December Breakfast

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity..." (Psalm 133)  Brian, and the Psalmist's prayer captured the nature of our gathering this morning.  For the past year Brian, Tony and several other south end pastors have been doing what our cadre of South Tacoma pastors have been doing for several years; meeting, eating, sharing and praying for one another to build trust so that we might be better able to respond when God calls.  This morning we joined those two groups together and though there was no 'oil running down anyone's beard' it was good.  (A quick aside; the fact that our group is male dominated is unintentional, we look forward to welcoming some sisters some day as well.) 

Thanks to Rich for hosting, good luck finishing all of those donuts.  We also look forward to meeting again in January.  Keeping with the spirit of unity, the South Enders are going to return the favor and host our next meeting.  We'll meet on Thursday, January 10th for lunch at 12:00 at the church Brian pastors, Hope Community Church at 158 S. 46th Street, Tacoma, 98414.  Here is the link to their website.

Til then, Happy Advent and Merry Christmas!

November Breakfast Recap

Thanks to John and Green Pastures for hosting this morning.  John promised us that danishes are better for you than donuts though I think that may be like saying that 1/4 lb burger is better for you than 1/3 lb burger.

I continue to appreciate the growing depth of our conversations in which we are able to discuss everything from cancer to depression to sex offenders to universalism.  Perhaps what makes each of these conversations so rich is that: a) they arise from our situations of ministry or home rather than just from our minds and b) we've developed enough trust to share our struggles and things about which we might disagree.  As part of our mission is to develop trust, I left this morning encouraged.

Another thing about which i am encouraged is the work Brian Olsen has done to establish a similar ministerial group across the interstate in the South End.  Recently Brian and I talked about joining the groups for a meeting and it looks like there  is no better time than the present.  And so, next month we will meet on Wednesday, December 12th at 8:30 at Evangelical Reformed Church just off 74th street not far after you cross South Tacoma Way.    7435 South Madison Tacoma, WA. 98409is the exact address. 

Until then, have a great Thanksgiving,
Ken

October Breakfast - Joyful Pastors?

Thanks to Jeff and Adam for the incredible Ham, egg and mushroom muffins we had this morning.  Tasty.  I really appreciated our time of sharing and conversation.  It was and is an encouragement to me.  Here is  the link to an article by CJ Mahaney that Rich shared entitled "Happy Pastors."  It is both an encouragement and perhaps a gentle challenge to believe for ourselves the stuff we proclaim to others each week. 

Blessings on your month until we meet again on Wednesday, November 14th at 8:30 at Green Pastures Presbyterian on 66th and Junett.  Who knows we may even wade into the waters of a discussion about the elections.

Grace and Peace,
Ken

September Breakfast and Prayer Walk for the Schools

Friends,

What a great way to begin the Fall.  After getting fueled up on donuts and coffee, Rich, Ken, Jeff, John and myself went out (5x5 in this case instead of the 2x2 Jesus sent his disciples) to pray for Manitou Park Elementary, Gray Middle and Mt. Tahoma High.  After praying in front of each school we dropped off a letter to the respective principals letting them know who we are, that we'd prayed for their school and offering our help as it may be needed.

I appreciate the chance not only to pray for these schools but also to walk and talk with some co-laborers here in the community.  Walking and talking, it seems like I remember something about some folks doing that on the road to Emmaus at some point.  Hopefully our eyes were opened in some small or large manner.

The next gathering will be on Wednesday, October 10th at 8:30 at Zion's River where I think we might just get some biscuits and gravy (no pressure Jeff.)

Grace and Peace,
Ken

August Breakfast Recap

We gathered at Evangelical Reformed this morning and broke sweet bread and coffee together.  Thanks to Rich and John for the good conversation about sabbaticals, sending our kids to college, and what it means to keep the main thing the main thing.  Also, thanks for the prayer, which is a whole different kind of food and one that we know our brother Jeff has been receiving while recouping from 'the attack of the blocked gland.'  Our prayers are with you brother.

Our next meeting...

South Tacoma School Prayers

will be a special one as we will gather to specifically pray for and visit 3 neighborhood schools; Manitou Elementary, Gray Middle and Mt. Tahoma High School.  The simple plan is as follows:
1.  Meet at Manitou Park Presbyterian (6613 S. Cheyenne) briefly
2.  Walk to Manitou Elementary and pray
3.  Walk to Gray and pray
4.  Walk to Mt. Tahoma and pray
5.  Depart or depending on the time, go to lunch together at a local Korean joint of John Kim's choosing.

