Celtic vs Roman Way of Evangelism

I'm currently reading one of my pastor's (he's becoming a good friend just before he leaves the country) books. The book is authored by Mike Gunn and it's called, "Gospel and Culture: Reaching the Nations With God's Glory." Once he gets it edited and made ready for sale...I'll give you more information. But, I have to say, it is very good, and like Mike's sermons, packs a lot in a few pages. I wanted to give you a quick taste. This is part 3 in a header called, "How Do We Change?" from the chapter, "What is Culture?"
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We must be "all things to all people" (1 Corinthians 9:19-27; Acts 16:3; 18:18, Galatians 2) and see ourselves as Leslie Newbigin described us as the "hermeneutic of the Gospel." Meaning that it is the people of God that ultimately interpret the gospel to others that do not understand the Gospel (Matthew 5:16). When we approach the Gospel the "Celtic Way," verses the "Roman Way," which sees people not as "marks" to convert, but as "pre-Christians" waiting to be revealed to by God, we will become servants of the culture instead of its enemy.

Working like this helps us work hard not to import our culture, but it is our story that lifts up the name of Christ, the only name under heaven by which men are saved (Acts 4:12). When we love and serve the people, then they will begin to understand the grace of God, and witness the truth of forgiveness and sacrificial love in the people of God. As we apply the "Celtic Way" of evangelism, "People are called to come and see the transformed lives of God's people before they are called to repent of sins and to trust in God."(1) Literally, aspects of the culture can be redeemed as the people of God share in them, and utilize them for the glory of God. The following chart is adapted from George Hunter's, "The Celtic Way of Evangelism" and Mark Driscoll's "Radical Reformission" helps us see the process.

Traditional Evangelism

(Believe in Jesus then belong to the church)

Gospel info is presented

Hearers are called to make a decision about Christ

If an affirmative decision is made, the person is welcomed into the church.

Friendship is extended to the person

The convert is trained for service in ministry by being separated from culture

Celtic Way of Evangelism

(Belong to the church then believe in Jesus)

A genuine spiritual friendship between a Christian and a non-Christian is built

The non-Christian sees authentic faith and ministry lived openly and participates in it

The Gospel is naturally present in word and deed within the friendship

The non-Christian's conversion to Jesus follows his/hers conversion to Christian friendship and the church

The church celebrates the conversion of their friend

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Books Mentioned:

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My Index of Personal Orthodoxy

For whatever reason, people today love to throw around the term heretic, wolf and false teacher. They really don't understand what is essential for belief, and what is to be worked out in our sanctification through our differences of thought because of culture, background or hermeneutical school of thought. People seem to not understand how to stand shoulder to shoulder with people that have the essentials of the faith, yet might differ in superfluous (although still important) theological convictions. What I have found interesting in studying Scripture is how much the apostles left the sanctification and growth of new followers of Jesus to the power and wisdom of God, not man. People would ask, "How shall I be saved?" For the most part, this came after a clear presentation of the redemptive Gospel, but the response was almost always the same, "Repent and believe." (or something very close to this every time) What I have found very interesting through this study is that the one thing that was always presented was redemption, then repentance and belief. People have decided that they want others to present the gospel in a wider way, yet in the New Testament, and especially in Acts, it was mainly, redemption (through the death and resurrection of Jesus), repentance and belief. That's it.

So, with this in mind, I figured that I would just put a quick index of my posts on the Five Solas of the Reformation and also my posts (they aren't finished yet) on my small commentary on the Nicene Creed. If after reading this, you find myself or my church, to be heretics or wolves, I honestly believe that you aren't fighting against us, but against the historic orthodox church of God. Know that I am not perfect in my commentary or writing, but you'll see that what I write (and believe, along with my church) is historic in its roots and orthodox in it's beliefs.


