Paul Nixon, who is our coach for this new ministry plant, is coming up this weekend for a site visit.  It’ll be great to have some good, focused time with Paul and I can’t wait to show him around the city of Haverhill.  He’ll have a chance to worship at Good Shepherd on Sunday as well.  I get to preach, which should be fun…if I ever get this sermon together.  But I pray for a fruitful weekend – for him, for us, and for the city of Haverhill!

For those of you who are the praying types, I invite you to pray also for this weekend as we get a lot of work done.  We were very productive at our visioning retreat last weekend, so I imagine that this weekend will be similarly productive, as well as give us a lot more questions and issues to think and pray through.  So please walk with us in prayer this weekend, and always, leave comments and questions and feedback in the comments below!  We love to hear from you.

I’m always amazed at the different perspective you get when you walk the streets of a place.  Driving doesn’t quite cut it – you are too cut off from the action, too insulated from the place you are in, too far removed from the people.  When you drive, you don’t have to let a place in; all you are doing is passing through, generally too fast to notice anything but the road.

One of the murals in Downtown Haverhill

After a few years of dreaming what church could look like, we find ourselves in the midst of that dream.  The four of us have begun our life together as a community and are settling into the house as our collective home.  I have to say that living in community is already feeling more natural to me than living as individuals.  It has truly been a blessing so far to be able to share our lives and our faith journeys together.  I’m sure it will just continue to blossom in deeper ways.  Alongside our journey together in community, we are seeking to begin a new community of faith.  This is something we have all been hoping for and are looking forward to the adventure.

I am expecting this new vision of church to look very different from what we are used to seeing in the more traditional church setting.  We want to bring church out to people where they are, meeting them wherever they might be on their journey.  I know that is something I am really looking forward to because I believe that people are hungry for God who may not feel comfortable walking through the doors of a traditional church.  I also believe this was at the heart of how Jesus interacted with people, building relationships with them where they were and offering them extravagant love.

As I’ve had some opportunity this week to get out and meet some of the non-profits who are doing great work in Haverhill, I am also looking forward to partnering with them to be able to provide resources to those we will be reaching out to.  I’m excited about some of the invitations we’ve already received to be with the people we are hoping to build relationships with and how God is working in this city.  I continue to hear how there is a lot of poverty here and I believe through these partnerships and with the love of God, transformation can take place.

Living this dream is going to be wonderful, challenging, inspiring, difficult, and filled with Holy Spirit moments.  I believe that despite how much we plan and look forward to what we will be doing in the city, that the Spirit will move in ways that we cannot even imagine yet.  I have already seen how people are being inspired to be a part of this and I am always thankful to see how God moves in mysterious ways.  I know that as we reach out to those on the streets, in businesses, in apartments, or wherever we meet them, God is with us.  I hope some hunger will be satiated, extravagant love will be shared, and the fire of the Spirit will inspire and move mountains.

One of the things we’re hoping to do is to create a church where people don’t associate church with a building, but about people and a relationship.  Where discipleship is about a wholistic approach to faith and life rather than adherence to an intellectual set of beliefs or going to the event on Sunday morning.  Where we aim to bring the kingdom of God by making life better for every single person, regardless of whether or not people engage with us spiritually.  Where we want to love the city the way God does.

I hope now that school is officially over and community life has more or less settled in, we can start really focusing on getting involved in the city – getting to know what resources are available for people on the margins and making relationships, getting involved in activities that spark each of our interests, and getting a better handle on the pulse of the city.  I imagine that each of us will connect in very different areas – and how neat it will be to bring these different parts of Haverhill into relationship with one another!

The most exciting part for me is forming relationships with people out in the community.  Once I kick this cold I’ve been fighting for the past few weeks or so, I want to get out there and really experience the city!  I can’t wait to see what things God is already doing in the city.  I can’t wait to pray through neighborhoods, see what there is to be seen, and get a better picture of what life in the city is like for most people.  I can’t wait to relate the Gospel to their lives – to tell people that the way of Jesus Christ is full of hope and transformation and new life.