Rich is going to draft a letter that we might offer to the principals simply letting them know we offered some prayers, inviting them to let us know how we can pray for them in the future, and (this is important and a little risky) asking if there are any other ways our congregations might be of support.  Rich would like to include all of the names of the pastors and congregations who plan on attending, so please reply to this e-mail if you plan on joining us.  The date is:

Wednesday, September 12th at 8:30 

Please invite other ministers/churches to join us.  The more the better,

Grace and Peace, 

Ken

June Breakfast

Another South Tacoma Ministers breakfast has come and gone and thanks to Ken Schmidtke's health consciousness, we are none worse for the wear.  Thanks for the bananas, yogurt and strawberry's, our arteries are grateful.

Due to time constraints I will keep this recap short.  Once again it was good to catch up with one another's lives and pray for one another.  In the midst of that, YFC Ken asked the question, "Is this group doing what we'd hoped it would."

In the sense that it is helping each of us feel supported, connected and encouraged in our ministries then the answer was a strong yes.  Each of us remain glad to be a part of the group and feel it is worth continuing.  Our mission is "As ministers in South Tacoma, we desire to develop trust between one another so that when God presents us with an opportunity or challenge that is uniquely suited for us to collectively engage that we would be united enough to faithfully do so."  Our monthly breakfasts have helped us develop trust between one another to the point that we've collaborated on ministry at Gray, presentations from our churches and some marriage ministry stuff.  This has all been good.  On the other hand...


If the sense that this group is helping to connect the leaders of the 30 some churches in South Tacoma to develop trust that might lead to collaboration then the answer is no.   Despite our invitations, the group remains small (which is okay).  What to do.  Here is the plan for the next 3 months.


July 11 at 11:30 - Lunch at a Korean restaurant with John Kim.  Meet at Green Pastures at 11:30
August 15th at 8:30 - Monthly breakfast at Evangelical Reformed
September 11th at 8:30 - Prayer for the schools.  We will meet at Manitou at 8:30am for brief breakfast and then head out to pray for Gray, Manitou and Mt. Tahoma.  This is an event we want to invite as many ministers in the area to join us in as possible.  So we'll start working toward this now.  Please post any ideas you have regarding this in the comments section below.

Grace and Peace, 
Ken

May Breakfast

Ain't nuthin like a red bean pastry to get ya going in the morning.  Big thanks to John for hosting this morning.  I always look forward to the unique and tasty treats we'll find on the table.  I'm also already looking forward to lunch at HoSoonYi (or wherever we end up). 

We had a good conversation around the question, "What is the best way to parent PKs? (preacher's kids)"  You'll have to wait for the book to come out to hear our answers as I think we had some pretty good collective wisdom.  Thanks for the conversation.

Our next breakfast is set for Wednesday, June 13th at 8:30 at the Youth For Christ office on Center Street.  Ken, you can thank Adam for signing you up.  It was great to have Adam with us this morning as he moves deeper into his role of Campus Life/Chaplain at Gray Middle School.

Shaloma in South Tacoma,
Ken

April breakfast

Sorry I missed this one, but I heard things went well.  Apparently I missed biscuits/gravy and some conversation about politics and the church.  Hmm, too tasty things that have the potential for heartburn.  Glad to hear it went well.

Our next gathering is set for Wednesday, May 9th at 8:30 at Green Pastures Church.

See you then if not before,
Ken

March Breakfast - Church With

Friends,

Good breakfast.  I hope that the nutrition of the apples and bananas balances out the sugars of the fritters and maple bars.  Then again, the fritters were made with apples and the bars with maple syrup and those are both natural so they must be good, right?

It was good for John, Rich, Ken and myself to get together and check-in with one another.  If for no other reason than to just be reminded that we are not alone in this endeavor, then I still think the breakfasts are worth it.   As usual we did a little update with one another which ended up focusing most on our kids; health, growing up, daffodilium and the expense of college (may that bubble burst soon). 

