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A Post-Trip Letter from Mosaic Church

Posted: March 14, 2013 by mikehanafee in Friends, Mission Teams, new facility

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)

Too much. There is just too much to share about Mosaic’s eight day, seven night trip to Restore Church last week. It was 167 hours of relationship building, working, goofing around, and outreach-ing (and, oh, some sleeping too). Where my words fail, I hope that the pictures taken throughout the week can fill in the gaps of our experience in central Detroit with Restore Church.

Leading up to the trip, the teams at Restore Church and Mosaic Church came up with three primary goals for the week. Throughout January and February, we were praying that God would bless this collaboration between our two local bodies. And as I reflect on this trip, God was faithful. He showed up! Not only did no one die, lose a limb, or have petty conflicts with one another, but He galvanized our teams together for His glory. Let’s briefly look at those three goals we had for the week.

1. To strengthen the long-term relationship between Restore Church and Mosaic Church, extending past this spring break, into summer projects and beyond.
Well, the jury is still technically out on this one. Only more time will determine if we continue to strengthen our relationship. However, I believe we are off to a phenomenal start. Throughout the week, relationship building was the priority. We worked it in every way we possible could. We intentionally teamed Restore people with Mosaic people on projects; essentially cross-pollinating our teams. And while we accomplished an incredible amount of work over the course of the week, we valued connecting with one another over getting tangible things done. The families of Restore were generously open with their homes, allowing us to shower and eat at their homes throughout the week. How can you not become better friends after sharing a loofah!?! Further, we had a Game Night on Friday night and we closed out the week by worshipping together on Sunday morning (the “Grand Opening” of the 1st floor Worship area!).

And while the summer is still months away, we already have times on the calendar for our two teams to meet again. As examples, Restore has graciously offered to come out to Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti at the end of March to help us with our Easter promotion. Just tomorrow night, some of our people are going to head back to Detroit to join in on Restore’s youth girls’ night. By God’s grace, He is continuing to knit our people together.

2. Mosaic people will experience sacrificial serving and outreach in a cross-cultural environment, while forming lasting, Christ-centered friendships that will be brought back to Ann Arbor.
Our time at Restore last week formed relationships within our Mosaic team like nothing else could. We ate 20+ meals together, we had morning devotions together, we sweated alongside one another, we shivered together (those first two nights , we became walking dust balls together, and on and on. Before this trip, many of our people didn’t know one another, or only knew their face but not even their name. As I’ve followed-up with our people that went on the trip, I’ve been encouraged to hear how many new, deep relationships were formed as a result of this trip. In some instances, I’ve heard, “You know what, [fill-in name here] isn’t as weird as I thought, he’s actually someone I can relate with!”. The week continually presented opportunities to experience and model the Christian walk (e.g. patience, loving one another, praying for one another, selflessness, etc.).

Each day we had “teaching” times that taught us a tremendous amount of what it is like to live and serve in Detroit, a city that is in a different context and culture than our home of Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti. Many of us came away with a greater appreciation for Detroit and a deeper understanding of its history and the numerous implications on present-day Detroit. These teaching times were organized by Restore and covered the following topics.

Experiences of a Long-Time Detroiter – Renee Gunn
Moving into Detroit: Experience of New Detroiters – Ruth Bontrager, Susan Hanafee, John & Emily Decker
An Overview of Detroit History & Restore’s Vision for D-Groups and DNA Groups – Mike Hanafee
The History of Restore Church – Clete Bontrager
Gospel Identities – Clete Bontrager & Mike Hanafee
Personal Testimonies and Overview of Monthly Manhood Academy – Wadsworth Pilot & Matt Golden

Many of these teaching times went longer than the time allotted, but it was a blessing. We got to hear the speakers’ personal testimonies and perspectives on living and serving in an urban, inner-city environment.

