Archive for March, 2012

THE Story round 7: “soma”

Posted: March 29, 2012 by mikehanafee in Gospel Identities, the gospel, THE Story
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The early church. Beautiful things. Broken things. Encouraging words. Convicting words. The fruit of the Spirit. The works of the flesh. That’s what we looked at in session 7, Soma (body) Life. In some lively discussion we address the questions of whether someone can be a Christian and yet not experience change, what happens when we try to follow Christ in our own strength, and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Time has flown by! Hard to believe next Sunday will be the last session in this 8 week interactive study. We will be looking at Happily Ever After (No fooling!) this Sunday, April 1.

Guest Blog by new D-group apprentice leader

Posted: March 26, 2012 by mikehanafee in Discipleship Groups, racism, Restore Church, the gospel
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Last week we kicked off our two new Disciple Groups! In this blogpost, Paul Hendrix, who is serving as a D-group apprentice leader along with his wife Annabelle, reflects on the first meal & meeting of the Boston-Edison Neighborhood D-group.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

We had our first meeting of the BoEd D-group this past week. During prayer requests, it became clear that our church was becoming more and more a reflection of Revelation 7. A few women in our group are first year residents, ER doctors. They were focused on their upcoming board exams, and so they were asking God for wisdom during the test. A lifetime of achievement, work and preparation bottled up into an eight-hour exam. Contrast that with a kid from our neighborhood who asked God to help him see his next birthday because he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wouldn’t live to see it.

I was hit by the fact that only the gospel has the power to reconcile all these people together in one room. I mean we had doctors, a lawyer, a public ivy-league trained pastor with a sweet Detroit tattoo, kids and young men from the neighborhood, homemakers, a former professional hockey player, and a teacher, all sitting together talking about Jesus. We had people who lived their whole lives in the neighborhood, some who moved there, and others who drove in from the suburbs. The common thread was Christ.

We see in Revelation 7 that ultimately, people from every walk, from every background, from every corner of the earth will come together and worship him. And this happens to us no matter which side of the tracks we hang our hats because we all desperately need reconciliation that only comes from Christ. It is exciting to see this verse become a reality right before our eyes, and I am pumped to see our church become more and more a reflection of the ultimate party described in Revelations 7, ”…every nation, tribe, people and language…”.

*The pictures below were taken by the Riverview Church video/photography team during a recent visit. The images are of Paul & Annabelle, Austin & Stardust Klint (the other new D-group apprentice leaders) other Restore peeps, the pastor with the goatee known throughout central Detroit, & neighbors.

THE Story round six

Posted: March 23, 2012 by mikehanafee in Gospel Identities, Restore Church, THE Story
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“Just live it up!” That was one of the answers to the question of how we make disciples. The person actually meant to say, “Just live it (your faith in Christ) out”, but in a way it does describe how we are to make disciples. Live it up–remember your new identity (Col 3:1-4). Live it up–enjoy the grace we have in Jesus that weans us from broken cisterns and brings us to drink of living water that satisfies. The conversation was not only humorous, it was piercing; especially as we discussed the difference between “believing in God” and following Jesus. Dive into End of Story? below as we look at Death & Resurrection and Mission & Power.

We have just two more sessions of THE Story before we launch weekly worship services on Easter Sunday. And this week we launched 2 new Disciples Groups. May many, many lives be transformed, and God be more and more glorified! As enemy territory is invaded with the gospel, fiery darts fly. But Jesus is unstoppable!! Please pray for and with us.

THE Story round five

Posted: March 16, 2012 by mikehanafee in Restore Church, THE Story, Uncategorized
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“This was the best session we’ve had so far!” exclaimed one of the participants as he stood to his feet at the end of session 5. I agree and others have said the same. It was an open and oftentimes emotional session, as we discussed Jesus’ words on the new birth to Nicodemus and the parable of the two sons. You can dive in below.

It’s been one of the most painful (I’ll save that story  for another day) and fruitful weeks in Detroit between the great round 5 of THE Story and a powerful confession filled celebration Wednesday night at our last West Lodge Missional Community gathering before we launch a second group next week.  It was a little bittersweet as we will not all be together every Wednesday but also a joy in knowing we are multiplying, which is sort of our goal in making disciples! Plus, in just a few weeks we’ll all gather Sundays for worship. And of course, we’ll still be connecting in different ways during the week.

Restore’s Next Step(s)!

Posted: March 6, 2012 by mikehanafee in Core Values, Restore Church, Vision
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“Don’t fight the churchified context, leverage it for mission.” This was a big takeaway from the recent urban ministry roundtable in Philly. That statement solidified what God has been teaching us in our 15 months in central Detroit. Sunday is “religious space” that should be leveraged for mission…if you have gathered enough people who understand that church is not an event and who can help plug new people into everyday gospel life.

Through much counsel we believe it’s time to start holding weekly worship services for 4 reasons.

1. In 2 weeks we will launch our second Missional Community (now called Discipleship Group).  Each Discipleship Group will also have a couple being trained to lead the next round of multiplication, as together we seek to disciple ourselves and our neighbors to and in Jesus.

