Nongeographical Community

I am now in Indianapolis at the Porter's, a family in the branch down here. They have given us a place to sleep and good food to eat now for the last week. Here we are in the upper room above the garage, which has been converted into a study. The bright light is a lamp and below it is Nick's computer, on it are Brian Couch and Thomas Duddy, who are still in Allendale building down there.

The five of us are working to stay connected and present to one another. We use an internet phone service that charges something like $5 a month, and includes a parallel video feed, so you can see who you are calling. It's really sweet.

We started using this cheap mode of communication during last summer with the Allendale Video Project, which used a similar set up that included a chat program so that we could give talks in Allendale to the high schoolers (known as Action Division) who were down there working on houses and neighborhood fix-it projects across the POP. Each week the folks in Allendale would gather in one house and listen to a talk while folks from across the community would tune in on the internet. You check them out at Citybuilder.org (in the links on the sidebar).

Here we are talking with Brian and Duds about what they've been up to and share a little about what we've see thus far in Indy. It was a really interesting experience doing communication this way over the summer as you never felt like you were far away from folks, even though you were actually across the country. When you can talk to someone face to face, even if its through a screen, it goes along way to building friendship regardless of geographical location.

Some thoughts from the rails

As I finished up work last Friday. I pulled the extension cords into the warehouse, nailed the back door shut, and Duddy locked up the front. Climbing into the box truck that WDMO now owns I needed to let the diesel engine warm up, so I sat there a while as Duds started back towards the house.

As I was sinking into the driver seat of the truck I found myself staring across the road, across the tracks at this piece on a standing boxcar. I quickly remembered TJ and our excursion into the Bunge. 'He would love this,' I thought jumping down from the front of the truck and making my way across the now deserted road.

There were a few pieces up and I meandered down the rail lines snapping a few photos as I went. After taking this last one I turned to return to the now warm truck and was astonished at what I'd mindlessly missed. There behind me, tucked up under the overpass I had wandered beneath was someone's home.

Sermon on the Mount

This is something a lot of friends and I have been thinking about since Paul DeCelles, gave a talk on it at the Missionary Conference.

As I read it more and more I'm more and more convinced that it's a pretty whole picture. Like if Jesus was asked today to give a sermon, he'd say this. It brings up some interesting things I've been thinking about.

Jesus starts out with the Beatitudes which name the new people of God. He uses the phrase "Fortunate are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" repeating this 9 times. This phrase was common in the Old Testament referring to how fortunate Israel is. Here God through Jesus is naming His new people.

Next He gives them a mission. That they be a light to the world. In the same way that when you turn on a light the whole room is lit so too should God's people light the world. He also mentions salt and what can be done once it loses it' s saltiness, but throw it away. This is a real inflammatory statement as he is reffering to the people of Israel who have abandoned God. And I think this still holds true today, even in Christian circles. God's people are described as things that exist by what they do. Salt has no use unless it is salty and what is a light but that which lights. These things are not just things, but things that DO SOMETHING.

How different is this than much of today's preaching on personal salvation as the end goal. Once you accept Jesus, you're saved. Finale. The end. Hang out a while, while everyone else comes to terms with it, right? Well, here God's people's mission is to shine so that others shine God's glory. Personal salvation is a subplot in God's plan, its the first step, not the end. Christ's mission to the world was not to help people get him (as in accepting Him as a personal savior) but to "bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives and new sight to the blind; free the oppressed and announce the year of the Lord's mercy" (Lk4.18-19). Realizing his power to change lives is but the first step. So, this is something that has been striking as I've been reading.

Next Jesus goes on to give God's people a new law, but one that does not abolish the old but works to fulfill it. The law was what had been passed down since Moses, most easily recognizable of these; the Ten Commandments (Ex 20, Deut 5). In this Jesus intensifies the law, saying not only is the act of murder or adultry wrong but being angry and lusting is sinning just the same. Here the law is now not just about actions but about intentions. And this is followed by how to pray and fast in a manner that is more than just the act of praying and fasting. So it is not enough to do what God says but one must also be as God is. "For your part you shall be righteous and perfect in the way your heavenly Father is righteous and perfect" (Matt5.48).