The Nicene Creed:

Introduction

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

The Five Solas of the Reformation:

Introduction

Sola Scriptura: Part 1

Sola Scriptura: Part 2

Solus Christus: Part 1

Solus Christus: Part 2

Sola Gratia: Part 1

Sola Gratia: Part 2

Sola Gratia: Part 3

Introduction to Sola Fide

Sola Fide: Part 1

Sola Fide: Part 2

Soli Deo Gloria: Part 1

Soli Deo Gloria: Part 2

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Mike Gunn's Response to Crosstalk and Ingrid Schlueter

Recently, the infamous Ingrid Schlueter got wind of our (Harambee) dialogue with a local Muslim community (MAPS) about "Who is Jesus?", and instead of calling us to speak to us she decided, along with many of her readers, to slander us on the internet calling us many names. I wrote a post on my response in regards to being called "dumb so-called Christians", "heretics", "a reprobate church", "denying Sola Scriptura", "Christian dupes", "den of thieves", "false teachers" and now, most recently, useless idiots. They say that this is just to warn others about what we are doing, although I am not sure how we are affecting them (like God needs to be defended?) nor did they ever actually call us or contact us to try and understand what the dialogue was all about.

Below, is Pastor Mike Gunn's full response to Ingrid's blog post and accusations. I want everyone to know my immense respect for Pastor Mike and how much he has taught me about the true understanding of the gospel and how it/we should interact with culture for the glory of God. If I were to give you a list of all the things he does locally and globally, and how much God has used him in ministering the word of God, it would sound like I was exagerrating and a little vain, since he is a friend of mine. Yesterday, we spent some time at lunch and spoke even more deeply about this subject of culture and the gospel (he has also written a book on the subject) and how much this type of attack does nothing but harm the gospel. This is why he felt it necessary to at least write a rebuttal of what was said, so that we could return to the most important part: The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Enjoy the post and ask any questions you might have.

Living In the World, But Not Of It!
By Pastor Michael Gunn

It saddens me that I have to write a rebuttal letter to those that have taken liberty to judge Harambee Church, Mark Driscoll and Acts 29 because Harambee hosted a forum for Muslims and Christians to get together to discuss the person of Jesus Christ from the two different perspectives.

First, I want to say that Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill nor Acts 29 had anything to do with this event. This event was born out of relationships and ministry in and among Muslims in the Seattle area. The fact is there are 30,000 Somali Muslims alone in the King County region, and there are 1.3 Billion Muslims in the world; many of who have never heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, it’s important to state that Harambee Church has always promulgated a clear, Christ-Centered gospel that is Reformed in its roots, and has never backed down from the hard theological entanglements that come with it. We have lost many people that do not agree with our theology, and our desire is not to “water down” the gospel so people will stay. These are major assumptions of our detractors. We do believe however that it is both prudent and biblical to preach a clear gospel that the people can understand. This tradition is taken from men like Peter, Paul and Jesus. When Paul was confronted with pagan believers in Athens (Acts 17), he departed from his normal strategy of “reasoning from the scriptures,” to utilizing pagan poetry to clearly communicate his message (Acts 17: 27-28). Gospel authors, such as John, used pagan terms, like logos, in redemptive ways in order to better explain Jesus to a pagan audience. The words the bible uses for God (Elohim/Theos) have pagan roots, yet they are redefined in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1: 1-3). Subsequently, using a biblical form of contextualization is true to the tradition of the biblical writers, and needed in order for the gospel to be understood by each subsequent generation and culture. Therefore using words like Allah (which is the Arabic word for God) is not any different than using the words Elohim or Theos. So many want to argue the fact that the root of Allah is from a moon god, whose name was Sin, but whose title was Al-Ilah (ie. Allah). While there are many linguists who would argue a different root for the name Allah, why does this matter? Our own Hebrew term for God is a plural, pagan term El – Elohim? Jesus’ words on the cross were “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which is similar to Al-Ilah. Why is this an issue? If we were in Germany we would use “Gott,” which has its own pagan history, or if we were in Andra Pradesh India, we would be forced to use “Deywadu,” which is fraught with all kinds of pagan ideas. Yet, we would be forced to use these terms to communicate a clear understanding of the truth of the gospel. It is a biblical contextualization that takes these pagan terms and redeems them with the fuller truth of the gospel (See John 1:17).

