Tag: city heights

  • God grew tired of us

    Last night I finally watched God Grew Tired of Us. It’s a beautiful film worthy of 90 minutes of your time. (And available for streaming on NetFlix.) Our neighborhood, like a lot of other communities in the United States, has become a place of refuge for many people relocated here because of war. I’ve heard…

  • Retreating

    A couple weeks back I wrote about our free retreat. I just got back. It was a quick, but profitable time. I’m more convinced than ever that when you are good news first, not only will the Good News be received, but the news of Good News will spread like wild fire as a result.…

  • DREAM Act & Youth Ministry

    Everywhere I’ve done youth ministry I’ve met undocumented students. (Chicago, Northern California, Suburban Detroit, and here in City Heights) But it wasn’t until I started doing youth ministry here in City Heights that I truly started to understand the difficulty they had in furthering their education and starting their own American Dream. Think of the…

  • Beg, Borrow, and Steal our Retreat!

    That’s the goal of our high school ministries Winter retreat. I’m not talking about a cash neutral event to the youth budget. I’m talking about… we’ve got no money so we need to do this retreat for free. We don’t have budget money and our students literally have no cash to offset expenses. Here’s what…

  • Go and Do Discipleship Model

    [video link] My view of discipleship has radically changed in the last two years. I’m increasingly convinced that my role as a shepherd to high schoolers is about putting them in moments of spiritual crisis so that they recognize that they need to learn more from God’s Word. This is in stark contrast to my…

  • The Hook-Up for Youth Group

    I was so distracted by convention last week that I failed to really process/understand/comprehend an e-mail I got about our brand new youth ministry. It’s really cool to see people get on board with what we are trying to do. Background: About 6 weeks ago I had lunch with two pastors at Harbor Mid-City. Basically,…

  • Rock that Quirky Church

    I think some of my harsh criticisms of the evangelical church come from a love of our church. The mission of Harbor Mid-City is one that is quirky by design. We have a hyper-qualified staff brought together despite significant theological difference who lean into that tension for the sake of the Gospel in the neighborhood.…