

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, a group of Pharisees met to consider new questions that might trip up Jesus. 35 A legal expert thought of one that would certainly stump Him.

Pharisees: 36 Teacher, of all the laws, which commandment is the greatest?

Jesus (quoting Scripture): 37 “Love the Eternal One your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.”38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is nearly as important, "Love your neighbor as yourself." 40 The rest of the law, and all the teachings of the prophets, are but variations on these themes.

One of the greatest enjoyments Colleen and I have had about moving

downtown has been the number of quality, eclectic community events. Weekend after weekend, we find interesting people, many with very philanthropic hearts, organizing community events that somehow are tied to benefit a respectable cause.  I have a vision for helping to support many of these noble endeavors either through our personal involvement or the

The Phoenix Annual Parade of the Arts

involvement of our church and us. Partnering together, I envision greater dividends for all involved. I see new friendships.  I see opportunity for conversations.  It's our desire to see Downtown Phoenix Church becoming a respected and reliable partner within her immediate neighborhood.

Let me give you a few examples of recent days:

I envision DTPHX Church to worship God by alternating between both Matthew 22 instructions ... by worshiping collectively inside through outstanding music and teaching two weekends each month ... then worshiping through perspiration, the loving, and the serving our neighbors on the other two weekends.  Can it be that some of our greatest moments of worship might also be as we attend to the needs of our neighbors?  

I want to show our children how mature worship thrives in all contexts as we stretch to continually extend beyond our own church walls.