Thirdly, it appears that many of those that hate Mark Driscoll and Acts 29, and decry dialogues, such as the one we hosted at Harambee, feel that if you aren’t immediately persecuted when you proclaim the truth of the “Good News” then you must not be preaching a true gospel. There’s an heir of self-righteousness that accompanies their assumptions, because not all of Jesus’ or Paul’s encounters with sinners and pagans ended in derision and persecution. In Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well (John 4), we see a somewhat muted story that the Holy Spirit uses for her conversion. While I believe Jesus was confrontive, it was done in a gracious manner, and was received well by the Samaritan woman. Jesus’ tact with the men on the road to Emmaus was explaining the story line from Moses, through the prophets to the present time, which is exactly what Mike Ly did when he explained the clear gospel of Jesus Christ to the non-believers who were present at the dialogue. But, it seems, that some think that the message of the gospel isn’t truly there unless persecution and hatred is the result. I believe Acts 17: 32-34 gives us insight into the reality when the clear gospel is heard clearly; “Some began to sneer, but others said, ‘We shall hear you again concerning this’…but some men joined them and believed.” Isn’t this the goal? To tell you the truth, there were definitely men, at our dialogue, who “sneered” and some that got a bit testy during the panel at the end, because we answered every question very clearly, and biblically. However, we also believe that we won an audience with many Muslims that night that have emailed Michael and stated that they never heard a presentation about Jesus in this way. It was counter to their understanding, and they literally want to “hear us again concerning this.”

There is no doubt that persecution will be a result of the gospel. I personally have been screamed at, spit on and punched, but not every encounter of the gospel results in people hating you. Jesus Himself, “kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). In order to cut through some cultural and political garbage, the gospel often needs to be heard well, many times. Our goal is to love our enemies, as we are clearly commanded in scripture, and to gain an ongoing relationship for the sake of the gospel, so we could:

“Speak forth the mystery of Christ…in order that we may make it clear in the way we ought to speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned as it were, with salt so that you may know how you should respond to each person.”

Colossians 4:3-6

Christ and Christ crucified will always be the central focus of the preaching here at Harambee, as it was that night in March, but our goal is to “season our speech” with the grace and love of Jesus, and then allow God to work in the hearts of the people regardless of the consequences to our own lives.

Fourthly, the claim that MAPS (The group we worked with) has ties to CAIR, which has Hamas ties is irrelevant. Jesus commands us to love our enemies (Matthew 5: 43-44), and Paul exhorts us to “bless those who persecute you” (Romans 12:14). Even if all 150 Muslims in that room were Hamas (and that’s what I say is absurd, because they aren’t), so what! Aren’t we supposed to face our enemies, love them, and even bless them? Shouldn’t preaching to them Jesus be our goal? Aren’t we commanded to take the gospel to the “nations?” It seems as though many Christians are more interested in preserving their national identity than they are their identity in Christ. Their God has become a politically driven (Democrat/Republican, depending on which political side you choose), white American, which allows them to demonize those that don’t look and act like we do. Is that what Christianity has become? Isn’t our allegiance to Jesus, to live like Him, and not endorsing everything our political persuasion or our nation demands? Weren’t the early Christians persecuted (not for their message of the cross) for calling Jesus Lord, and not giving that title to the emperor? Yet, by all accounts, they lived exemplary lives and were loved by many in the culture.

So many comments in some of these blogs make claims that Muslims are the “antichrist,” thus justifying a lack of hospitality to over one billion people in this world. They use texts like 2 John 9-11 as their “proof text” for such a response. It amazes me that people who claim to be the guardians of the “truth,” can be so callous with the scriptures they claim to love. It was poor exegesis like this (not “Postmodern” relativity) that justified slavery and genocide by the church in the past. This verse has nothing to do with reaching non-believers and having them in your house, and it is contradicted by many actions of both Jesus and His disciples. This verse is speaking of false teachers within the church, not outside non-believers. Paul iterates a similar idea in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13.

This kind of legalistic nonsense reminds me of a quote from Westminster Professor, Michael Horton who said,

Christians are supposed to be in the world but not of it, but the problem is many of them are of the world, but not in it.

Unfortunately, I find this all too true. While they wear a badge of separation, they act no differently than the world. They use human effort and methodology to effect change, political power, division, slander, and lack of love for all people, which seems to color their repertoire. They act as the older prodigal son, who bitterly opposed his father because of his own claims to the throne. It’s easy to vilify the “enemy” as antichrists when you see yourself as “righteous.” It is only when the gospel penetrates your heart and reveals the ugliness of your own righteousness, that are we able to act in grace toward others, as Christ has done to us.

