:: eric michael bryant ::

A “PFP Moment” from David Donahue in Virginia:

“Beale Memorial Baptist Church is in the small community of Tappahannock, VA. Our church runs about 230 on a Sunday and we are active in a variety of ministry endeavors throughout our community and region…. We are a fairly mission minded people and try to remain open to creative ways to express our faith in a practical manner.

Last summer a member of our church traveled to Ghana to distribute mosquito nets in the northern part of that country. While there he met a church planter name Emmanuel Mustaffa. Muss has had wild success in planting churches. At that time he had helped plant over 80 in just under two years. His goal is 400 by 2010. Along with the starting of churches he has built a school, is helping farmers, and training leaders. While our fellow was with him for the day, he told Bryan that his ministry needed a tractor. He was very specific about what type of tractor he needed and said that he was waiting for God to provide the perfect one.

God’s timing… Bryan farms about 5,000 acres of land in VA. Bryan knows tractors. Muss showed him the land that would be cultivated. Discussed what the needs were and said that he would wait for God’s timing. Bryan told him in that our church would buy him the tractor…he didn’t put a time on delivery. But promised that we would get his ministry a tractor.

Upon Bryan’s return to church he was giving us a report of his trip. At the conclusion he told the story about the tractor and how he promised Muss that we would provide. At first I was a little perturbed that he would offer a tractor when we:

• Were in the midst of a major building campaign.
• Were buried in debt.
• Had no spare money to spend on buying a tractor.
• The pastor did not want to begin a mission campaign to buy a tractor for Ghanaian farmers.

Bryan continued to speak, my heart began to soften. The deacons were sold as well and we thought that God would use us to raise money for months on end to buy this tractor, implements, shipping costs etc.

After that meeting I told a fellow member about the opportunity. They were excited, but not too excited. I told a second family and they gave me $20,000 to help buy a tractor!

Interesting thing. The tractor Musstaffa needed cost right at $30,000. We had $20,000. Bryan told the tractor dealer his story and they knocked $10,000 off the price. We had our brand new tractor for $20,000. Another side note….the money this family gave us came from their stock holding. The company was Bear Stearns. If they had held onto their stock, that same gift would have been worth less than $100 right now.”

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To find out more about the Urban Poets trip to the Olympics and how you can help them get there, go here.

URBAN POETS IN ACTION

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A new friend of mine from the Northwest sent this PFP Moment about “The Church in the Cracks.”

“Just a few days into my job at Safeway and I had the opportunity to meet Bill. Or should I say, Bill met me… Bill is a friendly guy, but at first glance you would not give him much attention. He walks slowly and his speech is slurred from a palsy that also causes his hands to tremor when he shakes you hand. Bill showed some immediate interest in coming to our church’s meetings and I have to admit that part of me wanted to say “no”. Yeah, I realize that makes me look like a jerk for even feeling that way, but still the feeling was there. But I overcome that urge and invited Bill to come and join us for one of our Saturday Night Reunion meetings. It turns out; Bill is a great guy who is in desperate need of a caring community. His wife has recently passed away, and he is lost and looking for meaning in his life. Bill may not even know it yet, but he is looking for Jesus. Bill is exactly the reason I am planting this church and I am so glad God gave him to me.”

Joe goes on to say:

“The most interesting thing about Bill is that he does not fit into any of the demographics that make church planting organizations get excited…. I have never met a church planter or a pastor who said a guy like Bill is their target demographic. Everyone wants to reach the middle class, middle age, middle American, but who is out there reaching the Bills of our world—you know, the folks who don’t exactly fit into our “ideal demographic.”?

Joe concludes:

“All this makes me wonder, do we still value church in the cracks? I sometimes think… we have put more value in reaching “blocks” of people more than people themselves. But what about the people who don’t fit into the big blocks? What about the people in the cracks? I just can’t help but wonder if we have not missed something or someone. How many Bills have we overlooked or undervalued? What about the needs of those not in the majority? Who is reaching out to the people who don’t fit into our surveys and demographic studies? What about the people in the cracks? Where is the church in the cracks?”

Check out the rest of the article by Joe Miller here.

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If you are anywhere near SoCal, NorCal, AZ, or Hawaii, I would enjoy seeing you at these upcoming speaking engagements:

JULY 27: MOSAIC AT THE MAYAN: 6pm
Los Angeles, CA (new date, time, and location!)

AUGUST 10: VINTAGE FAITH CHURCH: 11am and 7pm
Santa Cruz, CA

AUGUST 23: 2008 ACE CONFERENCE: 8am to 4pm
Phoenix, AZ

AUGUST 31: Cornerstone Christian Fellowship: 10:15am
Kona, Hawaii (Big Island)

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A new friend of mine, Jamie Tworkowski, started a non-profit called To Write Love on Her Arms in order to “give hope and find help for those struggling with depression, addiction, cutting, and suicide.”

It has been amazing to see word travel these past couple of years through their myspace page, bands wearing their shirts on tour, interviews on television and conferences, word of mouth, and now in malls across the country at Hot Topic.

It all began when Jamie and some friends were reaching out to their friend, Renee, who was struggling. The t-shirts were a way to raise funds to get her the help she needed. Check out To Write Love on Her Arms for more on this amazing and beautiful story!

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The teleseminar from Tuesday was a great time! Thanks to all who joined us from Germany, the U.K., Australia, El Salvador, and across the U.S.!

Here were some of the key points for Catalyzing Community:

Principle #1: Cause creates community.
Our cause = moving people to become the person God created them to be.

