Continued Redemption

I received a letter in the mail today from Living Water for Girls.  This is a new home for victims of commercial sexual exploitation.  North Avenue Presbyterian was the first church to financially sign on to support this new home.  It will open in January.

A couple of weeks ago I made a site visit to see Living Water.  I was inspired as I listened to the Executive Director Lisa Williams speak about the journey she has been on to get this home open.  She is a survivor herself and a very strong woman.  God is clearly working through her.

When the NAPC congregation was faced with the truth that they worship every Sunday in a location deemed by local authorities as a hot spot for child sexual exploitation, they were faced with a choice.  They could either ignore it or choose to act.  They chose to act and now the fruits of those efforts are beginning to be seen.  StreetGRACE and Living Water for Girls would not have happened if North Avenue had not been involved.  As we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ we can smile knowing we are doing our part in participating in God’s redemption narrative.

Merry Christmas and here’s to more great work together in the next year.

Lunch Date

I had lunch yesterday with George and Herb.  They both go to our Community Men’s Bible Study on Wednesday Nights.  I have gotten to know these two guys over the past few months.  They are funny guys, good spirited and working towards a better personal future.  They are both currently homeless but not satisfied with the scenario.  I took them down to JR Cricketts just down the street from the church to get some wings.  Best wings around.  The guys loved it.

We talked for a hour and half about each our lives, our goals, a little bit about our histories and then they graciously allowed me to ask them some questions about some of the day to day realities of being homeless.  We’ve been able to build enough of a relationship that I can trust their answers.

So I asked them about what is a true need versus what a church thinks they need.  The answer?  They don’t all need socks all the time.  They don’t need underwear all the time.  They don’t need 5 pairs of ear muffs.  They don’t need to eat 6 times a day.

What they do need is advice on the best place to open a bank account.  How do I write a resume to get a job? How do you effectively use a computer?  How do I set good personal goals?

You can probably see where this is going.  There are many day to day needs for homeless people.  That is obvious.  Nobody is arguing with basic everyday life needs.  The problem within our city is that many of the groups, particularly the churches don’t talk to each other about what they are providing and even more problematic, very few are rolling up their sleeves and jumping into the really difficult stuff like job solutions, life coaching and other long term training activities.  Churches like to quote “Teach a man to fish versus giving a man a fish.”  I’m all about that, except that very few places are actually teaching men how to fish.

At North Avenue we are guilty as charged.  The majority of our homeless outreach is simply handout compassion which is more enabling than empowering.  Some of you might know that we have been going once a month over to the Pine Street Shelter to do a worship service and give out bag lunches.  I asked Herb about our effort.  Herb stays at Pine Street.  What he said is shocking.

“You guys come over and give us bag lunches that are actually the 4th or 5th meal of the day for us on a Sunday.  Don’t you churches ever talk to each other about what you’re doing?  And, during the football season the men hate your church because when you come over they cut off the football game.”  We go over at 3 pm, just as the Falcons game would be ending.  Do you think anybody asked the question about what was really needed or wanted?  No, we simply just put on our save the homeless people caps and waltzed over there.  We’re creating more ill will than goodwill.  That’s a great evangelism strategy!

So what’s the point?  The point is that by taking the time to get to know these guys and build some relationships, we as a church can learn who can give us great insight (not all homeless men are good sources of information) and we can actually develop outreach efforts that will be a part of the solution.  Amen.

A Really Fun Day

This Advent season we asked for you to help some some of our less fortunate neighbors out.  There were two different drives advertised.  One was a call for boxer shorts.  It’s hard to come by new clean boxer shorts when you’re homeless, so we attempted to provide some new boxers for our men at The Cup.  And you delivered! We created fifty bags worth of boxers along with a few other collected goodies like socks, towels and soap.  It was a very Merry Christmas today at The Cup indeed.

Second, the youth asked for help collecting toys for a local thrift store ministry and again you came through.  As you can tell from the photo, the youth of our church had a good time collecting and delivering the bounty.  These toys will be purchased at low prices by low income families in our community.  Rather than simply giving them away that doesn’t lead to sustainable budgeting and living, these parents are a part of a larger program teaching them how to live within their means and purchase things for their families and have a sense of pride.  It’s very smart forward thinking for the non-profit world and we’re doing our part to support it.

Thanks for the help this season in spreading some of God’s love to our local community.

This Christmas

I know, I know, I know.  Its been too long since I last posted.  I was sick.  Not a fun week.  But next week is going to be great because its Christmas!  During this year’s Christmas season I have been intentional about reflecting on the reason we celebrate Christmas.  It’s really easy to go to the mall and special events and forget all about the reason for celebrating December 25th every year.  What has my reflection led me to?

This year more than ever I’ve been hit with the nature of Christ’s birth.  Filled with adversity, yet simple.  Mary, Joseph and Jesus were all taken care of the entire time, but it was anything but luxurious.  They didn’t end up in the Bethlehem Hilton.  They weren’t eating five star food.  There wasn’t a Rocketts Christmas Spectacular celebrating the occasion.  No, it was an afterthought lodging accommodation and the guest list for his birth announcement was some dirty manual laborers from the fields and some strange guys from another part of the world.

