Day 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12

We <3 Detroit

One week into our launch, I left for a week with nine teenagers, and two other adults, for a weeklong mission trip. Over the past decade, I have been on more than a dozen mission trips with students, and another eight with adults. I have been to several different states and four different countries on missions. For some of these trips, we drove for upwards of 14 hours to get where we were going. For international trips, we sometimes flew more than 48 hours before arriving. 

But this year we did something totally different - something far more radical than anything we have ever done. 

We loaded the vans Sunday afternoon and drove 20 minutes down the road to the heart of Detroit. That's right; we are staying home for our mission trip. In fact, the neighborhood where we are working is less than 10 minutes from our church in Redford, and five minutes from our new site in Brightmoor.

In some ways, I feel that every trip over the past decade has been leading to this moment, teaching us how to be in mission right here in our own hometown. 


And it has been a great, great week! 


It has been amazing to watch these students fall in love with Detroit. It is especially powerful when you realize most of them have been told their whole lives, by their families, peers, and the media, that Detroit is a place they should avoid, be suspicious of, and just write off as beyond saving. But this week they are experiencing the Motor City up close and personal. They are meeting her people, experiencing her strength, listening to her hope, and getting caught up in her future. For maybe the first time in their lives, they consider themselves "Detroiters!"

I think success in any ministry setting requires "going local" - getting into the place you live, learning its culture and loving its people. Every place has a story you need to learn, and there is only one way to learn it - by "going local." During the past three years I have done everything I could to think of to become a "Redforder," and help Redford Aldersgate become a "local" church. In my first 100 days at Redford Aldersgate, I scheduled four prayer walks throughout the community, so I, and anybody who just showed up to join me, could get out in the streets that surround us. We started delivering cookies every holiday to local merchants.  I have a second office at the corner diner.  We drop off pizzas for the fire station across the street and we make baby blankets for the local pregnancy center.  I could probably spend several posts discussing all things we have done to "go local;" but it begins by recognizing you have to "love" the place where you are doing ministry.

I would even go as far as to argue, that until you have "gone local," you have not begun serious ministry.

Its our setting determines what "going local" is all about.  When I served in Birmingham, "going local" meant country clubs, Shakespeare festivals, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and a good glass of wine.  In Redford, "going local" means Nascar, Coney Islands, Bob Seger and a cold beer.  And in order for our new launch to work, we will need to "go local." We will need to learn, and re-learn, the story of Detroit and the Brightmoor neighborhood. We will need to love their people, celebrate their culture and get caught up in their futures. And luckily, we have nine newly formed leaders returning home to lead us into this new chapter of our ministry.  


What a great week!  I love Detroit!