soul talk: Psalm25:5

The home for teens opened in October 2010. Ten apartments. Hillcrest Transitional Housing agreed to expand their ministry to homeless families to begin this program for teens (16+) who are in high school.  There have been some bumps along the way, but the program is running well, with many volunteers involved.

Westside Family Church agreed to fund the first year of the program. That commitment ends at the end of May 2011. We had hoped to be able to continue funding at the full level, or at least 50%, but the giving to IMPACT 2011 will not allow us to continue beyond May at any significant level. Hillcrest is seeking individuals or groups to sponsor an apartment at $5,000 per year. One of Westside’s young women’s LifeGroup has donated $750 to IMPACT 2011 to help sponsor an aparment. Matching funds from IMPACT 2011will allow Westside to become a sponsor of apartment 11A beginning in May.

I want to update you on some truly fantastic news and ask you to be praying. I’ve contacted a few of you by phone tonight but wanted to give all of you a written account.

Two weeks ago I sat in the office of Stacy Pratt, the Homeless Liason for KCK Schools, and heard the stories of 50 teenagers (16, 17, and 18 years old) who want to finish high school but are homeless and alone. These kids do not have parents or guardians. They sleep on the streets, or in shelters (if they can find an open bed), or on a friend’s couch. The truth is that there are probably many more than 50, but these 50 are known by name.

I entered that meeting telling myself I would not promise anything, but this news stabbed at my heart. I walked out of the meeting promising to pray and learn more about the problem and how others are solving it. That evening I went home and told my family about the need. I emailed my pastoral team and told them, “We have to do something! We can meet this need!!”

At Schaun’s suggestion (Schaun is Global Impact Pastor at our church) I asked Joe and Belinda Klassen to meet with me. The Klassens’ are WFCers who are foster parents. They have a huge heart for teens. As I shared my burden with them, they agreed to research how others around the country were solving the problem. We talked about how it would be great to have a shelter somewhere near one of the high schools. We even joked about the possibility of buying the old Central Baptist Seminary campus for this purpose.

I met with Joe this past Sunday to talk about what he had learned. He had several very good models for us to learn from. Joe told me that his dad graduated from Central Baptist Seminary and he had a few connections there. He called his connections and shared with them our vision of providing a shelter for homeless teens. The response Joe received was heart warming. They board of the seminary truly loved our idea. They offered to sell us the property for their asking price of $2million (which we do not have), but they also said they loved the idea so much that, if we were willing, they would like to partner with us to make this happen. They would maintain ownership of the property, but we would enter into a joint partnership to develop a shelter for homeless teens on the property.

There are huge details to work out, but I will be sitting down with representatives of the seminary early next week to begin the discussion. I’ve been talking with Chuck Allen (Urban Scholastic Center), Shawn Benson (Hillcrest Transtional Housing) and Brad Brisco (Church Planting Strategist for Kansas City Kansas Baptist Association, see www.missionalchurchnetwork.com) about this development. Each of them love this idea and agreed to join with us in prayer.

One source says there are more than 2,000 homeless teens in KC area. Westside Family Church could play a huge role in meeting this need!

All for Jesus!

Matt

I spent Thursday afternoon in the office of the Homeless Liaison of the Kansas City, Kansas School District. Her name is Staci Pratt. She’s been working with homeless students for almost a decade and in our two hour meeting she told me real life stories that broke my heart and left me with the certainty that I must do something.

What that something looks like….well, let’s just say I’m figuring it out. I have a lot to learn.

Apparently there is a relatively new law in Kansas that prohibits the state from taking children (ages 16-18) into foster care unless there is proven physical, or sexual abuse. In some cases, even when abuse is known, the state does not act (probably at least part of the reason is a lack of resources). The result is that there are now 30 childen in KCK School District who are homeless. Some are lucky enough to find a shelter. Most live on the street, or on a friend’s couch.

The hard part is that these kids really want to graduate. They have dreams for a future.

So what will I do? Well, my family and I are praying about the possibility of hosting one of these teens.  I also talked with a family at our church who have a heart for foster kids. We’re developing a plan to learn how others are meeting this need around the country (St. Louis, Milwaukee, Los Angeles). We have a lot to learn.

Maybe a year from now this will all result in the establishment of a “New Hope Children’s Home” in KCK. (Do you know about or orphanages in India and Thailand?) I don’t know what the answer is, I just know we have to do something. Which means, I have to do something.

