In the Spring of 2007 Mission Houston took the bold step of giving our word to the transformation of the public schools. This declaration grew out of two beliefs. First, we believe that city transformation requires restoring the sectors of the city to God’s original and intended purpose. Second, we believe that restoring public schools will touch every other sector of society.
We launched the Whole and Healthy Children Initiative (WHCI) as a means of inspiring and mobilizing the Body of Christ to work in unity to see the public schools transformed. The purpose of this letter is to report progress to you and to describe an important next step that we are taking in order to keep our word regarding the transformation of the public schools.
The WHCI is beginning its second year. As you can see in the chart provided, there is significant initial momentum. We’ve been welcomed into schools and have received rave reviews from administrators and teachers alike. So, we’ve been seeking the Lord asking “How do we sustain this progress and increase it dramatically without having to employ an ever growing staff to maintain the initiative?
We believe that the answer is by developing missional leaders. Persevering leadership is the first and most common principle drawn from global stories of city transformation. For more than a decade, Mission Houston has served the Body of Christ in this city by being a persistent voice for transformation.
Faithwalking is the leadership development arm of Mission Houston. We develop leaders who are particularly skilled in city transformation principles and practices. The goal is to develop leaders who mobilize the Body of Christ into missional communities for service to the common good. Since Faithwalking was launched in September 2009, we’ve succeeded in establishing 19 missional communities across the city. (For a list of these missional communities, see FAQ)
As we move into 2010, through Mission Houston’s Faithwalking enterprise, our Board and staff have set a goal of partnering with individuals, ministries, and congregations in establishing 500 missional communities by 2020. Though not all missional communities will focus on the public schools, a great many will. The goal of 500 represents approximately a 40% increase annually in the number of functioning missional communities. We believe that the nature and scope of this goal – which will become our primary focus - will impact the spiritual climate of our city, specifically in our public schools dramatically. We are committed to holding ourselves accountable for this goal to God and to you - our intercessors, our donors, and our volunteers for achieving this goal.
As we take these next steps forward, we need you to pray, we need you to volunteer, and we need you to give. On that front, there is some very good news. God has blessed us through a small group of folks who have pledged a total of $42,000 in matching funds for our end of the year fund drive. Every dollar that we raise between now and the end of the year will be matched dollar for dollar up to $42,000.
Consider making an on-line donation to Mission Houston. By doing it, you’ll help us know where we are and what we can count on. We promise, in return, to communicate regularly and clearly about progress toward the goal of equipping and deploying missional leaders for God’s use in the transformation of the city.
Sincerely,
Jim Herrington for the Staff and Board of Mission Houston
FAQs about Mission Houston
Q: Will Mission Houston still hold prayer and unity as core values?
A: Absolutely. In the Faithwalking training, these values are embodied and taught. In the existing missional communities, there are more tangible demonstrations of protracted servant-focused unity than any other place in our work. And we will continue to partner with prayer ministries across the city that are mobilizing prayer for the transformation of the city.
Q: What does the commitment to Faithwalking mean for the Whole and Healthy Children Initiative?
A: We are committed to the transformation of the educational sector. We gave our word to that because we believe that this is a pivotal sector that the Body of Christ must serve. We will continue to deploy leaders who complete Faithwalking into the educational sector. The 4Ms of the Initiative (mentors, mobilizing prayer, money, and makeovers) are an important piece of our commitment to the sector. But they are a part of the initiative – not the whole. In the early part of 2010 our Board and staff will review progress with the 4Ms.
Q: Describe the Faithwalking training?
A: Faithwalking is a three-part process. First there is a three day weekend retreat. Second there is a 24 week small group process designed to help participants integrate the learning from the retreat into their key relationships. In part two each participant has a personal transformation coach. At the end of the second part, participants are asked to launch a new missional community or join an existing one. Each community has a community coach.
Q: Who should sign up for Faithwalking?
A: Everyone who, by faith, wants to risk living more missionally with a community of family or friends. One common mistake is that only those highly adventurous risk takers should sign up. Whether you risk starting a missional community in a high risk neighborhood or whether you join a missional community in your office building, you are encouraged to be a part of this journey.
Q: What is a missional community?
A: A small group of people who are deeply connected to each other and share the mission of measurably the Kingdom of God in a neighborhood or workplace.
Q: Where are the existing missional communities?