At this point I think of what I learned about perfection and sin growing up in the church. 'We are human beings and we sin. We make mistakes.' But here Christ is saying that we are to be perfect. How can we possibly do this?!

As Jesus goes into not judging, he talks about asking God and His giving. Which to me, makes no sense. What does this have anything to do with living more in God's way and doing His work? However, all 4 gospels have this passage and both Luke and John shed a lot of light on this. Starting in Luke 11.9, the paragraph is almost repeated verbatim. Except in Luke it is not talking about God giving us what we ask for, but that if we ask Him, He will give us His Spirit. And in John 14.13 this is furthered, as Jesus says after him the Helper, the Spirit of truth, will be sent. God will not abandon his children. Here the passage is saying God will come to dwell in you and God will fulfill this New Law. This is clearly evident in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. A book which is almost entirely devoted to the Spirit coming down on the apostles at Pentecost and what happens as a result. After this the apostles are emboldened and heal the sick and the lame, cast out demons, and become Christ to the world. This is huge. Paul talks about being co-crucified with Christ and that is no longer he who lives but Christ who lives in him. For folks who didn't know this is actually what Christianity is supposed to be about, becoming and being friends of the creator of the Universe, and collaborating and doing His work. And this is only possible if He dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, otherwise we can't even observe His law much less accomplish His mission.

So Jesus, gathers a new people, gives them a mission, a new law and teaches them about being in God not just the law, and that if we ask God, He will make us perfect through the sending of His Holy Spirit. I must say I have been greatly saddened to go to church and find so few people having even heard about what His Spirit does.

Lastly, Christ sends us off with a warning and mode of operation. Saying three things. (1) strive to enter through the narrow gate, for wide and broad is the gate and road to destruction. Do it all. As Paul says, run the race intending to win it and as athletes train in order to win, so should we train and strain for God's work. (2) You will know a tree by the fruit it bears. God's people and work does not whither. If the fruit of something is rotten so is the tree, again this brings us back to doing something. If we who claim God on our side are not setting free the captives and undoing the thongs of oppression, there's a good chance we've missed something. This is also an indicator that God's will produces real world change. (3) Not everyone who says Lord! Lord! will get into the Kingdom, but those who hear my words and act will be very wise. Again praise and worship without doing God's Will is like white washed tombs. We might look cleaner but that says little of what's inside.

This may have a bite to it...what do folks think? Thoughts? Ideas? Does this ring true?

Building in Gadgetland

So, this week I've been working at the warehouse that WDMO, nonprofit that funds some of our work, is moving into...as soon as it gets done. Most of this week has been by myself because the flu has taken out a Brian and John, and Thomas is at the functional WDMO helping sell windows, doors and more.

The biggest project this last week was the subflooring. We ripped up the carpet that had been covering much of the front of the warehouse and plan to put new vinyl down but the subfloor under the carpet didn't come up clean; leaving chunks of old vinyl tiling stuck to sections which made it really uneven. So we're putting in new subfloor over the old and this required a lot of cutting and custom fitting 4x8' sheets of plywood. As you can see I didn't do the best job on this piece.

I wasn't sure of the amount of error I could tolerate. Would this be alright as the mistake is in a corner and would not see a lot of traffic? Or is this still an issue and needs resolving? Well, the guys who know Brian or David, manager of WDMO, are both sick (there's a lot of us who've come down with the flu, so your prayers would much appreciated). So, I took a picture with my phone and sent it to the blog here. David was able to get on his computer back at home and make the call from there.

Problem solved. It turns out this is still a problem, but that all I needed to do was cut some scrap to fit the gaps.

The Work Begins

We set out on the road with a few bags to our names, no money but that which had been given to us, and the Lord as our guide. Brian drove most of the way and we switched drivers a few times. Duddy sat shotgun and Gapp and I were in the bak seat. We drove through Indianapolis, Evansville, a portion of Tennesse and Kentucky and finally into Louisiana, headed for Shreveport.