2. THE Story Bible Study on Sundays has been well attended and several people are inquiring about what we are doing next.  We appreciate this interest in continuing to gather on Sundays! In fact, the whole thing has been picking up steam in ways we did not anticipate.

3. The Restore gatherings increasingly represent our neighborhood ethnically. To put it plainly, we are not just a bunch of anglos anymore. While there is much, much room for growth here, especially as we consider both shared and long-range leadership, we are thankful that African-Americans are connecting with Restore. And this is not some numbers thing. It’s about God’s glory. You’ll see this at the party – Revelation 7:9-10! It’s easy to talk about planting a church in Detroit. It’s quite another thing to plant a church of Detroiters who live in the neighborhoods outside the uptown areas. We wanted to make this a priority while the cement is still wet in these early stages. It’s slow-burn and long-term and God will have to do His thing for this to come to fruition, but we are committed to being a church for all of Detroit.

4. Celebrate good times, come on! Ok, so I can’t quite sing Kool & the Gang, but the song does remind me of our need to gather and celebrate God’s mercy to us in the gospel. Worship services are not all of church life but they are a sweet slice of it!

On Sunday April 8, the week after the last session of THE Story, we will begin a weekly worship service.  I know Easter is the day the experts say a church should launch but, trust me, this wasn’t scheduled by any great planning on our part. It’s something the Master planner calendared, not us. (And we sort of already launched, but that’s another discussion;)

We are calling the kickoff of these weekly worship services Easter Sunday a soft launch. We are excited and will be doing some things to spread the word to our community but by soft launch we simply mean we are not going to make a super huge deal of it. Ever been to a service that look likes it was planned for a lot more people than actually attended? Awwwwkward for attenders…and tiresome for leaders. So we’ll plan a service that seems right for about 75 and just see what God does! It will be really novel;) We’ll have prayer, fellowship, singing, preaching from God’s word, communion, and a simple children’s church during the sermon time.

Here’s our burden if you are praying for the launch of these weekly worship services. We do NOT want these services to become our overwhelming focus, sucking away our time and energy, eating away at the bandwidth of our lives, and leaving little space for everyday gospel neighboring. We simply want to come together to worship our God, point others to Him, celebrate how He used us in the previous week, and then be relaunched for the new week. We want to walk away from these services reminded of God’s grace, renewed in our spirit, and recommissioned to show and tell Jesus in all of life!

THE Story round four!

Posted: March 6, 2012 by mikehanafee in Restore Church, THE Story, Uncategorized
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Sunday we had the best attendance thus far, but even better, the interaction is increasingly authentic and open as we tell and discuss the greatest story ever. I love when people ask the kind of questions that people frequently have about God but are seldom raised for fear of what others might say – we definitely had a few moments like this. In round 4, As Promised, we look at the birth, baptism, temptation, & first disciples of Christ.

We’ve got some exciting next steps we’ll soon be taking at Restore! Standby for details.

THE Story round three! (& a quick hit to Philly)

Posted: March 1, 2012 by mikehanafee in racism, Restore Church, social justice, Soma School, THE Story
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Lather, rinse, repeat. OK, that cycle went the way of my hair some years back! But here’s a cycle that I still know by painful experience –  rebellion, rescue, repeat. As we saw Sunday in round 3 of THE Story, Rescue to Rebellion, that’s the story of Israel in the OT. Man, do we ever need a Rescuer! That’s exactly what & who THE Story has been increasingly pointing us toward…and next Sunday we get to begin to talk about Him by Name!

Attendance was down by over 20 due to sickness & travel & probably other reasons but the interaction was thick! Conversation points included the delusion of saying God is first in our life (1st Commandment) but willfully dismissing His commands (2nd – 10th commandments); the role of God’s law in our lives; the tension between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility; and the ways culture justifies things that God clearly prohibits (like racism & abortion) on the basis of “my rights”, scripture twisting, personal convenience, and comfort. Check it out it out here  as I lead scene 1, Deliverance & Instructions, and Clete leads scene 2, The Kings & the Prophets.

Also, last Thursday & Friday Clete & I did a quick (1200 miles roundtrip) trip to Philly to sit at a very informative roundtable on urban ministry in predominately african-american and latino areas (what I call non-skinny jeans urbia). There were some really thought provoking discussions on topics like why many african-american men see Christianity as weak and are therefore drawn to Islam (by Carl Ellis Jr, author of Free at Last? The Gospel in African American Experience, a must read), on how to focus on your local community while giving space in your church for committed Christians outside your immediate neighborhood (by Eric Mason), building biblical community where nuclear families are the great exception and not the norm, reaching unchurchables, leveraging a “churchified” context for mission, and breaking up urban soil. It was so good I’ll be doing another 42 hour quick hit to Philly for the May roundtable on preaching & theology in the city. You can check out this ministry, ThriveInTheCity, as well as get information about their second Thriving Summit on October 12-13, here.