Fixie Dust

We are making steady progress at the house.  We're extremely grateful for all the help we've had, the volunteers coming in each week, the Westside Ministries crew working away, the Schenks working along side us, my sister helping out with the kids by taking Faith for a week, and my mom and dad, who've come down and helped out for a couple days.  Progress is exciting, but it's taken a lot of people a lot of hard work.

Brittany creating "Fixie Dust"

You can see from this picture that our work has created a lot of dust in the house.  The kids were over at the house one day with us and we saw them picking up saw dust and crumbled plaster and putting it into emptied water bottles.  When we asked what they were doing, Faith replied, "We're collecting fixie dust!"

Justice supervising the work

I think on blogs, or in books, or at conferences we sprinkle the ministries that we are a part of building with a good deal of "fixie dust"!  We can easily spin or glamorize things that are really the hacked off, sawed, demolished results of something that took a lot of sweaty, exhausting, dirty, hard work.  We often find things boiled down and neatly tidied into a couple easy steps, or a frame work, or guiding principles.  But behind each of these are messy lives, relationships, conversations, and conflicts that kicked up a lot of dust.  Behind the clever blog posts, white board illustrations, and power point presentations, lay so many of our hopes, dreams, desires, and expectations, pulverized on the floor.

Speaking of the ministries that we build on the foundation of Christ, St. Paul says, "... the builder will suffer loss but yet be saved - even though only as one escaping through flames."  Jesus called us to come and die.  The calling we have requires much in our life to be demolished.

May we see the "fixie dust" for what it is: the results of the hard work of the Holy Spirit; demolishing and  renovating our lives.

Almost home

MLK Day of Service

On the West Side of Buffalo I can see hints of Dr. King's dream.  Looking around the neighborhood you'll find white families that have been here since European immigrants built the neighborhood; African-Americans that have populated the area since the days of the Underground Railroad (W. Ferry St. led down to the ferry to freedom across the Niagara River to Canada); Hispanics that flooded into the neighborhood during the final decades of the 20th century; refugees from the war-torn conflict areas of the last decade (Iraq, Somalia, Congo, Rwanda, Burma).  Whether all these groups will really look past their differences and truly judge each other by the content of their character, still remains to be seen.  But there is tremendous opportunity for racial reconciliation to take place here, and that's why it so exciting to be moving our family into this place!  Dr. King's dream for his children is still the same dream we have for our children today.

How fitting then, that we began our work on what will become our house, on the weekend we celebrate Dr. King's birthday.  With AmeriCorps, West Side Ministries, and their volunteers we worked Saturday and Monday demolishing the bathrooms, ripping up flooring to expose hardwoods that will be refinished, and we even started some of the electric wiring.  Below are some shots of crew in action, including a short video of our progress...

The clean-up crew

The ladies exposing those beautiful hardwoods!

Demo in the kitchen and bathrooms

The kids having some winter fun in the backyard

A Life Poured Out

As a community organizer it is my goal to mobilize and equip neighbors to be agents of transformation in their community. For example, when a block is littered with vacant lots that the city refuses to care for, I grab a lawn mower and weed-whacker and go out there to clean it up. I get a couple of the neighbors to help out, and when they see they can make a difference they begin to take on other responsibilities, caring for their neighborhood all on their own.

God could set everything right in our world with a single word, yet he chooses to use us in this process . A transformation happens within us when we participate in this process. God's work grows and multiplies as we become agents of transformation in the world.

Early on in humanity's history God grabbed a neighbor and chose to use him and his family in the process of setting things right in the world. It was said to Abram, "I will make you into a great nation and I bless you... and all peoples on earth will be blessed by you." God chose a people to participate, and a vessel to pour blessings into so that they would pour blessings out into the whole world.

However, this people, when the blessings were poured onto them, they often hoarded them, and refused to pour them out into the world. The very people God had chosen to be an example and image of the blessedness of God to this world, became the exact opposite. God's chosen people became enemies of God, thwarting His work in the world.

