I have decided to stick with Love #MLKday #InagurationDay

"And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. (Yes) And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. (No) And I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love; I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. (Yes) For I have seen too much hate. (Yes) I've seen too much hate on the faces of sheriffs in the South. (Yeah) I've seen hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too many White Citizens Councilors in the South to want to hate, myself, because every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces2 and their personalities, and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. (Yes, That’s right) I have decided to love. [applause] If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love."   

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,  "Where Do We Go From Here?" Annual Report Delivered at the  11th Convention of  the  Southern Christian Leadership Conference, August  16, 1967, Atlanta, GA.

The reason that Love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems is because Love comes from God. And what we need in this nation, my beloved, is God.

As Dr. King so powerfully portrayed in word and life, Justice and Love are Inextricably intertwined. That, too, is because both are a reflection of the character of our creator.

Today is a celebration of the life and work of Dr. King, and this MLK Day shares with it a great American ceremony of freedom as we Inaugurate the 2nd term of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama. What a remarkable and wonderful testimony to the progress of our nation that black men went from the unspeakable horror of being the property of a slave owner, to this day where a black man is reelected as President of the greatest nation on Earth. Dr. King and other courageous souls presided over the tension of racial segregation and oppression, particularly in the South.  He believed that the bank of justice was not bankrupt - and, lo, it is not!

The progress between the bitter, violent, oppressive segregation of the 1960's and today is beautiful.

But the need is still so great.

And the need today is for Cultural Transformation, from the inside out.

#ihaveadream

Concert FOR the City - Friday, 7 pm, Dec 28

The concert was GREAT!  We worshiped Jesus, and could feel His presence in our praise. We raised hundreds of dollars for the two great causes, Oasis Calcasieu Women's Shelter, and Backpacks for the homeless in Atlanta. Huge GoJesus to the Water's Edge Gathering for allowing us to hold this in their Community Theater, and to theCityBand for wanting to be the best band for the city!

We planned on airing this short talk at the event, but technical issues prevented it. But we have it here now: Jesus it the Hope For Our City

(The video about the break-In at Laundry World on Christmas Morning is here.)

Here are Sam Turner and Paul Pettefer in front of the Oasis Women's Shelter sharing about the work they do, our story of simple engagement there, and the upcoming concert:

theCityBand has a goal: to be the best band FOR the city!  So, this Friday they are throwing down a concert with 100% of the total proceeds going to the Oasis Women's Shelter and Backpacks for the Homeless.  Here is band leader Sam Turner announcing: Concert 4 the City!

We have a couple of short videos describing the concert, why we picked the causes, and how you can engage!  $10 a ticket, 100% of the proceeds go to the two causes!

You can buy tickets online and read more about the event here.



(You can see more videos from theCityShouldBeDifferent on our YouTube channel here.)
www.theCityShouldBeDifferent.com

Stories Collide: Brokenness and her child, death (3 killings in 1 weekend)...and God's Transforming Love!

UPDATE, DEC 15 - Paul and Braylon on 2nd ave...a response to Newton, Conn

PRAYER VIGIL, DEC 9, 2012, Lake Charles Civic Center -Hosted by Baptist Minister's Union (Six prayers offered, videos being uploaded now):
http://www.kplctv.com/story/20301261/local-ministers-working-to-stop-violence-city-wide

Braylon Harris and Paul Pettefer pray for the families of the deceased.

Today (Dec 7, 2012), a couple of friends went together to trace the path where darkness had it's day last weekend, as three different altercations ended in violent deaths in Lake Charles.

Paul Pettefer and Braylon Harris made it to two of the sites today, praying for the loved ones grieving such tragic losses and praying for a transformation in our city. The pair are a part of a movement of people who follow Jesus who want see our culture transformed - a transformation propelled by God's love.

Those burying loved ones this week are calling for an end to the violence that cut short such young lives this past weekend.  

We cry with them...crying to the God who made the world for Good, and hurts at the brokenness displayed in our city this week.  And in response to our cry, we are calling for the people who follow Jesus in our city to bring the full-on, love-infused lifestyle of God's truth and grace to bear on our city.  

