Archive for June, 2011

Front Porch Baptism

Posted: June 28, 2011 by mikehanafee in Detroit Info, Restore Church, Uncategorized
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Yesterday was a first – baptizing someone on our front porch in a horse trough! It was a sweet privilege to baptize the husband of a couple who just moved into central Detroit to be part of Restore. Man, my heart is encouraged by younger Christians being fired up about making much of Jesus! The baptismal celebration also gave us a great opportunity with some of our neighbors to talk about what baptism is not & what it is. A few of the guys who came out for the service are part of our ManUp group. Will you pray for these young men to put their faith in Jesus?

Susan and I also had a great time at the Acts 29 Pastor & Wives Retreat in Colorado last week. As I posted on Facebook a few days ago, I am really really thankful for a sometimes painful, always beneficial, redemptively beautiful Retreat – may the exhortation, rebuke, correction, teaching, worship, & fellowship make me a better Christ follower, husband, father, and pastor! Here’s two links to an article and video on the retreat. (I have a brief cameo in the video but I am not collecting any royalties.) As you can see in a few of the photos below, the day after arriving home we were able to take advantage of the Friday free admission into the Detroit Riverfest. Nobody got sick on the rides but a some of us were just a bit scared;)

This Friday night we launch our summer neighborhood cookouts with a special Friday night July 4th holiday weekend kickoff party. We are really looking forward to connecting with and serving more of our neighbors as well as seeing who might be interested in going through Story-formed Way this fall.

As we want to maintain our focus on developing our first Missional Community in this phase of planting Restore we are going to meet just twice a month for worship gatherings (1st & 3rd Sundays), conduct a neighborhood service project on the 2nd Sunday and worship with another city church on the 4th Sunday.

We are deeply thankful for your support by way of prayer, resources, & encouragement!

Six Months on the Ground

Posted: June 3, 2011 by mikehanafee in Detroit Info, Family, Friends, Restore Church
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A few days ago, Clete reminded me of something I had not thought of – we (the Hanafees) have now been in central Detroit for six months! I was not aware of this, maybe due to the strep throat (ugh!) I have battled the last week, or maybe just because of how busy we have been. At any rate it has been a GREAT six months in so many ways! I thought I would take a few minutes to share just a bit of what has been going down.

  • Tuesday we finished moving Clete’s shop from the outlying community, Hazel Park, to his Rosa Parks facility in our neighborhood – .8 miles from his house to be exact. Clete is now in central Detroit 24/7!  Btw, his new warehouse was once a headquarters for the infamous purple gang.
  • In terms of building friendships, we have far exceeded the goals we set in our 32:6 Initiative. Thanks for praying!
  • We are holding informal weekly worship gatherings of 30-40 people, mostly locals. In a few weeks we are having a baptismal service.
  • We just launched our first Missional Community! In a few weeks we will hold a commissioning service. We’ll do a blogpost in the near future & share our first missional community covenant with you.
  • Last Saturday we began our Sports & Ultimate Story Outreach at a park 5 blocks from our house. Yesterday I learned that the Student Ministries at Riverview Church is launching a summer long bottle drive to help fund this ministry!
  • I was recently elected to serve on the board of the Boston-Edison Neighborhood Association. This will be a fun, challenging, & effective way to continue to connect with and serve our community.
  • Paradox Church (Fort Worth, Tx), Renovation Church (Buffalo, NY), Vision 360 & some others recently began supporting Restore Church. With things moving faster than we anticipated, the last push for completing our support is critical. Next week we have an important meeting about a solid partnership with a strong national denominational group.
  • Thanks to the kindness of two young couples, I attended The Gospel Coalition Conference in Chicago. A few weeks later Clete & I attended a CCDA Regional Conference in Buffalo where we heard John Perkins speak & connected with friends in the Buffalo area.
  • John, Kevin, Davonte, & I ran a 5k (& finished!) at a supporting church’s fundraiser for their Mexico Mission Team.
  • We successfully stopped a robbery at a nearby house (using the firearm of an I-phone camera & some direct confrontation!).
  • Monday nights this summer at my house, we will lead a ministry to evangelize & disciple young men (age 15-19) called “MAN-UP – Becoming men who take responsibility through the Gospel”. I am praying that these young guys become captured by grace & captivated by gospel ministry.
  • The 9 Bontrager & Hanafee children are finishing out the school year well. Katie just won a leadership award for writing & communicating a freshmen transition program; Kellie is working hard, & Clete + Clay are finishing the school year at Glazer Elementary (where Clete said “lots of girls like me”). Kevin made all-city in the 4×800, Carolyn + Ian + Claire are enjoying no shortage of end of the year field trips, & Emma is still wide open.
  • Both the Bontrager & Hanafee families hope to hear in the coming weeks about purchasing 2 great houses in the heart of our ministry area.
  • In late June, Susan & I will be attending the A29 Pastors & Wives Retreat in Vail, Colorado!
As you are lead please use this as a pray list for us in the next weeks. Oh yeah, some of you have asked about recordings of Sunday sermons. We have videos of several messages & put them up on Vimeo. Shoot us an email if you want the links.