Onto the stage enter the prophets. They came to speak this truth; the very people that thought they had God's blessing were actually under God's condemnation. Jesus begins his ministry in his hometown with this very message. Israel thought that it was God's exclusive vessel of blessing, yet Jesus gives specific examples (the Phoenician widow, and Naaman the Syrian) of people outside of Israel that had been used as vessels of blessing. Throughout his ministry he continually opposes the Temple system. The very symbol of God's presence with, and blessing to, the the Jewish people, Jesus proclaims, is actually devoid of God's presence and is under God's condemnation. He boldly enters the Temple, stops it's godless practices and foretells its eventual destruction (which happened in 70 AD).

St. Paul too echoes this message. Jewish culture thinks it has the corner on accessing God's blessing, and that observance of its customs and laws is the only way to God. But God's transforming work is spreading throughout the whole world, entering and transforming every culture. The Jews think the law gives them access to God, but as Paul points out, it has become the very thing that is preventing people from experiencing what God is now doing.

And today the story is the same. Jesus chose the Church as His vessel to pour the Holy Spirit into, so its blessing and transforming power might be poured out on all the earth. Yet in our culture today there is so much within the Church, especially our weekly practice of "church" that actually stands in the way of the Spirit of God powerfully transforming peoples lives, the societies we live in, and the whole of creation. What is supposed to be an example and image of the blessedness God has for this world, has become the exact opposite.

When faced with this same experience, St. Paul brushed his shoulders off and left the religous culture he was from. He entered into a cross-cultural ministry in order to learn, communicate, and live out a blessed life that  pours out blessings on others. Yet he always had a specific goal in mind; that he would return to heart of Jewish culture, the Temple in Jerusalem, and again seek to mobilize and equip the Jewish people to become agents of transformation in the world.

This too has been my path. I come from the Christian culture of suburban America, but with my family we have left this culture behind. We have entered poor urban culture to learn, communicate, and live out a blessed life that pours out blessings on others. Our goal in the end is also like St. Paul's; we hope that in the end we can re-engage with Christian middle-class American culture and again seek to mobilize and equip the church of suburban America to become an agent of transformation in our world.

Experiencing the life that pours out God's blessing on the world... This is what is before us in the Eucharist. The bread of life, Christ's own broken body, a blessing given to us. And the cup of His blood poured out to bring the blessing of forgiveness and freedom from sin.

May we all begin to understand what it means to live a life poured out, spilling God's blessing onto the world around us.

"For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

- St. Paul to Timothy

The Loser

"They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, 'So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!' In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. 'He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.' Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him."

Abandoned, ridiculed and mocked, executed with criminals, his so-called "Messiah movement" faced the same end as so many had before. It was only fitting for one that clung to ideas of the last being first, blessing coming to the insulted and persecuted, the outcasts being included, God being present in the least. What else would you expect from a rogue rabbi whose students were simple tradesmen, rather than the best and brightest who were enrolled in the religious training normally required to follow a rabbi? It had been a movement of losers, and that's how it's leader died, - a loser.

For much of my life, I've worn this same label - as the fat awkward kid in middle school, the geeky kid even among the band geeks in high school, then blending in with the geeks and freaks in college. In my adult life, and especially in ministry the label has followed me - ministering in small ministries, with ministry after ministry fizzling and fading. Even now I'm faced with losing the funding for the housing and community organizing ministry I'm leading.

However, the mystery of the cross is that our biggest loss, through God's redemptive power, often becomes our greatest victory. Though in the eyes of those hurling insults the cross looked like Jesus' biggest loss, in the eyes of eternity it is seen as His greatest victory. Evil and violence were exposed, confronted, and overcome, and love, non-violence, and forgiveness were triumphant.

Martin Luther King Jr. recognized that at the heart of the early church movement, as well as the movement he found himself a part of, was a deep understanding that "right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." Mother Teresa reminded us that "God has not called me to be successful, He has called me to be faithful." Prophets and saints that follow Christ's example often experience significant loss and fail to achieve the success the world exhorts them to achieve.

According to a board of directors, funders, or the culture around me, I may be a loser because I haven't achieved X, Y, or Z. But the X, Y, & Z of big organizational success, financial profitability, and acclaim/popularity, are just that - X,Y, & Z. Love for the fatherless, widows, and refugees are the A,B, & C that citizens of the Kingdom of God are called to be faithful to. This is how the last become first, this is how the loser is vindicated.