It's the four of us now, we had discerned at the beginning of this last Fall semester that God is calling us to live the life of missionaries on the road, going from town to town "bringing Good News to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and announce the time of the Lord's favor" (Lk 4.18-19).

This looks like locating and securing 200 new places to move into and live with folks. Begin communities that don't just talk about giving to the poor and feeding the hungry but DO it. But this is bigger than the four of us this involves thousands of folks all over the country, many of whom were at the missionary conference I mentioned earlier. Allendale, a neighborhood in Shreveport, is only our first.

This is 1426, where I'm living in Allendale with Brian, Tom, and John. It looks nice but the houses behind us are literally tipping over. Over 1/3 of the property in Allendale is abandoned. Packs of dogs make off with our stuff at night and folks suffer from terrible poverty, but in spite of this the people and scenery are beautiful. It's really hilly and has poor drainage, which is why all the poor folks live here. The light just does something incredible down here and its usually sunny out. Everyone has front porches and the missionaries down here have been here for nearly 5 years. Everyone is Baptist or Methodist, but few receive much help from the churches (either due to their own poverty or the churches plans to gentrify the neighborhood).

We own 9 lots currently and are about to acquire and 14. Most of the houses are in this 'shotgun' motif; meaning you could fire a shotgun through the house from back to the front with both doors open...why you need to do this is as of yet beyond me. But last summer Action Division, highschool group in the People of Praise, built our 6th house, which is being termed the living room of the neighborhood. We have structured our houses to share facilities, so as to share more life. One house has the main kitchen and dinning room, another the main living room and so on. This one is being built for the whole neighborhood.

Right now I am working for Windows, Doors and More Outlet (WDMO), a non-profit firsts and seconds milling products company that funds our building projects and community projects. A friend David Zimmel but we will be adding another location by the end of January (if we can get the place ready by then). That's been my job along with John and Duddy (Tom). We've been dry-walling, and taping and we still need to finish wiring the place (which is being headed by an electrcian in the Shreveport branch of the POP). Then we'll paint it and start moving windows, doors and more in.

Cubbies

Hey Rob,
I stayed with Brian Couch, friend who lives in South Bend, while I was there. He took the sofa downstairs and gave me his bed. I thought you would get a kick out of this.




Cubbies. Till Harry Carry returns.

Planning the Revolution

This Abe Olson, from Portland, Dudmaster, and Gaptastic working hard on the FAQs post-Missionary Conference in the dinning room of the Old Raclin Mansion (also on Greenlawn property) where POP headquaters is located.

We sent most of Thursday working to create a list and help answer some FAQs for the Mishcon.org forum. At the website the 100 plus participants have been carrying forward a discussion on what now. We've heard God call us to start communities up and down the Mississippi River Valley and it is members of the future Missionary Company who will be "locating and securing" new city sites.

As I've mentioned earlier God has been uniting all things in Him since the beginning (Eph 1.10), which is much more than personal salvation. Personal salvation is only a subplot throughout history and today. We are called to be children of God, co-crucified with Christ (Gal 2.20) and sharing in his mission, which he announced at the beginning of his ministry. "...bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and announce the year of the Lord's favor" (Lk 4.18-19). It is simply part of living with God that we are saved, but there is still a lot of work beyond this. Praise God.

Ed's Bday

This was Monday night. Ed's 21st isn't until late January, but his family and friends were in town so we decided to do it now. The blur on the left is Rich Preuss, Ed's dad, explaining that there was 'extra spicy' ketchup for all the folks from MN.

I first met Ed on a trip to Allendale last Christmas. We framed doors together at Windows, Doors, & More Outlet, a reuse company that takes 3rds, 2nds, and actually a good chunk of 1sts that contractors don't want.

Most of these are donated which we then sell at 100% profit; similar to Habitat for Humanity. This funds the work in Allendale. Just last semester WDMO paid rent in exchange for the work of the missionaries down there mentioned earlier. This was a huge commitment as WDMO wasn't even one year old. The added cost of rent could have been a big problem, but the Lord provided by making the last 4 months our biggest yet; more than providing for rent and the business' growth.

