A Church Plant in Downtown Dallas

It is a common belief among many writers that most stories are about “a girl”. The drive of the main character, the purpose of the adventure, and even the tragic circumstances happen because of “a girl”. Well, as we begin this venture of starting a Church in the heart of Dallas, it could be said that the story unfolding is about “a city”. It’s about the life of a city, its occupants, and the force of “tov”, of good that God intends to pour throughout this city. He has, and continues to raise up spiritual communities that’s objective is to bless the city by loving the unloved, caring for the planet, proclaiming the virtues of living the way of Jesus, and showing others how to live in Peace on Earth, or in our case, in Dallas.

IN I My passion is to bring together a community for anyone who drifts unconnected to koinonia, to community. The essential community for human kind is the people of Christ. While organizations and religions have tried to brand their own carbon-copy of a Jesus-centered community, men like Paul the Apostle, Augustine, Martin Luther, Chuck Smith and many others continue to fight and live for the remnant. We remnant, we Christians come together by the power of the Spirit, grounded in the rich message of the Bible, protected by the rock walls of community, that we may carry the grand message of salvation by Word and Deed. We come together 7 days a week, in homes, and cafés, and parks and concerts, and hospital rooms. And in this normal life, we will find the supernatural power of the Spirit as it knits us together in love and grace.

OUT I I pray for the city of Dallas. I pray that this metropolis of singles and families, grandmothers, and college students, are loved by God and by us. And as our nation begins to return to these concentrations of culture, these city states, I pray that this Dallas culture is healed. Not overtaken by the Church; not turned into a Christian nation, but that the pilgrims of Christ within the city continues to seek out this cities pain, and redeem it by the blood of Jesus. God has burdened my heart with people who are displaced in the city of Dallas. The clubbers and shoppers and singers and single mothers and artisans and cubicle-dwellers who wonder how they are ever able to think outside of the box if they always live in one. We believe that the Earth is ours to care for, and all occupants within it. We limit our consumption to be good stewards of the Earth. We give our money and time to the broken and disenfranchised, and wayward. We unleash God's grace by looking after the widows and orphans and drug-addicts and refugees and the over-consumeristic family who wish they could live the pure, simple life again.

We will learn to love God, and love our neighbor.

WILL I This Church will hold up Love and Truth as its standard of community. This Church will develop communities, hot-beds of faith, hope and love throughout the Dallas downtown area. It will send these communities out as spiritual outposts to a lost and dying world. It will charge and empower these communities to serve, evangelize, and care for the city block and zip code in which they reside. It will draw these communities together to celebrate our good God. It will present spiritual services that give testimony of God’s Word, and his work in our lives. These services will showcase the creative power of God and his people.

WILL NOT I This spiritual community will not begin or end its strategic plan based upon the 2-hour Sunday morning event, which represents only a fraction of the life of a disciple. We will not use success as our driving motivation, rather faithfulness, so that we disciples are taught the reality of a faith knee-deep in the problems and pains of this world. This Church will not settle for anything less than disciples of Jesus who are vibrantly active throughout the city of Dallas.

We are followers of The Way. We are Christians.

This blog is a presentation, and broadcast to all of those who want to be a part of such a community in this city of Dallas. Browse around. Learn more about what God has laid on my heart, and the spiritual community that will begin in 2008-2009. I hope this blog challenges your ideas about the Christian life, and encourages you to push yourself inward as we learn to love God, and outward as we learn to love our city, Dallas.