We are rapidly approaching the one year anniversary of our move to Burleson for the purpose of mission work in the south Fort Worth region. I’ve tried to send regular updates over the past months and on the eve of a new school year I submit this expanded description. (If you haven’t gotten our regular updates via email and would like to, let me know!) Great things have occurred in our lives and the life of our community and we’d like to tell you about some of that. I’ll also m
ention up front that our ability to continue in this ministry depends in part on the willingness of other Christians to partner with us. More on that in a minute...
Family
Its amazing how much Conner beginning school has affected our whole family! He loves it - his teacher, Ms Scarpello, is doing a great job helping him take assignments to the next level. Since he's already reading and spelling on a significantly higher level we were concerned about how much trouble he'd be getting into.
Toward the end of the first week he'd starting making comments about the classwork being boring. As soon as his teacher caught wind she immediately began challenging him to do more.
For instance, instead of writing the letter "A" he writes a word that begins with "A" and perhaps draws a picture of that word. We're so glad that God answered our prayers with an attentive and caring teacher for Conner's academic debut!
Micah is attending the pre-K at Burleson CofC (where Conner was last year) and he is also very excited. He is different from Conner in so many ways, but I think they both share a love for school and being around other kids in that type of environment. He is really coming into his own with his crazy imagination. There is no telling what that kid will come up with next.
As for Josiah...I think he is about to give his mother a heart attack. We absolutely love his personality: he's full of fearless curiosity. He climbs and jumps and falls and cries and runs away to climb, jump and fall again. Nothing is safe from this destructosaur anymore! But he is full of life and energy and is growing like a weed. We are a better family because of Jo-Jo.
Meanwhile, our mission work in the south Fort Worth region continues to progress in surprising ways. Our approach is different from that of many church plants in that we are not advertising or placing our focus on a high energy seeker-sensitive Sunday morning worship gathering. Our desire is to 1) reach out to our neighborhoods and community and to 2) connect with those people who would not attend a new church plant’s worship gathering no matter how well advertised or relevant. Many of the people that I’m cultivating relationship with have said in no uncertain terms, “I don’t trust Christians, Church or the God they worship.”
We believe that it is the call of every Christian to live their faith in the midst of people such as these; to love them and to pour themselves out on their behalf. We believe that each Christian is a missionary. That isn’t to say that everyone is an evangelist and must be prepared to give a polished sermon or Gospel presentation. But we should be prepared to give an account of our faith to those who ask (Colossians 4) and mostly we should all be living INTENTIONALLY in such a way that people see our good deeds and are moved to glorify God (Matthew 5:16, 1 Peter 2:12).
And let me tell you, I’ve seen this happen. I have heard it said of people here - as I did in New Orleans during disaster relief work - “If this is what Christians are supposed to be like I may need to rethink my assumptions about God.”
We don’t expect people to carry around gospel tracts or attempt to segue every conversation into a sales-pitch for church - in fact we discourage those inauthentic relationship-killing activities. However, being an undercover Christian isn’t the goal either. We want people to know that Jesus is forming us into precisely the kind of people that they enjoy inviting over for dinner.
Rachel and I are hoping to be able to afford to move into a home in a neighborhood soon where we can invest in relationships in these ways. Currently we are blessed to live on the same property with a Christ Journey family. We have really enjoyed this opportunity to live communally with them (the boys have really loved sharing a swimming pool!) and like the Kennemers in Corpus Christi, Thigpens and Prudes in Dallas, Coalwells and several others in Mandeville, the Myers have become surrogate parents/grandparents to our young family.
Christ Journey
My role here in Burleson/south Fort Worth is primarily that of missionary and equipper of local church planters (more on that in the Shenandoah section). Christ Journey Church is our worshipping community and I am blessed to be able to use my gifts of teaching and preaching (and my still developing musical abilities!) to serve my family.
This first year has given me a chance to work with our spiritual formation process. I’ve developed and implemented two new retreats; worked with Chris to develop a yearly spiritual formation calendar which focuses on the cultivation of rhythm and seasons, with each season anchored by a retreat event. We’ve addressed the focus and rhythm of our house churches, and Chris has done some great work this summer with formation groups (groups of 2, 3 or occasionally more that meet together for prayer, study and shared commitment to mission).