A: Listed at the end of this document.
Q: With Randy Schroeder becoming Board Chairman, what will Jim Herrington’s role?
A: He will continue to be intimately involved. Jim is our founding executive director and has served as the Chairman of the Board since our inception. Randy’s nomination is an intentional effort on Jim’s part in collaboration with the Board to enlarge the ministry and to move beyond what those in the non-profit world call the Founders Syndrome. Jim will continue as a lifetime member of the Board of Directors and he will take primary leadership for the design and implementation of the Faithwalking curriculum.
Current Faithwalking Missional Communities and their leaders
•5th Street in Stafford – Todd and Denise McCombs, Brandon and Sara Beth Baca
•6th Ward House Church – Steve Capper
•Bellaire Southwest CSA – Bob Chenoweth
•Caplin Street Project, 5th Ward – Jovon Tyler
•Chambers Elementary Soccer League – Terry Richter
•CyFair CSA – Bob Newey, Mark Day, Judy Newey, Michele Caldwell
•Gregory Lincoln Elementary School – Betty Herrington
•Harbor Church – Jim and Betty Herrington, Josh and Aimee Wood, Ryan Donovan, Jovon Tyler, Loren and Tanya Gardner
•Jacobs Well – Andy Ramos III
•Japan – Bryan Tantzen
•Kingdom Advisors – Randy Schroeder, Jim Munchbach
•Kirby Corporation – Jerry Gallion, Bob Livingston, Julie Piling, Nick Attathikhun
•Syria – Marcos Leon
•Texas Instruments – Shawn McGlothlin
•The Church in the Trailor Park – Bob Baldwin
•The Gathering of Men in Fort Bend County – Andy Ramos
One Great Transformational River Multiple transformational streams are welling up and flowing across the world into one great “transformational river” of God’s blessing for the nations, prophetically announcing that God is on a mission of transformation at the beginning of the 21st Century. We read in Ps. 46:4, “There is a river whose streams make glad ….” The Psalmist says: “The Lord almighty is with us. Come and see the works of the Lord.” In places as distant from one another as Indonesia, Fiji, Uganda, India, and Colombia, transformational streams are converging under God’s hand into this one great “transformational river.”
THE REVIVALIST STREAM is characterized by divine visitation and revival; this stream can be seen today in Fiji. In this stream, God acts on the Church, bringing revival, He acts on society, bringing spiritual awakening and He acts on political leaders, bringing ethical leadership, concern for the needs of the people, and readiness to review political and economic structures and systems in light of a Biblical Worldview and Kingdom values.
THE SATURATION CHURCH PLANTING STREAM results in the establishment and nurturing of vital, healthy churches in every class and kind of people that are within practical and relational reach of every person, permeating every segment and sphere of society as salt and light with the love, truth and saving power of Jesus Christ.
THE TRANSFORMATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STREAM seeks to create a better future for the poor and the destitute through community development. Those living in poverty are often caught in mutually reinforcing cultural mind-sets and the resulting juridical/social/economic systems that mar the dignity and identity of all, dehumanizing rich and poor alike. The power of the Gospel of transformation consists of inspiring the privileged to freely and compassionately come alongside the underprivileged to repent each of their own sin. Then they can address together the cultural lies and the pervasive systems of injustice, undertaking community development initiatives and producing sustainable development in a changing world.
THE TRANSFORMATIONAL PRAYER STREAM prays out God’s heart for the cities and the nations of the world. It begins with listening to God for his agenda for the world. Some of us agree that these four major transformational streams that have already emerged are the four major streams of transformation for the healing of the nations.
THE CITY-REACHING STREAM builds on the foundation of vital, Biblical churches to mobilize God’s people toward a mission to transform people, places and cultures where the Church lives around the world.
THE MARKETPLACE STREAM recognized that God is at work transforming people and nations through business and that Kingdom business is an effective mission strategy for the 21st Century.
THE TRANSFORMATIONAL WORSHIP STREAM though more difficult to describe, its representatives affirm that Transformational Worship involves ministering to the Lord in united worship. Some use the term “harp and bowl worship,” others call it "end times worship" because it focuses on the final worship scenes of the worthiness of the Lamb in Revelation 4 and 5. It is not heritage-based, connection-based or evangelism-based (although it can have that effect). It's all about the Lord. It exalts Christ. It brings the worshipper to greater intimacy with God with an attitude of self-abandonment. Emphasizing more attitude than forms, it is characterized by a manifest sense of the presence of God as he is enthroned in the worship of his people.
