Filling the city with prayer for our children

Imagine what might happen if thousands of people joined their hearts and voices in unified prayer for the children - all the children - and especially the most vulnerable children of our city. What if on an agreed upon time, on the first day of a designated week we all prayed for children who live in poverty. Then on Tuesday we all prayed for children trapped in the human trafficking? Then on Wednesday . . . well you get the picture.

A growing group of congregations, para-church ministries and organizations are committed to participating in a Week of Prayer for Children. It's set for August 17-23 - as public schools are getting back into session. There's a prayer guide that provides a daily topic with clear info about what's happening in Houston around that topic along with prayer points and a written pray around that day's topic. The prayer guide will be posted on the web sites of all the participating ministries and organizations - so no one has to go anywhere. We are praying in unity if we are in our prayer closets, our prayer groups, or our congregations.

Would you like to help increase the number of people who are praying in unity for children in August? Here's how you can help.

1. Mark the dates on your calendar.

2. Talk to the pastors of your church or to the leaders of the ministries you are a part of and ask them to consider becoming one of the growing number of sponsors (see current list below).

3. Share this post with others who believe that praying will make a difference.

I'll keep you posted as this unfolds. The current list of sponsors includes:

Chapelwood United Methodist Church

Children at Risk

First Southwest Baptist Church

Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church

Grace Community Church

Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church

Grace Presbyterian Church

Houston Coalition Against Human Trafficking

Houston Prays

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Mission Houston

Somebody Care

St John's UMC Downtown

Sterlingwood Church

St Lukes UMC

The Fellowship of Memorial

Union Baptist Association

Young Life Houston

Missional communities and the business sector

Mission Houston is creating a community of missional leaders who are committed to the transformation of the greater Houston area.  This morning I had breakfast with two guys who own a medical records business and their friend who runs a 501-c-3 that focuses on discipling young men.  

The purpose of the breakfast - these guys are interested in relocating their business into a low income part of the city.  They want their work life and their faith life to be integrated.  They have a growing conviction that their faith life must, in part,  be lived in a way that allows them to serve the poor, the marginalized, and those in need.

In the Mission Houston community we hold a deep belief that the transformation of our city is dependent on several factors.  One of the key factors is getting the church outside of the walls of the local congregation, getting believers into ongoing relationships with the poor, the marginalized, and those in need.

We are currently involved in an intensive planning process in which we are considering setting a goal of asking God to use this ministry to give birth to 500 missional communities in the next 10 years. 

Today I'm giving thanks to God for stirring the hearts of these three men.  Today I'm praying that God will stir the desire that is resident in these guys.  I'm asking Him to help them find other partners.  I'm pray for God to complete what He has begun in them, and ask him to raise up more and more men and women with this kind of desire.  Would you pray with me today?

A Week of Prayer for Children

You Are Invited!!!

If you believe that informed, united, intercessory prayer can alter the course of the lives of children, and if have a passion for making a difference in the lives of at-risk children, then join A Week of Prayer for Children and participate in The Leadership Summit!  This is an ideal opportunity for those who lead congregations, children’s ministries, or for those who participate as prayer and outreach leaders.  It is also focused on leaders in the private sector with concern for the future of our children.

A Week of Prayer for Children, August 16-23, 2009

A prayer guide will be available by July 1^st via the Internet from any of the sponsoring groups for all who want to pray in unity around specific, identifiable needs of our children.  The guide focuses on 7 systemic issues facing children in the greater Houston area.  There is no need to go anywhere.  Pray wherever you are! Pray in your prayer closet, at family devotion time, in small groups, at work, and in your congregation.  Do so with the knowledge that your voice is being joined in informed, unified prayer with thousands of others across the area.

 A Leadership Summit, Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Did you know that Houston is ranked among the lowest in the nation among cities regarding several critical aspects of caring for children?  The Summit will provide up-to-date information on the issues and current needs of at-risk children; it will highlight practical ways to respond; it will mobilize prayer for the children of our city; and it will draw media attention to the needs of children.

The Summit will be held at the facilities of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer, Houston, TX, 77027 from 11am – 1pm.  Hear a presentation of key information regarding at-risk children in the Greater Houston area and join your voice with others in a united season of informed prayer. 

Sponsors

The Summit is sponsored by a growing number of congregations and ministries including:  Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Grace Community Church, Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church, Houston Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Houston Prays, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Mission Houston, St Luke’s United Methodist Church, and Union Baptist Association.  If you would like to join the list of sponsors, contact Jim Herrington at jim@missionhouston.org.

