Archive for July, 2012

Revelation 7:9-10

Posted: July 31, 2012 by mikehanafee in Core Values, Detroit History, Detroit Info, preaching, racism, Restore Church, the gospel
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Once again the Lord gave us beautiful weather as we worshiped outdoors at Gordon Park. After a great time of singing lead by a guest mission team from First Presbyterian of Trenton I spoke from the passage that is not just inked on my forearm, it is engraved on my heart.  Revelation 7:9-10 informs us that eternity is doxalogical, Christological, & multicultural. And to fulfill our purpose of previewing this right now the church must be missional. In the end we must realize 3 things. 1 Our hearts are the neediest mission field we know – therefore we must relentlessly apply the gospel to ourselves. 2 We must go to our neighbor – those we live, work, & play with. 3 We must care about our region – our Acts 1:8 B & C! All our called to do something – pray, give, &/or go.

In this message you’ll also learn that Detroit is laid out like a baseball field! Fast forward to the 10:00 mark of the video unless you want to catch some fellowship, a brief discussion of whether I’m hot, & a few minutes of announcements as we worked out microphone issues.  Clete took several pics of the service and of hanging out with part of the BUMP mission team. Please pray for our sports/vbs this week as we kick into full gear Tuesday!

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
(Revelation 7:9-10 ESV)

Back at Gordon Park & Building Search

Posted: July 20, 2012 by mikehanafee in Detroit Info, preaching, Restore Church
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Sunday 11AM we are back at Gordon Park for worship, & amped up for it! Gordon Park is on the NW corner of Clairmount & Rosa Parks in the 48206. We’ll be looking at the fearful & freeing reality that God will not be robbed of His glory.

With fall rapidly approaching our build search ramps up. We would love to have a place for Sunday AM worship and for other ministry possibilities such as Friday night concerts, Monthly Manhood Academy events, etc. PLEASE PRAY WE FIND SOMETHING QUICKLY & INEXPENSIVELY.  The bold letters are indicative of our urgency;)

Friday we looked at a place (a Dollar City store that recently closed) just down from the park at the Virginia Park Community Plaza. As you can see from the photos we would have a lot of work to do…carpet, painting, remove drop ceiling, remove & add some walls, add restroom. Monday we are taking another look to explore whether this facility would be viable. Let us know if you’d be willing to help us renovate the space should we make an offer.

Yesterday at Mack Ave Church!

Posted: July 16, 2012 by mikehanafee in acts, Detroit Info, Friends, Mack Avenue Community Church, preaching, Restore Church, Resurrection, the gospel, Uncategorized
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As we survey the wondrous cross upon which our Savior died we must also scan the empty tomb from which He arose! That was the theme I hammered yesterday morning because that’s exactly what the early church relentlessly preached. Apostolic preaching majored on the resurrection, does ours? After sprinting through the book of Acts we pulled up to make 3 applications of Christ’s resurrection for the believer in the nitty gritty stuff of today. Because Jesus is alive He is FOR me, WITH me, & IN me & I IN Him. You can check out the message here to see exactly how.

I am deeply thankful for the way Mack Avenue Community Church has been serious about disciple making in the 48214 for 5 years. We are brothers in arms with this church & have much to learn from them! Clete & I were also really encouraged by all the Restore peeps who came out to this MACC worship service 7.5 miles away from our neighborhood. (Below are some of the pics they took.) When one of the MACC people saw all the new faces in the building they said revival must have broken out!

Finally, please pray for all of our kids who are at summer camp with First Presbyterian Church of Trenton at Camp Otyokwah in Butler, Ohio. Pray that none of them become fans of that school in Ohio;) Please pray that the gospel crashes into all of their hearts in deep & life transforming ways. FPCT has been extremely gracious to invite 11 of our kids! Finally, July 29 – August 4, Restore Church will be holding a sports/vbs type camp right here in the 48202/206 in conjunction with an EFCA BUMP team from Minnesota & a team from FPCT. Please pray God will do an amazing work in our community, these teams, & Restore Church through this camp week. If you would like to help out please let us know.