I am bent toward an interal spiritual life, so it’s important for me to plan the external. Robert Mulholland, Jr. writes about this in his book, “Invitation to a Journey”. Our personality styles can help us to identify our spiritual preferences, but if we’re not intentional we’ll get out of balance and become spiritually unhealthy. So, while I default to one style I need to be sure to include others.

Here are some of the ways I connect with God…

I ride my bike; read a good book; listen to great music, or to the wind in the trees, or the sounds in the night, or silence; watch the waves break on the beach; study my Bible; teach from what I’ve learned in my study, serve a friend, pray.

How do you connect with God?

A friend set me up so that my tweets automatically update my Facebook status. And using reader.google.com I can share my blogs, or any blog I’m reading, which will update my tweets. This is all so cool!

But, I’m conflicted. I love this stuff, and read as many blogs as I can (in about 30 minutes a day). I’m wondering if this habit really contributes toward a persons spiritual growth. What do you think?

I should tell you that I love to learn; reading books, blogs, and listening to podcasts, have become my primary source of learning. Still, somedays my life just seems to be filled with too much noise.

When I first started following people on twitter, I had their tweets sent directly to my cell phone. It was a little cool knowing what Mark Batterson was doing every moment of the day, or what Leonard Sweet was thinking about. But I’ve turned that feature off, and now the only way I actually read tweets is when I log on to twitter on my computer or iphone. I try to do this about once a day, but I’m not very regular.

So…I’d like to know what you think. Is twitter, facebook, blogging, etc. just more noise, or is it really contributing to our growth in Jesus?

A friend told me recently that the word “righteous” has lost much of its meaning in our day.  I’ve thought that it meant, “living according to God’s law,” or “living in a godly way.”  This, according to my friend, is just a shadow of the full meaning of the word.

In ancient days when a building was constructed it was declared “righteous” if it was built according to plan. Carrying that meaning to today enriches the meaning of this word for me. The Bible tells us that no one is “righteous” but God alone, and that we are “made righteous” by the blood of Jesus.

If I were to paraphrase this definition I’d put it like this. You were made for more, and you can only be who you were made to be if you submit yourself to the master builder, Jesus.

Righteousness has little to do with obeying the law, and everything to do with submitting to Jesus. As each day passes, I am compelled to follow Jesus and submit to Him. My tendency is to constantly take back control, and build my life as I see fit, but I know that unless He is the builder I will never be rightly built.

I’m sure someone will correct me, but I believe that Jesus talked more about the “Kingdom of God” than he did anything else. What is the most visible expression of the KINGDOM OF GOD that you have witnessed recently?

Years ago, while I was serving a church in the DC suburbs, a member of my  church insisted I attend the “March for Life.”  The March is an annual on the mall in Washington that demonstrates against abortion. I marched, but little has changed.

Here are my most recent thoughts about how to effectively battle abortion.

Let’s make adoption so attractive that abortion will loose credibility as an option in the public’s mind.

It seems to me, all pro-life, anti-abortion, advocates, should be even more passionate about adoption and foster care.

My perception, which may be false, says that adoption is seen as the less desirable option for the woman, or couple, considering abortion. Somehow abortion is favored. Could someone figure out how to make adoption so desirable, and so attractive, and so successful and common, that abortion lost all favor?

One significant step is for churches to fully embrace foster care and adoption. I’m glad to see the beginnings of this at my church, but we have so long to go. WOuld you partner with me to pray for churches, and for Christians, to fully embrace adoption/foster care?

I am not an expert at anything, least of all parenting. Still, there are moments when I am impressed with a significant truth, usually from scripture, or from a great Christian communicator, and these impressions are worth passing on.  Here is one:

1. Stop having “church” conversations and start having “God” conversations.

I’m BIG on church. So please understand thatI am not demeaning the church in any way. In my parenting of our daughters I can recall dozens of times that I’ve picked them up after an event at church and asked something like, “How did it go?” or “How was the meeting?” or “How was the event?” You’ve probably done the same. The problem that I see is that the conversation that followed the question was often centered around the event. I wish I had intentionally led the conversation more toward God. Here are some questions I wish I had asked more often:

a. What did God teach you through the time there?

b. Do you feel closer to God, or more distant from him as a result?

c. Where do you sense God may be leading you as a result of this experience?

I know, these are deep questions, and I’m sure they could be phrased in better ways, but I will leave them as is, for the purpose of asking you to think about it…how can you lead your children to understand that life is ALL about loving God, and too often we fall SO short of this by just talking church.