Blog Relocation (Yes, It Was About Time)

As of tax day 2009 (yep, that’s April 15), the Seven Mile Road blog/journal has been moved to:

http://sevenmileroad.wordpress.com/.

Direct your browser accordingly…

3000 Days

This April marks the completion of eight years working the soil here, just north of Boston. As I often say, you could call it five, because the first three were a confused muddling as we (me mostly) circled around for a while until finally orienting ourselves to a clear future as a Gospel-centered and missional community. Plus, we began public worship services way too early. Nevertheless, nearly 3000 days have passed since Seven Mile Road was birthed. It’s been a long, joyful, tough, rewarding, frustrating, life-giving, like-taking, glorious run. Whenever I meet folks who are new, I inevitably inform them that the giddiest person in the life of the church is still me. The grace and joy that have flooded my soul in being forced (called) to lead a local community of saints is inexpressible. What an undeserved gift. Wouldn’t trade it for anything else. Still learning what a pastor is, what the Gospel is, and what a church is. But loving it.

Race and Seven Mile Road

The racial demographics of those attending Seven Mile Road on a Sunday morning is not representative of the racial demographics of Malden/just north of Boston.

True.

Seven Mile Road is the most diverse congregation in Malden.

This is quite possibly true as well.

Say what?

I will explain.

But first, the stats.

As the chart shows out of 115 adults currently banging with us at Seven Mile, most are ‘white.’ (I hate that blanket category. My mom is Puerto Rican, my dad is German-English. And yet I am ‘white’. Why? I am as hispanic as I am white technically. But I digress.) 13% are Hispanic. (Puerto Rican, Dominican, Guatemalan, El Salvadorian, Brazlian.) 7% are Asian. (Indian, Korean.) 2% are African (Gordon and Ilsa in the house.) Others come and go, but this is a decent snapshot.

Malden demographics are quite different. A little over half of Malden is ‘white’. (Again, an almost meaningless category at this point.) Over 20% are Chinese. 10% or so are black. And the rest are a veritable United Nations, it’s awesome. The surrounding just-north-of-Boston cities are similar, only instead of being 20% Chinese the various ethnic groups congregate in the same neighborhoods/zip codes. But diversity reigns, with ‘whites’ constantly shrinking in numbers.

If you hang at the YMCA, as the Kruses often do, you will right away notice the melting pot going on.

And so naturally there is a periodic rumbling/uncertainty/discontentment/questioning/frustration with our ‘whiteness’. Why doesn’t our church look more like the gym at the Y or the caf at Malden High or the Celebrate Malden parade? Is Seven Mile Road doing church in a way that excludes those of others ethnicities? Are we failing to be missional because we are not diverse enough? Are we doing something sinful/selfish/wrong that is resulting in our ‘whiteness’?

They are important questions.

And so, a few thoughts.

1, if the answers to any of those questions is yes, the other churches in Malden are in really bad shape. We are a bastion of multi-ethnicity for a Sunday worship gathering here in town. The ethnic churches in Malden are almost exclusively ethnic. Their pie charts would look much worse than ours, with the majority making up 95%+. The Vietnamese Church is all Vietnamese, Chinese all Chinese, Hatian all Hatian, Black all Black (Ferryway School), Brazilian all Brazlian, you get the point. And the white churches are way more white than we are. None of this justifies us in anything, and I am not ripping any of them, but the point not to miss is that multi-ethnic church is not happening anywhere in Malden. And if it is happening anywhere, it is with us and some others with similar pie charts.

2, comparing our Sunday gathering to the gym at the Y is comparing apples and oranges. Folks who can swim together at the Y, go to public school together, recycle their trash together, etc., have a much harder time worshiping together. There are language barriers for one. Huge cultural barriers exist as well. And while I gladly play ball with Morrocans, for example, they are not coming anywhere near our Sunday gathering. This is true across the globe, not just here. I am not saying I like it. I am saying that the reality is that, except in cases where there is a massive move of God’s Spirit and grace, Sunday worship services necessarily tend toward homogeneousness (is that a word?). Multi-ethnic church is a beautiful exception. For example, Christ the King in Cambridge tried its hardest upon its founding to say ‘we are going to be a Brazilian-White church!’ but couldn’t pull it off and so have moved over the years to 2 congregations, morning and evening. Is this necessarily sinful? They would say no. I would agree.

