On Sunday our church celebrated our third anniversary. There’s a lot that could and probably should be said about this significant marker but, to be honest, I’ve run out of words. God has been good. That’s more than enough to capture the spirit of our celebration, but these photos may fill in some details. To those of you who have been tracking with our church’s journey over the past few years, thanks for your prayer and support. It means a lot.
Tag Archives: bronzeville
The View From Here
This sculpture, Monument to the Great Migration by Alison Saar, is located in Bronzeville just a couple of blocks north of where our church gathers for worship.
The View From HereChurch Planting Lessons: Vulnerability
This is the third in a series of posts about what I’ve learned about multi-ethnic church planting as we near the one-year anniversary of New Community Covenant Church in Bronzeville. You may be interested in parts one and two. I’ve added a photo or painting from Bronzeville in each of these posts.
I’m not sure I would have used the word “vulnerability” to describe the process of multi-ethnic church planting until last week. That’s when, in conversation with my friend Professor Paul Metzger of Multnomah University, I first heard the word used in context of my vocation. It’s been a helpful way to think about my experience and I’m grateful to him for it.
Like any new endeavor, starting a church carries a certain amount of risk. I’m incredibly grateful for the strong, gifted, and experienced leaders who are collaborating to lead New Community into existence. However,even with these leaders the process of pastoring a new church has often felt rather emotionally vulnerable. I think this vulnerability has been especially poignant given the dynamics of a multi-ethnic church.
"Mind, Body, and Spirit," 1936. A mural by William Edouard Scott in the Wabash YMCA.
On more than one occasion I’ve pointed out this experience to the church by contrasting the predominately African American neighborhood where our church resides and the very white skin in which my own body resides. This is new, unfamiliar territory to me. Of course, anyone who participates in a multi-ethnic church – especially one that regularly acknowledges and addresses injustices related to race, ethnicity and culture – is bound to experience vulnerability. This is the result of addressing those things that are often unacknowledged by both church and culture.
However, as a white man I am unused to deliberately and repeatedly choosing to experience vulnerability. As I shared with my spiritual director a number of months ago, I’m used to leading with confidence and intuition; feeling vulnerable or exposed would mean I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere. But pastoring a multi-ethnic church in an African American neighborhood has removed much of my self-confidence and I’m slower to trust my intuition. Instead, I ask a lot of questions. And more questions. And follow-up questions. I ask our leaders how my ideas sound to them. I ask them for their ideas.
And yet, I’ve still been called to pastor, to lead. And so: vulnerable leadership. Thankfully the cross of Christ provides the model of complete vulnerability. The future of our young church lies here, at the cross, where God became weak so that we might have life.
Church Planting Lessons: Relational Networks
This is the second in a series of posts about what I’ve learned about multi-ethnic church planting as we near the one-year anniversary of New Community Covenant Church in Bronzeville. Part one can be found here.
Two years ago I knew two people in Bronzeville. As I became more involved with our church planting efforts in the neighborhood, I quickly realized that I needed to meet a lot of people relatively quickly. As a proud introvert, the idea of forced meetings with a bunch of strangers made my stomach turn. I know church planters who are great at that sort of thing; I, on the other hand, would have come off as a really bad salesman. Eventually I found a framework for meeting people and telling them about the vision of our church.
"Bronzeville" by Gregg Spears
Relational Networks became the phrase I used to describe how I was meeting new people. Maggie and I had lived in Chicago for less than two years when I began reaching out to people in Bronzeville. This was enough to seriously limit who I knew in Bronzeville, but to make it more challenging we were living on the North Side, miles north of our future church’s South Side neighborhood. In other words, as a white guy living on the North Side who’d recently moved from the suburbs, I was going to need some serious help.
Help came rather quietly in the form of conversations over coffee and lunch. As I was introduced to folks who lived or worked in the neighborhood I’d ask for a follow-up meeting. Over these conversations I usually had the chance to share about our church, but the real benefit was learning more about the neighborhood and being introduced to other folks. In a relatively short amount of time I began to see networks of relationships throughout the neighborhood. Interacting with these networks through new relationships allowed for multiple opportunities to invite people to our church and learn about ways our church could be involved in the neighborhood.
The early days of the church planting process were filled with these meetings and they remain a priority one year after beginning weekly services. The idea of relational networks lets me be myself while still actively connecting with new people who haven’t heard about our church. I heard a preacher once say that credibility is what other people say about you. It’s my hope that as our church becomes part of many relational networks our credibility as humble and courageous followers of Jesus will become known in Bronzeville and beyond.
Church Planting Lessons: Ask Dumb Questions
New Community Covenant Church in Bronzeville is quickly approaching our first anniversary of weekly Sunday services. Michael Washington suggested that I capture some of the stories and lessons from this first year before they retreat too far into the past. Good idea Michael. Over the next couple of weeks, in no particular order, I’ll post a few of the things I’ve learned about planting a multi-ethnic church. As a disclaimer, I’m convinced there is far more to be learned, that on a good day I can just begin to see the forest for the trees.
Bronzeville had already been identified by our sending church as the Chicago neighborhood where our new church would be located. As I became more involved I began to learn a lot about this historic neighborhood, including how different it was from our sending church’s North Side location. I wondered, What needs to be different about this new church given the history and demographics of Bronzeville?
Photo Credit: Kymberly Janisch (http://bit.ly/gxvoft)
Bronzeville has been a predominately African American neighborhood for a long time with a history I began to learn about one morning when Michael drove me around, pointing out significant landmarks. We talked a lot about the historic churches in the neighborhood that morning and when we eventually stopped for coffee I asked my first dumb question: Should we scrap small group Bible studies in this new church in favor of a mid-week, all-church Bible Study? Most of the churches I’ve been a part of have leaned heavily on small groups for discipleship, community building and Bible study. Michael pointed out that small groups are relatively unknown in many African American churches and I wondered whether the method should be dumped for something more contextual to the neighborhood.
As we continued to plan I started to wonder about the critical components that would need to be in place for a multi-ethnic church to thrive in Bronzeville. During this time I reached out to folks who lived in Bronzeville or were familiar with the neighborhood. I asked, Which aspects of church are indispensable to you and your friends? I didn’t care whether or not they were attending a church. What mattered to me was hearing what parts of church they looked forward to expectantly. Over and over again I heard how important worship music was. The basic message was: “You can change everything else- the format, the preaching, the demographics- but don’t mess with the music!”
If you’re wondering, we decided to keep the small group method- Michael convinced me that it could be effective- and I began to pray like crazy for the right people to lead our worship ministry- a prayer that was answered with two excellent leaders.
There have been many more dumb questions, and I’ve yet to regret a single one of them. Gracious conversation partners have tolerated my ignorance and been patient as I learn how our church can best honor the neighborhood. Dumb questions lead to insightful answers, answers that have significantly shaped our church during this first year.