3. In collaboration with leaders and members of Restore Church, Mosaic will help tackle work, evangelize, and perform administrative projects identified by Restore Church leaders.
As the pictures show, God used the people of Restore and Mosaic to get an incredible amount of work done! While most of the efforts were concentrated on renovating the Post Office, we also had a team helping renovate the basement of a member of Restore. While the list isn’t comprehensive, some of what God accomplished last week includes:

Removed the ceiling tiles in the new worship area on the first floor
Demolished the half wall above the old PO boxes and the bulletproof glass wall
Filled a 30 yard dumpster (the size of a bus!) to the brim from the demolition projects
Photographed, cataloged and posted items for sale on Craigslist
Sorted, moved and organized everything that was in the new worship area in the future nursery area
Built four fowling boards that double as platforms for Sunday morning worship
Swept and mopped the 1st floor of the P.O. a gazillion times
Helped pass out 6,000+ promotional flyers for Restore’s Easter Egg Hunt

Again, there is too much to share. We praise God for the opportunity to serve alongside Restore Church. We love you guys and are charged up to continue to strengthen our relationship over the coming weeks, months and years.

Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you,

Joseph Hutchinson
Pastoral Resident at Mosaic Church
Ann Arbor, MI

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:15-23 (ESV)

Yellow Paint & No Fear

Posted: October 29, 2012 by mikehanafee in acts, Church Planting, Discipleship Groups, Friends, new facility, preaching, Restore Church, Sex-trafficking, the gospel, worship

With all our talk about having a church facility that does not look “effeminized”, the paint in the upper room at The PO looks like something from a women’s restroom (yellowish, & not even the Michigan kind). Kind of funny! #firstworldproblems No worries, at Tuesday night’s work party we’ll get a tanner second coat on the walls. Come on out at 6:30PM if you’d like to eat some cheap pizza, drink lots of Faygo, & get your hair frosted with paint. A big shout out to Bethesda Baptist of Allen Park for working like beasts on Saturday! Sunday evening we were also able to get a lot done in the Bontrager kitchen in preparation for a team coming back from Brookside Church in Bowling Green to hang cabinets & lay tile this Saturday. Thanks also to Riverview Church for hosting last Friday a great mini-conference for church planters on the mission & marks of a healthy church.

Oh yeah, it was great to meet Sunday in person a friend of the church we helped pray through a successful lung transplant – you are a trophy of God’s grace & power Heather! Finally, thanks to Leah for inviting us to a very informative session at Alternatives for Girls on the blight of sex trafficking. Much to process & act on from that evening. Please continue to pray for connections & conversions in our community, the design layout of The PO, the upcoming launch of a third Dgroup, and an early December Christmas open house for our neighborhood.

Sunday we continued our look from the book of Acts at what it means to be an urban missionary. In the face of fear & difficulties we can keep moving forward because of the 3 hope drenched truths of Acts 18:10!

State of the Church Address 2012

Posted: September 24, 2012 by mikehanafee in Church Planting, Core Values, Discipleship Groups, Family, Friends, Gordon Park, preaching, racism, Restore Church, state of the church address, the gospel, Uncategorized, Vision

For a strong shot of what Restore is about, what God has done, & where are we going, check out Sunday’s state of the church address. In yesterday’s sunny but blustery weather at Gordon Park, Clete & I had a blast sharing our DNA, telling the story of God’s grace at Restore this far, & casting a vision for the future. At the bottom you can read about what Restore has meant to some of our peeps. And hopefully next post will be about a building we have purchased. Details to come. In the meanwhile pray closing goes smoothly & the building remains secure.

To me, Restore means I have a place where I can invite my friends and their kids and they can hear and see the gospel. Since people at Restore are in the neighborhood it makes everything more accessible. I love meeting people that have the same heart for this neighborhood and have been called by God to serve here. It’s encouraging because people at Restore can empathize with the struggles of ministering in the city- but point me back to the hope of Jesus. Since being here, God has showed me more and more that I do a lot of the things I do for the glory of me. I want to take my eyes off myself and do them for the glory of God. Being around so many people who are farther along in their faith than me is a wake up call that I need to seek God more and go deeper with Him.