Then the following summer (last summer) Ed headed the household I lived in. Heading a household means he was incharge, we all had respoinsibilities, but Ed helped us all stay on task. Ed watched the dirt level, made sure things were running on time, and still found enough time to drop a few buckets of ice water on some unsuspecting showerer. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. Paul Kane from Northern Virginia Branch (seen above wearing a blue shirt, crossing his arms at the back) toasted Ed at the party describing how Ed's "balance of hard work and love of fun" really was an amazing gift.

A late breakfast

This is Thomas Duddy (he's from Hawaii branch) in the Behren's kitchen. We're about to head over to Brian Couch's where he and Ed Preuss from South Bend are watching some football. Couch, Duddy, John Gapp, and Joe Gleason all took leaves of absence from school this semester because God has called them and a few others to be missionaries. I had one semester left until graduation so another senior, Abe Olson at the U of Portland, and I went back to school last semester.

Six Days

I've officially been gone 6 days. I've got 2 weeks of clothes, a sleeping bag, and a Bible.

We began on Wednesday night. After a 12 hour car ride from Minneapolis to South Bend, IN. I was in a minivan with Mike Stapp from the Hawaii Branch, Matt Brickweig, Ben Reinhardt and John Bowar from my household in Mpls, Mike Coney also from Mpls but he lives in the 1027 household and we picked up Eric Yost from the Portland Branch at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on the way. It got kind of packed.

Upon arrival, we called up Brian Couch who is enrolled at the U of M in Mpls but has been living in Shreveport, LA for the last semester doing Citybuilding with 3 other guys - John Gapp and Thomas Duddy also enrolled in Mpls, and Joe Gleason enrolled at Notre Dame. He said to park at the Art building which is a small workshop just off the side of the old Studibaker mansion (known now as Greenlawn) the People of Praise (POP) has aquired for offices and running Trinity High School in South Bend. It's dark as we pull into the drive way through the old iron gate. The windows spill yellow light out onto the section of concrete next to the Art building designated for parking.

I've been here before. All last summer I spent 40 hours a week on this property working for Gabriel Property Management under John Gapp. I mainly painted and scraped, but I came to know the mansion and much of the two block estate it sits on in the process.

Everyone was already eating. There were about 25 guys stuffed into that room, and a great din of welcome filled the house, when we shuffled our weary selves into the dinning room. We were all here for the Company Convention, which is held once at Christmas and once in August. The Company is a young men's group within the POP, dedicated to Citybuilding. Man, it was great to see those guys, some I hadn't seen since the last convention.

The Company Convention usually only lasts a day or two. We catch up with everyone who's scattered all over the nation and how our responsibilities have been coming, we share stories and plan, and of course there's the Funeral Games which consists of a grueling competition between the Company junctions (different places where Company members are located). However, this Convention will prove different.

Headquaters of the POP has called Citybuilders from around the country to meet in South Bend for the weekend to discuss Citybuilding. There are 100 people confirmed to show up (for my organizing friends, the rule of halves does not apply in the POP - more than 100 showed up), and that meant a lot of food. So, after we had finished dinner, cleaned up, and updated each other we turned in early for a long day of cooking on Thursday after the early morning Funeral Games.

The Games are always held at 5:30AM, because that is when our day begins in the Company. We are up early most days for phyiscal training, personal prayer, group morning prayer and breakfast. On most days we are done with this, dishes and ready for the day by 8AM. We share this day schedule in the Company, eventhough we're all over the US.

Allendale Junction (in Shreveport, LA) has won many Funeral Games, but this time I think South Bend Junction won (I'll get back to you on that). Then at 8:30AM Trish Brewer from the one:ten household (group of men and women who work at one:ten communications who also live together) in South Bend had created a detailed set of instructions for us to make 5 meals for 100 people. It was impressive.

Cooking took up most of the day. But once we had finished we were assigned host families in the South Bend Branch who we would be staying with during the weekend (we slept on the floor of one of the classrooms in Trinity the night before). I stayed at the Behrens and am here until the end of Monday, with Thomas Duddy, David Zimmel from Allendale, Bart Durand and Dan Ficker from Mpls.