I think there are many unique ways that we can interface with the city – or (using more traditional language) be in ministry to the city.  A few things we have planning are a welcoming ministry – new residents to Haverhill often have a difficult time getting involved and connecting with the city.  Secondly, we’re thinking about an artists ministry; there is no meaningful artist community in the city – lots of things happening everywhere, but no real catalyst jumpstarting things.  There are a few places: like Wingate Street Art District or some of the live music happening throughout the city on Bradford Common or on Wingate.   Thirdly – something that I’ve been thinking about lately – is maybe connecting with the green movement in Haverhill.  Greening the city is something that has a lot of potential in Haverhill, and there are a lot of people who are interested in partnering to make it happen – from green homes to single stream recycling to a revamped farmers market to community gardens throughout the city.  How awesome would it be to have a church interested in helping these efforts?

Anyhow, these are a few of my thoughts about our future as a church in Haverhill.  Things are looking up!

The four of us went to hang out in downtown Haverhill on Friday night for “Friday Night Live on the Patio,” sponsored by the Wingate Street Arts District (http://www.wingateartsdistrict.com/).  Good times!

So this is my completely amateur venture in to a bit of graphics creation.  I made it with the GIMP, since photoshop is a little out of my price range (and the GIMP is all open source and free).  I downloaded some grunge brushes from various places around the internet, a new font or two, and used this image from flickr.com:

Behind Haverhill Station

http://www.flickr.com/photos/herzogbr/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Here’s my transformation:

Be Church: Because God Loves the City

I think it’s a little too dark, but overall it was fun to put together!  Any feedback would be most appreciative (especially from our much more knowledgeable graphic designer consultant. )  Just stick a comment below.  I’m hoping to use this image (or an image like this) for a splash page on the website to give it an updated look, and ultimately create a more unified theme for the website, making it less for churchy people and more for the people we are trying to reach.  Again, let me know what you think!

Because of all the rain and miserable weather we had been having over the past few weeks, the 4th of July fireworks were postponed from the 3rd of July to the 5th of July.  We headed over to the stadium to check out the festivities – the first time for all of us!  (Ben and I last year were so exhausted from moving in that we chose sleep over seeing the show).

There were a few vendors, and Team Haverhill, the local citizen action group had a couple tables along with a exhibit of one of their newest projects: Soles of Haverhill “Shoe-la-bration” which is a three month public art exhibit of twenty giant shoes celebrating Haverhill’s history as the shoe capital of the world.  I’ve posted a couple of the pictures below.

One of the shoes

Another shoe!

Team Haverhill also was attempting to set the record for the most postcards sent from a single location at a time.  The previous record in the Guinness Book of World Records was something like 4,300 from a place in China.  According to the official count, we sent over 4,900 postcards promoting Haverhill!

We had a great time seeing the sights.  One of the thing we noticed in the stadium was the large number of young kids – middle school and high school – wandering around without their parents.  It was surprisingly a very young crowd – also a fair number of young adults with little children – but the number of kids really made an impression on all four of us.  This may prove to be a fruitful area for ministry!

Matt and Farrah

The Fireworks Finale

1) What happened this month: We went to the New England Annual Conference, our blog was relaunched (www.bechurchne.org/blog), and Matt and Farrah moved in (see our blog for pics!).

2) Going the Extra Mile: There are two examples that come to mind this month. First, when Rev. John Blackadar, our supervisor, learned when Matt and Farrah were going to be moving up, (a few days after Annual Conference), he said “I take my trailer and go down to mission central every year in Pennsylvania to drop off supplies after Annual Conference. On my way back up, I’ll stop, we can load up my trailer, and move Matt and Farrah back up to Haverhill”; and that’s exactly what he did. We brag all the time: “our D.S. is so supportive of our ministry that he moved Matt and Farrah up himself!” The second instance was during the reading of appointments at Annual Conference: when Rev. Blackadar highlighted Matt and Farrah’s appointment and our ministry in Haverhill, about half of the session gave us a spontaneous standing ovation – we’ve never seen an appointment get that reaction before!