Jesus birth was glorious.  But it was glorious in a way our world would never define as glorious.  I think recognizing that part of the narrative makes it a little easier to understand how the rest of the Christian faith is one lived out against the grain of our world.  Many of the things we are told to succeed in like attaining wealth, status and power are actually the opposite of what the Gospel spells out for us.  Against the grain.  The only way to stay the course is to give ourselves time to reflect on stories of Jesus, the rest of Scripture and to pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us through that.

Missional Example

If you’ve been around North Avenue Presbyterian for any length of time, you’ve been hearing the term “missional” used.  And usually that is followed by an explanation that missional in this sense isn’t just taking short term mission trips.  Okay, got that but then what does that mean?  What is missional then?  I came across a practical example the other day that I wanted to tell you about that illustrates how I would define our new use of “missional” living.

A member of our church is on the board of directors of another ministry organization in Atlanta.  The person came across a need that fit into the mission of this organization.  Most board members wait for instruction.  They sit around waiting for the next meeting, retreat or specific activity request.  Not this person.  They saw the need and then went to the program leadership of their organization and said how can we work with this need?  This issue has to do with homelessness.  Well, thanks to our members listening and information gathering this person has discovered where there are not solutions for people that are homeless.  So, this person is attempting to help create a new solution in partnership with the organization.  So why highlight this?

There are a couple of key elements I wanted to bring out.  First, our member is becoming informed on issues they feel God calling them to.  They are researching, talking to people and not assuming or acting without getting educated.  Second, they are attempting to create partnerships that bring people together for lasting impact.  These solutions need to be around beyond the first time.  Third, this person sees the value of building relationships along the way and receiving contributions from everyone that wants to contribute an idea.  Much the way God wants all of us to use our unique gifts and talents for His work in the kingdom.

My favorite conversation to have at the church is not what you might think.  “Tell me where I can volunteer,” is not it.  I love “I really feel God calling me in this direction but I’m not sure what to do with it.”  Sounds like more work for me doesn’t it?  It might be, but its a whole lot more fun and amazing things happen.

Monday Morning QB

With all the great football happening this weekend, this seemed especially relevant this morning!

It was quite a week at the church as I wrote previously.  This week is a little calmer activity wise but still quite busy getting ready for the next set of events.  This coming Sunday we will be doing something very cool in The Cup.  We will have the youth of the church performing their annual Christmas play.  What a treat for our regular attenders of The Cup.  They will get to see a great performance, be reminded of the reason for this season and get a chance to interact with some of our North Avenue families.  Its a great time to build some cross cultural relationship.

Speaking of The Cup, we are doing a different kind of clothing drive this year.  We are having a boxer drive.  Yep, men’s boxer shorts.  Why?  Well, underwear is hard to come by in the used clothing business.  Do you want someone else’s underwear?  Of course not!  So we are collecting boxer shorts for attenders of The Cup and our Men’s Community Bible Study.  And why boxers?  That want the guys want.  They don’t want briefs.  Enough said!  So bring a pair or two to the church in the next two weeks and we’ll distribute them for a nice little Christmas gift.  There is one more thing….get creative with it.  Boxers are not all created equal.  Don’t bring boring boxers, go crazy.  Get some of your favorite team, or cartoon character or Christmas theme.  Let’s have fun with it!  You can bring them to the Welcome Center and place them in the marked bin.  Spread the word, we’re covering about 80 guy!

Finally, remember to spend some time reflecting during this Advent season on the birth of Christ.  Its really easy to get caught up in the stress of the Holiday season, but we need to make sure that we are listening for God’s voice during this time.  Jesus didn’t come because we celebrate Christmas.  We celebrate Christmas because Jesus came!

Community Host

It was a quite a week at North Avenue.  We had community events happening all week long.  Everything from Christmas music to gatherings to end child exploitation.  We bid farewell to, Mayor and North Avenue friend, Shirley Franklin at the Christmas Faith Based Roundtable.  We celebrated the work of Resource Service Ministries with a Prayer Meeting and luncheon.  We galvanized support around the issue of sex trafficking in our city.

One of the unique ministries that North Avenue has is being a community host.  We are very good at welcoming people and helping them feel comfortable.  In the city of Atlanta there is a premium on parking and central meeting space.  When non-profits and ministries are trying to get together to get things done, being able to keep costs down makes for great stewardship.

This has been one way that I have witnessed us modeling our core values of Radical Hospitality and Extravagant Generosity.  It isn’t a core value if you’re not willing to actually live it out.  These are two core values we are living out regularly.

Three things

“Kim” patiently waited towards the back of the Broyles Ministry Center.  She had a somewhat anxious look on her face, yet she was calm and collected.  She had slipped into The Cup service about halfway through and had participated the rest of the way, including coming forward at the end to ask for prayer.  Now that the service was completely finished, she clearly wanted to chat further about something on her mind.

