I love The District Church
This past Sunday's service at The District Church was a simultaneously humbling and inspiring experience. We're in the middle of our "My Most Important Question" series, where we talk about some of our biggest issues. Part of the reasoning is that we don't want to be a church that tells its people to leave their questions at the door. That's not what God asks us to do--the Psalms are full of honesty, even brazen honesty. God doesn't get worried when we voice our questions, our doubts, our struggles; all he asks is that we voice them to him, that we include him in our conversation, that we're in relationship with him.
And so this past Sunday, Blythe, Bruce and Lindsay shared their stories, respectively: "What if I'm not doing enough?", "What grace is there for those who have not met Jesus Christ?", and "What is freedom?" And what stories. Their honesty, their passion, and the clear evidence of the Spirit of God clearly at work in their lives were such an encouragement to me. God has brought an amazing band of people to this church, and God is doing an amazing work in the life of every person that calls him- or herself a part of our community.
So grateful to be on staff at The District Church. All glory to God.
You can listen to the podcast online here.
Not easy; but definitely right
Hey friends,
Sorry for being incommunicado the last month—as I alluded to in my last email, things began getting a little busy with the addition of my ONE job; and they really didn’t let up in March. Here’s a quick update on both fronts:
ONE: we were aiming to have 250 signups for our Lazarus Sunday campaign (check the last email for an explanation), and have been overwhelmed by the 1,500 we got! Now the big task is following up with all of these churches and pastors, and making sure that at least some of them follow through with the event! Meanwhile, I’ve absolutely LOVED working there—awesome work environment, awesome people, awesome mission. (And I get paid.)- TDC: I led worship in mid-March, and preached last Sunday (“What Mary Did,” now available on iTunes and the church website; as usual, would love to know your thoughts and feedback). The small group I’ve had the privilege of leading has been going fantastically well: again, awesome people, and I think we’ve really been able to build some solid community there. And serving with Young Life at Cardozo High School has been a great experience as well—glad to be building some good relationships there, too.
I’ll end with a little anecdote: Aaron preached this morning from John 13 about “The Authority of Service,” about the difference between power and authority, and how Jesus’ authority was evidenced in his service. Now, in mapping out our Gospel of John sermon series in January, we didn’t plan it this way at all: we had no idea that John 13 would fall on this day, nor did we have on the calendar the three service opportunities that will be going on these next three weekends: Columbia Heights Service Day this coming Saturday, our Kids’ City Festival next weekend, and the 3-on-3 basketball tournament the weekend after. It’s sort of amazing to see how God weaved it all together. Just another reminder that God’s been in control, and even when we’re not totally sure what we’re doing, God does!
So life has been all kinds of amazing. Several times in the last few weeks, I’ve been struck by a strange sense of peace, something I’ve understood as divine affirmation that I’m in the right place, doing the right thing, being who I was supposed to be. There have certainly been challenges, ups and downs, and difficulties—I've been pretty tired, and I don't enjoy the numerous consecutive days of not getting home until after 9 or 10 because of dual responsibilities and activities. It definitely hasn't been easy; but it has definitely been right.
And I pray the same for you, wherever you are: that you might walk where God leads you, and though those paths might not be easy, that they would be right.
Peace and love,
Jus.
TDC + ONE = TWO
In case you haven’t heard via phone/email/Facebook/Twitter, I got the job at ONE! I’ve been working there for a week and a half now, and I absolutely love it. It’s a challenge—and it’s pretty exhausting, too—to work two jobs (30 hours a week at ONE and 20-25 hours at The District Church), but I love both; and am grateful for your prayers last week for the interview.
As a quick summary, the campaign that I’ve been hired for is coordinating a nationwide event on April 10, called “Lazarus Sunday” (so-called because one of the passages in the lectionary for that day is the raising of Lazarus in John 11). We want to use this occasion, in conjunction with the (RED)/HBO documentary “The Lazarus Effect”—which looks at the positive impact of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) on people living with HIV/AIDS, and which you can watch here—to raise awareness and push for advocacy asks through churches, and thus build relationships with churches to engage in the rest of ONE’s work on fighting extreme poverty and preventable diseases.
I’m excited to be working on such a worthwhile project; I love the people I get to work with; and I’m looking forward to seeing more churches engaged in fighting HIV/AIDS. I’ll include more updates on how this goes in future emails, too.
