searching the sunsets

What Do You Think?

I'm currently working on a case study for one of my classes. It involves forgiveness. One of the "highly suggested books" to read is called Unpacking Forgiveness by Chris Brauns.  It's an interesting book. The basic premise is that we are not called to forgive a person until they repent and ask for it. He states that is called Biblical forgiveness. He believes that forgiveness and reconciliation can never be separated and can only be given to a person who wants to be forgiven. He believes that Christians should always be ready to forgive.

He defines forgiveness as a commitment by the offended to pardon graciously the repentant from moral liability and to be reconciled to that person, although not all consequences are necessarily eliminated. (pp. 72)

His three basic ideas about forgiveness when dealing with an unrepentant offender are:

1. Resolve not to take revenge
2. Proactively show love
3. Don't forgive the unrepentant,  but leave room for the wrath of God.

Of course, his third principle is the most controversial. He  quotes Romans 12: 17-21, especially verse 19 as his proof text. THose verses say,

¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. ¹⁸If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"^[d]says the Lord. ²⁰On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."^{[e] 21}Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (emphasis his)

So,  I know this is kind of unfair since you haven't read the book (or maybe some of you have) but I'm curious what are you thoughts about his definition and his principles of dealing with the unrepentant person? Please don't assume that I agree or disagree with the guy. I had to read the book and apply it the case study. I'm chewing on that paper now. I'll look forward to your thoughts.

The book can be found at Amazon here.

How Emotionally Connected Are You?

I’m reading a great book right now called “Hold Me Tight” by Dr. Sue Johnson. In it, she gives this quiz. She calls it the A.R.E. quiz. I’m curious what your answers are. How many are true and how many are false. There are no right or wrong answers.

Please answer these questions from your perspective; there are no right or wrong answers.

1.    I can get my partner’s attention easily. T F

2.    My partner is easy to connect with emotionally. T F

3.    My partner shows me that I come first to him/her T F

4.    I am not feeling lonely or shut out in this relationship T F

5.    I can share my deepest feelings with my partner. He/she will listen. T F

6.    If I need connection and comfort, he/she will be there for me. T F

7.    My partner responds to signals that I need him/her to come close T F

8.    I find I can lean on my partner when I am anxious or unsure T F

9.    Even when we fight or disagree, I know that I am important to my partner and we will find a way to come together

10.    If I need reassurance about how important I am to my partner I can get it. T F

11.    I feel very comfortable being close to, trusting my partner T F

12.    I can confide in my partner about almost anything T F

13.    I know that my partner cares about my joys, hurts, and fears T F

14.    I feel safe enough to take emotional risks with my partner   T F

Oh Come On This is Funny

I know people are going to get mad at me and I don't know that this signifies I'll actually be blogging anytime soon but this is a funny vid.

Busy or Lazy?

I found this today via a typepad network.

"There's a Buddhist teaching," one of our friends on the mailing list writes, "that the impulse to stay busy can be a particularly insidious form of laziness. As Sogyal Rinpoche put it:

There are different species of laziness: Eastern and Western. The Eastern style is like the one practised in India. It consists of hanging out all day in the sun, doing nothing, avoiding any kind of work or useful activity, drinking cups of tea, listening to Hindi film music blaring on the radio, and gossiping with friends. Western laziness is quite different. It consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so there is no time at all to confront the real issues. This form of laziness lies in our failure to choose worthwhile applications for our energy."

HT: N-Judah

Busy or Lazy?

I found this today via a typepad network.

"There's a Buddhist teaching," one of our friends on the mailing list writes, "that the impulse to stay busy can be a particularly insidious form of laziness. As Sogyal Rinpoche put it:

There are different species of laziness: Eastern and Western. The Eastern style is like the one practised in India. It consists of hanging out all day in the sun, doing nothing, avoiding any kind of work or useful activity, drinking cups of tea, listening to Hindi film music blaring on the radio, and gossiping with friends. Western laziness is quite different. It consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so there is no time at all to confront the real issues. This form of laziness lies in our failure to choose worthwhile applications for our energy."

HT: N-Judah

Great Quote #90

"You know you've made God in your own image when He hates all the same people that you do."

