We're Moving In

We’re getting closer to Christmas and many things are beginning to come together for us. We are very excited because tomorrow we will announce that we now have our own office and studio space.

Four years ago (December 2005), we were heart broken because we had to move out of our church facility. Since then, we have met in hotel conference rooms, in our home and at Zion Assembly of Harrisburg.

Over the last four years, we have been preparing for this new start by making the adjustments the Lord has required of us. We've been walking our group through the Word of God on the process of healing in our hearts and homes. We've been building a core group that can assist us in the work of the ministry.

We have been upgrading our website and uploading music, messages and video clips. We have written five books (4 devotionals and a love story for unbelievers), and started a multimedia production called Kingdom Warriors that includes a book series, a comic strip and an animated series.

The Lord enabled us to record and post the NAACP Back to School Gospel Music event and to capture the powerful PA Awake state-wide prayer gathering. It is becoming obvious that the Lord has a purpose for us that reaches beyond our understanding. We've been doing all of this so that we would be prepared to minister effectively when the Lord opens a door for us to return to our Urban World Missions and Outreach initiative.

Mission organizations target people groups, communities and cities where the Lord directs them to take the message of the Kingdom and the love of God. We were sent to Harrisburg as missionaries/ pastors into the urban community. More people now live within cities than at any time in human history. Our home church and overseer saw this trend many years ago and planned accordingly by launching an Urban World missions effort. That's why we are a missions oriented ministry, but our mission field is in the urban world. We've spent the last four years getting prepared for the task that has been assigned to our hands.

We felt led to change the name of the church from Fruitful Life Worship Center, to Urban Life Church. We revived our multimedia outreach called Fruitful Life Network of Ministries, and started an internet TV channel. We launched FLNiTV by introducing a 24/7 video stream and a segment called Hidden Treasures, to interview pastors, community leaders, and individuals who are doing special things in this community and around the nation in the urban world.

Since many people in the urban community are drawn to the internet, we are using this technology to connect with people who don't usually go to church or any other religious activities or events. The internet is just another way of casting out the fishing net which Jesus described.

Four years ago, December 2005 marked the death of OUR thoughts and agendas for Pennsylvania. Now December 2009 has inaugurated a wonderful new understanding of our purpose. You see, it’s Christmas in every way for our family. The Lord has given us a second chance. We have been given restoration and renewal. What a precious gift. The Lord placed it on our hearts to begin declaring rebuilding, restoration and renewal for hearts and homes, but we didn’t realize He was going to bring it forth in us first.

Today, I am blogging this PRAISE REPORT that we have begun the process of moving into our own office/ studio space so that we can effectively steward the ministries the Lord has given us. Our office will house the office equipment that will help us with the administrative side of the ministry. The studio (built with sound proof walls) is being equipped with powerful multimedia computers so that we can continue with the video, animation and music aspects of our various productions.

Carol and I will finally be able to resume writing and producing praise and worship music for what will someday be, a multi-ethnic urban community church. The websites of both ministries (the church and the media outreach) will continue to enhance our efforts to reach out to this community.

In addition to the office and studio, we also have full access to several conference and meeting rooms, a kitchen, a dining hall, a full service print shop, two facility copiers, and plenty of parking. We are praising God for this marvelous facility that has come available to us. It is managed the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, so yes, we're working with the Body of Christ. Our monthly lease is still sending funds into the work of the Kingdom of God. The awesome part is that we are paying less than 1/4 of the monthly amount that we had four years ago... and we're getting far more, even though we're paying far less. The lease even includes utilities.

Four years ago we were moving out of a building, but this year, and this week, we’re moving in. We’re moving in the purpose and will of God.

I'm Cool...I'm Good...I'm Thankful

Sometimes I wake up and the first thought is the dread of going in to work, followed by the weight of bills, and then the sadness of shattered dreams and expectations. But then I look over at the love of my life lying next to me, who has stayed by my side for nearly 29 years and suddenly nothing else matters. I'm cool... I'm good.... I'm thankful.

So I get up and go face another day.

Fighting Discouragement

Saturday night we spent quite a bit of time in worship and intercession for Harrisburg. The Lord brought forth another new song. I can’t remember it because

it was definitely a song of intercession for the moment. We sang, prayed and worshiped for about 40 minutes before we began our teaching and instruction. We were revived and refreshed by it, which was really important since we were worn out from a full day of ministry.

One of the couples that we mentor, reminded us that our ministry has always been about long term therapy. They reminded us that even when we were living in

St. Louis and working on staff in the church, our ministry was not dynamic or eye-catching. We were about building relationship and providing the long, very slow process of healing therapy. They reminded us that a lot of people missed what God wanted to do in their lives because they wanted something fast and instant to happen. So they didn’t receive from us because that’s not how God uses us.

I remember how it took from 1992 all the way until 1997 before the youth ministry was strong and vibrant. It took from 1998 until 2002 for the young adult ministry

to really begin to soar. In both ministries, we started with the slow process of just building relationships. We met in small groups and we brought forth Biblical and everyday life foundational teaching.

Now to find ourselves in a city where people run away from relationship building, it’s like having the only thing that God has given you to do, to not work. We fast and pray. I sit down and study the Word of God, pouring over the life of Jesus and the early church apostles, just as the Lord has led me. Yet, we don’t see people coming, who want that in their lives. They want to receive the benefits of this kind of church, but they aren’t willing to give of themselves to make that happen.