Restore Family is family to me. We are joined together by the Blood of Christ, stronger than any blood relation to my earthly birth family. Some specific ways that God is transforming me is that He is challenging me to step out of my comfort zone, out of my selfishness and truly dive into honest accountability with the community He has given me through Restore. I am able to be transparent with my struggles and know that I am not going to be condemned and not left in self-pity of “my problems” and “my struggles” but challenged to rely on God, preach the Gospel into my life and prayed for by my community. It is refreshing, humbling and motivating to be part of a community that seeks to know, love and display Jesus, the Gospel, agape love. As the community pours into me, I in turn pour back into the community.

Our move to the Detroit area was one of faith and obedience. It definitely wasn’t easy. It was scary. No family or friends to welcome us, just a daunting job for me and uncertainty for my husband. We obviously felt the call of the Spirit or we wouldn’t have come at all and there was a lot of assurance in that. In fact, the words the Spirit used to change my husband’s heart were, “I am in Detroit. Am I not enough?” But it was still uncomfortable. To us, Restore has been the Lord’s provision. The people are family. The Truth comes in waves. Before we moved here, Detroit seemed like a forsaken city. Now it seems a little like a promised land in some ways. There is so much and there are so many people to love here and I can see my Father’s hand at work. He is here & He is most definitely more than enough. I am so unbelievably grateful that the Spirit led us here. I can’t imagine my life without this Church, this city, or the people we have met here.

Outdoor baptisms at GP & 56 pics

Posted: September 4, 2012 by mikehanafee in acts, baptism, election, Family, Friends, Gordon Park, preaching, Restore Church, the gospel, Uncategorized

Never hand the mic to a preacher. I wonder if that’s what the synagogue leaders in Antioch of Pisidia thought after they asked Paul if he had anything to say! From his impromptu sermon we looked at 4 great truths about Christianity, all of which are centered on Jesus. Along the way we also learned a few things about being on mission in a religious context & some ways Christianity is different than man-made religion. Acts 13 was a great segueway to our outdoor baptismal service yesterday at Gordon Park. We’ll be doing another baptismal service in a few weeks. In the meanwhile we’ll see if we can get some video of the testimonies posted. Finally, please pray for a huge meeting Clete & I have tonight (Tuesday) regarding a great interim indoor worship facility in the heart of our area.

Crash Worship Location (& other things)

Posted: August 10, 2012 by mikehanafee in Church Planting, Friends, Paradox Church Fort Worth TX, preaching, Prodigal, Restore Church, the gospel, worship

Sunday we have two special guests with us at Restore. First, Jim Essian of Paradox Church (Fort Worth, TX) will share his vision for church planting & how his church came to support Restore. Jim is the one who did last summer’s interview, What’s a white dude the wrong side of 40 doing planting a church in Detroit? Second, Joey Rosado will share his desire to come next year (after he finishes his degree at Moody) from inner-city Chicago for an internship with Restore to explore church planting in Detroit. Joey is a great guy except for that Chicago team he roots for, but at least it’s not the White Sox. Sunday we will also finish our look at Luke 15 as we see how rebellion to God can be camouflaged in religion. You can watch last week’s message here. Oh yeah, joining the Deckers as they lead this Sunday’s worship will be two new Restore worship team members. If you can arrive by 10:30 to help set up that would be great!

We finally have a crash location for our worship service should it rain. Our primary plan continues to be prayer for no rain – and God has done just that every time this summer. Just in case He wants to grow our flexibility, however, we do have an alternate location 4 blocks south on Rosa Parks Blvd in a covered area at the Virginia Park Community Plaza. Even if it rains go to Gordon Park & we will direct people to the crash location. By the way, the forecast is for no rain!

Please continue to pray as we look for an indoor worship location for the fall. We have a promising lead for a great location and a second meeting next week.

Tonight at 7:30 (1258 Longfellow, 48202) we have the 3rd edition of M.M.A. You can read what Matt just posted on Facebook below. Also, the ladies will have their Triple FC (I think that means Females Fighting For Christ, watch out!) prayer meeting tonight. Email susanhanafee@gmail.com for details.

IF there are any guys who are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of what MANHOOD is from a Biblical perspective, please feel free to join myself and a group of brothers for our MMA (Monthly Manhood Academy) tonight at 7:30.

Tonight’s topic will be “Perseverance” and how to move from the common mindset of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” to the the freedom we have in the Gospel to persevere through difficulties in a way that honors GOD over ourselves!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND: Please inbox me so I can get you the address.

IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE THIS TOPIC “ALL FIGURED OUT” : Inbox me so I can pray for you.

See ya tonight or Sunday!

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

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.

Gordon Park Clean Up and Sunday Praise Service in the Park

Posted: June 21, 2012 by cletebontrager in Detroit History, Detroit Info, Family, Friends, race riots, racism, Restore Church, social justice

June 16th Restore Church along with friends from the community came together to clean Gordon Park. This is a small, but beautiful park. We had our work cut out for us, but with many hands it really did make light work. Thank you to all who helped with this effort. Many friends were made and friendships deepened. We all had a lot of fun.

So above you see the pictures of the before. After we cleaned up the park it looked so much better. It is amazing what a little elbow grease and hard work will do to an overgrown park. We are not any different than that park. We are all overgrown with weeds of sin choking out good growth. We have man hole covers missing and so we fill them up with garbage of the world. The big difference is we can’t clean ourselves up. Oh we may for a short time trim some weeds out, but lasting change only comes from the Holy Spirit doing a work in our life. This park if not maintained will look just like when we started in a few short weeks. Same thing happens to us if the change does not come through the work of God in our hearts. Change must come from the inside out.

So after we did the clean up on Saturday we held a praise service in Gordon Park. This was the starting place for the 1967 Detroit Riots. So much history where we held the service. We had Lorenzo tell a little about Motown Square. Mike preached from the book of Nehemiah on rebuilding the walls. God used the service to bring a community together. We had a little over 50 people out for this service that was held on Father’s Day. We want to thank Sarah Hilliker for chairs that we were able to borrow from the ministry she works for in Highland Park and also Fred Robinson for the use of his generator.

Here are some pics from Sunday:

We had a wonderful time praising Jesus! This upcoming Sunday we will be in the park again, so look us up there at 11:00 am.

Sunday’s Unusual Encouragement (MGOBLUE!)

Posted: May 21, 2012 by mikehanafee in Family, Friends, Michigan, Restore Church, Uncategorized

Every church planter knows that uneasy feeling, as the start of the worship service nears, of not seeing a lot of faces you expected to see. Ugh! Sunday it happened to me so I slipped into a back room & prayed for a few minutes, “God, help me to keep my mind focused on you & serve the people who are here well. And Lord, would you do something unusual today to really encourage me?” I went to the front of the building & looked out the window. No extra vehicles. A few moments later I looked again …and then I saw not 1, not 2, but 5 packed vehicles (including 2 vans) pull in to the parking lot. One after another they filed in with cheerful smiles & hugs & handshakes. Really encouraging! As I greeted them I sort of recognized one guy & asked him where I knew him from. Then it dawned on, “Saturday afternoons!” It was Denard Robinson. Since I have been a Wolverine fan my whole life that was encouraging as well! I later found out it was the people of InnerCity Outreach Ministries, lead by Pastor Dexter, a good friend of Clete’s from their children’s school. Dexter, who moved here in 1999 from Georgia to plant a church, felt burdened earlier in the morning to come out with his crew to encourage our young church. That, they did! And after the service I was invited to minister at a Monday morning outdoor Bible study for men right off the streets or out of prison.

I’m pretty sure this group of believers won’t be coming out regularly;) I’m glad for that since they are a church making a difference in their neighborhood 3.5 miles away! But I was encouraged in several ways. First, it was a fresh reminder that God cares for Restore…& me, even in unusual blue & maize ways. Second, that we have another church in the city praying & pulling for us. Third, that I was able to minister the word, as Aaron ministered in music, at the outdoor service & see God work in some powerful ways (& some unfamiliar ways for me – I’ll save that story for another day). Fourth, that God is about saving both stars & unknown people – the playing field is level at the foot of the cross. And Jesus came to gather a people for His name from all walks of life!

On a related note it was funny to ask Pastor Dexter how his daughter came to know Denard. “I’m not really a football fan. But I’m a big fan of God & of my daughter. And I told him that if he wants to walk with my daughter he better be serious about walking with Jesus!” Oh, for a city full of dads with that kind of heart for God & their daughters!