The Conference was Fri thorugh Sun, and most of us stayed for a New Year's party. The focus of the Conference was missionary work and how all God's children are called to be missionaries, whether to Mongolia or their department at work. We sang a lot of songs, ate good food, shared a lot of stories, and the Lord really blessed our time together. I really got two words from the Lord that struck me.

It would be important to note at this time that I love God (not as a topic of discussion or a thing but as a friend and mentor). I know that is not the case for all of you, please do not let that stop you from reading. This is me sharing my life, and I hope you all do the same with me.

The first was from a sharing on Firday, given by Brian Couch. He was talking about the city we are building at Allendale (neighborhood in Shreveport). Allendale is beautiful and desperately poor. There are a lot of people stuck in a place where sin, death and decay are killing not just people but their souls too. We've been living there for 5 years now and continue to grow with the neighborhood. Brian and Nathan Barret also from Allendale have been walking the streets day and night praying with folks, and pulling neighbors together who also love Allendale and are looking for change. Couch said, "The Lord is really showing us he's serious about this." As they've baptized more than a few people in the Holy Spirit the last couple weeks.

Really quickly, the Holy Spirit is not the baptism of forgiveness (or the baptism by water) which is what John the Baptist preached. John said, "After me comes one who is more powerful than I am; I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:7-8). The baptism of the Holy Spirit is when God's Spirit comes to reside within you (note: not all everyone baptized in the Holy Spirit is receives forgiveness, not everyone baptized for forgiveness has been baptized in the Holy Spirit). The 12 disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) which gave them the ability to speak in other nations tongues, great wisdom, ability to heal, and work miracles, prophesy and discernment (1 Cor 12:7-11).

Brian mentioned how when they would walk around it was almost as if they had appointments with folks. They would show up and open their mouths and God's great miracles would change hearts, and bring allies together.

The other really strong word I got this last weekend was during Saturday in a talk that Sean Connelly from one:ten household and editor of Vine & Branches (POP newsletter) gave. He talked about Paul, and how history can hide how difficult his missionary life was. When reading the Bible I've found it's hard to imagine how the disciples could doubt as it's laid out so plainly, but life on the road, especially Paul's life was wrought with danger. Almost every city he went to the folks were out to kill him, at one point they actually catch him and stone him. He would be starving a lot of the time, bruised and beaten on the road to the next city or running from the last after starting underground Christian communities. Paul describes his life as being violently taken from him, when Jesus visits him on the road to Damascus (when he stops killing early Christians and becomes one of them - Acts 9). Sean talked about Paul had been chained behind Jesus chariot and was being dragged from town to town living out God's will. I found this greatly encouraging.

Christ is not only our friend but our king. This is admittedly a difficult collection of roles for us as we Americans really hate kings. The idea of one is difficult to understand and I think this is where the fluffy bunny Chrisitans come from. God is love and this is true. He wants us to be be free, liberated from the confines of sin; also true. How then can we be obedient to a king and be free? This is a very good quesiton, one which I won't spend much time on here but probably later.

I was encouraged as I want to do the will of God. He wants my people/His people liberated from the oppressions of the world, the flesh and the enemy to love Him with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. His Kingdom come to earth will be a place where oppression doesn't exist, where community happens, where no one has too much nor too little. This is what I want. I also know I make a lot of mistakes. I say the wrong things. I still sin. I am hardly the right person to help an all powerful God. Yet he'll still use my work if I ask and the image of Paul being draged behind the charriot was not one of death but one of life and love.

Jesus has a plan and I don't know enough to do it myself, nor am I wise enough to execute it, but if I could chain myself to his charriot - I could do His work. I don't have to know how to convert a crowd of 5,000 as Peter and John did after Pentecost, all I have to do is open my mouth. It is a great reasurance that the Lord will provide.

If you have gotten this far you are indeed a very faithful friend, thank you. I will work in the future to make these posts a little shorter, but so much has happened this week. Please feel free to email me rusjlyons@gmail.com or give me a call 612.709.1245 Otherwise, this is what I've got for now. God bless you and I pray I will see you again soon.