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Archive for the ‘racism’ Category

The Bishop of Baltimore brings it in Detroit

Posted: February 18, 2013 by mikehanafee in Church Planting, Core Values, Freedom Church Baltimore, Leadership, Mission Teams, new facility, preaching, race riots, racism, suffering, the gospel, Uncategorized, Vision, worship

If you care about reaching your city, your time will not be wasted in watching this message by Michael Crawford of Freedom Church in Baltimore. If I had a bishop, it would be Mike! I love this brother’s gospel fueled passion for making disciples in the urban core. Something really special went down this weekend! Restore Church looks forward to learning from and walking with Freedom Church as we seek to make disciple making disciples and plant church planting churches. In this message Mike shares 5 recommendations for Restore Church. And perhaps yours.

Please pray for our upcoming series in Mark, our first week long mission team coming in to help prep for building renovation and the far bigger goal of building relationships, and for a massive Easter Egg Hunt we are planning.

ONE Series wrapped, but racial diversity a gospel issue to & through eternity

Posted: February 12, 2013 by mikehanafee in racism, Restore Church, testimonies, the gospel, Vision

Just as movie trailers give preview glimpses of movies, the church is to be a beautiful preview of Revelation 7:9, all kinds of people worshiping God together for His mercy and to His glory. Sunday we concluded our ONE series by looking at 4 specific ways we can pursue being this kind of church. While were done with this series, we have only begun pursuing being a Rev 7:9 church! During the post service meal several people shared their thoughts about walking with Restore. You can check out a few of these interviews below.

Please pray for our Dgroups as we lean into the missional opportunities of the warm weather months (yes, they are coming!). Over the next few months two of our Dgroups will be going through The Story and the other two will be covering our gospel identities and rhythms.

A great weekend with Alvin & 4th Dgroup launched!

Posted: February 5, 2013 by mikehanafee in Discipleship Groups, EFCA, Females Fighting for Christ, Monthly Manhood Academy, racism, the gospel, Uncategorized, Vision

Between Alvin Sanders teaching Saturday night and preaching Sunday morning and then launching our 4th Dgroup it was a great weekend at Restore! In the Saturday night session Alvin shared the good, bad, & ugly of his experience planting a church in inner city Cincinnati. You can listen in on that interactive session here (your time won’t be wasted!) and watch Sunday’s message from 1 Corinthians 13 below.

We closed Sunday’s service with a special time of prayer as we commissioned our 4th Dgroup, lead by Clete & Ruth. They will meet Tuesday evenings at the Bontrager house on Lawrence across from Central High School on Linwood. Please pray for this new Dgroup and the wisdom & provision for launching the next two Dgroups.

Sunday we close out our ONE Series by looking at how the church is display the destruction of racism. May it be increasingly on earth as it is in heaven! We are following the service with a taco dinner at The PO. As a reminder, MMA & Triple FC meet this Friday night at 7:30. Also, if you have a chance stop by the Duffield Branch Library (2507 West Grand Blvd, 48208) Saturday at 1PM for the 33rd annual Black Heroes Oratorical Contest. I learned a lot last year and have the privilege of serving as one of the judges again this year.

ONE Series: Wrecking Ball or Cotton Ball Gospel?

Posted: January 29, 2013 by mikehanafee in preaching, racism, Restore Church, the gospel

The common portrayals of Jesus as a white man or a black man reveals the cultural captivity of the gospel. Such cotton ball gospels reinforce and build up the walls of ethnic separation. The wrecking ball gospel drops these walls by showing God’s love for all ethnicities, uniting enemies into one body, making Jesus our primary identity (not assimilation), and freeing us from the sin of racism and the reflex of bitterness. You can watch the sermon below.

Please join us Sunday at 10:30AM as Alvin Sanders of the EFCA preaches the 3rd message in our ONE series. Saturday 4-6PM we’ll host a pizza dinner at the PO as Alvin shares his experience planting a church in inner city Cincinnati.

Also, Sunday we will be commissioning our fourth Dgroup!

ONE series kickoff: Imago Dei, & an amazing day!

Posted: January 22, 2013 by mikehanafee in Black History Month, Detroit History, Discipleship Groups, new facility, preaching, race riots, racism, Restore Church, the gospel, Vision, worship

“These premises shall not be occupied by a negro or colored person” reads the original deed to our building. Our history as a nation is drenched in racism and every one of our stories, whether you realize or not, has been shaped by racism. Yesterday, we began our ONE series by looking at how the truth of Imago Dei dismantles the very basis of racism. From conception, every human of every color is made in the image of God – therefore, every human is valuable, beautiful, & equal. But there is also something else we all are, sinful. Sin has marred our Imago Dei like graffiti. And we have all been tagged in two ways – by the sin of others, & by our own sin. Thankfully Jesus came as the perfect Imago Dei. He was not marred by sin but for sin, in our place. He suffered at the hands of men the injustice many have experienced and then suffered at the hand of God for the sins all of us have committed. He redeems His people, gathers us into His eternal family by His blood, & begins a life of transforming us so that our Imago Dei can increasingly show off & show out His glory!