Sunday ended with 27 peeps from Restore gathering for a great meal at Mercury Burger Bar. In addition to watching our waiter Mark do various flips we enjoyed some great burgers. Most of all, it was a beautiful to see a group of people sold out for Jesus, who were mostly strangers only a year ago, gathered together to talk mission and enjoy each others company around a really long table. It made me long for the ultimate banquet to come! Lord, please use us to summon many in the 48202/206 & outward to your everlasting feast.

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)

Here’s a short sermon jam from a few Sunday’s ago put together by a good friend who is training my son Kevin on video technology.

“Making a move in faith.” Mom of 4 talks about the call to Detroit

Posted: May 4, 2012 by mikehanafee in Detroit Info, Family, Friends, Uncategorized

In our last post I mentioned a family moving to Detroit to be part of Restore Church. Here’s the story of this call in Jackie’s words…

Had I been asked a couple years ago if I would be writing this, I might have given a nice eye roll along with a “um, yeah ooookay!”

In fact, I have to state that while we were prayerfully considering moving our family to Florida, some friends of ours were about to embark on mission to Detroit. I still remember our conversation as our boys were playing and my sweet friend said, “You should totally come with!” and I (in all sweet sincerty) chuckeled and said “yeah, I don’t think so!”.

Our boys were total buds and they made sure to keep in touch while we were in Florida and they were in Detroit. I remember being a bit bummed that we had just started to get to know each other when both of our families moved out of Oregon. Thankfully, FB helps with keeping in touch and Aaron and I were able to keep in touch that way.

Flash forward a bit to our time closing in Florida, Aaron had mentioned to me that he really felt like we needed to visit our friends in Detroit and see what they were doing there. I, quite honestly did not want to go, a lot of it was fear that if we visited, we might move and who wants to move to Detroit, right? I was reluctant but ended up agreeing to visit and even told Aaron if God says “go”, I’ll go, even though my heart was pretty closed to it.

Colorado called out of the blue and offered Aaron a job and I leterally JUMPED out of my seat “THIS IS IT!! wahoo! Closer to family, a job, people we knew, everything pointed to yes and I still remember Aaron had apprehension about it but this gal was ready to GO! Pack up, let’s get this show on the road!

So we solidified our plans to move to Colorado and visit Detroit on the way to Colorado.

Oh my word, that road trip was the loooongest ever and if you all remember the wonderful ride across America in our car that kept dying every hour or so!! Well, with the car trouble we were having, we decided it would not be smart to stop in Detroit first, so we skipped it, visited family in TX, and then headed up to CO to start a job. A month after moving, we found a house that was rent to own and put the paperwork in to buy the house and set some roots. All the while, there was still some aprehension with Aaron and while I loved the house , there was a part of me that didn’t feel right about it either and I had mentioned to a couple friends of mine but chose to ignore that feeling cause we were not going to move again. nope, nope, nope.

Well, about a month ago, we were sitting in church and worship began to play and it was a.w.e.s.o.m.e. God was moving in my heart and I was loving every minute of it, tears were streaming down and throughout the sermon, the tears continued and I couldn’t stop. I remember looking at Aaron and whispering, we gotta visit Detroit. We both prayed, we both felt at the very least, we needed to visit.

We had no money to make a trip across country and when the day came for us to “supposedly” go, we were still like …ummm how is this gonna work? No joke, the money came in almost immediately and we were floored. Two hours later, we were on the road to visit Detroit, MI and that is the most spontaneous we have been since like we were kids!

30 hours later from being in the car and one sweet stop having some real Chicago pizza, we were finally there and wow, let me say, I was not prepared for it.

I was not prepared to see so many abandoned homes, businesses, and schools. I was not prepared to see people hanging out on the street at all hours of the day, grafitti everywhere, and simply a place that has been worn out to the core.

And while all I was seeing was crazy, I wasn’t prepared to have my heart to be stirred to come live there. I fell in love with our friends at a greater depth and lemme say a family of 6 and family of 7 under the same roof for 9/10 days and not going crazy says a lot ha!