3, making judgments on a church’s commitment to racial diversity by counting ethnic heads on a Sunday morning is unfair. Sunday gathering is one part of a much bigger life of Jesus’ church. The bigger questions here need to be: are the people of Seven Mile Road daily loving their neighbors of different races? One gander at our people and the answer is yes. We have people who have given their lives for North Africans. We have teachers and principals and nurses working daily with minority populations, loving them in the name of Christ. We ave served minorities through mercy ministry many times. We need to keep that central to our life together, realizing that even if those folks never worship Jesus on a Sunday at Seven Mile, it’s ok.

Anyway, I am in prayer that God would help us redeem just-north-of-Boston in whatever ways he intends, and would love for that to be a broadening of not only who we are serving but who is worshiping with us.

Wisconsin Woods

With preacher buddy Ajay yelling at folk a few hours down I-95 in Philly these days, we weren’t sure just how preaching was going to roll at Seven Mile this year. We’ve settled into a very cool pace as roughly once a month a different Track guy is trotting in from the bullpen taking the mound. February was Sergio rocking Noah. I’ve got April to myself thanks to Easter. Justin (Ruth) and John  (Jonah) have May and June respectively.

This week Brent throws, with The Moses Biography as his topic. I handed this one off not because it would be tough to connect Moses to Jesus, but because it seemed intimidating to do it in one sermon. Jesus it totally the Moses to come in a bunch of ways, can’t wait to hear Brent unfold one or more for me this week.

My first memory of Brent watching him listening while I preached. I didn’t know him yet, but his face betrayed a heart that was soft and intent of receiving from and responding to the Word. I remember thinking “God has brought that dude’s heart alive. What grace.”

Then I found out he was raised in the Wisconsin woods (by human parents,  not wolves, I think) and consciously selects to spend time fishing, and so naturally I figured I was wrong about him.

But I wasn’t. One of the joys of my year has been running real close with Brent and Jessie as we work with them in discerning call and what it could look like here for at least a while. I have received a ton from his spirit, his story, his passion, his way, and hope to do the same from his preaching. Excited.

Seven Mile Road Philly Worships

Seven Mile Philly (dilly) had their first low-key preview worship service last night. Photos are here. Real excited about it. The ground war of starting a church is a definite daily grind for Ajay… he loves the work, but has to put his head down and press ahead with it. The air war of starting a church is what Ajay was born for… really, really excited about setting him loose in the pulpit declaring God and His Gospel to the souls under his care and watching what happens from there.

Final Track Agenda

So what goes on at a Seven Mile Road Pastor Track Overnight?

Here is the agenda for a final time together if you wanted to know.

Brother In The News

One of our good brothers in the Acts29 Network is Dave Pinckney, who is planting River of Grace Church up in Concord, NH. Meet Dave once and you love him, and you sense right away that He gets God’s grace in the Gospel. He gets it. He is humble, honest, passionate, gentle, and loves Jesus.

Surprisingly, Dave’s all over the New Hampshire and now national news for stepping in to host a convicted child murderer in his home for the next 60 days as the man transitions back into society after 35 years in prison. I don’t know all the details, but it has naturally become a super intense situation on all sides and I am praying for grace to abound to Dave, the parents and children and folks in his city (or country as it were, Dave owns chickens), and the man, too.

And for the Gospel to get a clear sounding in all this.

And, yes, if you click through the NY Times article to his website be prepared for the cheesiest Acts29 site that exists. Only in NH.

If you click here and go to 7:15 you can hear Dave interviewed on Here and Now.

Sorry If He Miss It

A few sessions back, our Pastor/Planter Track guys had some tough conversations about what the pace of a pastor’s devotional like should feel like. A couple of practical things that came out of that for me was dedicating this season to praying through the Psalms and devotionally reading a book called The Reformed Pastor (reformed as in changing/improving, not as in theologically reformed) by an old-school, verbose, fired-up Puritan pastor named Richard Baxter.

Today my devotional habits really connected well with some pastoral stuff going on in me.

We are in the middle of a marriage prep track that Grace and I are running with 3 Seven Mile couples. As I cataloged in my mind the previous participants in our marriage prep tracks, I got really frustrated, troubled, self-doubting, and unsure of myself. Out of 12 souls that have run through what is supposed to be a Gospel-centered, Biblically-shaped, Jesus-drenched track, 11 are not running hard with Jesus or our community today. Yeah, for you math geeks, that is 8.3%. For you baseball fans, we are batting under .100. All 11 stories and situations are different of course, but you get my point. Why aren’t those men and women responding to the Gospel, regenerated inside, determined to have their lives and marriages being shaped by the Gospel in the context of Jesus’ church? I know that we are 100% dependent on the supernatural, freely-given, sovereign grace of God to save sinners and grow us up in Christ. I know that some of those folks are genuinely Jesus’ and are just in a rough season. But my heart still aches, and I second/third/fourth guess my leading when this is the fruit so far of the tracks.