So I guess it's about time I came to grips with being labeled a loser. May we all be losers by the worlds standards, and may the redemptive power of God transform those losses into great victories for His Kingdom.

Visions Becoming Reality

We've been very busy lately creating the Grace Community Garden. In early April many from the church and community came out to help us prepare the garden space. The huge pile (6 cu. yds.) of soil that came later in the month has been used to create raised beds (as well as the kids favorite play space, and a bike jump for neighborhood teens!).

As the weather finally warmed up and dried out, the kids were able to paint the rain barrel with their own unique designs.

With these elements in place, the garden plan that I spent countless hours putting together this winter is being put into action (and amended constantly!), as many hands help plant seeds.


And after planting our first plots of spinach and salad greens in April, we've already begun harvesting our first crops. The first neighborhood barbeque was held at the church last week, and we were able to share a salad with spring mix from the garden!



To date we've created three 15'x4' raised beds for vegetables and along with the garlic started last fall we've planted, spinach, greens, radishes, turnips, carrots, lettuces, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, beets, beans, and now cantelopes. Seeds for tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers have been started indoors. A 3'x 5' herb bed, and a 2'x4' sunflower bed have also been created. The cherry tree the kids planted last fall has bloomed and begun forming cherries. The butterfly garden has had more perennials added, and two large compost bins have been made out of old pallets.

I made many visits to the garden site early this spring and looked longingly over the grounds. I anxiously waited to see that muddy overgrown lot redeemed and transformed into something beautiful and productive. It has seemed like forever as this cold soggy spring has thawed out, but now we are already sharing the firstfriuts of the harvest!

What a picture of our Christian walk. In Christ we can see a vision of what it looks like for the Kingdom of Heaven to be lived out right here on earth. As His followers, there is a great deal of longing in us for the time when that vision will fully become reality. But the good news is, that through the Spirit, we are already tasting the firstfruits of that Kingdom life. Redemption and transformation are already taking place.

May we be filled with visions and anticipation for what God wants to accomplish through us, but may we also be filled with the Spirit that transforms those visions into reality!

Grace Community Garden

The winter months have brought a flurry of garden planning, grant writing, and seed ordering as we continue creating Grace Community Garden on Potomac Ave.

Now spring is right around the corner, and as seed orders arrive we're beginning to plant! Faith and Zoe helped created soil blocks for seed starting during the after school "kid's club" last week. We practiced multiplication as the blocks were created four at a time - 4x2, 4x3, 4x4 ...



At home, the boys help rip up bedding for the worm composter, getting a hands-on lesson in recycling. The three-bin system was built by students at the kids club, and my sister was generous enough to donate the worms - thanks Beth!

The older students have created cold frames, or mini-greenhouses, that protect early plantings from the frost (clear plastic goes over the top). There werelots of measurements to make - who knew using fractions could actually be so useful!

Believe it or not the first plants have already sprouted. Onions planted in toilet paper rolls last Saturday, and kept moist in their own plastic bag greenhouses, began germinating over the last few days. They are growing in the seed starting station situated in a south facing window in Faith's room . It is outfitted with grow lights, organic seed starting soil, plenty of seeds, and soil blocks waiting to be planted. Next up are the collards, followed by tomatoes and peppers.

"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." - Jesus

Resurrection is occurring again. The death of last fall is being recycled to give what is needed to produce life again this spring, and that which seemed dead to the world is being brought to life again. Our work with the kid's club on the community garden is just one way we are planting seeds, being reckless in our love, and seeing life - real and eternal - growing in our neighborhood.

May we all recognize and experience deeply the mystery and miracle of resurrection this spring!

Metamorphosis

Miracles of transformation have been occurring all around us! In late September Jess found three monarch caterpillars in a farmer's field near East Aurora. By late October we were wondering if they would ever emerge from their chrysalis. Eventually all three did and were sent on their way to their wintering grounds in Mexico.

At Grace Community Church the community garden has been transforming the empty lot behind the church. A butterfly garden, garlic bed, and cherry tree were all added this fall. Next to the church the once abandoned house has been removed and the lot is open for the church to transform into a play lot for the neighborhood families.

Then this past weekend was the last of a series of fall tree plantings done by ReTree WNY. A great group of folks, including tons of kids from the block, helped us plant 30 trees in the Grant-Ferry neighborhood.

