This week, UK hip-hop band, Twelve24 will tour schools, youth groups, group homes and churches. Twelve24 is part of the work of The Message Trust, an organization dedicated to serving teenagers in greater Manchester. Our very own Ryan Griggs is a member of Twelve24. I recruited him several years ago to try out and he got in! Now he returns to help us in our quest to reach students in public schools.

For the last 25 years or so, Andy Hawthorne has been leading the charge in the toughest parts of the city: on the streets, in troubled neighborhoods, in the prisons and schools as well as uniting the churches. “Diary of a Dangerous Vision” is the account of that story and how it has played out for the good of the city.

The Message probably produced the first musicianaries of its kind: The World Wide Message Tribe. The book chronicles the early years of schools work and how God used the Tribe to impact the church, the music industry and thousands of teenagers with the gospel. The Message does much more than build bands. They run a school of discipleship called Genetik, a prison ministry Reflex, an inner-city outreach program called Eden and Life Centers along side them. The Message has also been involved with mass evangelism through their work with different bands as well as working in partnership with world-renowned speakers like Luis Palau and Mike Pilavachi of Soul Survivor in London. Co-creators of the Message, Mark Pennells and Zarc Porter started Innervation Trust, a ministry I have served with for more than five years recruiting for other schools bands that have emerged since the days of the Tribe.

Andy’s book is passionate and his call to the church to step out in faith and live the urban adventure for God is compelling. The story of the Message has had a massive impact on my ministry. That is why this week is so exciting. Having Twelve24 here in Southeastern Connecticut is a dream come true. It’s as if I get to add a chapter to this book as we reap some of the fruit of this wonderful ministry. If you want  to know more about where f2fmi is going, you should definitely read this book and catch a vision for the things that have deeply impacted me.

Jeff Pieper is the Director of Strategic Relationships for Luis Palau’s Next Generation Alliance (of which, f2fmi is a proud member). Jeff’s role is to promote collaboration, team work and to build the network of ministries that work together.

A wise teacher said, “…it is really awesome when God’s people hang together in unity (my interpretation of Psalm 133.1). How excellent is it when we all serve together in order to accomplish something that is way bigger than anyone could do alone. “There is more that unites us than divides us.” One of my professors said that in a class about church leadership. It really stuck with me.

When I joined the Next Generation Alliance staff of the Luis Palau team, this became even more evident when collaborative missions and conferences were being conducted. At the core, the alliance ministries of the Palau organization exists to identify, affirm and equip those who believe that they are to declare the amazing transformational power of God and invite others to experience a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I was in Petionville, Haiti in December of 2009 for a collaborative mission between over a dozen separate organizations who chose to come together. The local association of churches represented a diverse denominational cohort and hundreds of local pastors and church members collaborating. The week of ministry that included conferences, humanitarian work, radio and television programs, music and proclamation reached all over the city of Petionville awe well as the national capital of Port Au Prince. Something like this can only happen when people come together and work in unity. Together, we can go so much further and accomplish so much more than we ever could alone.

It takes all types of ministries to be able to connect with the diverseness of people in this world. To suggest one method or approach would be to suggest that the entire world speaks a common language with a common understanding of all of life. Sometimes we get skeptical about working with others and can yield to what a majority of times is fear. At times we may imagine that if we collaborate with others, we’ll lose our place or our “voice” in the midst of others. Unity doesn’t mean we all have to look the same, talk the same or eat the same pizza. Can you imagine only one type of pizza? No way! Ministry, for that matter the Christian life as well, does not have to be that way either. God says it’s rad when we all hang together in unity. He gives us props when we dismiss the things that most people use to separate and divide.

That’s why collaborating with others is such a great thing. We realize that there is so much more uniting us than dividing us. People all over the world are similar in so many ways even though we all have our own unique attributes about us. Having experiences with other people who are passionate about declaring the goodness of Christ is a blessing. Traveling together, supporting one another while each other are speaking and teaching is empowering. Sharing meals or some cookies and milk is something anyone in the world – and right here at home – would totally dig. I mean, come on, who doesn’t like cookies? Cookies can unite the world under a peaceful banner of love! (Okay, I digress.)

Whether in Kigali, Rwanda, my home of Portland, Oregon or around the world, collaborating with others has been an amazing experience for me. So many people from all walks of life all over the world coming together to serve. Everyone with different background and life experience; people from various economic situations, and so many different cultural and ethnic environments have been represented. Everyone unified to serve something bigger than their own self! All God’s created people can come together in unity and harmony to share the hope and restoration that God provides. At the end of all the collaborative mission trips, it was clear that living out the love of Jesus Christ through word and actions is the most important thing we can do for the world. And anyone can do that… anywhere in the world! Everyone has the power to do the work of an evangelist in the manner God has called you.

