The Good News in Cleveland

The destiny of every human is a face-to-face meeting with Jesus. Some will greet Him as friend, others as enemy. For whatever reason though, we believers suffer from a sort of “spiritual constipation” as my pastor friend Craig has dubbed it. After speaking out at Pastor Craig’s church in a Wisconsin, a woman from the church asked me about the park ministry at CityView. Her question went something like this: “So how do you do it, have a Jesus conversation with someone you’ve never met before?” It took a long and round about answer for me realize that I didn’t have a procedure for it. Yeah, I go to parks with intention, but the witnessing isn't choreographed. To speak of Jesus should be a natural outpouring of my real relationship with Jesus. Furthermore, what I am saying should address and answer the longings of the human heart! That answer kind of sounded like a spiritual sidestep to a good, practical question. The truth is that after a while, you just drop the junk, and t...

Recent weeks have felt like a time of great blessing. Several new kids have come around the west side ministry including 18 in one Saturday. Furthermore, I challenged the handful of teen guys being discipled/mentored to memorize Scripture, and I am pumped that several have come through on this commitment. However, it's in times like these that the enemy packs a sucker punch like a teen meltdown to keep us distracted from God and what He is doing. That's why people (especially those "in ministry") should seek God for revival rather than seeking revival for God. This week I gave a ride to a guy named Eric, his wife, and his brother. Ended up sitting with them in the car and talking for a while. Eric called me tonight, and we met up. (I'm trying against my nature to act and speak love, pointing Him back to the love of Jesus.) Tonight he admitted to struggling with heroin and that all the things he's tried in life have left him unsatisfied. Like many of the teen...

We hoop at the Zone outdoor courts just before Saturday church (about .4 miles away) to make connections and have Jesus conversations... Last Saturday I had a notable and unexpected "Jesus conversation." Now know that Zone is a thug kind of place - a gun had been brandished just minutes before this conversation. I was talking a little bit about church, and a man walked up to me, shook my hand, and looking me directly in the eyes said "Hello, I'm Jesus Christ." He was utterly convinced of his brave statement, others were familiar with his claim and walked away, and some remained to hear how our conversation would unfold. "So you're God?" I asked. He replied, "Yes, I am God." There were three different reasons that led me to tell him "Trusting in yourself will end you up in hell." I know the other guys there were tuning in, so I wanted the clarify the contrast between the real Jesus and this fraud. "Where are the holes in yo...

Carl comes to the Winton Manor Bible Study on Tuesdays. He was bed-ridden for seven years, unable to walk. Now he's an outspoken, high energy character. We jammed together today for the worship time right before the study. He wanted to tell his story, and this is one of those things you just have to see and hear to understand.

You can't be Martha to Jesus and expect to raise up Mary's before Him. I went to different Cleveland basketball courts and did evangelism every single day last week. Looking back, I was telling people about how great Jesus is without spending time with Him myself. The best kind of evangelism is when I get to tell the truth about Jesus; He's alive and well and His resurrection Spirit lives in me. This is what the Arab kid who plays frisbee with me every week has got to see. It's what young men unable to get past self worship are missing. They need to see me/us/leaders seeing Jesus and different because of it, not the self-centered pursuit of ministry excellence. This week I'm with some of our Cleveland kids at Camp Patmos and leading worship there. Thinking about all that could be in the future - possibly working working on my doctorate this fall, taking back the West Bethel building for ministry, my hopes and dreams for God's work in the lives of many Clevel...

Two steps forward, one step back. One of my boys threatened another with a knife. "I'm going to cut your head off so that it's rolling in the street." One drops off the radar, another cusses me out, and one from months ago walks back into church. It seems like I pour all of my time into individuals with little avail. However, it's God's time that I am pouring and His timing in these young lives. God was not born in the microwave generation, and I am neither effective nor qualified to measure the impact He is making in hearts and lives. Looking back over the last few years in Cleveland, going "Jesus-centered" was the formational step (and work in progress). He is at the center of all of my teaching, all of my discipling, all of my hopes and dreams, why I step back out on the streets. For this reason (Jesus), even when the guys I love like Jamar, Christian, JP, and Ronald take one step back, Jesus hasn't moved a bit from the center; He's go...

Though it has been weeks since my last post, it seems like content for a hundred posts has occurred in that time. I need this blog because it refocuses me in the face of resistence. See, I have been getting a taste of my own medicine after preaching out of John 9.  In that passage, Jesus encounters a blind man. And what was the reason for his blindness? "This came about so that God's works might be displayed in him" (John 9:3). When I get hurt, when my car goes to the salvage yard, when the bank account is bone dry: I trust that these circumstances "came about so that God's works might be displayed" in me... And they have. One cross to bear when doing life with real people and rough people is the day-to-day conflict resolution. We took some teens over to the City Life Center on Tuesday, and three of them were about to throw down near the end of the night. I pulled one aside, and he didn't mince words: "I'm about to put a bullet in his f***i...