A poem from my sermon on Pentecost Sunday

 

Do you burn?

With grief? With anger?

With worry? With despair?

With joy? With hope?

 

Do you burn?

For standing firm in changing sands?

For closing eyes in future times?

For your hope for a better tomorrow?

 

Do you burn?

For people? For progress?

For the church? For the un-churched?

For committees? For community?

 

Do you burn?

For love and peace to explode,

like fireworks,

         in the darkness?

 

Do you burn?

Or has your spark gone out

Blowing wind on a thousand tiny embers

Glowing briefly in the dark?

 

Do you burn?

Or are you sitting, dry or damp,

Kindling in the forest,

Waiting for the first falling match?

 

Do you burn?

Does the Word light your way?

Do you stare into the darkness

Like at midnight

        Waiting for the Light?

 

Do you burn?

Hot with fresh fire;

Like a torch

So all can see and follow?

 

Do you burn?

Steady and simmering;

And light a room on a cold night?

 

Do you burn?

Does your love for God consume?

Does it enfold your step?

Infuse your breath?

 

Do you burn?

Like child for parent?

Like parent for child?

Like lovers at the first kiss?

 

Do you burn?

Burn up your time?

Your money? Your words?

Your job? Your life?

 

Do you burn?

Spirit-spark catching hold of your heart?

Being remold, remade, reused, renewed, reinfused?

 

Do you burn?

With a fire, reflected from the sky

Refracted from a million voices

Speaking one Word?

 

Do you burn?

So you can be consumed and be made new?

 

Ben Y-D

We just sent out our first monthly newsletter yesterday, a big first for us as a group. We designed it with two primary considerations: first, not to waste people’s time (after all, how many of us get at least 20 overly long newsletters in our inbox every month?); secondly, to encourage interaction by directly asking for feedback and help from our readers.

 

It’s only been a day since we sent it out via e-mail, and I have to say, I’m fairly pleased so far, as we’ve had a couple really thoughtful responses.

 

This type of response, as church planters, is as good as gold.  We need the perspective of people outside of our Haverhill-church-plant bubble, and quite honestly, we also need the encouragement. When we hear back from people, regardless what their response is, we know that we’re important enough to them that we merited them spending one minute (or even ten minutes) to respond to us.  

 

So please, respond to our newsletters, send us e-mails, and write comments our blog – we need your perspective and it’ll probably make our day!

Thought you’d all like a sneak preview of our first newsletter, coming out via e-mail in a couple days. Tell us what you think!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the inaugural edition of our monthly 5 item newsletter letting you know what’s happening with us! If you don’t remember signing up for this, it’s because we took the liberty of adding your name if you’re otherwise connected with us- if you’re not interested, just send us a quick e-mail to bechurchne@gmail.com and we’ll take care of it.

We also see this newsletter as an invitation for interaction. After you’re finished reading, please just take 30 seconds to respond to our request for feedback, to help us out, or to forward this along to other people who might be interested. Thank you all!

1) This Past Month: It was a busy month for us as we begin the final preparations for the beginning of our ministry in Haverhill, MA. We’ve begun weekly round table meetings to check in with each other, discuss and develop benchmarks and timelines, and set the groundwork for our July 1^st start. We’ve also been making more contacts in the community. This month in particular, we had a great conversation with a local green real estate agent about how to make Haverhill more eco-friendly, the leader of the most effective community organizing group in the city, and with the director of a Christian-based pregnancy care center that serves around 700 people from Haverhill.

2) A Story: Goodness Happens When You’re Not Looking:

On our visit to Hot Metal Bridge, we visited with a homeless man who hangs out in an underpass near Heinz Field, where the Pittsburgh Steelers play. It’s a good spot to be: tailgaters will often show up at 9AM in the morning and leave a lot of leftover food when they go to the game. We learned that one particular Steelers football player, who is a devoted Christian, often comes over after games to hang out, sign jerseys, and give them the leftovers from the players’ postgame buffet. He doesn’t advertise that he does it, matter of fact, he tells people to keep it quiet, but you could tell that the person we talked to had all the respect in the world for him, and carries this player’s jersey in his backpack everywhere.

3) How you can help? We need jobs! This church planting habit is expensive, especially when you need to be bi-vocational to do it. Do you have any leads on part time or full time work in Haverhill, or work that could be done remotely (e.g. telecommuting, consulting, etc.)? Let us know by e-mailing us at bechurchne@gmail.com.

4) Tell us what you think! In your experience, what is the most effective way you’ve seen a church engage with its community? Did this outreach lead to community members coming into deeper relationship to the church?

5) Coming This Month: A new website, graduation, and preparation for Matt and Farrah moving.

Blessings,

Ben, Matt, Farrah, Melissa

www.bechurchne.org