"Charity" on Incarnating Love: The Story of our Mission - Part 4

For the past six years, my wife, "Charity" as the bikers call her, has been serving alongside of me as a partner in our urban ministry. Her giving spirit and ability to empathize with the hurting and marginalized has proven a valuable asset to our work. As we are telling the story of our ministry and work here in Colorado Springs, I thought that it would be fitting for her to share a story from her perspective. This is her first, but hopefully not last contribution to this blog.

FedEx

Acts 20:35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

 I am preparing our Christmas dinner when I get a text from a friend I had invited to share our meal, “What do I owe you for all you have done for me?” I was shocked! She is my friend! She has been in a tough spot in recent weeks and has needed the love and support of her friends.  In my mind these simple gifts of help (a ride, help with job search, warmer clothing, bus fare, etc) were given to get her back to her feet. Isn’t that what friends are supposed to do for each other?  I told her she owed me nothing.  I did these things because she was my friend.  She went on to tell me that she was asking because she had accepted the help of a person she thought was a friend and the person was using it to get what she wanted in return.  Giving love created a debt.

Who I Was Made to Be - December Synchroblog

 

 Before:


 I guess when I think of coming home, I think of things being as they should be or feeling right again. When I was in the Army, I was stationed at Ft Sill, Oklahoma for three years. I would return to Laramie, for the holidays and I was home. My friends were there, my family was there, the church I grew up in was there; things just felt familiar and comfortable, homey.

What Have We Found Here: The Story of Our Mission - Part 3

When people think about mission fields, a lot of places come to mind, Africa, India, China, South America, maybe even Mexico, but certainly not Colorado. Likewise, talk of "inner city" conjures up images of Los Angeles, New, York, or Chicago. Chances are you would have to go pretty far down anybody's list of potential inner city mission fields to find Colorado Springs, if you were able to find someone who listed it at all. So why have we chosen Colorado Springs and why do we feel this is a legitimate place for our work? I guess it wouldn't be too trite to say that it is where God called us, but it is more than that, it is where He has placed us. I believe that God led us to Colorado Springs, and although we didn't recognize why at the time, He sees a lot more than we can and is constantly working things out behind the scenes that we may never fully understand. What I can tell you that it is more than simply the convenience of already living in Colorado Springs that has led us to our ministry here.

What Are We Doing Here: The Story of our Mission - Part 2

I really had no idea what it meant to be a minister, much less a motorcycle minister, but here I was, riding my Yamaha 1600, and hanging out with a group of guys that I really had little in common with. I say little, because there were some things in common, we all loved to ride, and these guys were absolutely sold out to serving God no matter where that lead them. After only a few months, I was given the position of vice president and asked to help lead the ministry. I say given, but it was more like appointed, there was a nomination, and a vote, but I was never really asked, they just said, "you are the vice president now, here are your duties".

Advent: Incarnation Christ's Most Important Work?

 

Last Sunday marked the beginning of the Advent season, or at least I think it did, I never really have kept track of such things. Advent calenders were entirely too Catholic for my Baptist upbringing, and so most of my life, the only delineation of the Christmas season was the black Friday sales the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe its been recent faith shifts in my own life, or maybe its the fact that lately we have gone straight from Halloween to Christmas, but I am learning to see more value in the idea of advent.

You see, each day of advent, we take a little time to think about some little part of the Christmas story. Advent literally means the revealing or unveiling, and with each day that we think about the Christmas story, it reveals yet another small piece of the story until we arrive at Christmas Day and the entire story is compiled and unfolded, culminating in the revealing of the long awaited Savior. I guess that anyone who believes in the Christmas story can appreciate the beauty and mystery of this gradual unveiling, Catholic or not.

How We Got Here: The Story of our Mission - Part 1

Six years ago, my wife and I were still recovering from the effects of a very bad decision that I had made. We had survived the time apart while I was in jail, and after a couple of years had managed to put our marriage back together and rebuild some of the trust that had been lost. Ministry was the farthest thing from our minds, all we could think of was rebuilding what we could of our lives and getting things as close to "normal" as we could get. I had resigned myself to being a supporter of other ministries, after all, I was "disqualified" from ministry, wasn't I? I was sure I had to be, so my wife and I accepted our lot as those who would work normal jobs, go to church, and support others in their work.

It seemed, however, that no matter how much I wanted to just be a bench-warmer, and watch others doing Kingdom work, I just couldn't hide in the shadows. Our church began experimenting with a new cooperative leadership model where the congregation and the elder board worked together on making decisions, and I was somehow talked into being one of the leaders of the congregational group and being a sort of go between with the church elders. One of the first decisions that the newly formed congregational leadership had to make was on allowing a group of bikers to use our facilities to start a biker-church. Since I was the only member of the group who owned a motorcycle, I was the natural choice to be the group spokesman to the bikers.

Thanksgiving Dinner at Set Free

Thursday, November 28th, 2013

2:00 PM 

Set Free Ministries 

2225E Platte Avenue

 Free and Open to Everyone!!!!

Just want to remind all of our friends and family that we will be having our Set Free Thanksgiving meal again this year. The meal is free and open to anyone, so if you or someone you know needs a place to spend thanksgiving, please come join us. Of course, you are also welcome to come help Serve the dinner to the disciples of set free and our community as well.


