Bonners Work Day at EL

A few weeks ago, we hosted a group from West Virginia Wesleyan College. They helped paint the main floor of the East Liberty building and helped clean. They put together a little slide show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Gqtm8hKgA

The G-20

I live in Pittsburgh, and this week Pittsburgh has been the focus of a lot of attention. Pittsburgh hosted the G-20 Summit. For 2 days the world turned upside down here. Representatives from dozens of nations came together to meet. While I am not all that interested in what the G20 talked about, or accomplished, it was intriguing to watch the organized chaos of the city. Protestors began gathering throughout the week. Though it should be compared to other G20s, it was still pretty hectic.

On Thursday, I celebrated a birthday. My family wanted to take me out to dinner. We drove down from our home and turned onto Liberty Ave. Liberty was one of the hot spots of the city. Our goal was a small little Mexican restaurant. But instead of finding chips and salsa, we were met by police, troopers, swat teams, busses of soldiers, motorcycles, hummers, trucks, low-flying helicopters, guns, etc. It was a scene straight from a movie. I thought for sure the Joker was going to show up and turn the town upside down.

Needless to say, I didn't get my chips and Salsa. Once we landed in a restaurant (chinese) we were watching CNN and saw scenes of protesting, windows, being broken, arrests, etc. It was interesting because as we were watching we realized, this is just a few blocks away.

Very cool, very stressful.

My mind went to a few different places, one of the was this, "Do we impact our culture and our cities like the G20?" Now I am not talking about throwing bricks, wearing masks, and being an acarchist. But I am talking about impact. for two days, G20 impacted Pittsburgh. Everyone was talking about it, everyone was affected by it. Every retailer, school, public servant, hospitality center was affected by G20.

Could the church ever affect the city like this? It did at one point. Acts 2 tells us about the G20. When Pentecost came upon the disciples, the 120 that had gathered in the upper room spilled into the streets. The whole city was in an uproar.

The church needs to make an impact. Allowing the Spirit to shape us can bring about something bigger than the G20.

Acts 2

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine. "

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: " 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

Connecting with Kindness

Had a great morning today. We are doing a lot of Servant Evangelism this week. We are excited about our movie event coming up this weekend, but more importantly we are excited about connecting with people.

Today we did a Bus Stop Breakfast. We made about 200 simple bags with a granola bar, a capri sun, and an AOK card.

We went to the major bus station in East Liberty around 7am and we handed them out. It was a lot of fun. It only took about an hour, and got a ton of good reactions.

One lady had just missed the bus, and was on her way to having a very bad morning. I gave her a breakfast bag, and you coulld see her whole demeanor change. Had a cool quick conversation with her. The best past of SE is seeing people react. Making someone smile, shocking people, etc. It's pretty cool.

Good way to start the week.

High Rise Implosion

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09138/970898-53.stm

East Liberty Becomes A Vibrant Community

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09159/975799-53.stm

Red Wings Fan in Pittsburgh

I am a Hockey Fan. I am a Red Wings fan. God in all his wisdom called me to Pittsburgh. His sense of humor shines when I arrive in Pittsburgh during the Stanley cup playoffs in which my team the Red Wings are battling the Penquins.

I am used to a hockey crazed town. Growing up in Detroit as a young boy, I was used to seeing Red and White everywhere. I know about the Octopus, the whole deal.

Being in Pittsburgh during the Stanley Cup was like being in a foreign land. There was no Red and White. All this Black and Gold. Pure torture.

A few things to be said. How can you not respect the Penguins. Coming off a huge game 5 loss, they showed a lot of heart. The fans in Pittsburgh are really great. Watching everyone in our church celebrate was really cool (though personally painful).

Pittsburgh is a cool town, just in the sports area. I really have enjoyed it my first few weeks here. I can empathize with having teams like the Pirates. Almost as bad as being a Lions fan.

The coolest thing is God is a fan of us, not teams, not cities, not players. I know there was much "praying" in two cities during the Stanley Cup. But the greatest piece is that he loves me and knows where I am, regardless of city.

What Happened to the Andersons?

We are in Pittsburgh!

I am writing to friends in California, Reno, Virginia, Atlanta. Some of you getting this know that we have moved to Pittsburgh, some of you getting this might be hearing this for the first time.

What happened?

As most of you know or were a part of, we went out to Reno in 2007 for the purposes of starting a church.

We had an exciting process leading up to the launch in the Fall of 2008. We launched with 117 people and in the course of 4 months saw 37 decisions for Christ. It was one of the most amazing experiences of our life.

That being said, we experienced some huge setbacks. There was this thing called the economy that took it’s toll on Reno. We were renting a movie theater downtown to reach into the area. It was a great location, but expensive. What we soon discovered was that the congregation we were attracting was very needy. In fact over 50% of the group was homeless, and that percentage grew week after week. We were torn. We were seeing great things happen in people’s lives, and yet we were seeing our funds disappear quickly.

Then tragedy struck on the personal side. While in Reno, I was working for my father-in-law. His business suffered an unexpected economic set back in November. We basically watched the business shut down in front of us. I soon found myself unemployed. Not a good place to be with our large family.

What followed was a series of crushing events that brought us to one of the darkest places in our life. Through November and December we searched for income solutions and employment to no avail. The economy affected every part of our life. Reno has struggled more than most cities. 20% of all commercial property in the city of Reno is vacant. Economists in Nevada think it will be 3 to 4 years before Reno will see true recovery. Needless to say there was no one hiring. We also saw our own denomination struggling financially, so while they were as helpful as they could possibly be, it was not sustainable.

January was a very hard time. In January, we decided to stop meeting at the theater. This was coupled by moving out of our house into a 3 bedroom apartment, selling much of our belongings in the process.

Words cannot express the pain and frustration that we experienced in February. Watching our dreams and vision go away coupled with personal financial hardship was extremely difficult.

February and March were some of the lowest points I have ever experienced. I have read much about people experiencing the “dark night of the soul” or the “desert season.” Feeling like God has completely disappeared. That is where we were. It affected our emotions, relationships, our marriage was stressed, the kids felt insecure. It was pretty bad.

I had no idea that he was preparing us for something new.

After we stopped meeting in the theater, I entered into a process where I began sending out resumes. Resumes went out to everything I could find in Reno and everything across the country. That was simply our prayer. “God if you want us to stay in Reno, open a door. We will stay here or go anywhere.” That is a crazy prayer to pray. We kept meeting with people downtown, tried to stay connected to other downtown works and opportunities. We looked for every possible scenario that would keep us in Reno.

I was soon contacted by a church in Pittsburgh. When I first heard Pittsburgh…I mean, Pittsburgh? I could have picked 100 cities before Pittsburgh. This church called Crossroads wanted me to help them move along their multi-site model. They had begun a work in urban Pittsburgh, but needed someone to bring it to the next level. They saw my resume, background, and asked if I could bring what I was doing in Reno to Pittsburgh.

After a series of conversations, where I gave them every reason to look elsewhere, they kept coming back to me. They invited us out in April for a week long interview assessment process. Making a long story short, we felt like this was the place for us.

The process of making the transition came very quickly. Much of May has been spent packing up and moving out. I came out the second week of May, and have gotten right to work. Shawna and the kids spent a few weeks visiting friends and family in California.

We are still in transition, but everything looks pretty good right now. We are excited about this new chapter and look forward to what God has in store.

The last few weeks have been rejuvenating and refreshing, and I am feeling like my old self again. One of my goals is to spend time reconnecting.

Thank you for your continued prayers and love.

David