inner city

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#30for30 Homecoming

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on January 10, 2018
Posted in: The Mindful Minute. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Did you know that 62,050 people suffer from food insecurity in Knox county? That means that these people are unable to gain access to enough food to sustain a healthy lifestyle for all household members as defined by the USDA. One of the hardest hit areas and one of the biggest areas in need is the Western Heights Community in North Knoxville. In that community, the Knox County Association of Baptists has a Baptist Center that serves this community. The center provides meals, clothing, hygiene products, after school activities, and worship services where the people and children of the community can feel safe and be served (there is a link to their website at the end of this article). In the spirit of sacrifice and service, I am very excited to announce our student ministry’s 6th annual #30for30 event at City View Baptist Church. This yearly event highlights and brings awareness of hunger in the Knoxville area and donates food, hygiene products, and clothing to the Western Heights Baptist Center for them to better serve the needs of that community.

You may have heard of our event before, but allow me to give you a brief overview of the weekend. We will be gathering on April 7-8 for 30 of the best and hardest hours of our participant’s lives. For 30 hours participants voluntarily go without food, only having Gatorade and water to drink. That’s right, participants give up eating for 30 hours so that we can experience for just a brief time what thousands of Knox County natives experience every day (Don’t worry, if someone can’t give up food for medical reasons, there are alternatives). We begin our famine at 9am on the 7th and continue it to 3pm on the 8th. During that time, participants will be engaged in a series of competitions (food related of course) as they are put into teams to compete for the prize of #30for30 Champion, the coveted Golden Fork Trophy, and the right to eat first at our break the fast banquet.

This year is a special year. Our theme this year is #30for30: Homecoming. To make this the biggest and best event to date, we are inviting EVERYONE who has ever participated in #30for30 to come back and experience the excitement all over again along with new participants wanting to start their tradition of this event with us this year. This year could potentially see us hit the 50-participant mark. Can you imagine 50 people putting aside life, stresses, problems, & differences to come together and participate in something bigger than themselves? We call that CHURCH!!

We will kick #30for30 off with the donation drive that occurs 1 month before the actual event. We will begin collecting items of food, clothes, & hygiene products  beginning March 4. As you all know, sacrifice is a part of following Christ. And the love that we share and pour out on others is a direct physical reflection of Christ to others. I hope you will join us in prayer for this event as we seek to make a real impact on the lives of the Western Heights community and hopefully allow them to have an encounter with Jesus.

In Christ Alone,

Rev. Bro. Coach

 

Western Heights Baptist Center

Video on Western Heights Ministry

Video about Last Year’s #30for30 by Parker Hall

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Surviving Bi-vocational Student Ministry- part 1: Understand & Embrace Your Call

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on November 24, 2014
Posted in: The Mindful Minute. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

bivocational1In the last 7 years of ministry, I have learned a lot. I would like to say that I learned these lessons because I was thoughtful and carefully planned each intricate detail to happen just right; but the reality is that most of the stuff I have learned, I have done so through trial and error- more error than anything. Through this system of trial and error, I have made so many mistakes that I have wondered at times if I would ever get anything right. It is in these failures that my identity as a student pastor emerged- an identity rising out of the ashes of the chaos that often characterizes my ministry. It is through these same ashes that I feel God has called me to share my experiences as a bi-vocational student pastor with others who are in similar situations. In the next few weeks, I hope to highlight what I have identified as 6 major themes or truths in the bi-vocational world. I hope these become a source of help for any bi-vocational student pastor who knows the constant struggle of the world where you are only part-time by title and pay.

So, you have been called to be a student pastor. When I think of the enormity of that calling, I often think of the scene in the Disney Classic, Aladdin, where the genie is describing to Aladdin what his life is like. The genie makes the statement that he has “phenomenal cosmic power- itty bitty living space.” If you have been in bi-vocational ministry for any length of time, you know that sums it up- a phenomenal calling on our lives- itty bitty fraction of time to get it done. In fact we could sit here and talk for hours about how little time we have to get anything done in our ministry. It’s that call, however, that drives us to give up our only free time on weekends, work 40+ hour jobs each week only to come home and put in 20-30+ more hours per week at home, church, and events with our students. It’s that call that forces us out of bed on Saturday to go lead a mission project when all we really want to do is sleep in for one Saturday in the year. Well, it’s this same call that I want to focus our attention on in this first installment.  As bi-vocational student pastors, we need to understand and embrace our call.phone

This is a struggle for me- in fact all 6 of these are struggles for me, that’s kind of why I’m writing this. This may be the first time that I am my own audience. My struggle lies in the fact that I want to be in full time ministry, but God has not revealed many details of His ultimate plan for me. I am perfectly happy at City View and there is no doubt that God has me with this great group of students for a reason, it is this very situation where I am learning to embrace my call. Because of my desire to be full time, I do my best to run City View Student Ministries like a full time student ministry.  Something wasn’t right though. I was constantly feeling like I was failing. We had a surge in students a couple of years into my ministry and we ballooned up to around 30, but since then I haven’t been able to push much past that number- I felt like a failure. Why weren’t we drawing more people in? What am I doing wrong? I eventually realized that my passion for being a full-time guy was getting in the way of my call. My call isn’t about numbers. My call is about ministering to a small church in the inner city who has very little means and resources, but has a heart for the lost of our community. I may never pastor a student ministry of 100 or even 50, but I might- only if God calls me to it. The day I stopped struggling on a regular basis, is the day I realized and embraced my call to minister to inner city kids in Knoxville and stop worrying about the numbers.

What is your call? Is God calling you to lead a certain demographic of student like He did me? Is He calling you to be a minister to a group of students who might get lost in the crowd of bigger churches? Pray and ask God what He has called you to do and then fulfill that call to the best of your ability. Your call is the only thing you need to fulfill. God has placed all of us where we should be, to accomplish a work that He will bless and use. Don’t waste precious time and energy trying to make your student ministry like others. Understand and embrace YOUR call for YOUR ministry and God will do wonders with it.

In Christ Alone,
Rev. Bro. Coach