$
Getting this job definitely helps with raising support, as it’ll take me up to about $23,000 of the $30,000 that I forecasted I’d need for this year; but it means I still have a few grand of support left to raise for this year. If you know anyone you think would be interested in supporting a certain musician-activist-pastor, let me know!
Prayers please …
- For the family and friends of Lucki Pannell. She was a senior at Cardozo High School, where several from our church—including myself—volunteer with Young Life; in fact, she also attended Young Life. This past Saturday, she was killed in a shooting two streets away from where I live. Please pray also for the peace of our neighborhood and the life of our community.
- For the boys I’ve been getting to know at Young Life, whose lives are so different from mine, and yet whom I know God has called me to invest in.
- For The District Church, as we continue to grow, build relationships within the church and in our neighborhood, seek opportunities to serve and love the people around us, and seek the transformation of our city.
- For myself, as I try to be disciplined with my time, balancing a couple of jobs, trying to give my best to both, and also to take some rest and not burn out! Prayers for the success of the ONE campaign I’m working on would also be appreciated!
Grace and peace to you and your loved ones,
Jus.
Previously on “Justin @The District Church”
- Washington, DC: Chapter 2(October 11, 2010)
- Beginning November (and the Leadership Residency)(November 1, 2010)
- Why The District Church?(November 18, 2010)
- My First Sermon(December 15, 2010)
- What a difference a year makes(December 29, 2010)
- If I Keep Going At This Rate(January 18, 2011)
- A Message and a Job Interview (January 31, 2011)
TO GIVE, PLEASE FILL THIS OUT AND SEND BACK TO justin@districtchurch.org.
I/we would like to offer monthly support by donating on the 1st____ 16th____ of the month:*
$500____ $250____ $100____ $50____ $25____ Other______
These contributions will be mailed ___ transferred online___ automatically drafted online ___.
I/we would like to give a special gift of $_________________
Name:____________________ Phone:________________
Address:______________________
City:______________ State:____ Zip/Postcode:_________
E-mail:__________________________________________
Checks can be made payable to "The District Church," with "Leadership Residency" in the memo and sent to: The District Church, PO Box 3116, Washington, DC 20010.
* The initial commitment would be for one year, though you’re welcome to lengthen or shorten your commitment; just include this information in your response.
** The most convenient option for you to give would be online via the church website. Please make sure to select "Leadership Residency” when it asks you to “Choose a Fund.”
All gifts are fully tax-deductible.
If I keep going at this rate …
Previously on “Justin @The District Church”
- Washington, DC: Chapter 2 (October 11, 2010)
- Beginning November (and the Leadership Residency) (November 1, 2010)
- Why The District Church? (November 18, 2010)
- My First Sermon (December 15, 2010)
- What a difference a year makes (December 29, 2010)
Happy 2011! I hope your year has begun well and that, if you made them, your new year’s resolutions are still unbroken.
My year’s started, as the subject suggests, with a bang. For the last few weeks, life has been steaming along at a fairly breakneck pace and I’ve gotten pretty busy preparing to step into leading a small group (which starts officially next week), and get more involved with leading worship (this coming weekend) and preaching again (on the 30th). I’m also stepping up my involvement in neighborhood and community outreach, college outreach, and Young Life at the local high school. In addition to that, we’re trying out a new online database to centralize planning for our Sunday services and I’m heading that up.
We also just got back from our first Leadership Community retreat, which took a fair bit of planning, but was a great success: from the vision-casting and the dreaming, the practical steps that we laid out, the ideas we threw out, the fun we had, the friends we made, the songs we sang, the prayers we prayed … so much goodness. And to have 30+ folks show up was an added encouragement.
As you can see, there’s a lot going on!
Prayers would be appreciated as:
- I try to survive the month of January (see all the above)!
- I keep up the fundraising efforts—I was aiming to have raised $20k by the end of January, but it looks like I may fall a little short of that mark. I’m at 53% though, so not too far short! I’ll also be (finally) starting to make calls to folks (and by “folks,” I mean you) to get connected with people they/you recommend.
- I start to look more seriously for a part-time job.
- I have somewhere to live! This past week, I’ve been house-sitting for a couple of friends, and then this coming weekend I’ll be moving into the spare room that one of my friends and his wife have in their house. It’s a great deal, and will serve as a home for at least a few months until the summer when other options may open up. So thanks for your prayers there.
A couple final things: first, we’ve started a sermon series going through the Gospel of John, and I strongly recommend you go listen to Aaron’s last couple of sermons (“Know Your Role” and “Adventures in Missing the Point”). Both really challenged me. And second, while we know that numbers aren’t the whole picture, I still think it was super encouraging that we had over 110 people in attendance this past Sunday! God’s definitely doing something exciting here.
