Restore Church

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A Glimpse into Restore’s Jan 15 Celebration

Posted: January 17, 2012 by mikehanafee in Gospel Identities, preaching, racism, Restore Church, social justice, Uncategorized, Vision

Wow, Sunday was a great day! Jesus was lifted up & the Spirit moved as we celebrated the power of the gospel to reconcile people back to the Father & to one another.

The children & teens did a great job reciting Dr. King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail, Wayne Stapleton of Grace Community Church shared some reflections, Clete lead us in a sweet time of worship, & I preached from Ephesians 2:11-22. The big idea was that the same work that breaks down the wall between man & God is is the same work that breaks down the walls between ethnic groups. Jesus is the wrecking ball for the walls of hostility! Because of this we have the responsibility of taking the steps of repentance & relational investment. And ultimately racial reconciliation is not about us at all – it’s about God & His glory!

We’re not sure how many attended as no one counted but the 80 bulletins were snapped up quickly – we estimate between 120 – 140 came out. We are really thankful several signed up for the upcoming 8 week February 12 – April 1 Bible study. Please pray that many others will join in this study as well and that God will use it in a mighty way!

We would like to tangibly express our gratitude to Grace Episcopal Church for opening up their facility to us by repairing lights damaged by an electrical storm. If anyone in the area has the skill & time to help us fix these lights please let us know.

And thanks to Gospel Life church for helping with nursery and parking security!

The parking brake!

Posted: December 15, 2011 by mikehanafee in Colossians, Core Values, Detroit Info, racism, Restore Church, social justice
Tags: disciple maker, vimeo

Yep, my first car was a Vette…ok, a Chevette. Driving home one night I noticed it was running more sluggish than usual. Climbing a hill was particularly difficult even with the gas pedal pegged. Then I realized I had my parking break on — I had been working against the very progress I was seeking. (and wearing out my break pads!) That’s what legalism does to our forward movement in Christ. It slows us down & wears us out. In this message from Colossians 2:16-23 I show three ways legalism is a growth stunter & grace killer. It’s through Christ we become more like Christ!

Last week I participated in a few Vision360 discussions about discipleship. The plates were small (we met at Small Plates in Ferndale;) but the discussion was big. Alex made max use of the tablecloth! And it was great to meet some other pastors in the area.

To divorce discipleship from evangelism is to do something the Bible doesn’t. Discipleship begins before conversion. Discipleship happens though the brain, heart, & fingertips. Every believer is a disciple maker & has the Spirit to do it! What if every small group saw themselves as a reproducing organism? Jesus Christ was obsessed with His mission & to be like Him is to also be obsessed with His mission.

At last week’s Missional Community meeting Paul did a great job teaching the material from the When Helping Hurts Conference. (He even brought into our “auditorium” high tech media!) In line with this several of us attended an energetic symposium last night on Gentrification. It was really helpful. Kurt Metzger of Data Driven Detroit gave an informative presentation on the demographics of our great city. For a excellent article on gentrification from a Kingdom perspective check out this article by Bob Lufton. Well worth your read. Oh yeah, just before the symposium I was able to work on my drum skills. I’m not quite ready to join the worship team.

OUCH! When Helping Hurts

Posted: December 7, 2011 by mikehanafee in Gospel Identities, social justice

Giving a buck to the guy on the corner. Blanketing a neighborhood with an ongoing cadence of quick hit mission teams. Constantly providing meals to the same people for years. To be sure all this is help…but often it is help that ultimately hurts. It’s like giving Tylenol for head pain to someone who has a tumor. It only addresses the symptoms. In their book When helping Hurts authors Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert address faulty assumptions about poverty and then commend an approach that flows out of the work of the gospel to restore four key relationships…in all of us.