The cost of lunch at the Summit is $10.  To register go to this link. 

Giving up the politics of division

At the core of the core of Mission Houston is the belief that demonstrated, practical unity in the Body of Christ is perhaps the key factor in creating a spiritual climate that would invite God's presence and attract others to his Kingdom.  And from my perspective, one of the most powerful things that stands in the way of that kind of unity is the way the political discourse in our country takes place among people who are self-identified follows of Jesus.

It may surprise you, but some of my closest friends and followers of Christ loved George Bush and were deeply supportive of his policies.  It may surprise you, but some of my closest friends and followers of Christ love Barrack Obama and are deeply supportive of his policies.  How we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, disagree with each other sends a powerful message to the world.

There are many ways in which I disagree with what our governments (local, state, national) do, and I believe that being personally informed and involved in the political process is important. But, we must learn to engage in a way that honors Jesus teachings.  Jesus is honored neither by fear mongering or hate mongering.  I'm afraid that the unchurched world often looks at us and says, "Those Christians - another political action group that uses all the same tactics that other lobbyist do simply to get what they want."

I don't know - have never met-  Gil Lain, the Pastor at Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, Texas.  I'm pretty sure that we disagree on some important political issues.  But he preached a sermon on May 31 entitled Christian Citizenship that a friend shared with me.  It's worth listening to (click on the link) - for every person who wants to see unity - authentic, biblical, purposeful unity come to the Church.  I urge you to listen to it.  I heard it like a word from the Lord.

We've got to give up being afraid.  God is on his throne and is at work in and through the person who is President, Governor, and Mayor - when I agree or when I disagree with these people.  I believe that He is honored when I disagree with respect and civility.  When I act from fear or hate, I not only dishonor the one I call Lord, I contribute to another layer of resentment and cynicism that the unchurched world sees.

Befriended by the poor

Nothing has impacted my life as a follow of Jesus like becoming friends with people who are poor - not reading the Bible, not worship, not prayer - though all of these have had impact. Nothing has changed me like being befriended by the poor people.  (I know the pc language to use today is "the under served." I'm not sure what that means. When I say the poor, I mean people who don't have the monetary capacity to get the basic necessities of life - enough food, shelter, and clothing.)

I've always known that Jesus was deeply concerned about the poor. I attempted to obey his teachings about the poor by compartmentalizing the teaching (this is one of the thing I do as a follower of Jesus) rather than seeing that the his teaching about the poor are in everything - absolutely everything - that he was about. When I went to that compartment, I checked it off by doing a "service project."

The journey has been long and hard but over time God allowed me to be befriended by poor people. In the early days, I still saw the relationship as me having something that they needed. Over time God convicted me of my arrogance and called me to live in community with some poor people. As I gave myself to his direction, I discovered that I need the poor at least as much, if not more, than they need me. 

These friendships provided me with ears to hear the Gospel in ways that I'd never heard it before. When I live in my affluent, materialistic world, I become blind to what is so about me. My friends who are poor help me see my deep commitment to ease and convenience. They help me see how selfish and materialistic I am; how much in control I want to be of when I serve; how judgmental I can be. These have all been hard things. For me they have been a Refiners Fire that I deeply needed and need on a regular basis.  Today I am grateful for these friendships.

Repenting –especially to some pastor friends

At lunch yesterday a friend reported a conversation he had with another pastor who I consider a friend.  The gist of the conversation went like this:  “He thinks you think that house churches are the only effective way to reach people, and he thinks you think that the he’s a bad pastor and a bad person because he is plugging away pretty successfully in a local congregation.”

So, let me set the record straight.  I am a pastor of a house church, and I think that it is one of the effective ways to reach people in our city today – especially in this context.  Not everyone serves in this context, so it is my clear belief that it takes all kinds of congregations to reach a city.

I think what is underneath this conversation (and I’m posting about it because I hear this from time to time) is that I bring two really clear convictions that I share over and over again. 

First, I have a clear conviction that congregations – of all types including house churches – are overrun with Christian consumers.  I believe this is a long-standing reality that splashed onto the scene as an unintended consequence of the church growth movement in the 1970s.  And the impact on local congregations of all types has been devastating.  The result is that congregations have become more internally focused and more entertainment driven.  They have less impact on our culture and increasingly produce people who look more like the culture than they do like Jesus.  These are not just my opinions; they are well-researched facts that are being written about and reported - ubiquitously – by the Christian and secular media in our country.