And so I start figuring that God basically like to make me work hard and see no fruit; that my road is just one of lots of sowing and no reaping; that there is something seriously wrong with the design of the marriage prep track; that praying hard and caring a ton is unwise because it is just setting me up for soul pain; that I’ll put my head down and do the work of evangelism and service and teaching, but not be expecting God to necessarily do much. This, I guess, is the way it is going to be in this culture.

But then I started praying through Psalm 20 and the tone rocked me. This Psalm is optimistic, and shamelessly so. Its context is that God has shown grace to the king, and glorious things are happening among His people. Life is good, and that is the way it should be. It is ok to expect God to do great things. We can pray with a sense of hope. We don’t have to always shrug our shoulders and figure that things won’t go the way our hearts desire. I desperately need that tone to inform my prayer for my soul, my wife, my sons and daughters, and our church. I am allowed to hope.

These verses jumped out in particular:

4 May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!
5 May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!

May He! I don’t know if I have had that enthusiasm for our work lately.

And then I get to page 121 of Baxter’s book, chapter II, section 2, part 13 (I told you he was verbose) and the first sentence says, “If you would prosper in your work, be sure to keep up earnest desires and expectations of success.” He then goes on in old English to implore pastors that there must be a part of them that longs for the salvation of their hearers and get bent when nothing happens. This is a delicate line to walk, because we know that our ultimate joy cannot come in success or numbers or fruit, but in the Vine, in God. And yet that doesn’t mean that it is ok for pastors to just check in and check out without being desperate to see fruit come through their work “Let all who preach for Christ and men’s salvation be unsatisfied until they have the thing they preach for.”

And then Baxter asks this rhetorical question: “What if God will accept a physician though the patient die?” His answer is… He does, but it shouldn’t matter. Even though that is true, the physician (read: pastor) needs to be doing everything he can to ensure that the patient lives, and weep if he doesn’t. “He must, notwithstanding that, work in compassion, and long for a better issue, and be sorry if he miss it.”

I think that is where I am at. I am really sorrowful that 11 of 12 marriage-prepped people are not weekly/daily treasuring Christ and His Gospel that their marriage is unveiling to the world. I am really sorry that we still fit in a 140 seat hall. I am really sorry that I could list 50 names of just-north-of-Boston people who I have tried to declare the glories of the Gospel to, who have listened, shrugged their shoulders, and walked away. My joy is full in God regardless, but I still am broken that more fruit is not being born.

And that drives me to preach better this week and marriage prep better in April and pray with the anticipation of Psalm 20.

Seven Mile in the Margins: Guatemala

Carrie Jacobs, Seven Miler, is in Guatemala spending some time connecting with Romulo (who’s that?) and the folks running his orphanage there. Here is a recent update she sent out:

Hello!

I just thought I’d send a little update of how things are going so far on my trip.

I arrived in Guatemala City on Thursday night…we spent the night in a hostel/hotel there.  Friday morning we got up (got lost) & made our way to see Romulo at the orphanage in San Cristobal.  The place seemed nice…(as nice as an orphanage could be) but they have about 50 kids with 8 or 9 workers…so of course each child can’t get the individual attention they need.  Keep in mind that half the kids are special needs and require more attention than “normal” healthy kids.  Romulo is twice the size he was when we saw him last in Boston.  He sat in my lap without crying…but didn’t say anything…just stared at me with a thoughtful look on his face.  Shyrel was surprised he sat in my lap…she said he usually doesn’t let strangers hold him.  He seems quiet, sad…he DEFINITELY needs to be in a home with LOTS of love & attention.  He also seemedd to have a big belly…like the kids you see in the “feed the children” commercials that are malnourished.  His head seems to be healing nicely, but the scarring on the side of his face seems worse than I remember.  Poor little guy:-(  Many of the kids at the orphanage just pile on top of you because they want the attention so badly.  There were a few little girls that (probably about 3 yrs old) decided right away that I needed help with my hair…so they spent the whole time fixing it for me:-)  There’s also a sweet little girl with only 1 leg & an older girl that has severe seizures.  The boys spent most of their time playing with Andy (Karen’s husband).

