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A drive through Houston’s inner city reveals a world very different from that in which most Houston suburbanites live. Five out of ten families are single-parent households. Four out of ten households live at or below the poverty line. In the predominantly African-American neighborhoods nearly one in four boys will not complete high school. While there are a lot of Christians who want to serve in urban Houston, most are not sure where to start or how to be effective.
Hope House is a 1.5 acre campus in Houston's 5th Ward/Kashmere Gardens urban neighborhood. Thirteen small houses exist on this property. Nine houses are in usable condition and four are awaiting restoration. The long term goals of Dave Dozier and the Faithwalking missional community at Hope House are to use the property in a residential ministry to transform the lives of ex-offenders and those in recovery, and for Hope House to bring transformation to the surrounding neighborhood.
There are three phases to our Hope House strategy:
Phase One- Make Hope House a sustainable non-profit entity. This involves:
- Fully restoring the Hope House campus to provide a secure, drug-free, alcohol-free environment for residents who are in recovery/or on a fixed income
- Mentoring the residents of Hope House in life skills (household budgeting, job search, anger management, communication skills, etc.)
- Providing social and spiritual services to the residents of Hope House
- Raising supplementary donations to maintain affordable housing and services
- Begin developing relationships within the community
Phase Two- Continue to expand our sphere of relationships in the neighborhood, thus bringing residents of the neighborhood into our Faithwalkng missional community. This will involve:
- Building relationships with the indigenous residents of the neighborhood
- Intentional, missional outreach into the community
- Coordinating volunteers and assets from both those who live outside and within the neighborhood to meet needs identified and supported by neighborhood residents
- As Hope House residents grow spiritually, emotionally, and economically able, they will be encouraged to move out of Hope House and into the immediate community, thus continuing to be salt and light in the neighborhood
Phase Three- Having become a partner in the neighborhood and allowing members of that neighborhood to take ownership and leadership, the Hope House Faithwalking missional community will assist the residents in that community in restoring Kingdom living to the neighborhood.
How this will unfold is uncertain, but it may involve ministries such as:
- Addressing needs in the local schools (mentoring, tutoring, etc.)
- Providing assistance to residents of the neighborhood in areas such as completing their education; vocational training, business start-ups, and first-time home purchases
- Planting churches that are both culturally relevant and missional in nature.
We are currently transitioning from phase one to phase two. We are seeing lives transformed, both in the Hope House residents and the families who live in the neighborhood. Long-term residents of the neighborhood are excited about the visible changes on their streets. We still have a long way to go and are inviting Faithwalking partners to journey with us. Opportunities exist to serve in a variety of ways, from interacting with residents of the Hope House neighborhood to behind-the-scenes administrative duties. To get involved or for more information, contact Dave Dozier.
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There's been an awesome opportunity given to me, both to get my life set and to be able to go on and provide for my son and give him an awesome place to call home ...
Gilberto's story is a story that is only part of a bigger story that we call "The Church in the Mobile Park."
Join us as we visit this Faithwalking Mission Community as part of our Community Gathering on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010, from 9am to 1pm. We will gather at the Mission Houston offices and ride together to and from Tomball. Registration is required. Register for the upcoming Community Gathering.
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We'd like to invite you personally to attend the upcoming Missional Marriage retreat on November 5-7. That sounds like a long way away, but it will be here before we know it.
This is a small retreat (6 couples) and space is limited, so please let us know if you plan to come.
Just as a reminder: we believe that Faithwalking begins at home. Missional Marriage is designed to help couples learn to apply the principles of Faithwalking (such as listening, vows, authenticity, integrity, and community) to their most important and intimate relationship. We also want to help you have faith-filled, imaginative conversations about what it means to be on mission in your world, both together and separately. (Only one person in each couple needs to have completed the Faithwalking 101 retreat.)
If you're coming, we need to know as soon as possible. Please click here for the registration form.
If you're still thinking about it, need more information or want to talk about it further, please contact Trisha Taylor at trishataylorcounseling@gmail.com.
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201 COACHES TRAINING Go to registration form. What is a personal transformation coach? He/she is a person who provides encouragement and accountability to two people as they complete the Faithwalking 201 series. The encouragement and accountability is exercised in a weekly coaching call that takes place between you and your two assigned individuals who are going through 201. The call lasts no more than 45 minutes each week and occurs at a time that you determine in conversation with those you are coaching. We provide a free conference call line for the purposes of the call. Are you qualified to be a coach? It is our belief that you have the basic qualifications that simply come from having completed the 101 and 201 experiences. To that experience we offer you the highest quality training that includes: - Four training sessions designed to introduce you to a basic overview of the coaching process.
- Assignment to a head coach who coaches you as you coach two others. This head coach is available for problem solving, encouragement, etc.
- Eight weeks of self-directed study in which you complete some reading and journaling and then reflect on this work with your coach. The self-directed study requires 1-2 hours per week for the eight weeks.
- Once the self-directed study is complete, you will listen in on two coaching calls with your head coach.
The next training will be held on the first four Thursday nights in September beginning 9/2/10. There will be four classes, each held from 6pm to 8 pm at the Mission Houston office: 2916 West T.C. Jester, Houston, Texas 77018. Go to registration form.
