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.

D-group this week was amazing. Could anything centered around the holiness of God not be?

Actually, I had set my sights low and was not expecting much from the meeting. Since we had served in the nursery Sunday, I hadn’t even heard the sermon and had barely looked over the discussion questions. In my simple mind you get out what you put in to something, and with how many hours I had put in at the hospital already this week I had not invested enough to anticipate anything substantial in return. Also, I found out that Clete (the group leader) wasn’t going to be there because he was practicing his OB/GYN skills and delivering his dog’s puppies. And worse yet, my wife and I, who are both fairly Type A with regards to our personalities, spent the last hour before people arrived arguing over how things should be done around the house… But God is greater than my shortcomings and I am a part of an amazingly patient and forgiving group! 

It was amazing to see how God brought the evening together with regards to a reflection on His holiness. We started the night with a delicious meal and time spent relaxing with each other and trying to catch up on with each other amidst our busy schedules. We cut this time short (actually we went over the scheduled time allotment but it certainly felt short) and then enjoyed a time of worship in song, led by some amazingly talented musicians. We even ended up attempting to sing Phil Wickham’s “Beautiful” – a great reminder of His power, His sacrifice, and the wedding party that awaits when we join Him as the bride. Then, upon Emily’s suggestion, we watched This Momentary Marriage, the story of Ian & Larissa. I hadn’t seen it before and I was simply hoping there would be some way I could tie it in with the sermon discussion about Ananias and Sapphira and God’s holiness (Acts 4:32-5:11).

It was just a short video, but there wasn’t a dry eye in the room when it finished and it certainly was related to the holiness of God. You should definitely watch it. This is a story of a couple that recognize what marriage truly is and that it represents the love Christ has for His bride the church. He, being fully God, can truly be described as holy. It came up later in our discussion but it ties in here too – the holiness of God does not allow sin to exist in His presence. So how can we as disgusting sinners hope to someday be found in His presence? The answer is reflected in the video where love leads to sacrifice. Larissa loved Ian so much that she sacrificed the typical marriage to embrace one full of suffering. God loved the world so much that He sacrificed His Son as a criminal on a cross to PAY the penalty for our transgressions. Love wins and we can be found in His presence, not by sweeping our sins under the rug but by doing the time for our crimes!

This was an incredible start to the discussion and God continued to show Himself throughout the evening as everyone in the group participated in our examination of the holiness of God and how we are called to pursue holiness in our lives. This led to a time of confession where we made ourselves vulnerable and repented of sin in our lives with each other, seeking forgiveness and encouragement. A lack of investment into the group, problems in our marriages, selfishness, the idols of our busy schedules, feelings of resentment towards the group, arguments with co-workers – all this was laid before the Lord and confessed in light of the cross. How could this not happen when you reflect on His holiness? When we finally finished we realized we had gone an hour past our target end time but no one seemed in a hurry to leave. I think it was 11 or 11:30 when everyone had left and I was able to reflect on what just happen. 

He is holy. We are not. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. D-group this week was amazing. Could anything centered around the holiness of God not be?

Do you want to be a part of what God is doing in our lives and in our community? Please join us as we walk through life together at 6:30 every Wednesday at 8228 John R St.

Austin K.

We have 2 more weeks left of Flag Football Outreach. Please pray that we will love our community well and that many kids, teens, & adults would come to follow Jesus!

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!

I began the sermon by showing a before and after picture of Restore peep Steve Decker – through God’s grace he has lost over 150 lbs!

I then opened up Acts 3 & 4 as we looked at two even more dramatic before & afters. A lame man is made to leap, picturing the power of God in salvation. A man who battles cowardice grows in courage, picturing the  power of God in transformation. Is there a before & after of you that causes people to wonder & ask why? And because we are all a “work in process” not a “finished product”, is your life in Christ a continuing portfolio of before & afters? You can listen to the message below.

Next week we go hardcore in our study through Acts as we look at Ananias & Sapphira. I’ll tell people if they are not at “church” they’ll be struck down too;)

Please pray for this great group of young men who are part of the Discipleship Group Susan & I are leading. Some of them know, love, & follow Jesus. Some of them don’t yet. And some may be called into ministry. I love all these guys. Please pray fervently for them.

Finally, please pray for Aaron & Jackie Acosta (Isaac, Ben, Micah, Judah) as they prepare to move to Detroit to be on mission with us in the 48202/206. They are hungry to serve, grow, and be trained to lead a Discipleship Group. As an added blessing they are gifted musicians who will lead in worship. Here’s a song they wrote and played.

I’m floored & humbled by the 1 Tim 4:12 kind of young adults who’ve been connecting with Restore. Last night 2 of them who are part of our new BoEd Dgroup, Matt & Maja Golden, poured into us some of the highlights of the recent T4G Conference. It was so good I asked Maja to put together a blogpost on some of what they shared.