Together we can go farther than we could alone. It’s ok to hang alone and chill, turning inward for reflection and solace. When it comes to connecting with a city, a region or a nation, we all have to put down the nonsense that divides and as the Beatles sang, “come together.”

In my last book review, I was checking out Kevin Roose’s breakout book, The Unlikely Disciple (read it here) after meeting with him on his turf at Brown University. Kevin then turned around and sent me a book that comes out later this month from his friend, Austin Carty who was a contestant on CBS reality t.v. – Survivor: Panama — Exile Island in 2006.

Although Austin is a Christian author/speaker, I had never heard of him and I have never seen Survivor. I decided to check Google for some videos on Survivor and found a few with small clips with him in them. I would have preferred to rent the season and see what all the hype is all about but since Netflix isn’t carrying it, I figured it’s more trouble than it’s worth to get my hands on it. I settled for an under five minute recap of the entire season that I found on Youtube. It wasn’t particularly enlightening to my research for this post, but you can watch it too if you want a little bit of context.

Austin is from High Point, North Carolina – pretty clever for working that in to his title. His book is a collection of essays that are in no particular chronological order and highlight different times of his life where he was wrestling with life and faith issues. Plume published it, which interestingly enough is a subdivision of Penguin, where my friend Rhiannon was working in London. Penguin’s offices overlook the river Thames, Big Ben and the Eye of London and I got some great photos from a balcony at the top of the building last January.

I have to admit, Austin’s opening chapters really irritated me. In the first chapter, Austin opens by revealing that his journey has been a combination of partying hard and then having seasons of pursuing the Christian lifestyle fairly intensely. That in itself doesn’t really bother me. Many people who have grown up in the church go through those times. I went through my seasons too. He then makes his point that nowadays when he is in a place that serves alcohol, instead of ordering water so that people can see that he’s not drinking, he orders Coca-Cola. He doesn’t want people to know what’s in his glass because it’s between God and him. He also doesn’t want to make a show of the fact that he’s not drinking. Fair enough. However, the question that continues to force it’s way in to my mind is, “Why is he telling me this?” Is it so that I won’t be religious about what I drink? Where I drink? Who I drink with? Or has Austin found a way to be a Christian party boy and be around the same crowd he has always hung out with without having his conscience disturbed by what’s in his glass. I don’t know the answer to these questions because I don’t know Austin. Not having developed himself as a character for his own book, I just think it was a rough way to start a book. Maybe if this chapter were somewhere else in the book, I would feel differently.

All that aside, chapter 2 really irritated me. He talks about evangelistic outreach in a very general way that in my opinion is reckless. For me, this did not improve my impression of his book. Yes, there are some of us out there that have done a bad job representing Christ. However, poking fun at individual evangelists was not his aim. Austin talks about his experience sitting in an evangelistic meeting and feeling the need to respond after the message. He basically says it did nothing for him. He thinks it was not a valid response. I would say — don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! Just because he was confused about his response does not mean that others aren’t reached through traditional evangelistic methods.

Austin criticizes the fact that someone was counting responses. Maybe he doesn’t have a knowledge about how event evangelism is put together, but let me share how we make it happen:

1. Numbers are important to keep track of because it’s diligence in our field. As a member of Luis Palau’s Next Generation Alliance, it is f2fmi’s responsibility to keep our ministry’s statistics. At the end of each year, these numbers get reported back to head office and then we have a snapshot of what evangelists all over the country are doing to reach people for Christ. Since it’s impossible to measure the heart, responses are what we track.
2. It is how our organization gathers resources. Without numbers, there is nothing to show donors as far as results. f2fmi’s donors are excited and engaged by our diligence in keeping track of what we are doing.
3. Finally, numbers are key in retelling the story of salvation as we encourage the church. Nehemiah did it (read the book). The Lord moved him for a cause. Nehemiah asked the king for support and then carried on with his mission. Along the way, he was diligent to record exactly what happened and and reported numbers of people, livestock and even financials. Many times in the Bible you see this model recorded. It’s very Biblical to do our homework

Moving on to the rest of the book, Austin does some great things in some of his other chapters. I enjoyed reading about his awkward years, his relationships with girls and even his ministry experiences. Austin makes some valid points about what it means to live the Christian faith like — pray as if God is a real person without using special religious language, and growing in faith through adversity and loss. These points make the book a decent read.