Thanks for journeying with me,
Justin.
---
If you’d like to support me, you’re most welcome to do so via the church website. Please make sure to select “Leadership Residency” when it asks you to “Choose a Fund.” All gifts are fully tax-deductible.
Want to support a young pastor?
Dear friend,
When I agreed to spend Christmas 2009 with Aaron and Amy Graham, little did I know what I was getting myself into. Aaron and I spent a lot of time together, especially as we both attended, and taught at, Urbana 2009 (InterVarsity’s triennial missions conference). We talked a lot about churches, about what we felt God was calling us to, and about what church could look like.
At the time, Aaron and Amy were thinking of planting a church in our neighborhood of Columbia Heights, and a few months later they took the plunge. I’ve been involved with The District Church since we began meeting as a small group of twelve in the Grahams’ living room, through to our public gatherings that began in September with several dozen more people.
After a couple months of discernment, prayer and a lot of time trying to figure out what God wanted to do with me, I felt led to join the staff of the church, which I did on October 31, 2010.
So here I am, the first Leadership Resident of The District Church, which, depending on how you look at it, makes me either a pioneer or a guinea pig ... or some hybrid. My responsibilities for the next year and a half essentially cover the gamut of pastoral urban ministry: teaching, preaching (which I did for the first time in mid-December; see right), discipling, chaplaincy, church and community outreach in the neighborhood, and leading worship. (For more on what it means to be a Leadership Resident, you can check out the “About Us” page of our website: www.districtchurch.org.)
Due to the church’s youth and its identity as a non-denominational missional church plant, Aaron and Amy have raised support in order to live and serve full-time. I’m committing to do the same, raising support in order to enable me to serve the church and the city, the church in the city.
To that end, I’m excited to invite you to be a part of what I believe God’s doing in and through me, this church, and this city.
I hope that you will prayerfully consider joining me in helping found this new church in our nation’s capital.
Peace and grace,
Jus.
***
WHY THE DISTRICT CHURCH?
At The District Church, we want to be centered around and excelling in worship, community and justice; we want to be a church that seeks to love God, to love our neighbors, and to love the city to which God had called us. If you look on the church’s website (www.districtchurch.org), one of our first descriptors is “A Church for the City.”
This vision and passion is built upon God’s words to the Israelite people in exile in Babylon in the 6th century BC:
“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).
Washington, DC is a fascinating city. On the one hand, it is a city rich in culture and history, a city to which movers and shakers come from all over the world, a city that leads the country in terms of life expectancy, education and income.
And yet it is also a city with devastating poverty, a struggling public education system, and an HIV infection rate higher than many sub-Saharan African nations—it’s estimated that one in every twenty adults in DC has the infection.
People come to DC to change the country, to change the world … and yet changing the city is often overlooked. We want to be a church that seeks to make a genuine, tangible difference in the place to which we have been called.
Moreover, community is hard to find in a city whose transience is so ingrained by the political cycles; in this context, we want to be a church that provides such community to people. People may—and will—leave DC because God calls them to other things, but we don’t want people leaving DC because they couldn’t find a faith community and friends.
***
RAISING SUPPORT
I began raising support in mid-October and by the grace of God and the generosity of family and friends, I’ve already been able to raise $15,000 in support both pledged and given, both one-time and monthly.
To put this into context, I’d budgeted about $2,500 per month (or $30,000 for the year, November to November), which includes rent, utilities, health insurance, food, transportation … everything, really! So I’ve raised half of the support I need for the year, and I’m asking you to help me get the rest of the way!
TO GIVE, PLEASE FILL THIS OUT AND SEND BACK TO justin@districtchurch.org.
I/we would like to offer monthly support by donating on the 1st__ 16th__ of the month:
$500____ $250____ $100____ $50____ $25____ Other____
These contributions will be mailed__ transferred online__ automatically drafted online __
I/we would like to give a special gift of $________
Name:____________________ Phone:________________
Address:______________________
City:______________ State:___ Zip/Postcode:__________
E-mail:___________________________________
You can set up your online giving by visiting www.districtchurch.org, clicking Giving, and selecting the “Leadership Residency” fund in the drop-down menu. You may also make checks payable to “The District Church,” with “Leadership Residency” in the memo, and mail to: PO Box 3116, Washington, DC 20010.
All gifts are fully tax-deductible.