~Anne Lamott

HT: Allen Hirsch

It's About Control

Sometimes, I get really frustrated in the internet world. I read stuff that people say about friends of mine and it's disgusting.  I mean, most of the time I laugh it off but then there are other times when it really bothers me. Then there are the real life conversations where someone who has never been to my church tells me what my church believes because he read on the internet something that was written by an angry burnt-out woman with a radio program, a pastor who's denomination considers him so toxic that they're planting a church down the road from him or a guy that has an under-grad degree in languages--all of which have never been to our church.

Then we get into the Nooma's. Usually goes like this:
Them: So...do you have any Nooma's?
Me: Yeah, not all of them. I don't have that kind of cash
Them: Well, you know in the ___________ one, Rob says ____________.  (Just fill in the blanks with any number of things).
Me: Really? He actually said that?
Them: Well, no he didn't say that but he asked questions that could lead people to believe that! And that is just as dangerous.

It always cracks me up. Where is the approved list of questions that people can ask? Why do we even have such a list? Actually, I know the answer to that one. This list was created because in any system there are questions we can't answer.  So we come up with some pat answers that take the wrestling out of it because we're afraid to let people wrestle. We're afraid that they might disagree with us in their conclusions.
It
is
about
CONTROL.

The uncontrollable scares us. It reminds us of our finiteness. It's why people won't fly, and some won't allow their kids out of their line of site. It's why some parents smother their kids-an action that almost always ends up causing the kids to not know how to behave as Adults.

Tonight I was reading a new blog that feels it's god-given calling is to take the part of Satan and act as the accuser of the brethren. In one post they seem to think that they are Rob and another pastor from California's manager at MacDonalds, which is dumb on so many levels but in another post they at least have the guts to admit that they just don't want questions asked. They want answers. They want spoons to feed their people. I respect that (but I still won't link to it in keeping with my own policy).

There's a movie out. It's not that good but it has a line that is appropriate for this post. The movie is called Days of Thunder. In it, Nicole Kidman tells Tom Cruise that control is nothing more than an illusion. To bad, the word never got out to those that want to banish questions from the church. Here's a newsflash: banning questions isn't going to stop people from asking them. They'll just continue to ignore you and go to churches where they can find other who are wrestling with those questions. Where they can find healing. Hate and backbiting loses. It lost the day Jesus died on the cross and it was destroyed the day he rose again.

Love Wins.

Here We Go

This summer has been incredibly busy and good. So much has happened that I haven't been able to put on this blog. Things seem to be coming together for the school year and beyond. I cannot believe I will be done with school next May. :) Tonight begins another phase of the process. I have my first meetings for my practicum (think internship light).
In the meantime I'm looking forward to sharing some of the stuff I'm learning from Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence. I've been reading it slowly but surely since Christmas. It's that good. I may even read it a second time.

It's Unanimous, Facebook, Twitter and So Called Social Networking Sites are EVIL!

One of the best things I did was "friend" Tim Stevens on Facebook. I've never met Tim, but I like him. For a lot of reasons. I love how he obviously loves his family and his job. Just typing his name sets the self proclaimed watchdogs of the internet into a frothy lather of rabid like blogging and barking. He's at Granger Community Church, which had the good fortune of helping the online discernment community to come clean about the fact that they only want people in church who agree with them. Everyone else can just stay home until they die and promptly go to Hell.
 He's also a pretty good blogger. In fact, I'm one of those guys that only reads a handful of blogs and I do that through a feed. I wasn't really reading Tim's blog much, except for when people would link to him or say something on the evil site facebook. Soon, I realized I was going over to check on what he was writing and decided to add his blog to my feed. /little commercial for why you should add his blog to your own reader.

Today's post was about the supposed evils of facebook and twitter. I get so full of the tired old arguments that get trotted out by people about something that either (a) they can't handle or (b) they don't understand. You can read Tim's post by clicking here. Here's the money quote:

What? That’s like asking, “How effective would my refrigerator be at grilling a hamburger?” or “What would happen if I used my golf clubs to play tennis?”