THE “BACK TO JERUSALEM” MOVEMENT STREAM flows out of prayer convocations in which a growing number of God’s people are cooperating together from the first fruits of the Great Commission, going back to Jerusalem to prepare the way for the Lord of Glory through worship, intercession, preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom, church planting and a Kingdom mindset.
CONCLUSION: We celebrate multiple transformational streams, which are becoming one great “transformational river” broadening and deepening the healing of the nations. The river is here.
Some Christians may have written off public education, but others are discovering innovative ways to develop meaningful relationships with public schools.
Volunteers work on landscaping at Shearn Elementary School during a “makeover” workday, held as part of Mission Houston’s Whole & Healthy Child Initiative. Over the last decade, the Exodus Mandate captured the attention of some evangelicals with its call to “leave government schools for the Promised Land of Christian schools or homeschooling,” as stated on the movement’s website.
No doubt, some answered that call to withdraw. The U.S. Department of Education estimates more than 4 million students attend private religious schools, and the National Center for Education Statistics reports the number of homeschooled students grew from 850,000 in 1999 to 1.5 million in 2007.
But many churches and Christian groups have refused to turn their backs on the public schools, choosing instead to explore how they can minister in appropriate ways to students, parents, teachers and administrators.
Two years ago, Mission Houston—an interdenominational network of churches committed to community transformation in Texas’ largest city—launched its Whole & Healthy Child Initiative.
The initiative represents a 10-year commitment by Christian volunteers to adopt public elementary schools in the Houston area that have high percentages of at-risk students.
“Our goal is the transformation of the public school system in Houston,” said Jim Herrington, founder and chairman of the board of Mission Houston.
“Our schools are filled with teachers and administrators who love kids and are passionate about what they do. But teachers are carrying a load that is simply impossible. If we can help shoulder some of that load, it frees teachers up to teach.”
Rather than link one church to one school, the initiative takes a collaborative approach, enlisting several congregations to work in partnership with each school.
“We can do more by working together,” said Herrington, former director of missions for Union Baptist Association. “There may not be anybody in one church who can meet a particular need that a school identifies, but by involving several churches, there’s almost always somebody who knows how that need can be met.”
Currently, 65 churches are involved in the Whole & Healthy Child Initiative in any of four ways:
• Mentoring.
The initiative aims to enlist trained adults who will spend at least one hour a week with at-risk students throughout the school year. By the end of the 10-year commitment, Mission Houston hopes to have 13,500 mentors working with 100 at-risk students in 135 schools.
• Mobilizing prayer. “For every child who has a mentor, we want to enlist an intercessor who not only will be praying for that kid, but also for the child’s parents and teachers, as well as the mentor,” Herrington explained.
• Money.
Through the initiative, Christian business leaders will seek to raise $10,000—or an equal amount of in-kind gifts—each year to supplement each adopted school’s educational program.
“These are inner-city schools that often don’t have a PTA or PTO to raise money for projects,” Herrington said.
Already, the initiative has raised funds to enable schools to add computers, upgrade playground equipment, install new lighting in classrooms and conduct enrichment programs such as an all-day event on the University of Houston campus.
• Makeovers.
Volunteers from churches commit labor to at least one aesthetic improvement project a year for each adopted school.
Jeff Peters, a layman at Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, leads the makeover aspect of his congregation’s partnership with Shearn Elementary School.
“The schools have maintenance budgets and personnel, but there’s always a gap,” Peters said.
Volunteers work hard to make schools a place where success can happen.
His crew has helped paint classrooms, landscape school grounds and pave a walkway at their school.
Volunteers from a Presbyterian church that also works at Shearn Elementary organized the school’s library, he added.
“We do whatever the principal wants—not what we think should be done,” he emphasized. “His job is to know what his school needs, and we respect that. We’re not imposing anything on the school.”
Last year, Peters and other lay leaders at more than a half-dozen other churches spent about six months planning and promoting a workday Oct. 18 at Shearn Elementary School. But on Sept. 13, Hurricane Ike hit Houston.
“It paralyzed the city,” he recalled. “For weeks, people were busy working on their own homes and in their own neighborhoods.”