We spent the second half of our time in a really good discussion on the Christianity Today article "Church-With: Small churches find their future in neighborhood renewal."   I really appreciated the questions, discussion and interest.  I agree with Rich that the Rosewood community does have a lot of similarities with South Tacoma; high rental rate, few gathering places, struggle with communal identity...  I also agree with YFC Ken that one of the hopes is for neighbors to get to know neighbors; to build healthy relationships.  South Tacoma is a big space to try and do that (13 square miles) unlike the hilltop or fircrest.  However, we do have smaller neighborhoods that compose that larger area; manitou, oakland/madrona, edison and arlington each of which used to have their own identity.  We concluded by discussing the STAR center and its potential role in building community.  The jury is still out on this one, let's hope it does. 

Though we didn't come to any conclusions or action steps (which was not really the goal), i feel like we raised some good questions that I'll try to list here:
1.  Are their resident leaders in the neighborhoods who could use a little encouragement?
2.  Does it take great anger or great hope to motivate resident leaders?  If so, what might be the source of that anger?  The object of that hope?
3.  Is there a role in community development for churches whose building is in South Tacoma but members aren't?
4.  Do we serve congregations that might be willing to invest (time, talents & treasures) in something that we would not own (like the Rosewood Cafe)? 
5.  Is there anything God is calling us, the South Tacoma Ministers, to do next?

Our next breakfast is set for Wednesday, April 11th at 8:30 at Celebration Christian Fellowship where a recently tanned Jeff will likely be fixing some  mean biscuits and gravy.  Yum. 

Peace, Ken

Church With?

Here's an article from Christianity Today that sounds a bit like South Tacoma

http://www.christianitytoday.com/thisisourcity/portland/neighborhoodrenewal.html?paging=off

The Rosewood neighborhood isn't really a neighborhood at all," says Mike Vander Veen, "but some of us are working to change that."

Mike, a community development advocate in Portland, is absolutely right. You won't find Rosewood on the city's map. It is a metropolitan marginalia bereft of the conventional signs of place: no edge, no center, nothing much to walk to. The area is seared as the jagged welding line between Portland's eastern edge and its suburb Gresham's western flank. A glance at the area's planning map reveals a disjointed jigsaw of zones, jurisdictions, and municipalities.

Boring as those words may be to most Christians, their consequences spring into 3D in Rosewood. Planners and developers are unable to build desirable destinations, neighbor kids go to different high schools, and a cop's jurisdiction depends on which part of which side of the street she is driving on. "We're in a borderland," reflects Mike.

This borderland has recently moved to the center of attention for an unusual coalition of police officers, AmeriCorp, and several small nearby churches. Each had been taking their own steps toward enlivening Rosewood. Now they're working together with residents to take responsibility for Rosewood's legacy and future.

A Confluence of Ministry Streams

Mike met Chief Deputy Jason Gates, unknown to one another but both active members at Parklane Reformed Church, a long-established church in Rosewood, as the coalition was gearing up.

Mike, a deacon at Parklane, had been facilitating many of the 140-person church's experiments in collaborative neighborhood engagement. "Our denomination was encouraging us to become a 'church-with,' " Mike recalls. "Which is to say, be a church that participates in our neighborhood, not only do kind things to it."

Meanwhile, Deputy Gates's drug response team and Rosewood's two precincts were at their wit's end over how to turn the tide against Rosewood's reputation as a hotspot of drugs, sex trafficking, and gun violence. They were ready to try something new.

Parklane staff invited Gates to teach the church and interested neighbors about meth's challenges, tragedies, and telltale signs. "I've done dozens of these presentations, but that's the only time it has ever been to a church," says Gates. It gave members a clearer sense of how to take a healing responsibility for Rosewood's future.

Parklane Pastor Vance Hays has lived in the parsonage for 23 years, and was initially unsure of what Mike and the deputy were up to. "I always knew that gospel proclamation and gospel works go together. But, you know, I'm conservative enough that I didn't want to be labeled with the social gospel moniker," Hays said over a cup of decaf. Hays felt clearer about where the church was heading after reading The Externally-Focused Church, Rich Rusaw and Eric Swanson's evangelical summons to collaborative neighborhood service. "That book … gave me permission," says Hays. "It made it theologically safe."