The room was way too hot and the sermon the longest I have ever preached (I’m going to stewy away from that record in the future!) but the Spirit really seemed to show up. And during communion several people stood and bore bold, broken, public repentance. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed in 43 years of life, 17 years as a Christian. We feel as if we are being swept up in something much bigger than us. What is certain is that what is happening is something only God can do. Only God. We tremble at His grace & power. I invite you to listen in on a topic that we are passionate about and that leads right to the heart of God in the gospel.

With about 115 in attendance on Sunday we are pretty close to being maxed out in the upper room. Moving the nursery downstairs has created a little bit of space but we need to get the building renovated as quickly as possible. Would you come for lunch on Feb 26 at The PO to hear a bit of our story and how you might be able to renovate the building with us? You can reference the information card below.

We are launching our 4th Dgroup the first week of February on Lawrence St (across from Central High on Linwood) under the leadership of Clete & Ruth. Also, the very first couple who committed to Restore, 2 years ago when we weren’t much more than a dream, will now serve as apprentice Dgroup leaders. I’m thrilled about this! We need to launch 2 more Dgroups in the near future, so please pray for wisdom & provision.

Cagefighting (& canvassing)

Posted: January 9, 2013 by mikehanafee in DNA Crews, preaching, racism, the gospel

Sunday we kicked off our DNA crews by looking at Ultimate Fighting – the battle against unbelief. Here the stakes are far higher than broken noses and concussions! In Hebrews 3 & 4 there are 4 vital truths that we must hold onto as we move through the octagon of life. Thankfully God sent – not a therapist, motivational speaker, or management guru – a Great High Priest! You can check out the message below.

This Saturday (January 12) at noon we are meeting at the PO (2701 Joy Road, 48206) to canvass our neighborhood with 5,000 invite cards for our upcoming ONE series beginning the day before MLK day. We’d love to have you join us!

Neighborhood Welcome Service

Posted: December 11, 2012 by mikehanafee in Discipleship Groups, Gordon Park, preaching, racism, Restore Church, the gospel, Vision

Clete opened up Sunday’s Neighborhood Welcome Service by saying that if anything good was going down in Restore it was only because of God’s grace. Truth! We’ll take credit for the other stuff;) It was sweet to celebrate with our family and neighbors what God is doing. In the message I shared the four pillars of Restore Church. Please pray for us as we look to multiply our Dgroups as well as create an interim nursery at The PO.

Acts 29

Posted: December 2, 2012 by mikehanafee in acts, Acts 29, Church Planting, election, preaching, racism, Restore Church, suffering, the gospel, THE Story, Uncategorized, worship

Acts 29! While I love my church planting network, I’m actually referring to this age in which Jesus continues to build His church. In the concluding message to our series through the book of Acts we see 3 reasons why The Unstoppable Advance Continues. The Gospel is for all peoples! Busting out of the cocoon of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant was messy business for the early church. And busting out of our cocoons is messy for us too if we want to reach all peoples. Messy. But beautiful! The Gospel advances through suffering. The Gospel is not bound by suffering, it bursts forward through it. Oh, that we would understand this! The Gospel is God’s Story. When we repent & put our full trust in Jesus, our story is corrected & completed by God’s story. He takes our trashy, nasty, cheap paperback novel of a life and makes it part of a brilliantly written story that will show out & show off His glory forever. As if that is not enough, God puts you on his writing team in this Acts 29 age! Not that He needs you to get it done – He could make the rocks cry out in praise to Him – but to show His power & shower you with joy! Where are you in The Story? Check out the video below to find out (as well as to learn how not to pronounce cocoon;)

The verse that rocked my ministerial life

Posted: November 12, 2012 by mikehanafee in acts, Church Planting, EFCA, New Orleans, preaching, racism, the gospel

Three & a half years ago Acts 20:24 rocked my ministerial life. Yesterday I had the joy of preaching on this text & Paul’s goodbye speech to the Ephesian elders. Church leadership, living out the faith, & more is covered in this passage. You can check out the message below.

Early last week, Clete & I had the privilege of spending 3 days in New Orleans with John Gerhardt of Castle Rock Church in New Orleans & other EFCA church planters talking & walking what it means to plant gospel centered churches in inner cities. Incredible time! The wrecking ball for racism is the gospel, not as a one day project, but as a life long commitment. Unfortunately, all but one video interview is inaudible due to the wind. A big shout out to Brett Gleason, church planting director of the Great Lakes district EFCA, for putting this trip together!

For the next two days Clete & I have the privilege of joining 150 pastors from various denominations gathering in Austin, TX to strategize planting gospel centered churches across our great nation. We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in this discussion!

Restore’s first Sunday at the Post Office!

Posted: October 1, 2012 by mikehanafee in Church Planting, new facility, preaching, racism, Restore Church, the gospel, Vision, worship

Just two weeks ago we had no idea where we would gather for Sunday services. Yesterday we worshiped in the “upper room” of a Post Office we now own! To hear the amazing story of how all this happened check out the video below. (You can listen here.) The best part of the service was hearing people all over the room boast in Jesus as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper at the end of the service. Enjoy the pics several people took.

To open up more space on the second floor, we are tearing down a wall Tuesday night. Contact us if you can help. And we are looking at doing a huge workday on October 20. Details to come.