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By Melody D. Faithwalking Retreat June 2010 "In my walk with Jesus there are times when I have been stuck and cannot see ways to change, so I 'commit' to remain the same. As I applied for the Faithwalking retreat, I sensed that the weekend would be a defining point and call me to new life. I was confused, tired of walking ahead of God and living with a root of fear. I was at a miserable place, but did not trust God enough to let go and follow His direction. It was time to stop, and see what He would do if I was truly honest with my pride, lack of trust, unforgiveness and brokenness. Faithwalking reawakened me to the beauty of our faith’s foundation to fully abide in Christ. … Faithwalking spurred me on to pray for a missional community of people with a similar vision of being agents of transformation in communities around the world. God answered and provided such a group! These new friends will be vital to transformation in this faith walk, as we seek to engage in God’s Kingdom work together. I walked away from the retreat with a renewed gratitude for the Lord’s desire to have all of me so that He can work out His purposes." Faithwalking is creating a community of disciples of Jesus who are being personally transformed and becoming catalysts mobilizing Christians to become the functioning Body of Christ in their homes, neighborhoods, workplaces and 3rd places to serve the poor, the marginalized, and those in need, and to work for the common good and to restore individuals, social systems, communities and nations to God's design. Registration is now open for October Retreat (22 to 24 Oct, 2010) SAVE THE DATE!! Read More...
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Download PDF, click here. Register, click here.
Registration is now open for Mission Houston's 101 Faithwalking retreats!
What: A three-day intensive retreat to equip men and women to live the high impact life God intends.
Who: This retreat is open to anyone. It is designed for those who want an intentional and focused time with God and some other believers to explore what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, living on mission with Him.
When: Beginning at 9 am on Friday morning and concluding by 3 pm on Sunday afternoon. Dates are:
June 4-6, 2010 October 15-17, 2010
January 14-16, 2011 March 25-27, 2011 May 13-15, 2011 September 16-18, 2011 November 11-13, 2011
Where: The spacious home of Todd and Denise McCombs, 6 Westpoint Drive, Missouri City, TX 77459
Cost: $300 which includes all meals, material, and tuition. All participants must pay at least $75 of their own costs.
To register complete the online application. Your registration is not complete until you send a $75 non-refundable deposit to Mission Houston at P.O. Box 131074, Houston, TX 77219; on line payment is also available. The retreat is limited to 18 participants (and it is likely to fill up). You will be notified when your registration has been received and processed.
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Registration is now open for Mission Houston's Community Gathering!
Everyone who has completed Faithwalking 101 is invited to come together for a meal and time of celebration. Individuals who have completed recent 101 weekend retreats will be introduced to the alumni community. Bring someone you know who would be interested in learning more about Faithwalking to this event.
Come hear and share stories of personal and community transformation. Be inspired about missional communities that are having impact and of new ones that are forming. This is a time to share new learning that is emerging from our individual and collective work. Join us in celebrating what God is doing in the places that we are serving.
Date: Saturday, May 22, 2010 Time: 9:30am – 11:30am Address & map: 5100 San Felipe Street Houston, TX 77056-3729 (East Tower Ballroom) Complimentary Valet parking available Light breakfast & drinks will be served
The Community Gathering is free, but we do need you to register. To register, please fill the registration form.
Download PDF, click here.
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Our current needs are:
Faithwalking Events:
Administration
Customer Service (Excellent phone skills, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel)
Database entry (SalesForce.com)
Typing (Microsoft Word)
Hospitality for Faithwalking Retreats & Gatherings
Annual Conference/Fundraiser (Friday, April 23, 2010):
Conference “helpers”
Exhibition Area
Food & Beverage Servers
Thanks for consider volunteering with Mission Houston!
If you want to help, please complete the volunteer form.
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Register, click here.
Registration is now open for Mission Houston's April 9-11, 2010, Missional Marriage. Space is limited!
We truly believe that as couples experience God’s ideal of “one flesh” intimacy, they will be powerfully released to channel their gifts and energies toward a hurting world.
Toward this end, we offer a three-day weekend retreat for couples to explore these issues. The retreats are uniquely designed to bring healing and transformation to couples as they seek to follow Jesus in his mission to the world, both individually and together.
Let us be clear: Missional Marriage is not an effort to manipulate or dominate. It is not a way for Faithwalking participants to pressure their spouses to support their own agendas, however noble those agendas may be.
•Explore their own individual awareness of mission and calling
•Dream together and separately about how God might want to use their lives to make a real difference in the world
•Learn how to feel and express true understanding and caring for their partners and, in turn, receive that understanding and caring into the broken parts of the relationship
•Share deeply with their partners about their own sense of personal mission and the emotions that go with it—fear and shame as well as passion and hope—without judgment or disapproval.
•Think strategically about how to overlap, support, integrate and enhance each partner’s gifts, calling and mission within the supportive shelter of the marriage.
Date: April 9-11, 2010
Our retreats are held at the home of Todd & Denise McCombs,
6 WestPoint Drive, Missouri City, TX, 77459.
At least one of the partners in a marriage must have completed Faithwalking 101 in order to participate in Missional Marriage. The cost of this weekend retreat is $300 per couple and includes tuition, meals, and lodging. If you or your spouse have completed Faithwalking 101 and you wish to register for Missional Marriage, please complete the following registration form.
Download PDF, click here.
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Download e-Newsletter PDF, click here.
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
•Williams Energy – Steve Young
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