Restore Church Worshiping with Mack Avenue Community Church this Sunday

Posted: July 13, 2012 by mikehanafee in preaching, Restore Church, Uncategorized
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In case you did not get the announcement, this coming Sunday (July 15) Restore Church will NOT be worshiping at Gordon Park. Instead we will worship with Mack Avenue Community Church 11AM at the Detroit Waldorf School (2555 Burns Street 48214). Some two & half years ago we met these guys (pics below) on a scouting trip to Detroit and are thankful for their partnership in the gospel. We love their God-centered theology, missional approach, & focus on robust discipleship in the 48214. Next Sunday’s 11AM worship service (July 22) will be back at Gordon Park.

Here is a video about their worship services. We were there when they shot this video, so you can see my bald head at about the 2 minute mark! And at the bottom of this post is a short video by their lead pastor, Eric Russ.

We’ve directed a few people toward MACC who live on the East Side so Clete & I have joked with Eric that we have a few players to be named later coming our way!

I’ll be preaching on the Resurrection in their Christology series. As we survey the wondrous cross upon which our Savior died we must also survey the empty-tomb from which He arose (and the glorious throne from which He reigns)!

Satan is a defeated enemy who sends goon after goon over the boards to destroy

Posted: July 10, 2012 by mikehanafee in preaching, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized
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Sunday we worshiped again at Gordon Park. Before the service I was reminded of the significance of this location by a man in attendance for the first time who told us he was shot there 5 times April 17, 1987. Praying, singing, & preaching the gospel there open air style has been beautiful & impactful, but it has also launched, without any exaggeration, a new level of spiritual warfare. For that reason we stayed on that topic of spiritual warfare. In the message I discussed how Satan is a defeated enemy (Colossians 2:15) who awaits his final destruction (Revelation 20:10). In this age he’s like a hockey team that is way behind with no chance of winning that simply sends goon after goon over the boards to hurt as many as it can. Specifically, he exploits 9 ordinary (non sensational, non spin your head 360 degrees & vomit gallons of green goop aka “The Exorcist”) potential footholds into our lives. The only way to close these doors is through the gospel – believing it again & again, praying it again & again, speaking it’s authority again & again. I also spend a little time talking about how certain Christian groups tend to focus only on 1 aspect of “the world, the flesh, & the devil.” You can check out the message here.

As Clete joked, it was standing room only. Seriously, we do need chairs, so if you know any churches that have a set they would donate please let us know. It was great to have our new battery powered PA system so I don’t quite feel like I smoked 2 packs of Marlboro Reds yesterday.

Spiritual Warfare

Posted: July 6, 2012 by mikehanafee in preaching, Restore Church, spiritual warfare
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“Today we are going to look at Spiritual Warfare…” “Kill whitey!” shouted someone from a car passing by Gordon Park. That’s how last week’s sermon began.  (I paid the guy $20 to help me with my introduction;) Actually it was kind of funny. There are haters everywhere. And God saves haters, which is who we all are outside of His grace. In this message from Ephesians 6:10-20 I lay out a basic grid for spiritual warfare. We have a great enemy who wants to destroy us. We have a greater Lord who is over all. Satan is on God’s leash, and God walks him where he wants, and has him urinate where he wants. (Yeah, that was an unplanned comment that somehow made it’s way into the sermon.) We have a gritty fight to join. Christians are in spiritual combat, & this passage is a call to arms. You can check out the message below. I also included some pics from this week’s very wet Dgroup neighborhood cookout (& Ian’s birthday celebration – we have a cool practice of using our Dgroup gatherings to celebrate the birthdays of Dgroup peeps by sharing ways we see God working in that person). We will be worshiping at Gordon Park again this Sunday at 11AM.