Our intent for the Muslim dialogue was not to water down the gospel. As a matter of fact, the leader of MAPS told our pastor that we are the first church they have dealt with to present a gospel that is clearly contradictory to the Muslim idea of truth. But the aim of MAPS, and the reason they felt it was a “success,” was that we both could state those differences, with reverence and grace, and though we vehemently disagreed with one another, we will continue to discuss Jesus. We will continually work out our disagreements with love and respect for one another, and I just don’t see how that is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Cry Out! For the Fatherless

Two of my friends, Celestine and Tara Ezinkwo, have started a mentorship program called Cry Out! I have written about them before, but now our community is starting to get wind of their efforts. I am really proud of what these two are doing for the sake of the glory of God. The following video and article was written by the Renton Reporter. Enjoy.



Renton recording studio looks to get kids off the streets and lead others to do the same

By CELESTE GRACEY
Renton Reporter Staff Writer
Apr 08 2010, 9:42 AM · UPDATED

Renton's youth are finding their voices and learning how to shout out on behalf of others.

"We complain that there is a lot of violence in the streets, but we don't do anything about it," said Celestine Ezinkwo, a 26-year-old rapper.

Working alongside wife Tara Ezinkwo, he opened a recording studio in downtown Renton called Cry Out to not only get youth off the streets but to teach them how to lead others in the same way.

The couple comes from Los Angeles with a passion for inner-city youth and a heart for social-justice issues.

"If we start talking to these kids and treat them like human beings, they're going to change," Celestine said.

Renton High School is just a few blocks away, so teens walk to the studio after class to hang out.

Cry Out has an open-door policy, but most days Tara, 29, gathers the teens for discussion and attendance.

The teens squish together on a corner sofa. Photos of Third World children hang above their heads. There are about 80 kids on the roster with about 27 regulars, Tara said.

"They would be here 24 hours a day, if we let them," Celestine said.

Some days the teens just hang out, and others they write and record music together.

In a freestyle session, Celestine plays a new beat loud enough to silence out distractions. Three of the group's rappers sway with the rhythm.

Music unfolds from one rapper’s mouth like a prayer that takes time to form its meaning. Ironic self-praising remarks intermix with deep thoughts and poetry.

Then like a man cutting into a dance, another rapper begins his verse. Messing up here is a cause for laughter, not criticism.

"Everyone is welcome here," said 17-year-old Chris Robinson. "No one is judged like that stuff out there."

Regular attendees are invited to weekly workshops that either offer practical skills for producing and creating music or develop leadership qualities.

Celestine is planning to produce an album with the teens that focuses on their stories and social-justice issues.

"Our whole vision is to have them (students) cry out their story and to cry out for those who are oppressed," he said.

Understanding how much time kids spend at the studio, Cry Out balances the distraction by requiring students with bad grades to attend tutoring sessions twice weekly with a teacher.

The students also work through relationship and sometimes behavior problems.

"We do a lot of life-on-life mentoring," Celestine said.

To enforce life lessons at home, the Ezinkwos try to meet all of the teen's parents, Tara said.

"That way we're working in the same direction," Celestine said. "Sometimes the parents can reverse what we do."

The name Cry Out comes from Bible verses, Proverbs 31:8-9.

"It says basically be a voice for those who can't be a voice for themselves," Celestine said. "Be a father to the fatherless, a mother to the motherless."

For Celestine, Cry Out is the fulfillment of a prophecy.

He was raised in Nigeria, where immigrating to the United States seems an impossible task for most.

At a church event a prophet called on him and told him he was going to make music in the United States.

"I didn't believe it at all, I thought it was crazy," Celestine said, adding that he decided to write the prophecy down for the sake of curiosity.

About six months later, his name came up in a visa lottery, and he was on his way to stay with an uncle in New York.

Studying international business in Los Angeles, he met Tara at a Bible study. The two both had a passion for working with inner-city youth.

Tara worked for Athletes in Action; but as they discussed their marriage, they learned the youth program only accepts marrieds as a couple.

Celestine wanted to pursue his passion for music, he said. "We wanted to start something of our own."

At about the same time the couple met Mike Gunn, pastor of Renton's Harambee Church, which runs a popular after-school program called The HALL.

Gunn heard Celestine rap at a conference in LA, and invited him to perform in Renton.

After the show, Tara and Celestine had found their next ministry. They moved to Renton in September 2009.

Eventually Gunn offered the basement of his church to open the studio.

At the time it was filled with abandoned boxes, food and books from the building's former tenants, but it came with its own entry.

The volunteer-led remodel was done on a tight budget, but hard work made up the difference.