Second, I have a clear conviction that pastors, including me, are a product of that consumer reality.  Consequently, we often fail to stand as well-differentiated leaders who lead congregations to be salt and light in the places where the culture and the Kingdom are clearly at odds.  Increasingly the culture doesn’t see us as a force to be reckoned with but a self-interest group that has to be managed.  They don’t see us as compassionate leaders who are committed to the common good.  They view us as self-interested groups who take from the common good but give little back. Again, these are not just my opinions; they are well-researched facts.

I say all of this, not as one who stands apart, casting self-righteous stones because I’m doing what others are not.  I say this – I write about it – I teach out it – to continuously confront myself.  I live in the same culture and face the same temptations that every other pastor faces.  Sometimes the Lord gives me strength to overcome those temptations.  Often, I fail.  I confront myself so that there can be space for Jesus to conform me to His image.

The conversation that was reported to me yesterday makes it clear that my convictions are offensive to some.  I don’t apologize for the convictions.  I do apologize to any pastor – to any person – who has heard me express those convictions in a way that seemed like I had this all worked out while believing that others don’t.   I can be an assertive, arrogant man.  The Lord has been working on that in me for a lifetime, and one of my daily prayers is that He would let me be a man of courageous conviction who is also a man of compassionate humility.

If you are one I’ve offended, I repent – not for the convictions but for the way in which they are communicated.  And if you’d tell me that I’ve offended you, I’d like to come to you personally to make things right.  

Greater Things are Yet to Come!

I rarely do long posts like this.  Today we had our annual Gala for Mission Houston where we cast vision for what God is doing through the Mission Houston ministry.  If you want to know about 2008/2009 results or to know how we plan to build momentum, take the 10 minutes it will take to read it.  The theme for our gathering was “Greater Things Are Yet to Come.”

A year ago on behalf of the Mission Houston team I stood before a similar gathering and for the first time in a public setting gave voice to something that Mission Houston believes God has called us to do.  I said, “We give our word to the transformation of the public schools in the Greater Houston area.” 

It’s a God sized goal, and we are crystal clear that (1) it is God who transforms, not us and (2) it is a promise that we can’t keep in our own strength nor can we keep it without many partnerships being formed across the Body of Christ over the next decade.  But, we believe by faith - that is demonstrated by works - that God is able and that He has called us to this assignment.  We are deeply driven by a core belief that when God unifies and mobilizes his Body in this city, anything is possible.

So, we want to say it again today.  The most vulnerable children in our city congregate on a daily basis in public schools across the Greater Houston area.  Though competent teachers and caring administrator serve them, the load that is carried by those employed by the schools is too great.  The Church can and must come along side these children and their leaders to help lift the load.  And so, we are renewing today our promise to follow what we believe to be God’s leadership in giving our word that the public schools in our city will be transformed over the next decade.

God’s word says “don’t despise small beginnings.”  Following the wise counsel of our Board of Directors, the Mission Houston staff started small in eight schools in five school districts under the title of “Whole and Healthy Children Initiative,” and we launched that initiative in two ways.

First, we launched Whole and Healthy Children as a programmatic challenge to put feet to our faith in eight specific elementary schools.  We call it the 4M’s – the first M, a promise to provide up to 100 mentors for kindergartners through third grade.  The second M is mobilizing prayer - one intercessor for each child being mentored.  The third M is an annual makeover – a work project around landscaping, building, or painting, and the fourth M is up to $10,000 for use in priorities of the faculty and administration in each school. 

Bob Chenoweth, one of our Faithwalking graduates leads a team of people in the Bellaire/SW community who are working in Shearn and Gordon Elementary in HISD.  This team has developed a collaborative relationship with the administration in both of those schools, and are connecting with individuals, congregations and businesses there to mobilize volunteers to do the 4Ms.  Just last weekend this team held a hugely successful workday at Shearn.  Today we celebrate the real, measurable progress this team has made over the past year.

Bob Livingston completed our Faithwalking training and from his place of work at Kirby Corporation has helped lead his company to embrace the Whole and Healthy Children initiative and has successfully mobilized seven mentors from Kirby’s Channelview office to serve as mentors at Cloverleaf Elementary in the Galena Park School district.

When the efforts in all eight schools are compiled, here’s where we are.

A year ago we began this process with 18 mentors – one year later we have 117.  One year ago we did not have any specifically enlisted intercessors – today we have 38.  One year ago we had done one make-over project – one year later we’ve done 7 of them.  One year ago we had not raised any money for the schools – today $20,000 has been given to our focus schools for their use and another $15,000 was raised for work projects requested by the principals. 

