The Missional Church

After one of our city-wide preview services on Sunday morning we all walked down to Phoenix Park which is close to the library. It's a place known for where a pocket of homeless people gather in their community. Often times people give them food when walking by. We wanted to do a little bit more by throwing an Embrace cookout. We fed many of our Embrace folks along with 175 of our closest friends! One person commented to me how they enjoyed the service but questioned what we were doing afterwards. They asked me if we were going to be like of those "missional churches"? My response was "is there any other church?" I believe all churches should be missional reaching out beyond the four-walls of a building structure.

The Same Team

I recently had the opportunity to visit a church. I enjoy these opportunities greatly because I can sit back, receive and learn. I am a firm believer that you can learn something from everybody. The church I visited was fairly large and established to say the least. I had the priviledge of being introduced to the pastor. I told him about Embrace meeting in the Kentucky Theatre and his eyes lit up! I didn't know why his eyes would lite because here was a prominent pastor of a large church getting excited about something starting out. The pastor shared with me for the past few years how God had placed it on his heart to pray that a church would someday meet in the Kentucky Theatre! Right after he said that he put his arm around me and started to pray. He told me that he would point put who live downtown to come to our church because we are on the same team.

Community Garden

As many of you know the Columbia Heights Neighborhood Association was granted permission by the University of Kentucky to plant a community garden in the vacant lot of 544 Columbia Avenue. Despite getting a late start due to rain delays the tilling of the land was done toward the end of June. I believe it rained for two weeks straight! We were under a time crunch and knew we had to get a move on it. On our tilling day we had wonderful participation! We had many neighbors, community volunteers, and Embrace Church volunteers work in tilling and planting together. Though I myself am not a gardener, I knew that if we had the land that the people with experience would come and they sure did! Maureen Saxon was the first person from our neighborhood that contacted me. She has been gardening for several years along with Embrace member Steve Fisher. Also, students from UK who were agriculture majors such as Russ Caldwell became involved immediately. Because of their wealth of knowledge the rest of us would automatically default to them. Our tilling day was quite humorous because many of our volunteers have never used a tiller before. Once we figured out how to turn it on we had to practically wrestle it where we wanted it to go. So again we’d cry for help to our more experienced gardeners for some pointers. I would have to say that this was actually the toughest part of the gardening process, but the most fun and humorous as well!

Russ Caldwell made our wonderful sign to promote our garden. There has been a lot of word of mouth about the Columbia Heights Garden, especially in the garden community in Lexington. As I was on the Lexington Garden tour a few weeks back I heard our garden mentioned a few times. I’m currently having conversations to have the Columbia Heights Garden on the garden tour for next year.

Since our tilling and planting day many still come out once a week on Tuesday evenings at 7pm to pick weeds and other general maintenance. As we have seen the garden grow we too have seen relationships grow between all our volunteers and the beautification of our neighborhood. Presently we are seeing a harvest of yummy vegetables such as corn, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers to name a few.

Members from Embrace church provided the tillers, fencing and along with community members we had many seeds donated to the garden. This first season of the community garden was a trial run and we are hoping that next year will even be bigger. We are hoping to expand the plot and get more involvement from our neighborhood.

Keepin it Simple

When God started to give us the vision for planting Embrace Church we were faced with a few questions. The first was where were we going to meet on Sunday mornings and what was it going to look like? Our decision for meeting in the Kentucky Theatre wasn't to be cool or different. I literally looked for space all over town including schools, bars, and storefronts but every door was slammed shut. However God had other plans and we are thankful that He did! My friend suggested we ask the Kentucky Theatre for space. I was reluctant to ask because I wasn't sure if I even wanted it and if I did would they even want us. God had other plans and when I talked with the Theatre manager the door was opened so we walked through it.

The next question was what would are worship look like on Sunday mornings? I knew that keepin it simple was what we needed to do. There are plenty of churches who do the rock concerts, skits, and other segments very well. We needed to be different. We wanted to do the opposite and look like the early church in our worship. We call are worship style, "ancient future." I take the time to explain each thing we do in our service with the central act of our worship being Holy Communion. Our services are rather short and the best part is you can wear anything you want. So far our congregation is made up of fairly different people which is what I believe is the true reflection of the kingdom of God. Come and check us out to get a taste for what we do on 9.13.09

Awesome Weekend

it has been an awesome weekend. the service had 70 people in attendance and i gave a talk on Jesus @ the wedding feast. for real, it was laid out beatiful by the Holy Spirit. Just amazing what can happen on Sunday morning.

last night i met with the leadership team of 25 people and we laid out a sweet two week plan to launch this church right! you will see us at the events that are posted on the facebook page.

can’t believe that we all get to do this with our one life.

praise Jesus.

_ros

Highlights From Embrace Preview Service 8/16/09

In church planting there are plenty of ups and downs. Though it sounds unusual they can be experienced all in one day. However, as of late, we are experiencing a wave of faith sharing, relationship building, and church/community congruence. This past summer has been a refocus for us to exactly how God desires to build Embrace Church. We have continued with our community service through avenues such as our community garden, passing out bottled waters in the hot sun, Embrace concerts at Al’ s Bar, community dinners, free coffee hours, and supporting local businesses by purchasing their gift cards to use as “acts of kindness” for folks in our community. What started out with a few young professionals has blossomed and grown to bring more of what the kingdom of God looks like. We are growing and have seen almost 100 people at our past Sunday morning service, along with 2 professions of faith. The past few months we have had 6 people come to know Christ and numerous rededications. After the service we had an Embrace cookout at Phoenix Park where we fed nearly 200 people! Many of them come to Embrace and we are so thankful that are homeless brothers and sisters feeling welcome and participating in the life of Embrace. We are excited at the ways God is working and how He is building His Kingdom right in the downtown!

God Moments

I haven’t written in a while even though there has been much that has happened in the life of Embrace since Easter. Last night I had a God moment. It came at an unexpected time and place. Brady and I were stopping by Redbox to pick up a movie because I got an itch to watch the Soloist. It was late and didn’t make much sense to go when we did however Brady agreed so we rolled up to the McDonalds on S. Limestone. After picking up the movie a man approached us. He came walking fast toward us. “Dwayne” was asked if he could wash our car windows for some change. I didn’t mind. As “Dwayne” was cleaning I asked about his story. “Dwayne” started to tell me about being homeless, new to Lexington, and how nobody wants to hire an ex-con. “Dwayne” told me he couldn’t go back to the Hope Center for at least another week in a half because he got kicked out for about a month because of a discretion he had with another housemate. Brady and I gave him some change, went through the McDonalds drive thru, and gave him a clean pillow/blankets that I just so happened to have in my car. I invited “Dwayne” to our Friday night dinners and he was thrilled that we played cornhole. “Dwayne” had his hands full and as he was about to walk away he dropped a few things he was holding. I helped him pick up his belongings and as we were on the ground he looked up and noticed I was wearing an Embrace shirt. “Dwayne” told me with a grin on his face, “that’s my church!” I was blown away. I asked him, “What do you mean it’s your church?” “Dwayne” said, “I went there a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it.” The Sunday that “Dwayne” came was the first Sunday I had missed since January because I was filling the pulpit at Christ Church and my friend Blake Brodien was preaching for me. I smirked back at “Dwayne” and told him, “I’m the pastor at Embrace.” We both laughed together and the three of us had a prayer. Over and over again “Dwayne” hugged Brady and I and told us how much he loved us. I’m blown away at these God moments and glad I got to share them with others.