Good Intentions Are Not Enough
Churches and individual Christians often have faulty assumptions about the causes of poverty — assumptions that many times lead to ministry strategies that do considerable harm to poor people as well as to themselves. “When Helping Hurts” addresses these assumptions and offers several principles and strategies for poverty alleviation, including:

the distinction between relief, rehabilitation, and development

the difference between asset-based and needs-based strategies

the advantages of participatory over blueprint approaches

Last Saturday four of us (Kevin, Clete, Paul, me) had the privilege of attending the authors’ Helping Without Hurting Seminar in Holland, Michigan. Tonight (Wednesday December 7) Paul Hendryx will provide an hourlong overview of the book and seminar. Last night he went through his presentation with a few of us and it is going to be good stuff. Contact me if you would like to attend.

As you can see we had a pretty good time on this overnight trip – my stomach still hurts from laughing. I price-lined a one star room for $35. The beds were “full-size” so it was funny watching Clete & Paul try to maintain a 3 foot neutral zone on a 4 1/2 foot foot wide bed. We toured the host church facility during the breaks (not quite the Compaq Center but close) and were able to “go” to the beach & on a buggy ride. Well actually only Clete on the latter.

I’ve also included pics from the conference, hanging with some Free Church bros yesterday, and my corner after a recent snowfall. Oh yeah, restoration just began on the house we are purchasing! Please pray work is completed by February. And pray for the Bontrager’s closing on December 20.

Restore’s 2nd Trimester, Midrange Schedule, & an amazing gift!

Posted: November 18, 2011 by mikehanafee in Detroit Info, Family, Friends, Restore Church, Vision

Hey all,

I like to tell people that we are entering the 2nd trimester in our embryonic stage of planting Restore Church. Hard to believe that next Tuesday (Nov 22) we will have been in Detroit one year. Wow, time has flown by! To let you know how to pray for the next few months I thought I would push out our midrange schedule & share a really cool story.

First, Sunday Worship. (We have been meeting 1st & 3rd Sundays not as “preview services” but simply to gather around God’s word as a growing community. In God’s kindness several neighbors are coming to these worship services.) The next 5 worship services are as follows–Sunday November 20, Sunday December 4, Sunday December 18, Sunday January 15, & Sunday February 5. All of these services will be at the Bontragers (1247 Chicago) with the possible exception of January 15, the day before the MLK holiday. On that Sunday we will look at two-way reconciliation from Ephesians 2:11-22 in conjunction with some special activities.

Second, our West Lodge Missional Community. Our first MC launched in July with the mission of showing & telling Jesus in a 10 block area in our neighborhood. We now have 14 adults & 10 great kids in our MC. We gather on Wednesdays for a meal, prayer, study, fellowship, & strategizing. Christmas vacation may be a good time to drop in on a MC gathering for the several of you who have inquired about coming out for a night. Also, to tap in the rhythm of celebration we are holding a New Year’s Eve Party – looking forward to ringing in 2012 with a friends & neighbors!

Third, a neighborhood bible study. Through cookouts, service projects, & just being present in our community we have had the privilege of connecting with many many people who we now have the great privilege of knowing as friends. In order to share the good news of Jesus we are launching an 8 week session through The Story of God February 12 – April 1. I’m in need of a creative graphics person to help design some materials so if that’s you & you’d like to volunteer let me know.

Fourth, Easter Sunday 2012. We are considering concluding our Story of God run with an early AM easter celebration in the Bontrager’s large side yard adjacent to the Lodge Freeway. We’d love to secure a large GP type of tent for this so if you have access to one please let us know. Also, we are thinking about including a breakfast cookout & some fun stuff for the kids.

Fifth, worship facility & community center. It seems the Foodland Co building is a no go, & for good reason (I’ll share the story with you over coffee if you’d like). There are 2 church buildings in our community that are not used that extensively and that would be great facilities. Our hope is to have a place secured & ready for use for fall 2012.

Sixth, Christmas vacation visit. Pray for a few guys who will be visiting Detroit over the holidays to explore joining the mission with Restore. We are grateful that God has lead many to consider ministry in Detroit. This is fully in keeping with our 2 Timothy 2:2 burden!