N.T. Wright on a Christian Ethic of Blogging

My friend and fellow PSU fan shared this great quote with me from Tom Wright. There is a lot of people spreading hate in the name of Jesus and ministry in the blog world. Here's the quote:

Test this out.  Go to the blogsites, if you dare.  It really is high time we developed a Christian ethic of blogging.  Bad temper is bad temper even in the apparent privacy of your own hard drive, and harsh and unjust words, when released into the wild, rampage around and do real damage.  And as for the practice of saying mean and untrue thing while hiding behind a pseudonym - well if I get a letter like that it goes straight in the bin.  But the cyberspace equivalents of road rage don’t happen by accident.  People who type, vicious, angry, slanderous and inaccurate accusations do so because they feel their worldview to be under attack.  Yes, I have a pastoral concern for such people.  (And, for that matter, a pastoral concern for anyone who spends more than a few minutes a day taking part in blogsite discussions, especially when they all use code names:  was it for this that the creator God made human beings?)  But sometimes worldviews have to be shaken.  They may become idolatrous and self-serving.  And I fear that that has happened, and continues to happen, even in well-regulated, shiny Christian contexts - including, of course, my own.  John Piper** writes, he tells us, as a pastor. So do I.

Too true.

What To Do, What to do, what to do

I don't know what to do with my blog. I heard a really good quote this past week and I've got a few posts sitting in my folder for such things but I haven't had much motivation to actually post anything for a while. I'm not sure why. The truth is that I've hardly written anything not work related at all this summer.

Part of the problem is that I'm not sure what direction I want to take this blog. Right now for instance, there is a man that has some very nasty followers on his blog and he has linked to this blog. Well, that would seem to stop me from putting up anything related to my kids as you never know what hyper fundamental people like that might do.

Then that actually begs the whole question of blogging. I have thoughts that are not completely formed and as I write them, I know that someone somewhere is going to want to argue about it or someone will take offense. I mean, let's say that I wrote about our last church in Ohio, my perspective is probably completely different from at least some of the people who might read it. This is probably true of the thoughts I would consider completely formed and those I wouldn't think of in that manner.

For the most part, this blog has kind of gone in whatever direction I was feeling at the time I was writing and I assume I'll probably stay in that vein. I've thought about having themed posts, SOC posts, and even shutting down and blogging completely anonymously.

I worry that blogging actually makes me a more poor writer than it helps me in my writing.

If I boil it down, I think that I'm just at a low level of tired. We've been pushing hard for quite a while now and I'm not sure I have the energy to engage all the way around. I'm definitely not to the point where I "have to blog about this." I've been there before and I've been here before. What does that mean for the future of me blogging? I don't know but I thought I should put up some sort of explanation.

Little Diddy From Rob

It has some all fired up, but that goes with the territory I suppose. Enjoy

Enjoying country life

Expecting The Best, Joe

100 Bible Stories 100 Bible Songs: A Review

This book has been a huge hit around my house. My girls love it. It has provided a wonderful rhythm to the end of our day. My wife has been reading a story each night to the kids. Both mom and girls look forward to it as a way to transition to bedtime. 
Each story comes with the book and chapter of the Bible it is taken from for parents who might want to read the story strait from the text. As do all books written for children, this book has to wrestle with many of the Old Testament stories.
The CD will remind older users (such as myself) of the old Uncle Charlie LP’s. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t too many songs on there that I didn’t know. The CD is the exact kind of corny and cheesy that is necessary to draw in two and three year olds. That said, even my 6 year old enjoyed the book and I believe the CD.  There is a rousing version of “Father Abraham.” For those who are looking for a fun book that teaches the basic truths of Scripture this is a must have book. I highly recommend, as does my clan.

test

This is just a test. Seeing how feasible mobile blogging would be while I wait for the afternoon session to start

Stark Raving Obedience: Are You Crazy Enough?

Do you want a free book? Do you have a blog? Have you bought something from Amazon? If you answered yes to any of these questions email me. I have a friend who wrote a book on praying and I need people to review it. Short, easy read. FREE book. Should be a great conversation.

Communion: Mars Style, LOVE WINS

Mars is an amazing place. The grace and healing that people have found there has been/is/and will no doubt continue to be absolutely amazing. One of the most amazing things you can experience is a Sunday where we participate in the ancient ritual of communion. There is always a large cross in the middle of the shed (the area you probably refer to as the auditorium or sanctuary). People come up and pray and we sing. It has been proven to be an extremely moving time for my wife and I in the few years we've been here at Mars.