The studio has two meeting spaces and a small office linked to a recording box with a separate entry.

They opened in February.

Like Harambee, Cry Out isn't a bait-and-switch tool for proselytizing. The Ezinkwos do invite the kids to Friday night Bible studies at their home, provided they have parent permission.

"Our goal was too keep kids off the street," Celestine said. "Our goal is to provide kids with a place they could go and be themselves without feeling pressure whatsoever to be a certain way."

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Audio from Muslim and Christian Dialogue

Here is the audio from the dialogue we had at Harambee this past Saturday. If you have any questions in what was said, let me know. I can also make the powerpoint that was used for Michael's part available if you want it. Just let me know. Thanks to MAPS Redmond for the following photoraphs. If you would like to see the full flikr stream, click here.

Michael's Presentation on "Who is Jesus?"

Imam Joban’s Presentation on Islam and Jesus in the Qur'an

Q&A Panel




Muslim Prayers

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VERGE 2010: Jeff Vanderstelt

Ed Stetzer interviewed one of the pastors at my church and has it up on his blog. I thought I would highlight one aspect of the interview, but click here to see the whole thing at Stetzer's site.
Ed: Soma Communities is not a typical church. Or the typical name for a church. Tell us a little about the work of Soma.

Jeff: Soma is the greek word Paul uses to describe the Church as the Body of Christ in and through which Jesus fills everything in every way (Eph. 1:22-23). When we started Soma 6 years ago it was our desire to become the kind of church that fills the city of Tacoma and the region of the Puget Sound with the presence of Jesus in every way through the Church being the church (not just attending 'church') in the everyday.

We started Soma as a Missional Community-- a small group of believers who radically reorient their lives together as Family around the daily mission of making disciples of a particular people group as missionaries, demonstrating Gospel-changed lives through tangible acts of service as servants and giving a Gospel explanation through proclamation as disciples of Jesus.

We discipled and trained others to lead Missional Communities in the midst of life and mission and after about 9 months we sent four teams of leaders out to start their own Missional Communities. This pattern continued... MCs making disciples, training up leaders and sending them out to start new MCs. As this continued, elders were being trained through this process and the collection of several MCs formed new churches. Presently we have about 50 MCs and 8 churches all in different stages of development. These churches gather together on Sundays in three different locations, in two states over four different times for the preaching of the Gospel, equipping for ministry and mission and celebrating and remembering Jesus through song, communion and meals.

A few years ago we changed our name from Soma Church to Soma Communities-- One Body, Many Expressions because we were becoming a multi-site church. Presently, our Gathering Hubs are located in Renton, WA, Tacoma, WA and Boise, ID. We have MCs in many other cities where we hope to also have Gathering and Equipping Hubs. Our long-term vision is to have a Soma Communities Hub in each major city on the West Coast as well as in four major cities inland.

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Interview with a Muslim Imam

My friend Michael, who will be part of the dialogue at Harambee on March 27th interviews the one who will also be part of the dialogue, Imam Joban. This should give you some insight to Imam Joban and why he desires to dialogue about Jesus the Messiah. If you want to come to the dialogue, please do. You can either email me directly to let me know of your interest or any questions. It should be a very good event and one I am much excited about.

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World Relief: The Church's Finest Hour

This is the organization that my church, Harambee, is supporting. Please consider giving to their cause. May we pray diligently and give abundantly.

To Donate: World Relief

Live Updates: World Relief on Twitter

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Why Harambee Convinced Us to Stay

So, now that we have visited Harambee because of all the reasons stated in my last post, what is keeping us here? I want to just put up some of our thoughts on what we have noticed about the church as a whole after we have attended Sunday morning, missional groups, met with elders and leaders and attended the men's retreat. These observations are God's ways of calling us to stay and dig in at Harambee.

1. Christ Centered, Heart Gripping

This is the biggest thing we have noticed. It is all about Jesus. The sermons are full of the glory of Christ instead of just tagging him at the end of the sermon. Christ, the cross and the glory of the Trinity are shown as the fulfillment of every sermon and how it should impact our hearts, minds and actions. These things aren't just put at the end of the sermon as a quasi alter call for those sinners in the audience to repent. The whole sermon is a calling for believers and non-believers alike to repent and live a life of repentance by peeking into the throne room of Christ and his completion of each passage or topic preached. Because of this focus, your heart is assaulted and you leave knowing your shortfall, but with the hope of the work of Christ for you. The cause for change isn't because I desire to make God happy with me, live a better life, get rid of this sin or that sin, the cause for change is happening because I desire to live for the sake of the One who incarnated himself on a rescue mission for my soul. Quite the difference and one that is not just found in the sermon, but in the very lives of the congregants and shown in the music, the discussions and in the kids gospel classes as well.