Seventh, an encouraging story. Yesterday Restore Church received $5,000 from the estate of a woman I have never met via her daughter who I have never met who is married to a friend from my college fraternity days. He & I may have been the last 2 guys in our frat you would have ever guessed would become Christians, but in God’s mercy (& humor), we both became Christians after graduation, unbeknownst to each other. What a time we had 2 years ago when we reconnected and heard each others grace stories! Well yesterday I received this in the mail from his dear wife.

Dear Mike & friends at Restore Church – As Tom probably mentioned to you I have a connection in Detroit…both my parents (and their parents) grew up in the city. My mom grew up on Bennett Street (my grandfather – a former Ford & Chrysler auto worker – built their house!) and my dad grew up near Motown and attended Northwestern HS. They lived in the city until the late 1960′s, when my dad’s job transferred them to South Bend, IN (where I was born). But we have always spent summers and holidays in Detroit visiting family who remain in the area…clearly Detroit holds a special place in my heart (and Tom’s by proxy:) – so when my dear mom passed away in August (she was a great woman of faith who came to Christ at Highland Park Baptist Church, which is now in the suburbs), we though of you and Restore Church. My mother would be thrilled to know that her money was going to a ministry such as yours that is making such a difference in the town she loved! My sincere wish is that these funds will help many people see the light of Jesus that shown so brightly in mom’s life. God bless you and the work you are doing in Detroit!

Wow, what an encouragement to us as we seek to show & tell Jesus in central Detroit! We are thankful for the many ways the Lord is enabling us to minister in our city. As we are in an under-resourced area we are continuing to raise support, especially as we are now entering a phase where we need a larger worship & multipurpose space. Let us know if you might be interested in helping us.

Finally, pray for Johnny. He is a friend & neighbor that I long to see come to Jesus. A few nights ago he was jumped going to the corner store for cigarettes and took 8 stitches on his head. As always he has a sense of humor – “I was always told cigarettes kill, I just didn’t know in this way!” I was at his house this morning and he is thankful for those of you who have prayed for him.

For the advance,

Mike

Oh yeah, meet Chloe, the newest addition to our family. We found this sweet pit mix during an alley cleanup a few months ago, full of the mange and weighing only 28 lbs. She is now healthy, sassy, & 52 lbs… and a good addition to Susan’s morning walks I should add!

Blender & Vending Machine Theologies (& gas station toilets)

Posted: November 16, 2011 by mikehanafee in preaching, Restore Church

When Jephthah vowed to God he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his door he wasn’t thinking of Spot the family dog, Mittens the family cat, Fluffy the family lamb, or Elsie the family cow – he was undoubtedly thinking of a someone like a servant. Jephthah was appalled when his daughter came out. And what is more appalling is that he went through with this vow in the name of God. In this sermon from Judges 10-12 preached at Mosaic Church Ann Arbor last weekend I address the ways our faith is likewise caananized as we embrace blender & vending machine theology. And even more appalling is that Jephthah is in Hebrews 11, the hall of faith…wait, no, that is amazing grace…grace all and only because of Jesus, who, unlike Jephthah who offered up his daughter for himself, offered up Himself for us!

Some of the gang who drove in from the D for the worship service.

So I did my usual cheesy joke of asking the congregation to raise their hands, shooting a pic, & them saying I’m gonna tell everyone you are a big time charismatic church. But it was so bright up front I could not see too well…then I thought with my shiny head how much more bright it must be for them!

Marshall Mobley killed it in leading us in a Christ-centered time of worship.

Lead pastor Shannon Neilson singing a solo, or maybe just doing announcements.

Baptism done in a portable tank imported from Detroit.

Ian following the service at the Pizza Parlor after eating I am not sure how many slices.

Listen to the message & you may never look at a blender or vending machine the same. Or sin & gas station toilets.

Eternity, racism, the church & now.