This past Sunday we finished a series on forgiveness. If you're not a regular podcaster you may want to consider downloading the last three weeks.  They were amazing. This past Sunday we were asked to bring to the cross the names of the people we struggle forgiving and another list putting it at the foot of cross in a symbolic gesture. (On a side note, I love all the things we do that we tried to do in Ohio).

Near the end, I took a picture of it for my twitpic. I thought I'd share it with you here today. Sometimes, I get really frustrated with the things I read about Mars or when I get in conversations with people who tell me what we believe even though, they've never been to Mars. I actually had a guy tell me that he heard we dont' have any crosses in the building. Most of the time, I have as a policy that I don't discuss Mars or Rob online because most of the people don't really want to discuss they want to prosecute. But today I am going to share this because LOVE WINS.
Grace and Peace

Tim Stevens Asking a Great Question

If you spend any time at in the blogosphere and happen to come across some self-proclaimed discernment type blogs, you've no doubt heard about Granger's reveal study that they did last year. Big bold letters will proclaim, GRANGER COMMUNITY CHURCH PRODUCING FALSE CONVERTS!!!!

Never mind all the delicious irony that could be examined in these bloggers. They start that beating their chests, and slapping their palms down to the self study that Granger did. For one example go here. For more just google it or click here to see my google results.

Tim Stevens (one of the pastors at Granger) has finally asked the question I've been wondering for these past months. Essentially, my question was "So What?" Tim is much nicer than me. He says,

You gotta help me here, cause I don't get the problem...

What is wrong with having a gathering every week where half the people who are in attendance don't yet understand salvation by grace?

Where do we want them to go? The bar? The local golf course? To bed? Don't we want them in church where they're hearing the word fo God? Don't we want them meeting other Christians? So tell me what you think. Help me and Tim out, if you don't want them in church on Sunday mornings where do you want them?

You Gotta Watch Those Pesky Hymns...

Please note if you are reading this on Facebook, the links probably will not work. Feel free to go to my blog and enjoy the fun.

Sometimes, I admit I am astounded by what I read online. For instance, this blogger who is a pastor and has been around these parts in the past believes that "The Church's One Foundation" should be removed from our hymnals. Now, my church doesn't have hymnals but we do sing hymns frequently, so I guess he just doesn't want us to sing it. Why? Well, He says this:

The first one on my list is The Church’s One Foundation. One of the last verses mentions the Church’s “mystic sweet communion.” I’m really not sure what this meant at the time of writing, but am pretty sure I don’t believe what it means now!

Now, here's the lyrics:

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the Word:

From heav’n He came and sought her
To be His holy Bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;

One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

‘Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;

Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won:

O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
In love may dwell with Thee.

I imagine this could be some sort of humor or joke, but I doubt it.

It's a Tie...

Too Funny

What Do You Think?

Can a person who is not a Christian or Christ follower, understand the Scriptures as God intended them to be understood?

Seven Years

Seven years ago today my mom died. I’ll never forget the phone call. My Dad called me, which wasn’t that unusual since my mom had been in the hospital for 6+ months and had been getting worse in the last weeks. I knew as soon as I heard his voice. I was vacuuming the carpet. I went back to vacuuming when I hung up the phone. It seems odd, I know but I didn’t know how you were supposed to act when you find out that your mom has died.  In fact, I went in and waited tables at Olive Garden that afternoon. I was supposed to work a double but only worked a few hours’ of the first shift. I don’t think it actually hit me until later that fall. Sitting here today, I cannot believe that it has been seven years! In the last 7 years a lot has happened.

•    I’ve moved twice
•    I’ve had three children
•    I’ve started grad school
•    I’ve left vocational ministry
•    I’ve bought a house, a car and quite a few small farm animals
•    My Dad and I have fought for and achieved restoration in our relationship
•    My brother has stopped talking to the family
•    My sister has moved to Pa.
•    My Dad’s been remarried and moved out of the house that I grew up in

I could make that list pretty long.  Of course, there’s a much longer list of all the things I loved and miss about my mom.  The smell of the house when you would walk in and invariably she would be cooking. To this day, when I cook with olive oil and garlic my hands small like hers did. She loved to laugh. She was a prayer warrior. She loved to reminisce. She loved kids, all kids. She was a great woman and I miss her.