However, every time we minister outside of this community, people are weeping and crying under the presence of God. They receive and welcome the very same message and ministry that, in this community, gets nothing but a yawn.

I was about to believe that something must be wrong with us until the Spirit of God reminded me that any place that did not have faith, and every place that was deep in skepticism, unbelief and offense, even Jesus Himself could not do any miracles or mighty works there, except for a few people here and there who were open to receive. Now we know what that feels like.

The only exception has been those who consistently come each week, but we can tell that even they are growing weary in waiting for something to change. This is where the whole validity of our calling and purpose gets challenged and questioned. I know this because we went through it in St. Louis. Just before the ministry began to grow, we lost a wave of people who were tired of waiting for things to change.

I know these faith steps should be working, but it seems that HERE, the atmosphere is filled with people don’t seem to want it. They seem to prefer to be where they are lost in a crowd and unaccountable to anyone. They prefer to live searching for the next thrill and the next feel good session. (This applies to people in and out of the Kingdom of God.)

Urban Life Church is like the exercise class that you must attend in order to become fit for Kingdom service. If a person just wants sweets and desserts, playing around and games all the time, this isn’t the place.

I recall that our sister DeVata told us that we are a special force unit. She mentioned that very few people can last through the training to become a part of such a unit. Some have even lost their lives in training. I guess that’s the part that is discouraging. I realize that we are still in training and everyone won't make it that attends Urban Life Church. The past five years haven’t even been the war yet. I can say this because I know what it is like to REALLY be in the war.

This past weekend was very hard on my family. It was tough, yet well worth it. I find myself guiding them through an aspect of the SPECIAL FORCE TRAINING that involves sacrificing your time and energy at a whole new level. We ministered in Lancaster Saturday morning, and drove back to Harrisburg, set up everything again, and ministered Saturday night. The whole day was taken and we were wiped out.

IT WAS AN IMPORTANT TEST to see where my family really is in the process.

Weekends are very valuable when you’re a bi-vocational pastor, but we don’t belong to ourselves, so we went for it. I’m very proud of my wife, sons, and mother in law (love). They were real troopers.

I can recall the REAL war meaning, the windows being broken out of my vehicle on several occasions, our home being burglarized, having the police show up at our door because we had been accused of harboring a runaway, rushing my son to the hospital because of asthma attacks, burying my brother, comforting a teenager after their baby died, fighting city hall’s attempts to shut down the ministry, being deeply, deeply wounded by church members and leaders (yet refusing to quit), and countless sleepless nights because of demonic visitations.

We’ve had some tough stuff to happen in Harrisburg, but we have been out of the front lines of the REAL WAR, for a long time. Right now, it’s very difficult to obtain and maintain a small group of people for the battle that is yet to come.

So I’m just waiting before the Lord during this season.

Broken, but Not Destroyed

During our Hidden Treasures Live interview with the Sullivans, Pastor Denise gave us a prophetic word that we were made not to be broken. Specifically she said, “You lost some people and you lost some things, but you were made not to be broken.”

Then Bishop Sullivan expounded on that by explaining the difference between the breaking that God brings to strengthen and build us, and the breaking that the enemy brings to try to destroy us.

I look back over the past five years and remember so many days and nights of deep anguish. It was especially difficult to lose our home in foreclosure. That breaking hurt very deeply because it was the second time this has happened to us. As far as I was concerned, this was totally my fault and it happened because I tried to do too much, too soon. That failure was connected to so many bad decisions, that it even seemed our coming to Harrisburg was a huge mistake.

Since then, I’ve had to be forthright and honest about what happened because I didn’t want my wife or my sons to be confused about the situation. I didn’t want them to blame God or turn against Him. That’s what happens when leaders don’t tell the truth about a situation. It leaves people suspicious of God. If I had held to the position that I prayed and God just didn’t answer my prayer, that would have been dishonest, and a great lack of integrity. I knew the truth and I had to confess the truth.

What I didn’t realize was that the decision to tell the truth, walk away from the house, and start all over again, was part of the breaking process. It broke pride. It broke religion. It broke ungodly expectations. It broke an ungodly vision. It broke up the fallow ground in my heart so that I could receive the promises of God today.

I don’t know who will read these blogs in the future; perhaps my grand children.

I just want them to know, that God is never to blame for the stuff that goes so desperately wrong in our lives. We make decisions based upon secret and sometimes, unknown motivations that are buried deep in our hearts. He lets us make those decisions, and then we live with the consequences of those decisions. That’s when we start praying and asking God to bail us out of the bad decision.

I have found that God won’t do anything until we’re honest about how we got to into that situation. After we are honest about it, He will either bail us out, or He will give us grace to go through it. Only He has the wisdom to know which way He should deliver us. Our position, if we have truly confessed and repented, is to trust whatever way He decides to handle our situation.

When we can trust Him like that, then we have been broken to the point where He can now give us out to a hurting world.

Champions

Today I feel like the football coach who has told his team that they are going to win the championship. Then after encouraging everyone, I had to tell them what it's going to take to accomplish that goal.

I saw a lot of sober expressions Saturday night.

I believe God. I believe in my players. Now it's time for us to see what we're really made of. I choose to believe that we will come forth as the champions the Lord has declared that we are to be.