The miracle of metamorphosis. The simple sedentary transfromed into magestic migrants. The abandoned and neglected transformed into beautiful and productive.

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
- St. Paul's letter to the Romans

May we all experience the tranformation of God's renewing work in our lives and world around us.

A Letter from a Crack in the Sidewalk

To Fellow Weeds & Seeds:

Grace and peace to you from God, the Gardener.

So here we are in Buffalo. What a trip it’s been to get here. Some of us came in on peoples’ shoes, others drifted in on the wind, and others even came through birds’ digestive systems; but what a blessing we've landed here in this crack in the concrete! There isn’t much soil, but there’s enough, and these seeds are beginning to grow. We may never be that stately maple growing across the street, but we have in our DNA what it takes to keep on growing, and keep spreading; keep cracking this concrete, and surviving being stepped-on and cut-back.

Kingdom come is coming, in small yet invasive ways... like weeds, sprouting in the cracks, growing in the empty lots, and shooting up in the midst of the ruins of the empire. What a blessing it is to be a part of this.

Feel free to follow along with us here, and in your prayers as well.

May God rain down blessings on you and bring growth in grace!

Welcome to Lent

Saying, "Welcome to Lent," is like saying, "Welcome to your root canal," or as in my wife's case, "Welcome to your appendectomy." No one likes surgery, it's never fun. However, the ancient scriptures tell us there is a time for everything. Lent is the time for tearing up, throwing away, killing, mourning, silence.

Like surgery, though not fun, Lent is where we can experience healing by removing the things that are injuring us. We cut ourselves off from the vices that control us, we express remorse for letting something other than our loving God lead us, and we take time to silently reflect upon how God is leading us into freedom.

There is pain in cutting these things off, in drilling out the rot, but in the end there is also relief and wonderful freedom.

So, welcome to Lent!

"And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." - St. Paul's Letter to the Church in Rome

He Has Come

At Sojourn we hear each week, "We are on a journey towards life change w/ Jesus." It has been our spoken goal to be a people who are more like Jesus at the end of 2009 than we were at the year's beginning.

Jesus has come to our community in 2009! He is changing lives as He announced He would in the mission statement He gave while teaching in Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has annointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners..."

Amoni -
Amoni shared in our gathering today how he is grateful for all God and the Church have provided for him this year. Specifically he gave thanks for gaining his drivers license and a car to drive in. Good news: those who are poor in our midst are less poor!

LaVonne -
My friend LaVonne shared through a letter today that she has been crying out for God to transform her life. She longs for her life to be an example of love in action. LaVonne has given herself as a dedicated volunteer tutoring the African refugee students at Sojourn. While at first she felt inadequate to help them, she has been freed from that insecurity and has become an example of love in action. Good news: the prisoners are being set free and are enjoying that freedom!

And God has set me free! All my life I have struggled with my wieght, spending most of my adult life 30 or more lbs overweight. This summer I encountered God while in relationship with my friends from Africa, being accountable to my wife, and engaging in spiritual disciplines. My life-long struggle with food is not over, but I can give thanks to God today for the victories He has given me this year.

July 2009

December 2009

Good news: Jesus is spreading through our community, and lives are being changed!

Skiddy Park Tree Lighting

Bringing light to a dark place! This evening it was amazing to see swarms of kids braving cold blustery winds to decorate and light the Christmas tree in Skiddy Park, a park known more for the crimes committed there than community celebrations.

It was great to see so many investing in this truly community event: my old friends from Sunnycrest Park Association organized the event, Syracuse Parks and Rec powered the lights, carolers came from St. Lucy's church, hot cocoa and dounuts from the Red Cross, the S.A.L.T. District artists donating two Christmas trees complete with lights and decorations for two families in the community, and then myself from Baltimore Woods Nature Center bringing wildlife friendly tree decorations.

Vincent House and P.E.A.C.E. Inc. brought tons of kids, some of whom recognized me from the visits I make to their classrooms with the nature center's "Nature in the City" program. They freely shared stories of how they remember exploring nature with me. It was great to see hope coming to these kids and into the communities of Syracuse!

Advent Conspiracy

Give as God did this Christmas; give presence. Share gifts that set us free and present others with hope.