Principle #2: Meet the needs of those around us.
We need to seek to meet the physical, emotional, economic, and spiritual needs of those around us. We should be pursue helping change the environment and change the individual who is looking for change.

Principle #3:Reach out to Xenos
Hospitality means loving strangers. A similar word, “hospice,” means “a safe place.” Our homes, our businesses, and our churches should become safe places for strangers to experience kindness and love.

Principle #4: Develop authentic friendships with those you know.
OIKOS is the Greek word for household (family, neighbors, co-workers and friends)

Principle #5: Allow people to belong before they believe.
We should never allow our convictions to become a litmus test for friendship. In fact, we should actively pursue friendships with people – even people with whom we may disagree. Go to www.mosaic.org/faq for more on the staff process at Mosaic.

Principle #6: Raise up a team of leaders to replace you
MPAC = Ministry through a pastor, assimilator, and catalyst
We need to make decisions based on who is not yet here rather than who has been here the longest.

Principle #7: Start Over

Listen to the conference call at my site’s audio messages at Catalyzing Community Audio

As always, special thanks to Daniel Decker for putting this together!

Send an email to teleseminar@ericbryant.org if you would like to join us for the next one:

“Moving People from Brokenness to Wholeness” on Sept. 10th at 10am (P.S.T.)- based on Uprising (a.k.a. The Character Matrix)

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I would love to connect with you personally next Tuesday, July 15th at 10am (Pacific Standard Time) in our next Teleseminar.

The topic:  Catalyzing Community (starting a small group, a ministry, a non-profit, or even a church).  We’ll also interact and I’ll try to answer as many of your questions as I can.

To Register, email your name and location to: teleseminar@ericbryant.org

A reply will be sent to you via email with call details and dial in instructions.
A recording of the call will be made available 48 hours after the live call is complete.

If you have specific questions you would like to ask Eric during the call, please email those to eric@ericbryant.org.

Be sure to click the “Share This” icon below and invite a friend to join in on this call as well.

Hope to talk with you then!

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These past two days have been really fun as we are meeting with our paid staff at Mosaic for dreaming, investment, refreshment, and recalibrating.  Here are some highlights (mostly from Erwin):

The “conqueror” is the more common strategy for leadership.  The “explorer” excavates the talent of those already there.  We need to become explorers.

If you keep looking for a new place to speak, you will never become a better communicator.  We need to look for ways to have something important to say whenever and wherever we have the opportunity to speak (one-on-one conversations, team trainings, youth ministry, and so on).

If we don’t translate building community with us, then we won’t be able to do this in our teams.  We need to move fast but never at the cost of creating community!

We think we have to tone down the Gospel to attract people to Jesus, but we actually need to elevate the understanding of the Gospel (to where Jesus intended) to offer life-transformation to those out there who are looking for meaning. 

We need to initiate relationships and conversations with the people others see as invisible.

Not everything has to grow large, but we need to be honest about what we have and are doing and always be a place for outsider.

The more people feel you are speaking to a person, the larger the church can become.  The more people feel you are speaking to a crowd then fewer people will want to come.

We need to ask the question:  “How do I help the people around me become the people God wants them to be?”  We are spiritual leaders, not just leaders.

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 A PFP moment from Jessica Joy at Origins in NYC:
“I live in NYC in Washington Heights, a dominant Dominican neighborhood. We decided one way we could serve our neighbors is getting together (our lifegroup) to bake goodies and stuff them in Christmas goodie bags to deliver to each of our buildings. While we were baking the goods, we prayed over our buildings and the relational work God would be doing in the upcoming year to restore some of the cultural negative-stereotyping that goes on.

Delivering the goodies was nerve racking, especially since most of my neighbors don’t speak English. Amazingly, God blessed the opportunity so much! Little by little, relational trust is occurring, and I attribute most of it to that first opportunity at Christmas time. Praise God for breaking down the barriers that seem too much like obstacles that aren’t worth the effort. I’m still praying God would use us in our neighborhood, strategically!”

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Laura from Michigan wrote about her “Patio Parties” which connected her with some of her neighbors.

She writes: “Many of us are residing in jam-packed little neighborhoods with a bunch of people that we do not even know! This did not sit well with me. It was on my mind for several months. Complacency and comfort were binding my hands, heart and feet to make any difference.

Why do I live in a NEIGHBORhood and feel so distant from my neighbors? Why don’t we just pack up and move out to the country?

I was ready to make an effort.

I made out a flier and passed it out to my neighbors, inviting them to come over on Monday night after dinner for snacks and socializing. We figured, what was the worst that could happen? No one would show because it was a lame idea and we’d have a family night playing games in the backyard. No harm done.

Monday night came and the people started trickling in. 1, 3, 4, 6…. 19 people showed up, with snacks in hand, to see what this “Patio Party” was all about!

Aside from going away to school and living in Berkley for 5 years, I have lived in this home for 30 years! I met neighbors that remember me running around outside in my diaper when I was 2!

Everyone was so happy to be here. We hung out until the sun set and decided that we would rotate “Patio Parties” every Monday night this summer.

Last night, we met again across the street. Neighbors told neighbors and we had 30 people show!

Today, I know my neighbors and relationships are being built! I looked outside this morning and saw 2 neighbors chatting on the sidewalk that lived 3 houses away from each other and never met. I look forward to going on a walk tonight and possibly running into some of the new people that I’ve met. I pray that I can show God’s love regardless of our differences.

Making a difference, one backyard at a time…”

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