3) Feedback: What ministries have you started or social arenas have you participated in that were most fruitful in making deep relationships? E-mail us at bechurchne@gmail.com

4) Help us: Help promote our website! Our website, especially our blog, is essential as we expand awareness of our ministry. So please, visit our web site, read and comment on our blog, and link to our blog or to a blog post you find interesting via your own blog, via twitter, or via facebook.

5) Coming Next Month: Paul Nixon’s (our coach) site visit and the beginning of our church plant in Haverhill!

6) An addendum: We’ve had quite a few people ask how they can donate to our ministry and now we have an answer! You can write your check out to “Good Shepherd UMC” and put in the memo “Church Plant” – this money will be reserved for us until we get a separate account set up. You can mail the check either to: 22 Fernwood Avenue, Haverhill, MA 01835 or to 471 Main Street, Haverhill, MA, 01830

I attended an informational meeting on single stream recycling in Haverhill today, sponsored by Team Haverhill, a local community organizing group that I belong to. We’ll be hosting a meeting in a few weeks at Good Shepherd UMC  about recycling and going door to door in the neighborhoods to spread the word and give out information. It seemed like a bright idea to sit in on one, listen to questions, and get a sense about what we’d be doing.

There were a few people there, including one with a camera who was going to tape the informational meeting for local access television. Because I was the only person who showed up and stayed, the decision was made that it would be far more interesting to do one on one interviews with the people who were coordinating the city’s recycling efforts.

And, since I was already asking questions of the coordinator, guess who got to the be interviewer? Thirty minutes later, I had interviewed both coordinators, and also met and interviewed the mayor, who stopped by for the informational session. Now, my face will be gracing (or marring) local access television for probably the next two years, asking questions about Haverhill’s recycling program; (more or less of the top of my head).

Ahh, the adventures of church planting!

This post represents several new beginnings for me.  First, and most simply, this is my first post to this blog.  There are, however, several other and more complicated beginnings that I am experiencing.

This week marks the first time that I am living outside of New Jersey. So, I am beginning my life away from New Jersey.  I am having mixed feelings about this particular new beginning.  On one hand, I am extremely excited to be following God’s call to Haverhill, MA and to be partnering with Farrah, Melissa and Ben in this new ministry.  This should be quite an adventure, and I can’t wait to dive in head first.  On the other hand, I will be leaving behind my family, friends and the place I called home for my whole life.  I will deeply miss all of them, and a piece of me will always still be with them in NJ.  To all of you back home who are reading this post: I love you and miss you.

This week is also the beginning of my life in intentional community.  That is supposed to be the main focus of this post, so I should probably say a thing or two about it.  This new beginning is also one that I have mixed feelings about.  It has been difficult trying to explain to friends and family that I will be living in intentional community where we will be sharing common food, belongings, prayer life, and even finances.  Usually I here the reply, “So, you are joining a commune”.  I typically don’t know the best way to respond to that, so I laugh and give up on trying to explain any further.  This type of conversation tempts me to second guess what the four of us are getting ourselves into.  I want to try to come up with reasons why it is a bad idea or why it won’t work.

There have also been times where I have felt like moving into intentional community means sacrificing my personal time, space and possessions.  In a way this is true, but I believe that my feeling like I am losing something valuable is due to my cultural conditioning.  Even as we have been setting up the house, I have had moments where a voice deep inside me is throwing a tantrum saying, “I want to hang my pictures one whatever walls I want in my own room.  I want to put my stuff where I want.  I want the temperature and lighting and sound exactly how I want it.”  But the truth is, these are not the things that I really want.

What I want from intentional community is a spiritual life that I share with others on a daily basis.  I want to sit down around a table for meals and have conversation with good friends.  I want to share the possessions that I have been blessed to receive with others, so that others might be blessed by them as well.  I want to have my life ordered in a way that helps me to stay more connected with God, with others, and with myself.  I believe that living in intentional Christian community is the way that I am being called to fulfill all of these desires.