Here are a couple of initial activity points: 

• Watch the videos we will be posting here, comment below, join in the conversation on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/paulpettefer,, https://www.facebook.com/theCityChurch).  
• Some friends are planning to gather and be in the Louisiana Avenue neighborhood (just North of Prien Lake Road) Saturday, December 8, about 4 pm.  Meet with us there as we pray, share some love from God and be good news to the neighbors.
• There is multi-church prayer vigil planned for Sunday at 5:30 at the Civic Center.  Join us there as we pray for the transformation of our city.  http://www.kplctv.com/story/20281444/lake-charles-residents-invited-to-prayer-event-sunday
• We are working with friends to develop simple pathways for people to get engaged with social service agencies in the city.  Our goal is to have hundreds then thousands of new people volunteering and engaging in changing the culture of our community - no kidding!.  (For example, our little group held a party today for the after school kids at the Women's Shelter.)
• If you are connected to a church, then engage your life and heart there in following Jesus. Use this site can be a source of encouragement as we, as an entire church in Lake Charles. move more and more into an active, full-life engagement in transforming our culture.
• If you are not connected to a church, we want you to know God is for you.  And so are we.

Feel free to contact Paul Pettefer at 337-794-9891, or paul@theCityChurch.us to join in your voice to the conversation.  Email paul to get updates from theCityShouldBeDifferent.com.

Paul leads www.theCityShouldBeDifferent.com, a movement oriented ministry whose objective is to be a catalyst to change the city. Braylon is the Pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, which meets at 600 N. Simmons St, Lake Charles.

#theCityShouldBeDifferent

Here is one of the stories from KPLCTV tonight: http://www.kplctv.com/story/20292192/batiste-funeral-broken-hearted-call-for-stop-to-violence

KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

We are capturing a number of responses and will be providing them to you here.  Below are two from today.  (Both of the videos below are the same conversation, in two parts.)

Check out more video at your Youtube page, www.youtube.com/user/paulpettefer

We will be adding more over the weekend, and welcome your voice into the conversation.  

Tell a Different Story

theCity has a gathering of our group as a Missional Community, currently on Wednesday evenings.  Text/call paul @ 794-9891 to meet with us.  #RockOn  #theCityShouldBeDifferent


Our goal is not to grow a church.  Nor to grow all the churches in our community.

Nope.

Our goal is for the people who follow Jesus in our city to engage in a ground game of becoming good news to the people around them - bringing the values of the Kingdom Jesus came to usher into this world to bear wherever there sphere's of influence are.  And to connect our sphere's of influence with needs in our community, bringing the Kingdom's values with us.

For example, it's an affront to the values of the Kingdom that Jesus is King over for women and children to live in fear of violence from the man in their life.  The Oasis Battered Women's Shelter is a place for such to find a safe place to rebuild, restart.  They are doing valuable, Kingdom work - so let the people who follow Jesus bring our lives in to partner and support this good work.  (There are other examples - we will keep sharing them, so stay tuned.)

When we serve others without strings, we will be given a place of honor in people's hearts we will get a wonderful opportunity, one you couldn't get from other means, to tell why we are doing this - it's because I follow Jesus and Jesus cares about people.

When the people who follow Jesus here are living out this engaged, missional, life, the church will grow and theCityWillBeDifferent.

#theCityShouldBeDifferent (serving this weekend at Elem School; Cemetery Cleanup; Non-Profit Fundraiser)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28th - We will gather at Paul's House (call/text 794-9891 for easy directions) to Celebrate and Evaluate the 3 service initiatives we did this week, encourage each other, and to keep learning and stretching for what's next! #theCityShouldBeDifferent

Yes, the world is full of catchy motto's   They can sometimes be very helpful in moving us toward something meaningful.  Or they can be a words-only cliche, that never pays off on the promise the motto brings.

I like words and communication, so I toy with phrases and ways to communicate.  It seems I can't go through a day without finding a metaphors to try to explain life, reveal the Gospel and it's implications for all of life.  

#theCityShouldBeDifferent is a call to life bigger, to lean into the power that comes from God for the transformation of the place we live.  It's a mandate for the people who follow Jesus in this city, and the churches in this city to be for the peace and prosperity of our place.  To serve without strings, not hiding the truth that we wish everyone knew and followed Jesus, but to serving the city, the least because we know and follow Jesus - we will love others no matter what.

Much more to say...much more to live.

the city should be different  

ACTION UPDATES: 

TONIGHT we serve by helping put on the "Dance with Our Father" daddy-daughter dance at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Lake Charles.  Call Paul, 794-9891, for info or to help.