I'm sure her death has effected me in ways I still can't accurately understand. She'll never get to meet my kids, which seems pretty freaking cruel to me seeing as how that was all she ever wanted was to have grandchildren. My 4y.o. reminds me of her almost every day. She looks like her, and she even has mannerisms like her. As my wife said just the other day, "Genetics are a scary thing."

Of course, my mom's death probably saved my Dad. That is probably another completely different post for another day, but my Dad is a completely changed man from who he was 7 years ago. He has made some very hard and difficult changes for the positive. On some level that is the most ironic part of all of this for me. My mom was all about helping people be better, she never met anyone she wouldn't help out. Even in her death, in a very real sense she saved my Dad. My mom was the queen at teachable moments. She knew what advice to give and when to just ask questions. As I got older, she knew when to just listen--which given some of my exploits is perhaps the largest testimony to her belief in God and prayer. She used to always tell me, "You can't stop me from praying..." True that, true that.
Thanks again Mom, I miss you and love you.

Did God Really Say...?

"You have told us what is good, and what the Lord requires of us: to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8) – the best ‘little creed’ summarizing Judeo-Christian spirituality and ethical behavior! See Jesus’ paraphrase – Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42. If social justice/ love/godly obedience comprise the prophet’s and Jesus’ creed, why are they absent in Christian Creeds/Statements of Faith?"

-Rowland Croucher

Stu Del thinks that's a good question. I think it's because we live as though we're asking the same question that was asked way back in the garden...What do you think?

Actions and Words

I am convinced that people’s words are often meaningless. To be blunt, the things people say don’t usually matter all that much.  I’ve written about this before.  I once heard a guy say that there are two things that truly demonstrate what is important to us: our checkbook and our schedule.  A lot of people got really angry when he said that. I used to just think it was true. Now, I am certain it is true.

The guy who says spending time with his kids is important but never actually does is lying to himself and others. The person who says that gathering with other believers regularly but never does is lying. The guy who says writing is important to him and never actually does is lying. Wait, that last guy is me. Writing is important to me but I didn’t do it much this semester. So, I can deduce that writing isn’t as important to me as school and other stuff that I had to get done this past school year. For as much people talk about urban missions, and social justice or missional living, their actions say something else entirely.

 I found time to exercise and eat better when it became more important to me than other things. I think a lot of times people believe that things are important to them and in some sort of theoretical way it probably is. I also think they over estimate the place of importance that thing holds in their life.  Working with an organization that is concerned with Social Justice and Urban issues has reinforced this in my mind.

If I had the proverbial nickel for everyone I knew who said they were concerned with Social and Urban issue, I’d be…well you know how that one ends. But this issue, is just like a lot of other issues, most of the people who say they are passionate about it, are more concerned about other things.  I’m not here to say if it’s right or wrong. I imagine for some people they are concerned about other pretty important issues, and I imagine that for some people they are concerned about some fairly unimportant things. Either way, as I meet people and tell them about what I do they invariably show interest. I immediately begin to wonder internally what they will actually do when the rubber hits the road. Will they actually do something or will they just be full of talk?

I think because of where I live (regionally, not actual address) issues like urban missions and social justice are sexy. It sounds good to talk about being concerned with such issues. The problem is that both issues are messy, they are consuming. I was watching Intervention on Hulu a couple of weeks ago. I noticed something. All of the addicts talked about how much they wanted to stop their activity. One girl was crying because she had just failed a urine test and was facing jail time. As she’s walking out of the police precinct she says, “Well, I need to find someone to get high with.” That’s an extreme example of what I’m talking about but it illustrates the point fairly well. In the show, each addict always seems to debate whether or not he or she wants to actually enter into rehab. Why? Don’t they want to stop? Of course, they do. What they are actually decided is whether or not they want to pay the price of going to rehab. Do they want to through the pains of  what rehab entails. Do they want to deal with the stuff behind the addiction that is ugly and hurts? If you've ever been around someone with an addiction they will have 100's or 1000's of reasons why they haven't done anything about it yet.

