.
Over the past three years the
support we have received from friends, family, and partner churches has
been truly humbling and very affirming. What we do not just here in the
“Shadow of the Downs”, but all over the city of Louisville is
difficult, grueling, and yes, sometimes dangerous work. The support and
prayers we have received from so many of you has no doubt played a
significant role in keeping us in the “fight”. We do a job and
ministries few others are willing or capable of doing, and we absolutely
love it. With that said, for us, it really isn’t a job or even a
ministry; it is who we have become as children of God.
It wasn’t
always this way though, at least for me. If you had asked me in
seminary what I wanted to do, I probably wouldn’t have been able to
articulate to you a clear picture of what that was. However, if you had
asked me what I didn’t want to do? Well, just come and hang out with
me on any given day, and I would have articulated that very clearly for
you…Urban pastor? Missional pastor? Church planter? Ministry with the
poor? Convicts? Addicts? Drunks? Prostitutes? Gangbangers?
Thieves? The homeless? Children? I didn’t know what I wanted to do,
but I sure enough knew what I didn’t want to do. Now I cannot imagine
any other life.
When you find Jesus in the streets; in the face
of the forgotten, the invisible, and the unwanted, there is no going
back. Life can never be the same. I ask my church and my friends all
of the time, “What if we really lived like we believe the things that we
proclaim?” One of the things we do especially well down here is that
we give people an opportunity to find out. Scripture comes to life in
places like this and in the faces and lives of those we serve; it
changes both the served and the server. Not feeling God in the pew?
Not seeing Him in the daily grind? Come and hang out with us. There is
more to this faith than Sunday morning or some praise music.
It
is to these ends, that I am going to make a plea to the same folks that
have been praying for us, applauding us, and supporting us. Join us.
Not in the change your membership to us sort of way. As a pastor I’ve
never been one to care about such things and I care even less about it
now. But rather join us in the “being the hands and feet of Jesus” kind
of way. In the making real, palpable, and instantaneous differences in
the life of a child kind of way. In the “restoring hope and dignity in
the lives of people who have forgotten what such things are” kind of
way. In the “I want to live like I believe” kind of way.
If you
can read to a child. If you can scoop food on a plate. If you can talk
to people that Jesus loves. If you can hand someone a piece of food on
the street. If you can pray with someone. If you can simply be present
in the lives of people who truly feel forgotten, unloved, and
unwanted…we NEED you and have a place for you. Please consider being
the answer to the prayers that you pray for us and the well wishes you
wish for us.
In the coming days we are going to officially begin
our fundraising campaign here at Heathen Church. When you minister to
and serve people who cannot support themselves, much less a church, we
have to rely on the generosity of our friends and family. To those
ends, I will warn you, I will probably drive all of you nuts before this
is over. But right now, what we need as badly as funding, is friends
to come alongside of us. We need people who are ready to live their
faith. We need people ready to live like they believe.
Please
consider joining us. Please do not hesitate to contact me on here, in
private message, in email (pastorcorey@heathenchurch.com), by phone, by
carrier pigeon, smoke signals, whatever it takes.