After that we eventually made our way to Comitancillo, the little villiage where Karen & Andy live/work.  This was no short, smooth ride…it took us 10 hours…but of course we made a couple stops.  One stop was in Antigua, which is surrounded by volcanoes & beautiful…you should all visit Antigua someday.  We ate & walked around a little…I made my reservations for next week at a place called Casa Rustica (which just happens to be owned by a guy from Lexington, KY…funny!)  I will be staying there from Thurs the 19th until the 25th unless we need to go to Guatemala City before that to renew Romulo’s visa.  During that week in Antigua, I’ll be taking a taxi back & for to the orphanage to visit Romulo.

Tomorrow we have an appt. the the PGN lawyer in San Marcos.  He is putting together all the letters and legal paper work to take to the Judge in Xela.  The next few days are going to be very nerve wracking as we wait to hear from the Judge as to whether or not he will allow Romulo to come to Boston with me on the 26th.  PLEASE keep this in your prayers for the next few days.

Today was market day in Comitancillo.  So I got to experience that & everything that comes with it…women carrying babies on their backs, kids carrying live chickens, the big crowd, the heat, the dust…it was funny to watch people’s reactions when I walked by…some people would stop & stare, especially kids…a few kids seemed scared of me…but most people just looked & smiled really big:-)

That’s all for now…gotta go to church.

More later!!

Shadows of the Son – Mp3 Demo and Lyrics

Hey, rough demo from worship. Full band. Kruse and I worked out the lyrics. This has really been the first one that the band arranged specifically together and with the purpose of recording it as a band. The first Carmen Dei record was mostly my friend Phil and I.

I am really having a good tme feeling this new vibe for this new record as we see it come together.

Shadows of The Son – John Frederick/Matthew Kruse

Arranged by Nick Sutera, Chris Coughlin, and John Frederick

*Keep in mind this is a board mix. Its full band but we just basically ran the mixing board signal into a computer and so its very lo-fi but good enough for now. Feel free to share it but let friends know its a live, board mix demo.

Lyrics–>

Silent Lamb breathes not but a whisper.

Blood and Spit disguise his face.

Crown of thorns. Wooden cross. Nails and splinters.

Pierce the one who took our place.

-

Silent lamb breathes not but a whisper.

Mocking crowd Hail “Crucify!”

Pain endured for the joy set before him.

All things through him reconciled.

-

We feed ourselves on every word that God breathed out,

Shadows of the Son in each line. (Temporary line…but I sorta like it)

Weaved throughout the story of redemption is the suffering and glory of Christ.

God didn’t stay in the heavenly realm but he made himself nothing and took our sin upon himself.

-

Sin so small in our eyes that we figure. Senseless murder waste of life.

Sin so huge in our eyes may we see it. The Son of God was crucified.

Sin so small in our eyes that we wonder, “Divine abuse from on high?”

No! We were  made at one reconciled to the Father. The wrath of God was satisfied.

-

We feed ourselves on every word that God breathed out,

Shadows of the Son in each line.

Weaved throughout the story of redemption is the suffering and glory of Christ.

God didn’t stay in the heavenly realm but he made himself nothing and took our sin upon himself.

Cash Night

Sunday night was our annual Cash Night on our Pastor Track. (Or should we call it Lack of Cash Night?)

The Scriptures are replete with warnings of the lure of money on the soul, with the stakes even higher for those men who will lead churches and have access to financial gain for doing so. The list of pastors who allowed greed to get its filthy clutches around their throats is awful. We want men leading us who are righteous in their handling of treasure.

And that doesn’t just mean avoiding jail after a visit from the auditors. It means leading their families financially, providing, planning, being responsible, avoiding addictive and wasteful spending. And it also requires a certain tone of generosity with your stuff, which is one of the outgrowths of getting the Gospel.

As you can imagine, this is a really hard session. We present to the others in the Track the exact fiscal state of affairs in our lives, to the penny, literally. Laziness, greed, addiction, deception… all those sins get surfaced if they are hanging around.

And yet grace and hope are the real tone of the night. Identifying areas of weakness leads to repentance and effort to live well before God. It’s nice having brothers walking that road with you. And our hope is that by calling men who have their home’s financial life in order will result in the church’s being above reproach as well.

God the Dangerous

This week we get to the biography of Isaac. The text is horrifying, and I mean horror movie horrifying. God commands Abraham to cut his son’s throat and burn him on an altar. His ‘only son’. We rush ahead to the end of the story, but in preparing to preach I am trying not to do that. What kind of God makes this command? Most American Christians have no room in their theology for the dangerousness of God. This is quite strange, since at the center of our faith is the bloody, splintery, evil slaughter of the Son, as ordained by the Father. Should be an intense time of preaching.