Our formation groups focus on sharing the life of mission together. There is Bible study, discussion and often accountability, but what we’re really emphasizing is participating together in the life of faith. Our formation groups have thrown parties for their disconnected, not-yet-Christian friends; they’ve passed out water to construction workers, planned and instigated community picnics and perhaps most radically, gone across the street to meet their neighbors!
Chris and I continue to share the preaching responsibilities and work together with Ryan Kimball and Debra Osborn in planning our worship gatherings. Chris and I are both ready to address the pastoral needs of Christ Journey and are richly blessed that this community does not sit around and wait for us to do it - caring for one another in times of need is something that Christ Journey does unbelievably well.
Rachel continues working with our preschool children’s ministry and we’re both very committed to the life of our church community. We don’t have a flashy children’s program here. What we do have is a commitment to raising our children as members of Christ’s body; as participants in the community, not merely a tool to attract their parents. It has been great to see our kids find opportunities to serve and worship and play right alongside adults. (The picture on the cover of this packet is from a trip to take cookies to the folks at Trinity Mission Nursing Home.)
The other notable area of Christ Journey ministry that we’re involved in is our connection to and friendship with Harvest House. We continue to volunteer to open the thrift store one Saturday a month and I am excited that word has spread and there is currently another church group considering taking responsibility for a different Saturday each month.
We also continue to invite the volunteers, staff and clients of Harvest House to join us on the last Tuesday of each month at Rosa’s for a shared meal. We aren’t just feeding the poor, we are developing friendships around a shared table.
And, we have been able to take advantage of Chick-Fil-A’s First 100 event to benefit Harvest House and the poor in our area. Whenever a new CFA opens they give away 52 coupons good for a #1 combo to each of the first 100 people in line. It is a big event, people begin lining up 24 hours in advance and the CFA people basically host a big party for those willing to camp out in a parking lot. We decided that if a group were to attend a grand opening they could each give half of their tickets to Harvest House and be able to provide dozens of meals for hungry people, while still taking plenty of coupons home for their family. We’ve attempted this as a group twice now.
We were thwarted the first time by scores of college kids who arrived incredibly early! However, when word got out that we’d driven to Austin only to turn around and drive home, a friend from Tammany Oaks went and told our story to the Covington CFA...and the manager gave her 25 coupons for us to donate to Harvest House! Were recently able to donate another 52. So far that means we’ve provided 77 meals through this little project!
Shenandoah
Our work with the Shenandoah Townhomes community continues to be a source of excitement and encouragement. If you haven’t heard before now, I’ve been working among families in this small community for the past several months. We’ve already planted one house church and the transition of leadership in that house church has happened and a local couple is about to be commissioned to serve as church planters in that community. I am also looking towards the establishment of some new discussion groups, Bible studies and/or house churches through other persons of peace in that community (Matthew 10).
The property manager of Shenandoah is now a member of our current house church and has assured us that when the time comes for several house churches to gather together on a Sunday morning or some other time for worship, the clubhouse is available to them free of charge - provided the gathering is open to all residents of Shenandoah (which is a stipulation I think we can accommodate!)
Members of the Shenandoah house church have started a Neighborhood Watch and organized community picnics this summer. Last spring Robin Hunter (the Hunters are the hosts and new leaders of the house church) started an after-school homework club which we hope will happen again this year. There’s been talk of a support group for single mothers (there are a lot in Shenandoah) and an emergency care team which will help families who experience sudden job loss, serious illness or death, etc.
Our prayer is that through these efforts there will be light where before there was darkness, hope where there was despair and life where there was death.
Denny’s
I love my time at Denny’s. I am now a well known regular; the waitstaff and managers not only tolerate but seem to enjoy my presence. We have great conversations. From what I can gather, for a while I was “that guy who always comes in and drinks coffee.” Then I was “that church guy that doesn’t get in your face about church.” And now to several folks I’m known as “Bret”, I am becoming a part of the community here. There are about 8 people with whom I have developed deeper relationships with and 4 or so that engage me in regular spiritual conversations. It probably isn't appropriate to give much personal detail on my friends in this public setting, but if you'd like to hear stories, I love to tell them!