Peters considered canceling the workday on the school campus, but other leaders suggested they keep the event on the calendar.
“We had 100 people who showed up. That’s pretty amazing, considering these were people who were already burned out from working on their own homes,” Peters said.
In fact, the event proved to be so successful, the churches scheduled a second workday during the 2008-2009 school year just before school dismissed in May.
The school appreciates the churches’ commitment to not just a one-shot event, but to an ongoing relationship, Peters added.
“I have a foot-high stack of thank-you notes from teachers, parents and kids,” he said.
Westhaven Elementary School in Portsmouth, Va., has good reason to be thankful for its partnership with nearby Westhaven Baptist Church. The church decided to adopt the school several years ago as a result of a reevaluation of the congregation’s mission strategy.
“We got our people together and asked, ‘What’s the point of mission?’” Pastor Bruce Powers said. “We said we want to make a difference—make an im-pact. So, we listed all the things we wanted to achieve through mission involvement and then thought through how to restructure ourselves to accomplish that.”
One goal that emerged was to increase the congregation’s visibility and reputation in its community.
“We had kind of lost touch” with the neighborhood, Powers said. “We felt invisible, and that was mostly our own fault. We really wanted to do some things that would raise awareness, show we care
Jeff Peters, a layman at Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, repaints a handicapped sign in the parking lot at Shearn Elementary School. He leads his congregation’s involvement in the “makeover” ministry at a local elementary school as part of Mission Houston’s Whole & Healthy Child Initiative. and would meet our criteria for a vibrant missions program.”
Members of the church surveyed the neighborhood, looking for potential partners, and high on the list was Westhaven Elementary School, four blocks from the church facility.
The school serves a low-income community and had been on academic probation for several years. Testing results from the Standards of Learning, the state’s benchmark for public school evaluation, ranked consistently low.
Westhaven church met with the school’s principal, offered a partnership and asked what kind of support was needed.
The school’s greatest need, the principal told the church, was after-class tutoring. She had managed to find funding to pay for a few teachers to meet with students on Saturdays, and a little more to provide bus transportation. But she lacked money to provide breakfast for the students who might not get it otherwise and whose concentration would be distracted by empty stomachs.
“In the space of a couple of weeks, we had two other churches and several area businesses jump in with volunteers and funds,” Powers said. “In an amazingly short period of time, we had breakfast fully funded and staffed.”
In some ways, it was a small thing, Powers acknowledged.
“But the way it affected the morale of students and teachers was amazing,” he added. “Some of it was not just the food, but also the fact that there were people standing behind them. This school had been floundering, and our involvement injected some energy.”
One year after the tutoring program was initiated, the school’s Standards of Learning scores were in the upper 80th percentile, and probation was withdrawn, Powers said.
South Knoxville Elementary can boast similar results, thanks to its partnership with First Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tenn., through Kids Hope USA. Standardized test scores have improved not only among the students who have been mentored by volunteers from the church, but also for the school overall.
“It’s a fairly small school, and when you make a difference in the scores of the lowest-performing students, it makes a difference in the school as a whole,” said Carol McEntyre, community minister at First Baptist Church in Knoxville.
Kids Hope USA is a national program that equips churches to train and recruit mentors from their membership to work with at-risk children in neighborhood schools. Buckner International helps Kids Hope USA connect with churches, link them to schools and provide volunteers with training and screening.
While the mentoring program involves 25 members of First Baptist Church, a recent “offering of school supplies” involved the congregation at large. Last spring, the church asked teachers at South Knoxville Elementary School to provide a wish list of supplies, and the church asked its members to gather items from the list throughout the summer. Some Sunday school classes adopted specific classrooms.
On Aug. 9, the front of the sanctuary was lined with about $4,000 worth of supplies, and the church participated in a litany of blessing, praying for the school’s students, their parents and their teachers.
Third Baptist Church in St. Louis, Mo., also partners with a local school through Kids Hope USA. Sixteen mentors from the church spend at least one hour a week with at-risk students at Cole Elementary School.
“It’s a terrific way to connect with a school and for our church members to build relationships with the kids,” said Vicki Swyer, director of community ministries at Third Baptist Church.
Another Missouri congregation—Grace Point Baptist Church in Kansas City—entered its relationship with Warford Elementary School out of a desire to connect with the larger community.