Areas of service bring up the same questions. Do you really want to put yourself out there? Do you really want to get into the mud and the muck of ministering to others? Of course, it’s rewarding but even Jesus needed to get away and rest, which would seem to imply that he found it to be hard.  The final truth is that people do what is important to them. When people tell me that something is important to them, my new first question is “what have you done about this passion so far?” If the answer is not much, or nothing I tend to think that it isn’t really all that important to them. People make time for what is important to them. Sometimes, what they do coincides with what they say, many times there’s a huge disconnect. Which begs the question: Am I living disconnected? Are you?

UTM: A Letter from Our CEO

As most of you know, I recently started working with a ministry here in Grand Rapids, called Urban Transformation Ministries. Our CEO and founder, Joel Shaffer of course sends out letters and emails to keep our friends and supporters apprised of what is going on. I liked to direct you to our webpage, which is under construction and in process. Go to http://www.utmgr.org.  You can donate there and all of that good stuff. Of course, if you'd like to volunteer to help us, we'd love to have you. Maybe your church would like to take a missions trip where you're teens can get hands on urban missions experience. If so, let me know, I'd love to talk to you about our opportunities for you. Below is Joe's latest letter that he sent out just this week. I hope it serves to introduce you to our ministry.

Friends of UTM,

Sunday night, we got a phone call….You know the one that causes twists and knots in your stomach. We got word that three of our young adult students, Nick, lil’ Ed, and Big Ed had been stabbed in an altercation on Clancy Street .  Apparently a friend of theirs (lil’ Jon) started a fight with someone in the L&L party store, which eventually Nick broke up. Consequently, lil’ Ed and big Ed drove lil’ Jon to his house so that there wouldn’t be any more trouble.  However, the other boy in the fight wasn’t finished yet.  On order from his mother, several of his cousins prowled Clancy St. looking for lil’ Jon.  When they came upon Nick, the group attacked him for helping break up the fight.  After they stabbed Nick in both arms, he finally got away to safety.  But the group’s search wasn’t over.  Eventually the group found lil’ Ed and Big Ed and they attacked them as wel l.  Although lil’ Ed’s wound was non-life threatening, Big Ed was stabbed in the back near the spinal cord and continues to refuse treatment because he is so furious over the situation.  Although the police tried their best to get all the information on this altercation, these students and other witnesses are keeping silent due to the street code which shuns those who snitch. 

  After the police left, the neighborhood was a buzz over the situation.  People from all over the city came out to the community, including several that were not our students. Some of them even brought their “piece” (gun) just in case there was any more trouble.   Three of my student leaders, Davien, Amy, and Mike…also were there in the neighborhood talking several people down that wanted to take revenge because their friends had been stabbed.   The reason that I share with you this recent story is not to frighten anyone, but to reveal the type of inner-city ministry that we are involved with in Grand Rapids .  Often times we are dealing with the violence that you see on the local headline news.  And when people refuse to cooperate with the police, we become a major player in helping quell the violence on the streets.   However, I need to be quite candid with all of you about what I am feeling right now.  We at UTM are feeling discouraged and quite alone as we minister in the ‘hood.  We have tried to raise awareness among churches, businesses, and the community-at-large about what is going on in the ‘hood.  Over the years, we have developed positive and redemptive relationships with several hundred at-risk youth and young adults through our sports outreaches, mentoring, small-group Bible studies, employment assistance, and leadership development.  The fruit of our work can be seen in our student’s lives such as Davien, A my, and Mike who are making a kingdom difference in their ‘hood.  But we continue to have difficulty getting people to rally behind our ministry.    For instance, we are having our sixth annual golf benefit next week on Monday, Jun 22^nd (See www.utmgr.org.) yet the turnout so far is lower than any of the years in which we’ve hosted the outing.  If you own golf clubs, will you consider joining with us on June 22^nd? Your support will not only help us bring needed financial resources into the ‘hood, but it is also one way to show your solidarity with UTM which seeks to counter the violence by redeeming inner-city youth, families and communities through the transforming gospel of Christ.  Or even if you do not golf or are not able to golf that day, would you consider sponsoring someone for $100.00 that would like to golf, but feel they cannot afford it?  We’d like to expose several area pastors to the ministries of UTM and your sponsorship would help us in this endeavor.    Thank you so much for praying for us and walking along side of us during this difficult time.   Serving Jesus in the 'hood,

Joel Shaffer, Executive Director
Urban Transformation Ministries