Momentum slowly gathered after Deputy Gates's Meth Day, a defining moment for Parklane. The deputy's stories illumined Rosewood's darker ambiguities vividly. He exposed them to challenges that Mike had been equipping them to see uniquely through the lens of a holistic gospel and an asset-based ministry.

"We're trying to be an island of sanity and care and community," says Hays, "in a neighborhood that doesn't have any sense of community." As it turns out, the island of Parklane was part of a wider ecclesial archipelago waking up to their responsibility among Rosewood's stakeholders.

A Serendipitous Convergence

Discovering the brutalized body of 37-year-old Amatha Mendive behind neighboring Freedom Foursquare Church in November 2008 was a wakeup call to local pastors. They began meeting regularly to support each other and to strategize about responding to the neighborhood's tumult. They knew something needed to be done—but what? And how? How could they begin to address the neighborhood's needs when so few of their members were actual parishioners—actual residents of Rosewood? And when most pastors are trained more in preaching, study, and counseling instead of community development, local economics, and gang violence, how could area churches wisely respond to Rosewood's challenges?

The way forward opened up when Rosewood's Gresham and Portland precincts reached out to apartment managers and a half-dozen area churches. The concerned cops knew they could only do so much as law enforcement, particularly among residents harboring distrust toward them. The police knew they needed Rosewood's stakeholders to help break the cycles of fear, addiction, and violence that smother it.

Resulting from this outreach has been the Rosewood Initiative, an ad-hoc nonprofit meant to catalyze neighborhood renewal. It functions as something like a neighborhood association for this borderland, a voice for those without one. And it has brought police, apartment managers, churches, and interested residents together to take hold of Rosewood's future.

Revitalization began with listening to neighbors and understanding what life on the ground is really like. "True, meaningful, and lasting social change will come from the people closest to the situation," says Jenny Glass, the AmeriCorp volunteer behind much of the Rosewood Initiative.

She and others discovered that the collapse of social capital in Rosewood is tied to the apartment complex's individualistic culture and architecture. "When you have an area full of strangers, then no one cares what happens," says Lt. John Scruggs. "If you have an area full of connected folks who know one another, people care, and then they call or take action."

In a neighborhood whose architecture resists redemption, stakeholders found that healing begins with relationship and community.

Can a Café Turn Around a Neighborhood?

Listening to the neighborhood revealed a strong hunch that relationship and community might be possible if there were somewhere for it to happen. They yearn for a so-called "third-place" to gather that is neither home nor work. Presently Rosewood's only options are strip clubs, dive bars, and a greasy-spoon diner.

To get community going, Jenny has helped the Rosewood Initiative spearhead opening the Rosewood Café. "The café is an important piece of what we are doing, a great strategy to get people working together," she says. "It'll be a neighborhood hub of positive activity that will start a ripple effect throughout the community—we hope!"

Hope, indeed. Money is scarce out here. Launching the Rosewood Café isn't like a multisite church opening a coffee-shop campus. Nor is it comparable to well-connected artisans curating a MacBook-lit, gourmet espresso mecca. This café will be done by Rosewood, for Rosewood. Neighbors and members of nearby churches are all pitching in: carpenters and plumbers volunteering the heavy lifting and others donating the furniture and computers for the space. Hays's congregants have been among those getting this cafe going, dabbling in Vander Veen's hope for becoming "church-with."

To be sure, church-operated cafes are en vogue among American church planters and international missional movements, but this is a different situation altogether. Even the most progressive and out-of-the-box cafe-churches have some ownership of the space. That Rosewood Café will be operated by volunteers and owned by the nonprofit strongly breaks script for most crema-keen churches, where church control of the café can always carry the hint of colonialism to neighborhood stakeholders. Here, the café's future will be beyond the terms of any one church, because it isn't here strictly for any one of the churches.

In this way the future may be uncertain - how long will tightly budgeted small churches be able to sustain enthusiasm for such a partnership? Neighborhood renewal is a long journey, much longer and slower than the short shelf-life of banner-and-campaign ministry drives. "It's a lot to ask of an established [religious] organization to participate in secular community-based action, even though it is very much in line with what many of them believe," says Jenny.