So you can see that in this first full year we have made progress.  As Jim Collins says in “Good to Great in the Social Sectors,” the flywheel has begun to move.

Second the Whole and Healthy Children initiative is an umbrella vision under which folks with many different kinds of passions in the Body of Christ can join in this effort.   Terry Richter is an example of this.  He completed our Faithwalking training and as the co-owner of Unified Resource Inc. came back to his community where he mobilized a Nigerian Soccer Coach, the juniors and seniors on the soccer team at Houston Christian High School, and the young people at Grace Presbyterian Church to put on a soccer league for children in Chambers Elementary in the Alief School District. 

Bob Baldwin is another example.  Out of his Faithwalking experience, he helped mobilize the Body of Christ in the Tomball area.  In a mobile home park for first generation Hispanics he and a team of people are helping the children of these immigrants to have consistent help with homework three afternoons a week while also helping parents learn English as a second language. 

These are but two of a growing number of folks who, stirred by a vision of raising a generation of Whole and Healthy Children, are finding a way to engage outside of our programmatic initiative.

So Whole and Healthy Children is both a program that we are offering through the public schools and it is a vision that we are challenging the whole Body of Christ to find a way to connect to.  Imagine with us what would happen if a growing number of people in the Body of Christ gave their word – to mentor, to pray, to conduct work projects, to give – imagine the real possibility of a generation of whole and healthy children.

We are celebrating some initial short-term wins today!  But short-term wins are not enough.  Is it possible for us to sustain this initiative over a decade in a way that really results in transformation? Obviously, we are convinced, but what’s next. How do we move ahead, building momentum toward a growing set of results that will build confidence and hope?  We have three answers for you today.

First, it is our deep conviction that to see this transformation occur, we must be personally and individually transformed.  God designed us to have shared stewardship over the common good and declares that our highest purpose is realized in life when we give our lives away for those who have no power – the vulnerable, the marginalized, and the poor.  You find these words in Jeremiah 9:23-24.  This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”

Our Faithwalking experience is the entry point that can lead you down the pathway to personal transformation.  We will equip you to more faithfully and effective serve the common good out the places of your best gifting and passion.  Faithwalking is not another ministry of Mission Houston.  It is the heart of the heart of our calling.  The public schools will not be transformed until a critical mass of us are personally transformed to a new life of sacrifice and service for the common good.  Faithwalking will equip and empower you for that journey.  We have a small and growing number of stories of personal transformation, and one of our great hopes today is that many of you will become a part of the Faithwalking movement.

Second, we must be accountable.  Mission Houston is 10 years old as a ministry, and until recently we have not done a good job of tracking metrics that measure success.  That has changed for us this year.  Today we have attempted to model our change of behavior.  We’ve given our word that God will transform the public schools in our city.  As a result, we have chosen key metrics of progress that we will track and measure at the individual and corporate levels.  We are going to regularly report progress.  If you give us your contact info today on the response cards, we will regularly be accountable to you – when the news is good and when it is not.  We believe God uses this kind of accountability to inspire, to teach, and to guide. 

Third, we must be learners.  We are crystal clear that we don’t know all that we need to know in order to faithfully achieve God’s purposes.  We are developing learning communities at the citywide level and around individual schools in specific communities in the Greater Houston area.  In these learning communities we are fostering the kinds of relationships where truth telling, authenticity, shared experience, and mutual support results in transformational learning.  We invite you to help us learn by finding a place to contribute your time, your prayers, and your money and then regularly giving us feedback about your experience.  Sign up for Faithwalking.  Volunteer in one of our focus schools as a mentor or an intercessor. 

I stand before you today confident that with your support God is going to transform the schools in our city.  Within ten years we will be in 135 schools who have over 13,000 mentors and intercessors who are helping lift the load along side principals and faculty and parents.  School buildings will be beautiful places of learning and school leaders will have additional financial resources to fund their goals.  It’s in His heart and He is able.  I don’t – we don’t - fully see the way forward.  But we are confident that what you are seeing and hearing today are the next steps God is calling us to and we are stepping out in faith to do that – to serve, to connect, to report, to share, to learn.   

We are trusting that as we do our part, and you do yours, there is coming a day when we will collectively shout for joy as God’s renown will increase in the city because his kindness, justice and righteousness is experienced by the poorest and most vulnerable children in the city.  Greater things truly are yet to come.