Posted: November 9, 2011 by mikehanafee in racism, Restore Church, Vision

The anglo church bears some responsibility for the aberration of liberation theology prevalent in some quarters of the african-american church. After all, a gospel that purports to reconcile us back to God but enables racism to exist is not very convincing. Check out this sermon for a challenging look at eternity, racism, the church, & now. Christ is the remedy!

Batting between Cabrera & Martinez

Posted: November 1, 2011 by mikehanafee in Friends, preaching, racism, Restore Church, Vision

After a fast & furious few days I thought I’d share an update on what has been going on. Friday evening the Hanafees & Bontragers drove to Akron, OH for our sons’ Saturday football games. It was a fun road trip spending time with old & new friends, coaching the boys, watching the girls cheerlead, trying to find a place to eat, & driving home Saturday night with 2 victories under our belts.

Sunday morning I had the privilege of preaching in the 2 services at Peoples Free Church in Pinckney (where I met the lady in the testimony video I posted last week on Facebook!). I spoke from Revelation 7:9-10 on what eternity is about & how the church is to preview that right now. You can listen to the message here. During the second service some friends that accompanied drove around town & found a rather interesting sign. In the evening I was privileged to preach at Bethesda Baptist Church in Allen Park – man I enjoyed joining their singing to & about Christ! Following that worship service 15 of us “dined” at the nicest McDonalds by far I have ever seen, it even had leather seats and the Mona Lisa - maybe it will become a date spot for me & Susan. I tremendously appreciated the opportunity to minister at both of these churches! And you can tell by the pics they all raised their hands;)

How would you feel if you were scheduled to bat between Miguel Cabrera & Victor Martinez? (& if you don’t know who they are take a moment to repent) That’s how I felt teaching at Bethesda’s Fall Pastors’ Seminar – last spring’s speaker was Jerry Bridges & next spring’s speaker is DA Carson. So I scrapped my plans to speak on trusting God, exegetical fallacies, & the melchizedekan priesthood & instead spoke on church planting in non-skinny jeans urbia & how suburban churches can partner with urban gospel ministry. The invitation to speak at this seminar was very kind and the men were really gracious and encouraging. Afterwards several of us enjoyed a great time of pizza & fellowship (thanks Inter-City Baptist crew!) where not a few of us displayed our bread eating giftings.

On returning home yesterday I received an email from the student ministries at Riverview Church informing me they had raised $1986.15 through their bottle drive for Restore Church’s Sports & Ultimate Story Outreach – wow! This is really going to help as we prepare for this outreach early next summer.

Last night the kids’ had a great time walking the neighborhood asking for high energy snacks. It was fun to see lots of people out and make new friends. You can see below Ian had his eye blackened & his lip bloodied – but you should see the other kid!

Saturday some of the Restore crew will be helping a block clean-up project and then Sunday at 10:30AM we’ll gather to worship the Lord as we consider from God’s word eternity, race, & the now.

Oh yeah, & we just celebrated Kevin’s 16th birthday – years, where have you gone!?

Restore video & info blast

Posted: October 13, 2011 by mikehanafee in Restore Church, Uncategorized, Vision

Frequently I send out an email covering what’s going down in connection to Restore. Here’s one I sent out today. Let me know if you would like to get on our email list.

Hey all,

If you haven’t seen it yet here’s a blogpost on last Saturday’s Free Community Yard Sale - it was a big time success. We connected with many of our neighbors, made several new friends, & had some great gospel conversations that flowed out of questions on why we were doing a “free” yard sale. We are definitely going to do this again in the spring so keep us in mind per donating furniture & clothing.

Saturday 6PM we will gather at 1247 Chicago (the Bontrager home) for worship. Doors open at 5:30 for coffee so come early to hang a bit if you can. Feel free to invite friends who might be interested in learning about gospel ministry in Detroit. We’l be dipping into Colossians 2:6-15 as we consider how we are to walk in Christ the way we began – by faith – and the spiritual deceptions that lead us away from Him.