2. Purposeful to Exalt Christ

I used to scoff at those churches that were emerging and missional. Was told that they didn't know how to do church. I have to say that Harambee is the most purposeful church I have ever been to. Each week for the Sunday gathering the service is scripted to show the flow of the Christian walk. This is what has historically been called liturgical worship. Now, when most people hear this, they think boring and repetitive. Not so here. The service is set up like this:

Songs of Repentance (with corporate Scripture reading)

Songs of Hope (with corporate Scripture reading)

Scripture reading for our sermon and prayer for our kids

Sermon

Reading of Nicene Creed

Communion with songs of confession

Songs of Celebration with all of our kids present with us to see the glory and joy found in the fullness of the gospel

This is a gathering with a purpose. Not to mention the preaching and music are simply amazing.

Not only is the Sunday gathering purposeful, but if you ask why the church does anything, it is always purposeful. From church planting, community development, family Sundays (where there is no childcare to have the whole family present during worship to show how church is done worldwide), partnering and taking overseas trips to develop local churches, to the individual member taking ownership for the purpose God has put them into the church for. It is astounding to see what this church does without care if the attendance will go up. They keep planting churches with members, sending members off to team up with new plants, etc. because they care more about where Christ is calling them, than what the attendance is week in and week out.

I have yet to find something that Harambee has that is done just because they have "always done it this way." They truly are men and women who gather under the flag of Semper Reformanda: Always Reforming. All for the Glory of God Alone.

3. Gospel Saturated Transparency

We have only been at the church for 3 months but this has been interesting to see. No apologies for past sinful lives. No apologies for struggles within the person. Just honest discussion on how God has restored, or is restoring the sinner for the glory of God. We have seen this from the pastor preaching, unveiling struggles he has, to the time of testimony where real lives have been exposed to show the glory of the Gospel and its transforming power. Women have shared past sins and past/present struggles openly and honestly so that the church as a whole can come alongside them and love them and see the work of the Spirit in their lives. They open up because they know that they aren't going to be judged, but are going to be loved. This is because this church has been saturated with the gospel and the response is found in lives that desire community with a family.

We have seen it in the Sunday gathering but we have also seen it within our interaction with individuals. Whether it is from our missional leaders to discussions with men on the retreat, it is apparent that these Christians desire deep relationships to penetrate the heart with gospel living. It has allowed myself and my wife to open up and expose our hearts like we have not done in a long time, knowing (or hoping at this point) that it won't be used against us, but will be used to pray for us and come alongside us.

This is where we are with Harambee. We are excited to see what God has in store for us here. We are still in the infancy stage with them, but already see a huge difference and see the gospel clearer and clearer the more times we interact. Our hearts are already being drawn to Christ closer because of their witness and we thank God for them, and can't wait for God to continue to show us his greatness through them.

This is why we are not sneaking out the back door. This is why our journey is just starting with them. This is why God has already started to knit our hearts to them.

May God be glorified and Harambee be humble always seeking out the will of our God for the sake of the cross.

Amen.

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Why We Chose Our Church

As of last June, my family decided to leave our church of over 5 and half years. I served in many different capacities in the church, but we felt as though it was time for us to move on. I am not going to air my "dirty laundry" here, but know that I take leaving a church very seriously, so that alone should tell you that we left over some things we felt were a huge deal in the scope of things.

For these posts I am going to delve into why we chose the church we are currently attending and then also why we are going to stay here and become members. So it is sort of "Why we walked through the front door?" and then "Why we aren't sneaking out the back?"

First, the church that we have decided to dig into is called Harambee in Renton, WA. Harambee is simply a Swahili name meaning, "Together Pushing Forward." It is located in the heart of downtown Renton, about three blocks from one of the most, if not the most, diverse High Schools in Washington State. Renton High School is 36% Black, 33% Asian, 16% Hispanic and 15% White. This is actually one of the reasons we chose Harambee is because of the diversity that is found in the area that they minister. That is a little about where they are, but let's get into why we chose Harambee in the first place.