“Our church is located in a secluded area, having moved from midtown about 20 years ago. We’d been struggling with the question: How can a commuter church get its hands around the community?” Pastor Kirtes Calvery said.
Initial contacts directly with the school met with somewhat guarded responses, he recalled. But when Calvery met the school board president at a community Thanksgiving service and explained how the church wanted to serve a local school, doors opened.
Every Thursday, volunteers from Grace Point—a predominantly Anglo congregation that averages about 160 in attendance—conduct an after-school club for students at the school, which is more than 80 percent African-American. Volunteers offer refreshments, teach a Bible story and lead in games and activities.
In the spring, when students take standardized tests, the church provided each student a “success pack” with a pencil, eraser, a snack and a card of encouragement. Church volunteers also have worked on landscaping projects at the school.
A few adult volunteers from Grace Point Baptist Church also have been involved in the Youth Friends mentoring program, Calvery noted. He has served as a “lunch buddy” with students through the program for about 10 years.
“That has opened some wonderful relationships,” he said. “It’s a simple way to be the hands of Christ in the community.”
With additional reporting by Robert Dilday of the Virginia Religious Herald
There is this international conversation taking place in the Christian world today. One of the ways the conversation is framed is by using the words attractional church and missional church.
An attractional church is one that spends more of its time, money, and energy attracting people - believers and non-believers alike - to the congregational building. In these congregations, the pastoral staff does most of the ministry and members are seen as people who volunteer to run the programs and who give their money to pay the staff. In these congregations, they don't talk so much about the church being missional as they do about having a missions ministry - one compartment of the overall congregational life. And in these congregations the compartmentalization between the sacred and the secular more often goes unquestioned.
A missional church is one that spends its time, money and energy equipping believers to be the church to the world. In these congregations, the pastoral staff equips congregational members to be missional leaders in their homes, neighborhoods and workplaces - both here and around the world. Members are expected to get grounded biblically and then to be on mission in the world. In these churches, members give their money and their time to support the congregation as it equips them to be on mission. These congregations hold a belief that where ever believers spend most of their day is where their life mission is. And, in these congregations, they talk about God being on mission in the world, calling each person to join Him.
These are two clear distinctions. They don't usually show up that clearly in local congregations. A whole host of congregations are on a journey from being attractional (a posture that virtually every church took 25 years ago) to being more missional.
Mission Houston's Faithwalking ministry comes along side local congregations - helping equip missional leaders. The next Faithwalking retreat is set for October 1 -3, 2009. For more information, go to this link .
With more than 230 people representing numerous churches, ministries, and organizations from Greater Houston, Mission Houston celebrated its Annual Fundraiser Luncheon "Greater Things Have Yet to Come" on May 8, 2009.
Dr. J. Doug Stringer from Somebody Cares was presented with the 2009 Mission Houston Nehemiah Award in recognition of his years of servant-leadership in building and restoring Houston for good.
Providing an inspiring "year in review", Jim Herrington highlighted the Whole & Healthy Children Initiative alive in 8 communities across the city, 7 beautification projects that have taken place, $35,000 raised for school improvements, and more than 110 mentors serving children at risk in elementary schools.
Continuing to cast the vision of Mission Houston forward was Randy Schroeder as he shared from his heart the value and significance of the vision to him and to Greater Houston. Closing of the program, hosted at the well-appointed Junior League of Houston, was Rick Figueroa, as he, too, shared his like-heartedness in casting and embracing the vision of "a Greater Houston for good."
As true servant-leaders, Randy and Staci Schroeder served as Event Chairs, providing wisdom, guidance, and practical advice and involvement for this pivotal annual event. Kyle and Barbara Vann served as Honorary Event Chairs. Kim Kossie added her natural flair to the event as Mistress of Ceremonies, and Elizabeth Wareing served as Event Sponsor.
A spirited finale was led by Russell Thompson II as the audience worshipped to a medley of "Greater Things Have Yet to Come", “How Great is our God”, and “How Great Thou Art”.
This annual fundraiser raised over $70,000 in net proceeds for Mission Houston, and the Lord has provided even more in gifts and relationships since the close of the event.
Included is the video presented at the May 8, 2009 luncheon.
If you participated in the luncheon, your comments are welcome!
