Don’t Make Me Sit in a Conference Room!
Maddy and I recently returned from Detroit where we gathered at the “General Assembly” for our denomination - when pastors and elders get together to be equipped and do some work together. You’ll not be surprised to find out that I’m the kind of Presbyterian elder who will gladly worship, will show up in meetings when my voice and vote are expected, and will otherwise spend all my time outside of the conference room connecting!
But you couldn’t even keep us in the building. I wanted to see the neighborhoods of the Detroit church planters, so Maddy, my pastor friend Nancy from CA, and I went down to East Detroit to see Josh, who is a pastor, teacher, and friend to this neighborhood.
There’s so much to celebrate and see as parallels to the work we are and want to do in South Kitsap! The picture here is of the ministry house that the congregation, Abundant Mercy, moved into recently. They have two days of after school discipleship with junior and senior students. We loved seeing the school garden! Josh is a first-year gardener, and the students are loving how much money they’re making from selling collard greens. I’m wanting to take up a seed donation for their garden from the many gardeners God has given us here.
And it was clear to us that Josh’s work is not easy. A parachurch worker lives upstairs due to recent break-ins. At the school, he helps kids who fell behind in the last 2 years try to make up their grades. The government has paid for some spaces to be cleaned up, but it doesn’t seem like the spending has always lined up with the community’s needs, like putting in rental bikes off the park and wide bike lanes when homes are falling apart.
We were able to pray with Josh and ask God for homegrown leadership — a prayer that’s common to us, too!
We prayed for residents for the ministry house and a sense of neighborhood for those who lived there — ditto!
We prayed for the church to thrive and grow, for people to come to know Jesus — Amen!
These trips are so encouraging to see we are not alone.
And neither are you!
This summer we’re focusing on life in our neighborhoods. How can you live like Josh? Are there neighbors you can invite over to your backyard sometime? Is there an outing that would be fun to share with your co-workers? Do you want to come and walk and pray our downtown neighborhood with me? (Tuesday-Thursday at noon!)
We are a church for our neighbors. Let’s make the time and space to be with our actual neighbors this summer!
Looking for ideas? Check out our summer calendar. Want to invite Kitsap House folks and our neighbors to come do something fun with you? Fill out this form to get it on our calendar!
Don’t stay inside. Let’s go out and be with and love our neighbors.