The book comes out nationally on Jan 26th. You can buy it from Penguin here.

Although I had to sit this one out, both Nathanael and John Fogg Jr. along with our regional Network Coordinator for NNYM, Paul Fuller set out to Portland, Oregon for the conference this past November:

John writes about the journey there…
On the plane from Bradley International in Hartford, Nathanael sat in the window seat next  to me while I sat next to a guy who was watching a mock-u-mentary called The God Who Wasn’t There.  Although I couldn’t hear it, I could see that it was very disparaging of Christianity. I prayed for an opportunity to talk to him. Then wham! An old lady fainted right in front of us, with a loud thump. It was scary at first, a nurse who attended her said she had a really weak pulse. I prayed that she would be alright. The pilots were considering whether to attempt an emergency landing. She finally came to and seemed to be ok. So I asked the guy next to me if he was a student. He said he was actually a sociology professor at Willamette University in Portland. He asked me why I was on my way to Portland. I told him I was going to attend an evangelism conference with Luis Palau. He said he never heard of him. I said he once worked with Billy Graham. He said “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of him before”. With that he immediately went back to reading a sociology  textbook. So pray for the sociology department at Willamette University. They need to know the real Jesus!

John got to live his dream when he got to Portland…
The day before NGA CONFERENCE started I stopped at Cal Skate in downtown Portland to buy a board and some pads. I picked up a new Powell mini double kick street board set up with really hard and fast wheels,  and a set of pads with wrist guards. After that we registered for the conference. During break we went to the Dept of skateboarding with Jud Heald, Tom Geilfuss and Shawn Hoffarth and I got to skate with them!

Nathanael reflects on his conference experience…
Innovative Evangelism Conference was a great experience this year because we were able to reconnect with a lot of the people we met with last year.  We formed sort of a band of brothers without even realizing it.  We had such a good time communing together at the workshops, main sessions, meals, and even afterward, when everything was done for the day, by spending quality time debriefing and bouncing ideas off of each other.  A core group of Ramin, Paul, John, and I even split up which workshops to attend amongst us, based on our respective interests.  I was able to attend an enlightening session lead by renowned worship leader Matt Redman, and another one focusing specifically on creative arts in ministry.  By the end of the week, with hearts and brains busting full of encouragement and information, we were sad to go, but glad to take the next step.

Paul shares about how the conference impacted him…
Several months ago Tom invited me to join his team on a trip to Portland for the Innovative Evangelism Conference.  It sounded like a cool experience, but I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. While there were plenty of speakers and ideas that I was blessed by, the biggest thing I got out of the trip was a better understanding of where Tom is coming from as an evangelist. In hearing Luis Palau speak, and observing everything else over the 3 days of the conference, I saw why Tom is so passionate about evangelism above and beyond any other area of ministry. Evangelism - which I was able to see comes in so many forms – is the heartbeat of the Palau Association.  Seeing this play out at the conference helped me to understand where Tom is coming from in a new way. It also helped me to realize that there is a great community behind Tom that he can bounce ideas off of, learn from (through both successes & mistakes), and gain resources from. While I’ve really appreciated Tom’s ministry over the past few years, it hadn’t always clicked on all cylinders with me because of my lack of familiarity with evangelistic movements. But now, having a better grasp on where he’s coming from and what is influencing him, it is all much clearer to me. Not only did I learn a lot, but I feel even more confident in supporting Tom’s ministry and partnering with him because of my time at the conference.

On April 2, 2009, F2fmi, Holyfire and Luis Palau’s Next Generation Alliance will be co-hosting a day of prayer for New England at F2fmi’s office in Uncasville, Connecticut (located at Calvary Chapel of SE CT). Also joining them will be Paul Ramey, the worship leader from Gallery church in New York City.

Representing the Palau team are Dr. Tim Robnett and Jeff Peiper. Dr. Tim is the Director of NGA. He and Jeff mentor and encourage hundreds of ministries and evangelists from around the world. They will be leading us in prayer for New England for the least reached. Justin Kendrick and his Holyfire team are brand new members of the NGA team. They will be leading worship along side of Paul Ramey to help direct our time of prayer.

Are you a ministry leader hungry to see your community reached for Christ? Would you join us in prayer and for lunch?

Please RSVP by emailing us: info@f2fmi.org
Download the Day of Prayer brochure.

Upon Arriving at the festival grounds on Saturday, I went straight to the Livin It Action Sports Area. I was anticipating hearing Christian Hosoi preach and seeing him skate. Excitedly I went ahead of everyone else.

