Archive for April, 2011

Restore Church Gets Down & Dirty

Posted: April 21, 2011 by cletebontrager in Core Values, Gospel Identities, Restore Church, Uncategorized
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This past Sunday (4/17/2011) we sponsored our first service project in our little corner of the world. We have participated in doing projects with other groups, but had a great time heading this one up. I want to thank Ruth Bontrager and Alaina Grojean for all the hours of planning and prep time to pull this off. Thank you Restore for giving unselfishly and loving your neighbor as yourself.

We started off the day with a message from God at our morning worship gathering.  We looked at the cross and the murder of Jesus.  God killing God, what a thought.  Jesus not letting his life be taken, but willingly giving it up so every vestige of sin can be conquered.

Seems a little trite to finish this blog after that statement, but Sunday in our worship gathering we will see the good news of how Jesus really did conquer sin & death.

At noon we hit the streets and alleys around our ministry area picking up trash.  We did that untill 2:00 pm and then the real fun began.  We ate hamburgers and hot dogs.  We gave away door prizes.  I won a $25.00 gift card for gas.  That certainly was a great score for me as I drive a gas guzzling suburban.

We did make our area look much better, but we wanted to do so much more than that.  We wanted to make Jesus look beautiful in the eyes of those we meet.

We have some core identities that we believe every child of God should know.  We believe that two of these core identities are that each of us are missionaries & servants.  Being a good missionary is understanding what demonstrates love in the context we are in.   For our specific area, one way is keeping up with trash pickup.  In Detroit people throw trash out of their cars all the time 24/7 (even when we were cleaning up trash!).  So we at Restore wanted to show we are concerned with what our neighbors are concerned with and that we care about our neighborhood.

A good question to ask is, “If Restore left the community would we be missed?”  But even before being missed (which sure would be nice if we were missed) we need to ask the question, “Who would not hear the gospel of Jesus if we were not in our community?” After connecting with many in our community over the last several months there are now many specific faces behind that question – people that we are coming to know & love!

God was very gracious to bring 60 people through our house on Sunday.  Here are a few pics of the fun we had.

Video: What is a Missional Community?

Posted: April 6, 2011 by mikehanafee in Restore Church, Uncategorized, Vision
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Have you ever heard the statement (sometimes falsely attributed to St Francis of Assisi), “Preach the the gospel, if necessary use words”? That makes as much sense as, “Feed the poor, if necessary use food.” To put it bluntly, that idea is ridiculous and poison. No one ever receives forgiveness of sin and new life unless they hear the good news of Jesus’ perfect life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection (Romans 10:17). “Showing” the gospel without telling it inevitably leads to moralism and the loss of the biblical gospel. On the other hand, telling the gospel without “showing” it is hollow and even hypocritical. We become uncaring and unconvincing proselytizers, religious head hunters not much different than the cults. What is more, we fail to connect and build credibility with those who need to hear the gospel, and a hyper-focus on secondary issues and an inward orientation often follows.

Through missional communities we are going to seek to both “show” and tell Jesus in our zip code and outward. In this 40 minute video (the first 6 minutes summarize DNA talks 1-3) we address the question, “At Restore Church what exactly is a Missional Community? A small group? A Bible study? A support group? A social activist group? A weekly meeting?” In addition to answering this question, we cover the four indispensable elements of a missional community. (Note: there is no sound for the first 8 seconds of the video)

at the catholic seminary (& other things)

Posted: April 2, 2011 by mikehanafee in Family, Friends, Restore Church, Uncategorized, Vision
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So I thought the title might raise your curiosity! Got ya;) On this post I just want to share a few pictures from some recent things we have done.

Last week we attended our neighborhood association’s annual meeting in a large room at the Sacred Heart Catholic Seminary just down the road. This well attended “energetic” meeting addressed various issues and informed the community of exciting news about some upcoming projects.

Clete & I also had the privilege of hearing 81 year old Jerry Bridges speak on trusting God at Bethesda Baptist Church in Allen Park. Good stuff!

Yesterday (Friday afternoon) I took Susan to a coney island in nearby Highland Park (a city within the city of Detroit less than half a mile away). Every thing on the menu is delicious (& cheap!). And every visit includes making new friends. Now I can boast I met someone who can honestly say in a non-metaphorical sense, “I shot myself in the foot”! A guy in the next booth shared that a year ago he was getting ready to shoot another guy for owing him $35k but as he racked the shotgun he shot his own foot. As you can see he pulled off his shoes & socks to prove it. The guy said “it saved my life”, that the 7 years he already served in prison was enough.

Last night we held our 4th vision casting gathering at our house. I’ll post the message “What is a Missional Community?” & follow up Q/A in a few days but here are a few pics of some of the people who attended. Massively humbling & encouraging to see people committing to be part of the core team and first missional community at Restore!

Now off to the coney island with Kevin, Ian, & Eddie for their $6.05 steak, pancake, hash brown, & egg breakfast.