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“My heart is reminded of Hebrews 10:24-25 as we met last night. ‘And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.’”

“John Piper emphasized that being in a small group (missional community, Bible study group, etc.) should awaken in us a “deep, joyful, confident sense that being in a small group of Christians for prayer and ministry to each other” is one of the best things we could do for our own soul and for the good of those around us, for the glory of Christ. When we meet regularly to pray for each other and strengthen each other to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and as we fellowship under Christ, we are reminded that we are all in it for the long-haul. Not only are we given the privilege to meet and learn from one another but we also have the privilege and responsibility as Christians to be committed to the work of the Lord –  the spread of the Gospel in full confidence of it’s power.”

Tabithi Anyabwile probed the question, “Will your Gospel transform a terrorist?” He emphasized that the word terrorist is not solely about the stereotypical terrorist but is ultimately about any we are reluctant to share the Gospel with because of terror, or fear – family members, lost friends, neighbors, alcoholics, prostitutes, etc. This statement by Tabithi has buried itself in my mind and my heart:

As a committed Christian, is there an evident mark that certifies that you have a deep and unshakable confidence in the Good News of Jesus, because if you do not, the person you are sharing the Gospel with will know that.

“Unreached and lost people need us to be confident in the Gospel that gave us life in Christ. I have to constantly remind myself that when sharing the Gospel, people will not only look into my doctrine but will look deeply in my life to find evidence of that confidence in Christ. Last night, I had the privilege of bearing witness to that. A young girl looked me in the eyes and just said ‘thank you.’ She shared stories about how she notices the difference in the lives of those who say they are Christian and those who really live like Christians should. This is a solid reminder that our lives should be radically different if we are proclaiming Christ as our Lord. She went on to share, in complete honesty that she wants God in her life but she doesn’t want to rush it. I was encouraged to see the Holy Spirit working in her life to urge her to be an authentic Christian, even if she doesn’t believe in that now, I know the Spirit is doing mighty works in her. As Jeremiah 29:13 reads, “You will seek me and you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart.” She doesn’t want a “False Conversion,” as termed by Mark Dever at T4G, and as committed Christians we must be on guard to clearly articulate the Gospel and be aware not to present a church without holiness, suffering and sacrificial love, and fall into presenting mild versions of prosperity teaching. We are the church, this is our responsibility.

We all long for our lost friends, family and the unreached, to give their lives to Christ. In God’s mercy, we are invited in that mission but as we invest in each other’s lives, we must recognize the danger in frustration and depression in looking for instant fruitfulness when sharing the Gospel. It is our job to be faithful (plant seeds) and is God’s mercy to soften their heart to the understanding of the Gospel. I want to end with an encouragement and instruction from John Piper, a humble, faithful servant of God, as we continue to meet weekly; as we are commissioned to make disciples of all nations we must remember to have faith, pray and wait. Rely solely on God and have full confidence in the Gospel – that which changed your life. As my husband shared last night, we must know that God’s work does not end when He rescues us from bondage, but He equips us to rescue others in the name of Christ.”

God’s work does not end when He rescues us from bondage, but He equips us to rescue others in the name of Christ.

Here are 3 things you can do:

1. Pray – for enough workers; for a great turnout; and for many kids/adults to meet, love, & follow Jesus.

2. Play – if you are between ages 5 -16 we’ve got a spot for you. (Maybe a future Wolverine will be in our midst!)

3. Participate – we need referees, coaches, and encouragers.

Around 4 weeks ago we moved to a house on Lawrence Street between Linwood and Dexter roads in the 48206.  We have fallen in love with our neighborhood and have had a great time connecting with so many wonderful people on these streets.

The kids especially have connected with so many other kids in our area.  Clete (our 10 year old) has his best bud from school just living a street away now, so that has been cool for him.

The other night we had 11 teens on our front porch till 11 pm.  Had to break up the fun time they were having so I could get some sleep (I think I’m becoming an oldster).

This past Saturday our neighborhood association put on an Easter Egg Hunt and Cookout for the kids and adults.  It was a really fun time as neighbors connected with neighbors.  We felt a real sense of community.  I do want to thank Keith Greenwood for spearheading the efforts.  He did a great job!

As we were having fun and enjoying our neighbors I thought about the community that Jesus will build in the new City.  Only because of the resurrection can this even be possible.  You talk about a fun time.  I can imagine Jesus will have some crazy cookouts for us kids.  I’m looking forward to it.  I doubt hotdogs will be on the menu!

I also doubt we will be playing at abandoned houses that have been burnt out.  If the streets are paved with gold I can’t imagine what the houses will be like.

~ Clete Bontrager

Here are a few pics!