As soon as I got there, I saw a homeless man with a tumor on his face the size of an orange…

I heard the spirit say “you are not going to ignore ME are you?” “But the show is about to start” I Thought to myself. “O.K. LORD, I’ll go talk to him.” At this point the motorcycle show just started.”How are you doing?” I asked him. He said ” Nothing. I’m just standing here. I’m just watching” as if to justify his own existence. I said ” No, I asked HOW are you doing?, not what are you doing? Trying to speak loud enough to be heard over the din of the motorcycles. He said he wanted to see the motorcycle show. I said ” ok just watch and wait here. Don’t go anywhere. I’m going to go and see if I can find some help for you.” I went back to the NGA tent to see what could be done. I briefly talked to Dr. Tim Robnett who told me there were homeless services available right next to the Sports Area. I found the Homeless center with many tents set up right between the Livin It Action Sports Area & the Burnside Skate Park. What I didn’t know and perhaps Dr . Tim didn’t realise was that the homeless services were available only on Friday the day before and this was Saturday. Only empty tents. Now what? While I pondered what to do next, a man on a bicycle rode into the Homeless center selling newspapers for the homeless. I asked him where could a homeless man go to get free medical services in town. He said go to a place called the RED DOOR at Saint Patrick’s church in town. I went back to find him but couldn’t.

I lost him. I failed. I left JESUS standing out in the cold. I wish I had the prescence of mind to have done things differently. I should of asked someone to go with me. We could of taken him back to our tent and fed him while trying find him a doctor.

My only consolation was that Tom also met a homeless family and planned a rendevous a few days later on Monday to give them a grocery store gift card. Unfortunately they never showed up. but while we were waiting a man fell off his bicycle right in front of Tom. We found out he had been in car accident and was trying to put his life back together so we gave him the grocery store gift card. He claimed to be a Christian so we also invited him to check out Solid Rock Church. So at least we were able to help someone with a random act of kindness while we were there.

Fast forword – Christian Hosoi ‘s Testimonial – message of hope & invitation to receive Christ.

After a skate demo with Kings of Kings Skate Ministry, Christian Hosoi took the mic and began to give his testimony. Humbly, he didn’t say much about his skateboard career, except to say that he lived like a rock star and crashed and burned a like a rock star. His life ruined by drug abuse and jailed for drug trafficking. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of defeat, Christian spoke of how Jesus CHRIST turned his life around and gave him hope, meaning and purpose. After he preached, he gave an invitation and I’m guestimating about fifty kids came forward making decisions for Christ!

Later After Christian preached the crowds thinned out. He approached the fence of the skating area to talk to fans and sign auto graphs. I got to meet him and we talked briefly. Those were “crazy days” he said of his early skating career.

After that Anthony and I went the main stage area to listen to the music, hear Luis Palau preach and to be available to anyone who needed counseling to receive Christ. Once again an over abundance of counselors meant no one had to wait long. I gave a kid named Ryan a small wooden cross to wear as a momento, after he prayed with another counselor to receive Christ.

On Sunday we went to see Jose Zayas preach at the Solid Rock Church. We were all pleasantly surprised when we realized Telecast was the worship band that morning. Even Tom was impressed by their professionalism. Originally from Spokane WA. lead singer guitarist Josh White Is now a worship pastor there. I had the pleasure of meeting Josh while lunching on delicious Salmon burgers. Telecast now has three excellent worship recordings available on BEC Records.

When we first arrived at the festival grounds we went straight to the NGA tent to get oriented. Some went on a tour of the festival grounds but Anthony and I went straight way to the Livin It Action Sports Area. Tom and Nate caught up with us shortly thereafter. Helmeted and suited FMX (Motorcycle) riders like Greg Hartman and Kyle Loza of Riders 4 Christ were already practicing their jumps off a launch ramp onto a 16 foot landing ramp. Many riders could do unseated maneuvers during “hang time” like hand stands and handlebar and seat grabs in various positions and then seat themselves at the last moment to land the bike safely. One rider could do complete upside down end over end 360′s and land it, amazing!