There was one night as we were talking with one of the guys who had come alongside our friends to learn and he was explaining how him and his wife got there and how he absolutely thought that was the last place he ever wanted to be and how God began to work in his wife and him and lead them there. I was listening in awe, in excitement, and in fear. I have struggled with fear a lot in my lifetime and while God has peeled some layers off, this would require me trusting Him a bit more than I am used to and my mind and spirit began to wrestle.

After 5 days of being there, Aaron and I were getting ready to go on a date. I was in the bathroom and got on my knees and began to pray and pray hard. I just begged God that no matter what, if He wanted us there, I’d go and continued to pray that Aaron and I would be on the same page and continue to stay on the same page as we hadn’t really had a chance to talk during our visit. We went on our date and began to share our hearts with each other and where we were at with everything and we were completely on the same page. We both were being stirred and agreed that we would continue to pray and see what happens.

There has been a fire that has ignited in me since being there and a greater urgency to share the gospel for sure and as the weeks have passed and we have continued to pray, it is more evident this is where we are supposed to go. The other night we were praying and I began to read Isaiah 41:8-20. Awesome passage and it really struck me especially with this transition. Please take the time to read it!

This is a big change, requiring a big step of faith and I am asking for your prayer and support.

Please, please read this letter to see more of our heart and the mission that we will be a part of.

I love you all!

Perhaps you wonder how you could ever have an impact if you moved to the city. Check out this encouraging video!

An Analogy from Black History Month

Posted: February 13, 2012 by mikehanafee in Black History Month, Detroit Info, Friends, racism, THE Story, Uncategorized

At the gracious invitation of friend & Detroit Library Duffield Branch manager Christine Peele I was privileged to sit on the panel of judges with Pastor Shaun Marshall (Citadel of Faith) and 3 others in the 34th Annual Albert H. Mallory Sr. Black Heroes Oratorical Essay Contest. It was a blast listening to over 20 3rd – 9th graders present essays on some of the great african-american leaders of the past 2 centuries. Wow, was it informative for me! Through the hard-work, preparation, and lips of these kids I learned a great deal not just about African-American history, but about American history in general. As a nearly 43 year old college educated white guy who reads fairly widely I was struck by how much of our American history I have not know about. I suspect my experience, as shaped & limited by my background & education, is not unique among the anglo population. Simply put, many of us are largely ignorant of the role African-Americans have played in our nation’s history. We only have part of the story.

And then I was double struck by how this is a bit of an analogy for the ignorance of all ethnicities – red, black, yellow, brown, & white – of the ultimate story, the Story of our Creator & Redeemer. Some have never even heard of the Living God & others have heard only part of the story about Him as shaped & limited by their traditions. The ignorance many white americans have of the role of blacks in american history serves as an illustration of the ignorance that all people have of Christ until he is revealed by His word through the Spirit.

So after chowing on the delicious buffet that concluded the contest I left not only with a full stomach but also with a renewed commitment in my gut to pursue ( & help others pursue) two things — a greater understanding of the role of african-americans in the story of our nation and a greater understanding of the ultimate story, the story of God.

Here’s two tangible action steps you can take to continue on this journey with me. First, go the Duffield Branch Library and choose a book from the african-american section. My latest read, complements of the recommendation of Mrs. Peele, is The Warmth of other Suns, a book that chronicles the migration of 6 million blacks from the south. Many have been asking me for recommendations so I’ll add three more of my own. Free at Last? The Gospel in African-American Experience by Carl F Ellis Jr (who’ll I’ll get to learn from next Friday in Philadelphia for 8 hours with about 20 pastors!), On being Black & Reformed by Anthony Carter (No, not the AC of Wolverine history. but I can’t resist – here’s one of the greatest plays of UM history.) and Liberating Black Theology: The Bible & the Black Experience in America by Anthony Bradley (you’ll need strong coffee for this informative read!). Second, participate in our interactive Bible study THE Story Sundays 3-5PM at 1926 Virginia Park Blvd. In a few days I’ll do a blogpost (& possibly post the video) from last night’s study Paradise Lost, the first of our eight sessions. We’re going to set up some more chairs so there is room for you!