First, they are affiliated with Acts 29. The pastor that started Harambee, Mike Gunn, was one of the three that started Mars Hill alongside Leif Moi and, of course, Mark Driscoll. Mike is still an elder and our primary teaching pastor, but gets paid as the Acts 29 International Director.

When we left our church we really wanted to be associated with Acts 29. We had another opportunity to look into a church plant in downtown Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle where my business is located, but decided that it wasn't what we were looking for and it was just too far from our community where we live. As we searched the area for Acts 29 churches, there were some others, but none were as close as Harambee (little less than 20 min from house), nor as urban as Harambee.

First, we wanted to be a part of Acts 29 because they are Reformed, missional, complementarian and hold those things that are essential in a closed hand and those things that are secondary in an open hand. The Nicene Creed (closed hand) is read each week at Harambee showing those things that we fully embrace to be orthodox Christianity. Harambee and Acts 29 are very dedicated to the word of God and being theologically astute without giving up what it means to be immersed into culture every day of our lives.

We also desired to be associated with an Acts 29 church because of the focus of glocal missions. Meaning, they fully believe that we need to be missionaries to the communities we are a part of, to show them Jesus, and we also need to be equipping foreign people to make an impact on their own communities through church planting. They don't ask the white dude to go and set up shop in Africa, they send the white dude to help raise up local guys to plant churches in their own areas abroad. This is a huge difference and one that I fully support and see supported through the whole book of Acts in the life of Paul.

The way that Harambee specifically showed us how they are impacting the community around them came about in three ways specifically.

1. The Hall

The Hall is an after school program (held at the church building) for the local high school kids to hang out, be mentored, get help with school and just old school discipleship. There is no secret message of Jesus being forced to them. There is no helping in English class by making them read the Bible. It is just a place to serve the community, specifically the youth of Renton, that usually find themselves in trouble if left to themselves. Below is a video of the Hall and what it is striving to do. It has just been taken over by Matt Topping who is going to take it to new heights and also is being joined up by a Christian Hip Hop artist named Celestine (video below) with a ministry (Cry Out) that aids inner city youth through music and mentorship. To put it bluntly...we are very excited in what Matt and Celestine have in store for The Hall.

2. The Refuge

The Refuge is a place that aids the area's homeless. The Refuge takes place at the church building on Saturdays to feed, give health care and just a place to chill out for the homeless in the community.

3. Missional Community Groups

This is not small group Bible study. This is a time to come together to pray for each other, to disciple each other, to go over biblical questions and studies and also to strategize how to impact the community that each one meets in. This is the extension of the church. This is where one will find aid spiritually and physically and one that becomes family instead of merely a group that meets to go through a study and part ways. These people will serve together and grow together. When someone is in the hospital from the group, the group supports, when someone has a baby from the group, the group comes alongside. There is no need for a churchwide program to "deal" with these issues, but these issues are handled like a family would handle them. We have just started one with an elder at Harambee and have enjoyed our time together and have already been able to start to aid our community. Not only is this going to be made up of people from Harambee, but also those who attend church elsewhere and those who just want to know more about who Jesus is. The groups function as the hands and feet of the church to the local communities spread throughout South Seattle.

4. Right Focus

We chose Harambee because it has the right focus when dealing with the day to day in church life. Instead of having program after program that was formed in the mid 50's, it allows the missional groups to function organically on how they want to serve. Harambee doesn't have a different program for every little thing or every person that attends church. Harambee, instead, makes the parents responsible for the upbringing of their children, so they teach them how to do so. Harambee makes the husband and the wife responsible for their actions and roles, so they drive them into missional groups together, instead of studying separately. Harambee drives the singles into missional groups to study alongside married people and others so that they learn how to be Christ centered.

By doing this, the main function of Harambee is Sunday morning and the night of your missional group. They are very simple. They don't have program after program that takes up all your time, making it impossible to love your family and your community.

Through all these things, Harambee got us in the door to see what they were about. Little did we know that this would be the place that we would dig our heals into and try and call family. We have only been at Harambee for 3 months, but it feels like Christ has been doing open heart surgery on us since we started.

These four things were the central reasons we chose Harambee. The next post will deal with why we are so excited about Harambee and why we are starting to find it a place to call home.

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