The Skateboarding/ BMX area consisted of a flat bottom made of unpainted chipboard (Thank God it didn’t rain! that stuff gets lumpy when wet and splinters easily) and a roll in ramp with a 4×6 quarter pipe on one side, three 6×6 quarter pipes on the other and pyramid ramp with rails in the middle. Featured King of Kings skateboard ministry skaters Luke Braddock & Elijah Moore were in attendance as well as few others who’s names escape me. Livin It skaters Tim Byrne, Anthony Carney, Christian Hosoi, and  pulled off smith grinds, disasters , noseblunts, bigspins, all manner of kickflips, and many combo maneuvers like ollies to railslides, 360 rock’n’rolls and even a mini Mctwist. After the demo someone from King of Kings gave his testimony, preached the gospel and invited whosoever will to receive Christ. I waited near the gate to the skating area for my opportunity to counsel someone coming in to receive Christ. There was an abundance of counselors. When I tried to reach someone to counsel another counselor got to them first. Next up were the BMX er’s who did peg grinds, x jumps, can can’s, table tops, bar spins, turn downs, fakies and flips. Don’t ask me what all that means, I’m not a BMX-er. But they made it look so easy that now I wanna try.

After this took a quick personal tour of the festival grounds located at waterside park which runs the length of 12 city blocks along the Willamette river.I then checked out the main stage area complete with JumboTrons, the merchandise tents and sponsors tents and wound up at the family fun zone, the kids looked like they were having a great time and learning about Jesus to boot. I stopped at the park near the Hawthorne bridge and prayed for an opportunity to lead someone to Christ. I Headed back to the NGA tent and saw Tom, Nate and Antony in the backstage area. “How’d you guys get back there?” I was on the outside looking in. I guess it’s all who you know.

We had dinner, saw some of Kirk Franklin’s set and then Anthony and I went to the main stage area to listen to Luis Palau speak and to be ready to counsel anyone who wanted to receive Christ. At the invitation someone behind me received Christ but once again another counselor got to him first.
After that the Home boys Kutless took to the stage. -End of Day 1-

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I have been overjoyed to have dozens of conversations with friends who I have not had the opportunity to talk to in years! The last few days have been exhausting. Don’t get me wrong, the fellowship has been great… but I have been on relational overload since Thursday night.

The first few nights, I stayed at Brad and Jen’s house. From there, I went to stay at Dr. Tim Robnett’s house from NGA and got to know his wife and mother-in-law. Dr. Tim has beautiful horses and his place in the country is memorable. It’s weird to be in the city by day with tens of thousands and the country by night enjoying God’s creation.

Other friends I have seen are Lindz and Lucy West from Manchester, UK; Nigel and Evyln Gordon from Bucks, UK; Jose Zayas, Bryant Underwood, Jeff Pieper, Paul Durham, Rusty Wright, and Steve Wingfield.

Wednesday on the Left Coast, Portland Oregon:

We were able to sleep in today after our long trip from CT yesterday. Tom stayed with his old chap Bradley Butcher from Passion for People (NGA), while the rest of F2fmi stayed at the Marriot. Leisurely continental breakfast ensued – I decided I needed more sleep and returned to the room – John and Anthony took a dip in the pool.

So the day started slow, but picked up pace right around noon, when Tom showed up to pick up the team to head out to a casual lunch. We got to spend some more time with Craig Gross of X3Church, and Tom got to reunite CG with an old friend: Paul Ramey. Brad also met up with the lot of us for the noontime meal. Good conversation was had, old friends caught up, new friends were made, and agreeable food was had by all present.

We parted ways with Paul, Brad, and Craig and headed back to the hotel to register for the Conference. We made a few stops along the way – one of which included a visit to Palau headquarters – there was a festival director there who remembered working with the local Connecticut churches in our area – including people’s names from so many years ago!

Later on, the conference started with a tasty meal and fellowship time. Then there was worship and a keynote address by Dr. Tim Robnett. Unfortunately, Tom and I had to leave John and Anthony behind at the Conference to go visit some partners an hour north in Washington State.

Sam and Sharnessa were having a really cool get-together for their youth group when we arrived – which we planned on so we could meet some of the youth – a pleasant bunch of kids! Sam and Sharnessa have quite a nice family and it was really a blessing to meet with and spend some time with them (and the kids too, of course). I noticed that these kids have a lot of talent – at least musically – as they gathered independently to sing praise songs from the likes of Hillsong United, Delirious, and other delightful worship band types. I did not socialize much, but I spent a nice time there, listening to conversations Tom was having with his friends (and now mine) and joining in at intervals. As we were leaving, Sam had us follow him to his church so he could give us the grand tour there. It’s such a great venue – the sanctuary is spot on and the youth room has nothing lacking – even a little hang out corner decorated in the style by Sharnessa with the help of IKEA’s influence. Tom and I then left for Oregon and got back so so so late… but it was definitely worth the trip, and the myriad of introductions we had today.

-N