Pastor FedEx

A Journey From Church to Faith (November Synchroblog)

Church has always been a part of my life. Nearly all of my earliest memories are of going to church, of missionaries visiting from Africa, of hearing Bible stories and making crafts and singing silly songs in vacation bible school. When I try to identify the point in my life when I began my own personal faith journey, I find it somewhat difficult. Usually, I point to the time in kindergarten when I made a profession of faith, more like I repeated a prayer after my Sunday school teacher. This was after a particularly scary story about what Hell was like, and while I did not know much about God or Jesus, I knew I didn't want to go there, so I said the prayer my teacher said would keep me out of Hell.

No matter where we lived, and my family moved around a lot, we always found a church to attend on Sunday morning. My life has always been centered around church. When I was ten years old my family started attending a Baptist church and naturally, I got baptized. I liked being at church, and looked for any excuse to be there. I joined the choir, I attended every Bible study that they offered, I was the picture of a good church boy.

Driving the Prototype

 

Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with concept cars and prototypes. Imagine that you have the ability to design whatever your ability and talent will allow, without the restrictions of practicality. No need to worry about fuel economy or saleability, no need to worry about whether or not the vehicle is street legal or safe. We're talking about unrestricted freedom to design and build, how could anything be better.

Then it comes time to road test the prototype, this is where all the fun comes to an end and reality comes crashing back down upon us. In fact, this is where the expression "the wheels came off" comes from, and it is a genuine possibility that the wheels will actually come off during the testing. You see, design is limited by certain physical laws, and no matter how the prototype looks in the shop, until it performs on the track, you can never know if the prototype will ever be more than a just an idea or concept.

Each time you drive the prototype, you identify new problems and issues and go "back to the drawing board" to tweak the design just a little to correct for the problems. Each time, the final product is a little more refined and a little more practical. Each new variant on the original design, at least in theory, has fewer and smaller problems until the final product is arrived at. Often, the end result looks little like the original concept, and in many cases, the original design is abandoned altogether in favor of more practical ideas.

Theology is Like a Concept Car

The development of Theology is a lot like the process for taking a car from prototype to showroom, or at least it should be. You see, we spend years sitting in classrooms developing theological constructs and ideas. We research them, study the bible, find scholars who agree with us, write papers and defend them. We sometimes forget that the classroom, the cloister, the seminary, is a theoretical setting. In many cases, it seems, that the development of the ultimate prototype, the most theoretically perfect theology is the end goal, and we forget that Theology was never intended to end in the classroom, or even at the pulpit.

Second Hand Suffering

30 years ago, many people did not believe that it would be possible for a person to get cancer or emphysema or COPD from cigarette smoke when they had never actually smoked a cigarette in their life. But then came the big tobacco trials and medical experts testified that cigarette smoking is hazardous not only to the smoker, but to the people around them who are exposed indirectly to the toxins. Now, we are so keenly sensitive to the dangers posed by second hand exposure that we there is now a movement to ban public smoking altogether.

Just like cigarette smoking causes physical damage to people through exposure to toxic chemicals, traumatic life events cause emotional damage to people exposing them to toxic emotional situations. In the case of emotional trauma, just like cigarette smoking, these toxic emotions not only cause damage to those who experience them first hand, but also can be damaging to those who are exposed to them second hand. My wife and I were talking with a friend of ours, who ministers to people who have been victims of abuse, and it is amazing how few people actually realize the dangers associated with second hand emotional trauma.

Social Justice or Social Programs (Oct Syncroblog)

-"Our country spends more money on the poor than ever before in history and yet we have more people who are poor and homeless than ever before in our history, social justice doesn't work."-

You could see the emotion in my friend's face as he looked across the table, expecting that this statement would bring the conclusion of our discussion. After all, how can you argue with facts, right? Unfortunately for him, this was not the first time I had encountered this argument. After six years of street ministry I have plenty of practice answering similar questions of why this program or that program has not "fixed" the problem of poverty, hunger, or homelessness.

Winter Coat Drive

Once again it is time for the temperature to start falling and along with it, the white stuff we all love so much. While many of us enjoy the snow and cold, for those without homes and heat, it can be a truly dangerous. Each year the Men and Women of Praise Motorcycle Ministry along with More Than A Meal and other ministries collect and distribute directly to those in need winter clothing items and warm blankets.

• Winter Coats any size (adult men is the biggest need)
• Knit Caps or hats 
• Warm Gloves
• Wool or Heavy Socks
• Boots 
• Warm Blankets or Sleeping Bags
• any other item that may help (hand warmers, lamp oil, Coleman propane etc)

You can drop these items off at

• Bikers Church at 1110 E Fillmore on Saturday Nights
• More Than A Meal - Antlers Park Saturday Morning @ 8:30
• Fellowship Bible - 5590 N Nevada Church Sundays or Office hours during the week. 
• Email us to arrange a pick up hisurbanpresence@gmail.com

Please also feel free to join us Saturday mornings at Antler's Park (behind the  Wells Fargo Building on Cascade) @ 8:30 to help distribute these items to those in need.

Pastor FedEx

Welcome

Whether you are a follower of my previous blog or a new reader, welcome to His Urban Presence. I am looking forward to getting back to blogging after more than a year off and am really excited about what God is doing with myself, my family, and the ministries he has entrusted to us here in Colorado Springs. You will find information about how we are serving, posts about how you can become involved in serving, and ideas about better reaching those on society's margins.