Huguley Fitness Center
When we moved to Burleson I committed to taking better care of my body. I’ve tried to develop a healthier sleep schedule (which has amounted to waking up earlier...I’m still working on the going to bed earlier part), eating better (I hardly ever have a Dr. Pepper anymore...but I’m not going to research the impact of my coffee intake) and exercising regularly. Chris and I have been trying to play racquetball 4 or 5 days a week for nearly a year now and it has had numerous benefits.
The most exciting part is that we have developed friendships with a large number of people who work and workout there in the mornings - some have even joined us for our Sunday morning worship! While some of our friends are Christians, several are not and I am honored that God has brought me into their lives and them into mine. Recently it seems that the relationships have launched forward and I’m praying that this is the precursor to greater opportunities for us to share in the life of Christ with them.
Since beginning my new work schedule (more on that in a minute) I'm not able to play racquetball much anymore. Hopefully I'll figure out a new exercise routine that will work. For now I pray that God will continue to bless Chris with the opportunity to develop these relationships. Please join me in this prayer.
Doctor of Ministry
This summer I began work on a degree in evangelism from SMU. This is considered a practical or professional degree (meaning its focus is on the practice of ministry more than research) and the whole program is structured around my doctoral project which is the development of a program of intensive on-the-ground training for people interested in church planting and missional/incarnational church leadership. I am very excited and have my eye on a location here in this region where I’d like to focus at least part of this project. More on that in a future update.
Some people have asked if it is a good idea for me to be taking on the expense of a degree at SMU right now, considering our unstable financial situation. It is true that my undergraduate degree came with a large side order of student loans. Since then I have worked very hard to keep my education from being any more of a burden on my family than it has to be. So we took the distance option for grad school which meant I had access to fewer resources but also received an 80% discount on tuition.
SMU is even more affordable because my hard work has been rewarded with a full scholarship during the first half of my course work and a good chance for the second half to be covered as well. We, as a family, have decided that this is indeed a good time to pursue this degree.
Finances
The reality is that finances are an issue for us. When we moved to Burleson last October we had enough money pledged and on hand to cover our full support for four months. Our commitment to working in our neighborhoods and among skeptics and the broken/hurting folks we encounter “as we are going” means that it will likely be some time before Christ Journey is financially self-sustaining.
We’ve discovered that missions committees are struggling to view domestic missions as legitimate place to use missions funds and thus often want to see a thorough business plan leading rapidly to self-sufficiency. While I believe the tide is turning there, it may not happen soon enough. Part of my investment in the D.Min is an attempt to broaden my ability to augment my income. I’ve already had been approached by folks at SMU regarding the possibility of serving as adjunct faculty upon graduation.
I’ve also been involved in training for certification as a church planting/ministry/life coach through Mission Alive’s partnership with CoachNet. This will allow me to invest in church planters and potential missional leaders and also earn some additional money.
Chris and I are also working to offer our 4 retreats to churches and groups outside Christ Journey. We feel that these events, developed to address important areas of spiritual formation, can be beneficial to others. More information on these retreats and their impact is available.
In addition to doing retreats (and weddings!), coaching and (soon) apprentice training it has become necessary for me to consider other part-time employment as well. So I’ve begun substitute teaching as much as 5 days a week in Mansfield.
This means that I don’t have as much time to spend at Denny’s, Starbucks, BABS, Huguley during the day, which has caused a certain amount of sadness and frustration. While I will find other times to invest in these places, the people I’ve gotten to know over the past year are not just numbers to me - they are actual real people; friends who are in these places during the day, that I am already beginning to miss.
I do believe that God will open the door to relationships with faculty and staff in Mansfield ISD, not to mention the connection with the students. If we are able to raise all of our support through fundraising, I still plan to sub once or twice a week as an opportunity to connect with folks in Mansfield. I hope that in a future update I will be describing the growing ministry in Mansfield and the house churches/incarnational communities that have been planted there. I do though, solicit your prayers and support so that we can keep the doors open to ministry begun and invested at Huguley Fitness Center, Denny’s and to a lesser degree JJ Mocha’s, Starbucks and BABS deli in Burleson and hopefully at some point in the near future expand our ministry in Shenandoah and pursue new work in the Upper Westside area of Fort Worth.
Thank you for being a part of this exciting journey with us.
