About 17 years ago (wow it seems like only yesterday), before I was saved, I stopped at a horrendous traffic accident. The truck was in danger of catching on fire so I pulled this guy out of his truck and he was bleeding from everywhere. He died as I held him in my arms and I kept crying, “I don’t know how to stop all the bleeding”. That event was a defining moment in my life.

I often feel the same way as I work in urban areas and watch youth make horrible decisions. I see them choose drugs, gangs, crime and sex as their way out but those just really lead them in deeper. Just this week I have seen one die, one tell me she is pregnant, and one join a gang. All three had shut me out of their lives prior to these events. I can tell how well a youth, either from Mission Raleigh or Mt. Vernon, is doing in their walk with the Lord by their proximity to me. The youth who I really help are not all about getting “stuff” from me but are allowing me to help them. They listen when I tell them hard stuff as well as when I tell them positive stuff.

The cross we often bare is one of perceived loneliness. As a Christian all loneliness is only perceived since Jesus told us in Matthew 28:20, “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” but as my friend Kevin Moore will tell you, “Perception is stronger than reality.” So when you hit that season of perceived loneliness, as I have right now, remind yourself that Jesus is in this with you for the long haul.

Over the years I have learned that meeting needs is a way to share the Gospel. It is a very biblical strategy used by Jesus, the Apostles and the 1st century Church. Meeting needs in a loving, compassionate and Christ centered way is one thing that makes us different from the world. It should be one thing that makes the Lost want to know more about what we have. Unfortunately many church benevolence ministries operate the same way that the world’s does. Tons of paperwork, rules and hoops to jump through are presented to you by people who seem more interested in “fixing” you or catching you in a lie than loving you and helping you. Too many churches have benevolence for members only and lose the one great connection they have to a hurting and dying world.

Mission Raleigh is all about meeting needs. We love to meet needs; it is our way to “earn” the right to tell people about Jesus. You want to know how to meet the need of an urban child. Show up in their community with a tire pump and few inner tubes. WOW you have met a felt need and you will be very busy. But during that time while you working on that tire there will be a child who will hang on every word you tell them as you meet their need. What about urban youth you say, well I am glad you asked. A few $10.00 cards will add minutes on to cell phones and you will have met a real need. How about just opening the computer lab and let them check their MySpace and Facebook. This will give you great chances to point them toward Jesus. Adults can be groceries, bill or rent assistance. But if you deliver that with a lecture or judgment then just keep it because it has lost any effectiveness. Don’t underestimate the need of listening when working with urban adults. The disenfranchised are disenfranchised because no one listens to them. Jesus taught us how listening meets a felt need in John 4 as he listened to the Samaritan women at the well. Listening leads to ministering. There can be no effective ministering without first effective listening.

Meeting needs will allow us to earn the right to share the Gospel with all cultures and all ages. Meeting needs has been clearly modeled to us by Christ and the Apostles. Let’s find ways to meet the needs of this needy world.

So every morning I get up and spend a few moments with God in reading and prayer. Then get some coffee and open my e-mail where I have my Goggle Calendar sending me my agenda for the day.

Today I saw something I haven’t seen since like May:

You have no events scheduled today.

What a beautiful sight

So this week I was attending another Mission Raleigh wedding. It is amazing that we have seen six couples that served together here get married. At the wedding God showed me something that I needed to see. As I looked around the wedding I saw at least 20 people who use to work with Mission Raleigh. There were so many things that had moved them on to other ministries and stages of their lives. The one thing it showed me was that Mission Raleigh has been staffed by people who were called for a season. I understand that will always be the case for many in Mission Raleigh but I don’t believe that it is all that God wants for all of Mission Raleigh.

We praise the Lord for all the workers that God has sent through Mission Raleigh. We are proud of how many have moved on to other ministries, raising their families and serving in other countries, but we are crying out for God to call some workers to stay planted right here. We are also crying out for more short-term workers.

Please join us as call out to the Lord of the Harvest for Workers. Both short and long term workers.

After a much need weekend escape to WV I hit Raleigh running this week. It has been perhaps one of the most stressful weeks of my ministry. It has involved fighting evictions, working with Social Services, temporarily shutting down the food pantry, finding a new home for MR ministries, trying to plan for the life after summer and of course a normal hectic summer week.
God has been faithful (as if there were any question). I am taking Pastor Joe to see a great location for MR. It has the potential to be a big step for MR. Closer to our people a chance for expanding the ministry including starting a counseling ministry that Kristi and I have always dreamed of having with MR.
Thank you to all who have prayed and by no means stop. the next few days and next week are going to be critical.

Last week I had one of those moments. A moment of clarity! Summer is winding down and I decide to go to Raleigh North Youth Nite. I had not been in 4 weeks so that I could be out with the teams.

I was sitting in the community center, after beasting at Candy Land, and leading 15 inner city youth in a study on Revelation. We were studying Chapter 4 and they were listening and engaged and it was just AMAZING. Then in that moment of clarity I heard God whisper, “Do you get it?” and I answered, “Yes sir.”

See teams and summer staffs are great. They help us find more kids, youth and adults to point to Jesus, but that’s not the real Mission Raleigh. The real Mission Raleigh is sitting in a community that you love and forming relationships that reflect Jesus and the relationship that He wants to have with them. It is laughing and crying with people. It is heartbreaking and rewarding at the same time. Some days it is just too easy, then some days it is just to hard. But it is what you do and you love what you do.

Thank you Jesus for The Call

The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.” – L. Ravenhill

GOOD STUFF

We have closed down several Mission Points over the past year and half. God has showed me clearly the results of shutting down Mission Points this past week. I am unable to really communicate the heartbreak that I feel when we have to look at the people of a community and say, “We can’t bring the Gospel to you.” It is ten times harder to look at them and say, “We must stop bringing the Gospel to you.” There is one community in Raleigh with over 300 units that we have been involved in since the second year of Mission Raleigh. While it has not been officially shut down it has only been be on one leg the past year trying to serve there.
We had a week long Kid’s Club there this past week. I had to break up fights every day as the kids were trying to impress the thugs hanging around during the club. One day I had to break up three fights in four minutes. I had to take steel pipes from youth and was even threatened by one of the youth with a steel pipe. Tears fell from my eyes as I realized that we had surrendered the ground that Christ had won there over the years. Some had to quit because there education and finished up, others had to leave because of family, some stop going out of fear, and I had not been a factor because of health. Our enemy quickly retook this precious ground and has reinforced his hold on the community. Makes me think of Matthew 12

Please pray that God will send reinforcements so that we can go reclaim that community in the precious time we have left.
Contact me at scotty@missionraleigh.org if you want more information on this subject.

So I am on my way to Kansas City to work with my old pal Judson. I drove 13 hours today and I have about 5 hours to go tomorrow to get there. I am anxious to get there.
To tired to write much more.