"Lemonade Day was a great experience...even though we were rained out. I worked with my mentee for several weeks prior to opening day. We visited the Lemonade Day website to get information in the school library. We searched the web looking for recipes, then we did a taste test with a juicer, lemons and several different ingredients to produce the best recipe for our lemonade. We made $20 in 90 minutes, and we learned a lot about business and each other."
Mission Houston received a grant from ExxonMobil for the Bellaire/Southwest Loop CSA’s volunteer work at Shearn & Gordon elementary schools. Karen Juul-Nielsen, the Mentor Coordinator for the Bellaire/Southwest Loop CSA, initiated the grant request to ExxonMobil where her husband Richard is an employee.
Similar opportunities may exist with your companies as well. This benefit exists for direct employees, retirees, and in some cases for the immediate family (spouse, children) of employees. Please contact your company’s Human Resources department to find out if there is an Educational Foundation that will support your work in your CSA.
Bring a degree of “closure” to Mentoring. Now, this isn’t “close the door” on the relationship between the mentor and mentee, or between the mentor and the school. It is our sincere hope that mentors will both remain their student’s mentor and maintain relationships with their mentees for multiple years. But that is not always our choice: sometimes a child will move to a different school, sometimes a mentor will have an unexpected life change that makes it impossible to re-commit to an hour a week for an entire school year, etc. And there are “seasons” of a relationship in which it is natural to recognize that one phase or stage has come and another about to begin. So, consider having some kind of event, with the school’s permission, at which you invite mentors, mentees, parents of the students, and the appropriate school staff members in order to say “thank you!” to all who gave permission for us to serve and then chose to stick with us and support us.” My guess is that you’ll get more thank you’s than you give, and that both you and the school will find a greater desire to move in to the next phase than when you first planned the event.
Schedule a “Teacher & Staff Appreciation” breakfast or luncheon. Some find this easiest to get on the calendar late in the school year, or on the day after the students have been dismissed for the year and teachers must return for a day. Most find this easy to get on the principal’s OK list to be held during the week of in-service immediately prior to the beginning of the school year in August. Either way, it can be as elaborate or as simple as you prefer. What matters are two things: the effort made, and the heart attitude desiring to honor them.
Stay in touch over the summer! With permission of the school officials, you and the mentors do well to get the addresses of your mentees, and of members of the school staff with whom you have made a significant connect. Encourage, and participate in, occasional notes written to let them know you’re thankful for them and thinking of them. Don’t be surprised in the years to come when you discover how many of those cards and emails are kept as mementos by folks who consider evidence that someone is in their corner as a rare gift from God.
Karen Juul-Nielsen has been tireless as a member of the team in Bellaire-Southwest since she said “yes” to serving during CityFest. Though she is active in many parts of the B-SW team efforts, she is officially the Prayer Mobilization Coordinator. More than a few times Karen has confided that she has felt discouraged by a seeming lack of response to her attempts to enlist prayer and pray-ers in the CSA. (Some of you at this point may be thinking, “and she’s not alone!”) Getting commitments to unified prayer targets, let alone common times or places for folks to gather and pray, has been an elusive goal in spite of the rhetoric about how essential prayer is.
A few months ago as the CSA team listened to Karen someone made a suggestion: what if we scale back our expectations and gave congregations an easy way to incorporate a few items in their every Sunday prayers or in their bulletins? Willing to try, the team decided that the needs of the schools they had adopted would be a good place to start. But then they realized that beyond needing mentors, money and makeovers, the team didn’t know for sure what else was on the wish list of the staff. So several of them made a commitment to contact the principals and ask them directly.
It turned out that the principals deeply appreciated being asked, and knowing that it was because the team wanted to enlist people to pray for the school’s specific needs and wants. And the requests given by the principals made it easy for Karen and the team to produce clear, measurable prayer targets. They limited the list to just a few of the more pressing needs, and sent them out to contacts and leaders in local congregations with a note asking that congregation members be made aware of the needs of the two local schools and be given opportunity and invitation to pray for them. Lo and behold several of the congregations put the name of the school and one or more of the requests in their bulletin. At least one included the targets during the time of congregational prayer in their Sunday service. And a few people wrote or called the CSA team members to thank them for giving information about the schools to pray about.