TOMORROW we serve helping cleanup a neglected cemetery.  Call Paul to come help.  

AND we will be volunteering at Wheels of Hope to benefit the St. Nicholas Center for Children.  Go and ride tomorrow! http://www.stnickcenter.org/

Simple things: living life on mission is not complicated

TOMORROW's SUNDAY GATHERING NOTE: 

• We are gathering tomorrow, October 21, at Glen & Jordan's House.  Call/text paul at 794-9891 for easy directions.   
• Sunday Night we are planning to go to First Baptist Westlake for a Youth Night with a cool guy coming to share and theCityBand leading worship!
  

Simple things: living life on mission is not complicated

When we want something to change, we have this tendency to look for complex or huge ideas in order to see that change come to pass.  Usually, however, sustained growth starts and is sustained by simple things, done as a way of life.  What I mean by "way of life" is that it becomes who I really am and how I live everyday.  Not just when I go to an event or a church meeting.  And while some of the things we try or dream are big and involve more than just a couple of people (thereby making them more complex), the building blocks of growth and change are usually simple.  

Last night, some of the young men in our church (early 20's) "kidnapped" (with parent permission) a young man and took him on a little man initiation evening.  Nothing complicated.  But it communicated that the young man was a part of the movement, important and valuable.  And it was fun.  

We are on the #90dayjourney, and so much of what we are learning to practice is SO NOT COMPLICATED!  Take the simple ideas from today's exercise:

Some of the steps we are taking require coordination with others, such as the non-profits we want to work with.  That takes planning and preparation.  You can't short cut that work.  But if we just wait for someone else to do the planning and set things up, and we skip the lifestyle change that Jesus calls us to (to be oriented around being a blessing to other people, helping them see who Jesus really is by the way we live and the words we say) then we will stay pretty much in the same place.  

Don't wait!  Start right now.  Expect God to grow you and your heart for Him and others as you follow Jesus and love others, including the least of these.

A prayer for foolishness... (Meeting at Paul's house tomorrow - you r welcome!)

"And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in this world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done." A Franciscan Benediction

There are plenty who say, "the problems are too big, what do you really think you can do?"

I love that question! It forces us to realize we are dependent on God, who said He is able! Putting reliance on God is quite foolish to those who have averted their gaze from His incredible grace... So keep looking up; God has given us a sign of how He works. It's a cross where trust in God was complete and an empty tomb where God's triumph over sin, death, evil, brokenness are guaranteed for all who trust.

We are to be faithful, to lean into His willingness to bring His Kingdom more more into our world.

I believe God can use His followers here to change our city!

Tomorrow is week 3 on our #90dayjour ey. The Barefoot Primer is leading us to consider God's mercy this week. We will assemble our 50 mercy kits to share with the homeless tomorrow as we gather for equipping at Paul's house, 10:45 Sunday, October 14 (text paul 794-9891 for directions). We will share a meal from the grill and watch some Cowboy football from noon-3.

Love, paul

#thecityshouldbedifferent
#postsfromtheroad

theCityChurch begins season to focus on serving the least...Day 1 of 90 Day Journey, 9-26-12 #cancelworshipservicesfor90days

SUNDAY GATHERING INFO: We will NOT meet at Stellar Beans on Sunday's, from September 30 till Christmas.  We WILL be meeting as a community on mission together to equip to serve others, including the least, or to go and serve.  Why the change? Well the video above and text below, and the last few posts will give you the picture.  THIS SUNDAY we are meeting at Paul's house from 10:45-Noon.  You are welcome to join in on the 90 Day Journey.  Need directions?  Call/text/email/tweet Paul, 337-794-9891, paul@theCityChurch.us, @paulpettefer.  

How do you feel about adventure?  It's fun to watch on movies, but in real life, it can be scarry!

As a church, we recognized something in recent days: that we were fairly equipped to having worship gatherings, but were not nearly as equipped to serve others, especially the least of these...so we are doing something to remedy the situation: From now until Christmas Day (90 days) let's focus all we do on learning, as a team, to be others oriented, that is, to learn to serve others, especially the least of these.