“I need some help.  I was laid off and I have two daughters.  One is in college and one in high school.  They are in stable situations and I’m trying to keep it that way.  I don’t know what to do.  Can you help know who to contact?”  I was taken aback by this very unusual request.  Unusual you ask?  Well, see she didn’t come up and ask for money right away.  She also wasn’t in an emergency.  She was looking down the road and anticipating an emergency potentially happening.  That isn’t the story that I hear very often.

After hearing about her situation we saw a very easy need that we could help with.  First, I told her she could come by anytime to use the phone so she could save her cellphone minutes.  She had a list of places to call from the United Way and other agencies and just needed a nice quiet place to make phone calls from.  We can do that.  Second, she needed to get around town, so we sponsored a breeze card for her.  That is 60 dollars a month.  Now that she had the freedom to go anywhere she needed to, we had removed a barrier to her finding new jobs and resources available.

Since the initial meeting Kim has come by two more times to use the phone and give updates on her progress.  I have talked with her about finding a church home for encouragement, support and community.  She acknowledged a need for that.  I invited her to join us at North Avenue.  She is still looking for a job, but was extremely thankful for the transportation help.  We’ve been able to build a very solid relationship and she has been very honest with her feelings and emotions and hasn’t made excuses.  She has simply continued to search for ways to help her family move forward.

I’m not a social worker.  I’m not sure what all is available in our city, because it changes so rapidly, but I do my best to stay informed.  However, I can always listen to someone’s story.  I can always attempt to then get educated about their situation and what help is available.  And I can always extend God’s love to them.  That love isn’t always shown in giving them what they asked for.  Sometimes its the advice they need to hear and not what they want to hear.

All of us are capable of these three things.  Listening, Learning and Loving.  That’s an easy way to remember it huh.  GO! Find your Role!

Monday Morning QB

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  I certainly had a good time hanging with my family in North Carolina.  Its always nice to be able to change geographic locations for a few days to be refreshed.

So here we are in Advent.  Lots of things going on at North Avenue.  But so that you can know what is happening this week here a brief overview:

Tuesday: Dr. Weimer and I are presenting StreetGRACE to the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta.  We’re hoping to get more churches to sign on board.  You can keep that effort in prayer.  We desperately need more churches to join the cause of fighting the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Wednesday:  We have the annual Atlanta Symphony Christmas Concert in the Sanctuary.  What a great outreach to our business community neighbors.  Hopefully people will be blessed with beautiful music and those maybe looking to connect with community will see North Avenue as a place to do that.

Thursday:  We are hosting the Resource Service Ministry Christmas Celebration starting at 10:30.  Later in the afternoon we will have the monthly StreetGRACE meeting in the Gym and then at 2 pm we will host the farewell mayor’s faithbased roundtable for the outgoing Shirley Franklin.  She has been a great friend to our congregation and we will be celebrating her time in office and casting vision for the future.  That will occur in the Broyles Ministry Center.

That’s a heck of a week!  North Avenue is a great host to the community on a regular basis.  We have been blessed with a great location and parking.  That allows us to give back in unique ways.  As people come through our doors I hope that they will strengthened and encouraged in these difficult times and if they are looking for a place to connect that they will at North Avenue.

Milkshakes

I’ve been a little light on the postings this week.  I apologize.  I got so busy with great things that I failed to sit down and write about them!  But here is a great happening that occurred this past week:

On Wednesday Night we had our usual men’s bible study.  It’s for anybody but especially targets homeless men.  We purposefully have limited the size of it to show a commitment to the men and ask they make a commitment to us.  Its worked really well this fall.  Going into the Thanksgiving Holiday we knew we weren’t going to meet this coming week.  So I wanted to do something special for the guys to give them a blessing.  What could I do?  Then it hit me. 

During the Thanksgiving holiday I usually head home to my parents house.  My dad is a big milkshake fan.  During the week we will get multiple milkshakes.  It’s what we Cobbs do.  I shared this story with the Bible Study.  The men listened intently and smiled at the warm thoughts of a tradition with my father meant.  Then I pulled out my surprise.  My favorite milkshake in Atlanta is a hand spun Chick-Fil-A milkshake.  They are awesome.  So I got giftcards for every Bible Study member.  I told each of them that I realized spending over two dollars on a milkshake was a luxury that most of them could not afford.  So I thought they might enjoy a holiday treat after their Thanksgiving dinner.  Then I encouraged them to get together in groups to share in the experience. 

The smiles in the room were universal.  They were pumped!  Its a small gesture but to them I think the creative nature of the gift really proved our care for them.  We didn’t just hand them another pair of socks or transportation fare.  Both of those things are needed, but we wanted to do something out of the ordinary.  Allow them a special moment.  Afterall, we think they are special guys. 

This coming week if you get a milkshake, smile knowing you’re sharing it in spirit with some men who don’t normally get to smile very often.