“Father – I’m so grateful to present this opportunity to the church leaders you have brought here today. Please don’t let me screw it up… Amen.”
That was my prayer before heading up to the front.
As some of you may know, we hosted church leaders from all over metro Detroit (and some even outside of it!) to share with them what God is leading Restore Church to do with the building we obtained last fall. We are so grateful for a permanent meeting facility. However, maximizing this tool from God so that we can serve our community better is the next step.
On February 26th Mike and Clete shared a short history of Restore Church, coupled with a few videos/pics of what God is doing in central Detroit. We also heard some testimonies from members of Restore Church – how God brought them to Restore and what he is doing in their lives.
The lunch culminated by presenting our “first steps” to renovate the P.O. and to ask the church leaders who were able to come to invest in Restore Church. And by “invest” we mean more than just money and work teams. See, if this was just about a building, we would have just “begged and borrowed” until we could get the funds together. Instead, we want to see gospel relationships result from this building renovation. This building has become an opportunity for Restore Church to build some deep, meaningful “gospel centered” relationships with churches all across (and beyond) metro Detroit. To put it a little more simple… “We don’t just want money – we want your life to touch ours. We want you to pour into us and we want to pour into you. We want you to press the gospel into our lives and we want to press the gospel into your lives.”
That is what this building we be. It will be a place that brought together gospel relationship. Churches in the ‘burbs will now have close, ministry connection to a church in the city. Churches outside the city will now have a connection inside the city – an insight that they may not otherwise have. Restore Church will have relationships with churches that they can partner with to serve both communities. We have resources they don’t – they have resources that we don’t. What a beautiful way that we can serve each other.
This is the kind of mentality that led Mosaic Church from Ann Arbor MI to send a ministry team out this week. They are going to pour into us and serve by working on the building. We are going to pour into them by including them in our Discipleship Groups and teaching sessions from Mike and Clete. They will also get to spend some concentrated time together with members from Restore to share testimonies and what God is doing in our neighborhood/city.
And we are going to serve each other. That is what the church does.
When I closed things on the 26th, I challenged everyone to pray about how God would have them be involved in the renovation of the P.O. Is it financially? Is it through a work team? Is it through concentrated prayer for the cause of this church in this city? Let me issue that challenge to you – Do you think God might be moving you to be a part of Restore Church in some way? We have a lot of work to do, but we are so excited about the relationships that will be built because of it!
In the pictures section, you will see a post card we encouraged the attendees to take back to their churches. Please take some time to look at it, and please take some time to pray for Restore Church!