That means we have canceled our regular Sunday Worship Gatherings, and are spending our energies on learning to serve others.  For a pastor of a church, that, my friends, is a little scary!  We are using an incredible resource, the Barefoot Church Primer as our primary tool in walking us through the first part of this process.  It's a daily walk our whole church is doing together.  Oh, and the author of the book and the primer (a daily guide) is walking us through this with a daily blog (here is day 1, today, http://barefootprimer.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/week-1-day-1/.

Our journey using the Primer will have us gathering as a Missional Community on Day 5, which is Sunday Morning, and our first week is at Paul's house (email paul@theCityChurch.us. or text 794-9891 for directions).

Keep checking out theCityChurch's website at www.theCityShouldBeDifferent.com, or on  www.Facebook.com/theCityChurch for updates and to participate.

Join in with us anytime, or bring the 90 days to your church or group!

Because God's love is real...theCityShouldBeDifferent

paul

Baptism Party on River TOMORROW (No Gathering at Stellar Beans)

Tomorrow, we will NOT meet at Stellar Beans, but are gathering at 116 Villa Drive, Westlake (MAP) at a great house on the West Fork of the Calcasieu River for a Baptism Party!

• Worship Gathering concluding in Baptism from 10:45-Noon
• Party on the River (including pool, boatriding, jet ski's, brisket, music, friends, fun) from Noon until tired!

You are welcome - and invite a friend!  Questions or need something, call/text paul 794-9891

Something More (part 3)

Did I mention yet that change is hard?

There are a lot of hard changes.  Like the one where you discover that after banging my head on the wall time after time, getting in arguments with friends, getting bitter, chasing after things that seem indispensable but fail to pay off...that the problem is...me! This is an essential step in discovering that God's Hope is available for you and me. But it requires that we be willing to change.

Another time when change is necessary is when you want to do something different. We are planting theCityChurch because something needs to be different. Again, we're NOT against any churches - if you're for Jesus, we're for you! However, the church in America is in decline. There are lots of articles about this, here are two that were at the top of a google search: Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/trends-for-us-churches-mostly-pointing-down_n_985886.html, Ed Stetzer, Chief Missiologist at Lifeway Research, http://www.edstetzer.com/2012/06/sbc-2011-statistical-realities.html.

So, we're planting this church, and in our Rallying Cry, theCityShouldBeDifferent, there is the call for theCityChurch to be different, and for our city, Lake Charles and SWLA, to be different. But, as I just said, being different, changing, is hard to do! We naturally drift toward the things we like or are accustomed to. This reality requires us to regularly re-look at our objective, and examine how we need to adapt to stay on course.

Even new things like new churches need to do this. So, we're doing just that right now at theCityChurch.

One very helpful handle is to think of the activities of a church in these two categories:

Gathering and Scattering

What we are discovering is that we are much more accustomed to and better at the Gathering types of activities. Worship Gatherings, Community Group gatherings, Bible Study gatherings, and general party/social/hanging out gatherings.  That only makes sense, since that is what we have tended to do, historically, in church in our culture.  We're more familiar with gathering, so we're better at it.  Again, this is NOT a bad thing - Gathering it Vital, Life-Giving, Required to be the Church the Bible describes. We need to Gather!  The work church literally means, gathered people. So, we will gather and we say #RightOnToThat

What we have recognized is that saying that you want to go out and serve, setting that up as a key value and preaching about it (all of which we have done) is still leaving us with a gap to fill. We just haven't done serving and scattering very much, and aren't sure what to do, or how to do it. So, theCityChurch is going to build our skills and experience at Scattering. Specifically, focusing on serving others, making the Kingdom of God tangible to people. Serving others includes our neighbors (people like us) and serving the least of these (the poor). We will do this as a community, so it's a 2-for-1 special! 

The U.S. Marines have a motto, Improvise, Adapt and Overcome.  I heard Clint Eastwood quote that in the movie, Heartbreak Ridge, and it's stuck with me ever since.  We are going to adapt at theCityChurch to learn to train our own hearts and hands to be a community of faith that goes out on Jesus mission to serve others, making disciples as we go! 

The world, our city included, needs to see the church of Jesus learn to scatter, to go out and love and serve, to be on mission as a community of faith. Jesus said to make disciples, and serving others is a vital part of that mission - it trains us to remember that "it's not about me."  

I'm pumped! You can join in our our path of discovery, adapting and walking it out!

"And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!"  Jesus, quoted by his disciple, Matthew 25:40