Please pray for me as this Friday evening I will be sharing about Restore & Detroit at the EFCA regional meeting at Trinity EFC in South Bend, IN - I’m really looking forward to this opportunity! (The video below was created by a Restore member for the conference – thanks Tom!) Also, pray for me as I prepare for a pastors’ seminar at the end of the month at Bethesda Baptist Church in Allen Park. Given the fact that the speaker for the last seminar was Jerry Bridges and the speaker for the next seminar will be DA Carson I’m just a tad nervous – I think I might come down with something the eve of the seminar;)

We are now are actively looking for a worship space. Down the street from me is a grocery store shut down 2 years ago for being a hotbed of illegal activity. The property was siezed by the Assistant Attorney General during the investigation but now has been released – with the help of a lady in AG office we are endeavoring to track down the owner. This place would be a great 1st phase worship facility & community center. What a visual display of restoration that would be! Please pray that we would get this facility, or another in the area.

If you like prayer lists please pray for:

1. People to meet, love, & follow Jesus – just this morning I spent a few hours over coffee with a neighbor talking about the gospel & later today I am meeting with another couple.

2. The continued growth of those God has gathered to Restore – 2 Peter 3:18

3. Leadership development – 2 Timothy 2:2

4. Resources

5. Future worship space

6. Closing on homes for the Bontragers & Hanafees

And since 7 is the number of perfection…

7. Tigers, Lions, &/or Red Wings tickets;)

For the advance,

Mike

Restore Church has FREE Yard Sale to Bless Detroit, but Recieves a Blessing

Posted: October 10, 2011 by cletebontrager in Family, Friends, Gospel Identities, Restore Church, Uncategorized, Vision

Restore Church put on our service project for October this past Sunday (Oct 09 2011).

Cheryl working hard putting stuff out

Our goal was to bless our neighborhood by putting on a free yard sale. I think though we were blessed far beyond the blessing the folks in our neighborhood and surrounding areas received. So many people came up with tears in their eyes and told us what a blessing Restore was to them. It made our hearts melt to see such a movement in hearts. It gave so many gospel advance opportunities. So many people asked why are we just giving all this stuff away? Answer: the free yard sale is a display of the gospel. We have been given a gift that we have not been asked to pay back. Of course if you understand the gospel you understand even if you wanted to you could never even begin to pay it back.

So a few months ago we started collecting donations from various individuals and organizations in our metro area. So many churches gave generously. I hazard to name names because I could forget some, but I will name 3 that came through big for us. Inter City Baptist Church in Allen Park gave us a lot of furniture and that seemed to be some of the stuff that went the quickest. Bethesda Baptist Church gave a lot of clothes that blessed so many people. Kensington Church in Troy also came through with a lot of ‘stuff” that was a great asset to have at the garage sale.

So we started setting up around 8:30 am and would you know people started stopping at that time even though we planned on starting the sale at 10:00 am. By 12:30 there was not much left except for some clothes and just a few other items. It blew our minds how fast stuff went. We officially ended at 2:00 pm, but people hung out till after 5:00 pm just talking and having fun.

People shopping as we put stuff out

One of the most humorous but also most sad people we met was a lady who had just came from her church and said at least 50 times she could not believe it was all free. She then became very territorial over “a lot” of stuff she claimed and was ready to get it on when someone even looked at her stuff. Unfortunately her being in “church” did not help her disposition or speech.

The Cussing Church Lady on her throne

I really believe we understood the gospel better by doing this service project at Restore. It came afresh to me that God is not asking me to “pay him back” but now wants my life since his son gave his life. Not as payment, but now he wants me to bring him glory by telling others how awesome he is. When I see what an awesome privilege it is to work for Jesus, this little service project will make me love Jesus even deeper, and then those around me.

Here are some pics from the time we had Sunday serving our King.

As you will be able to tell we have lots of fun while serving King Jesus.