In so many ways, Rosewood's future is open, unsettled. Her renewal will not come from any single one of these efforts—mercy ministries, addiction education, the cafe, or more vigorous apartment management. It's hard to feel certain about seeing God's hand in it by focusing on one of them. But as one observes the steady confluence of these focused efforts, a wider subsidiary field of God's serendipitous sovereignty begins to emerge. It doesn't take a semiotician to read the signs: Rosewood's abrupt constellation of do-gooders and stakeholders reveals the slow workings of the city-healing Spirit of Christ.

More hopeful still, for those with eyes to see, I have a hunch there are Rosewood stories everywhere waiting to be told.

Brandon Rhodes is the husband of Candice and a doctoral student at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, where he is studying the impacts of automobility on North American churches. Brandon is applying this research as a Grassroots Storyteller and Field Guide with the Parish Collective. He has written for This Is Our City about the Springwater community.

February Breakfast

Thanks to Rich and Evangelical Reformed for hosting us this morning.  I was able to resist eating a cruller for about 5 minutes before I gave in and began dunking it.  One thing we don't promise as ministers in South Tacoma is to help one another lose weight.  We'll save that for other groups.

Our conversation ranged in a  few directions this morning as John, Rich and I updated one another on how things are going with our families and lives.  Each of us have families that are maturing as both John and Rich have daughters preparing to head off to college while I my youngest is turning 3 today.  Hearing about college preparations helps me appreciate 3 year birthday party preparations.  We also talked at various points about sabbath keeping, blogs in the church and loving our congregations.  All good stuff.

A few opportunities emerged from the gathering and I'll just list them here:
1.  Rich and his church are hosting The Art of Marriage class on March 9 and 10.  The cost will be just $35 and includes a booklet and food.  IF you are interested then go to www.solideogloria.org.  It looks like a really good class for married or even soon to be married folks.

2. Manitou Mentors.  James Neil, assistant principal at Manitou Elementary is setting up an evening for the young men in the school to come for an evening and get some positive influence from adult males.  This is an easy way to get involved helping at the school.  If you are interested, shoot me an e-mail and I'll connect you with James.  The first event is on Friday, February 24th from 5-7.

3.  YFC fostercare.  Life Center is hosting a luncheon on Wednesday, February 23rd at 12:00 to share ways the church can support foster care through Youth For Christ.  E-mail Bobby Arkils if you're interested in attending.  barkills@yfc.org

Our next breakfast will be on Wednesday, March 14th at 8:30 at Manitou Park Presbyterian.  Rich will be bring the question, but not the book to raffle off as he already gave John and I a copy of "Mother Kirk"  Thanks.

Peace, Ken

January 2012 Breakfast

Thanks to Ken Schmidtke for hosting us at the Youth For Christ office.  The coffee was strong and the donuts were sweet and that is a good combination. 

Jeff, Rich, Ken and myself spent the time to catch one another up on how things are going in our various ministries.  We've been at this thing for several years now and it is good to see that the 'developing trust' part of our mission statement is proving to be true.  Though we have several differences between us, there is an underlying sense of trust between one another that allows us to share both our success and struggles without fear. 

Along those lines, one of the themes that i felt emerge from our sharing was the theme of 'hard realities.'  While I won't go into the details of each story, a couple of us shared about facing things in our lives and ministries or helping others face things in their life and ministry that are not fun to hear.  How do we best do this?  What do we do with these things that are not good news?  We can ignore it, but that doesn't seem good.  On the flip side, we can listen, sift what isn't truth but then deal honestly with the reality.  Sometimes, facing the hard reality will lead to greater depth and faith in Christ.  It can also lead to greater depth and connection with one another.  These are certainly good things, right? 

Before closing with prayer, we spent some time talking about the size of the group and discerning if we'd like to have more people at the table.  Though we know it would change things, we were unanimous that more ministers in South Tacoma could benefit from this place and South Tacoma could benefit from more ministers being at the table.  And so, we'll pray and call and invite towards that endeavor.

Our next breakfast is at Evangelical Reformed Church which is just of 74th Street between South Tacoma Way and Tyler (7435 S. Madison) at 8:30am on Wednesday, February 8th.  The agenda is as follows:

8:30 Gather
8:40 5 minute check in on our last month of ministry and life
9:15 Question of the day, (Rich will bring this)
9:30 Opportunities in South Tacoma
9:35 Prayer
9:45  Depart

Grace and Peace,
Ken