This may not yet be “fervent, passionate, united intercessions,” but it is a start. Not only that, it is united, it is intercession, and it is a low-cost invitation to prayer from the Body of Christ in which there exists varying levels of commitment to prayer. I encourage you to try this relational and simple approach this month. Please let me and Karen know how folks and congregations in your CSA respond. And know that our team is praying for you as press on to mobilize united intercessions, clinging to the promise that “if any two of you agree as to touching anything …” (Matt. 18:19).
1. For your campus makeover project: Consider contacting Trees for Houston if any landscaping is on your school's wish list. In some cases they will have available trees, tools, laborers, and know-how for free for planting and maintaining items that beautify a school and help the environment! For more information contact Randi Cleary, Marketing and Education Coordinator at 713.840.8733 or randi@treesforhouston.org.
2. For your Mentors:Lemonade Day 2009 is coming on May 3. During the TMT Module 3 dates, the representatives from Lemonade Day will be presenting information on how you can implement this initiative in your schools. The organization Prepared For Life holds an annual "Lemonade Day" to introduce young people to the disciplines and rewards of entrepreneurship and handling finances. Print the information found at their website and take it to your school's community liaison, or principal, and ask their permission to have Mentors invite their mentee to consider participating in Lemonade Day together. Then provide this resource to the Mentors with your encouragement that they take advantage of this opportunity to deepen relationship with their student and do some experiential mentoring in life skills.
1. CSA Team meetings: Regularly invite key volunteers who are doing a great job to your Team meetings, so you can make heroes of them! And periodically invite potential members of your CSA Team to meetings as one way of guaranteeing a "succession" plan that produces informed, trained future leaders of the Team.
2. Whole & Healthy Children: now is the time to get your principal's wish list of improvements to be made in a Makeover and to schedule that workday date! The school will have further evidence that you are their ally, that we've come to serve, and we're eager to listen and act in response to their hopes and dreams and frustrations. And spring is a great time to schedule a workday - cooler weather than summer, and fewer people on vacations. Getting the tasks and date set now gives you time to recruit both volunteer workers and donors.
3. How are we going to raise $10,000 per School?: Between congregations and businesses in your CSA, we can work together to raise the necessary money for each Whole & Healthy Children school. Please see the attached resource for ideas on how to raise the money from your congregational network. Michael Aceves-Lewis, Development Director for Mission Houston can be a resource to raise money from your network of businesses with your CSA. Please contact Michael directly at michael@missionhouston.org with a shortlist of 5-10 businesses that we could target to assist in this fundraising effort.
Most of us who have been Christians for very long have developed some level of personal mastery around the teachings of Jesus. We know what Jesus wants us to do and we do it most of the time. It's even pretty easy for us—we don't even think hard about it any more. At the same time, we have some level of disobedience in our lives. There is some place where we know the clear teachings of Jesus and yet we don't obey.
Sometimes that disobedience is just out and out rebellion. Other times it exists because people have a large capacity to live in denial - we are inauthentic about what is really happening in our lives. Living in a culture of "image management" we construct a world in which we pretend that we are not being disobedient. Even more often, if you scratch beneath the surface in conversation, you'll discover that the habitual disobedience grows out of years of trying to obey but experiencing failure after failure. Ultimately, that person becomes resigned and cynical about things ever changing in this area of their lives.
It is the deep conviction of the Faithwalking community, that personal transformation will often be jump-started when a follower of Jesus can tell the truth about his or her habitual disobedience. By walking in the light with a loving God and in a non-judgmental community of friends, our truth telling opens up possibilities for significant growth that didn't exist before.
In our Faithwalking retreats, we work to create a safe place for participants to tell the truth about their obedience - and their disobedience - in a manner that is liberating. What once was hidden is opened up to encouragement, prayer support, and accountability.
Albert (not his real name) participated in our second Faithwalking retreat. Out of a time of solitude with God, he came back to his small group and with great courage made this confession. "I am harsher, more demanding and less forgiving with my wife than I am any other person in my life." As his confession was heard, a new possibility began to emerge. By faith, Albert, declared his intention to seek prayer support and accountability for changing this long standing pattern with his wife. With his faith declaration, the support and accountability of a small group, a renewed commitment to trusting God to change his behavior, and a Faithwalking coach, today Albert and his wife say that their 25-year marriage has been profoundly renewed.
We invite you to consider joining us as we allow God to create a community of transformational leaders in the homes, neighborhoods, workplaces and third places of our city.
