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Challenging Tradition and Energizing Mission: Reflections on Lunch with Jeff Bass
 Today I had a very stimulating conversation with a mentor of mine named Jeff Bass ( @EGCjeff), who is executive director of the Emmanuel Gospel Center ( @EGCboston). Jeff may not realize that he is one of my mentors, but I have benefitted tremendously from knowing him these last 5-6 years. More than just about anyone else, he has given me precise insights about the Church in Boston. And as my professor in seminary he has been a great source of urban ministry training. In his course, I learned to think about the city as a living system, not a machine. For Jeff, EGC, and EGC's president Doug Hall, the city is more like a cat than a toaster. To address brokenness, it cannot be taken apart piece by piece, tinkered with, and then reassembled. Each part of the system is inextricably linked to others—like the systems of a living being. Ministry in the city is more like performing surgery on an animal than repairing an appliance. This means many of the practices and traditions the US evangelical church has developed and inherited are incredibly misguided and often counter-productive. Jeff and other EGC leaders have trained me to seek out and destroy counter-productivity, and look for how God is already at work in the city.
Over lunch, Jeff asked me why so much of what is called "church planting" these days is merely an attempt to recreate what already exists, only "new and improved." He asked why many church planters don't bother to question the way ministry has been conducted in the city for decades. He asked why replicating the same (largely ineffective) model isn't doomed from the start.
These are great questions!
I had to admit that he was right. A lot of the current surge in church planting is simply a push to "do church" better than it's been "done" before. But what needs to change?
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Connect with New City Covenant Church Online!
 You can now connect with New City Covenant Church of Boston on Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo!
Please Follow us on Twitter (@newcitycovenant) and tweet using hashtags: #bethenewcity and #inbostonasitisinheaven
And please Like our page on Facebook (/newcitycovenant) too!
In the near future, we'll begin posting videos to our Vimeo page (/newcitycovenant), so stay tuned!
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Boston as Church Planter Proving Ground
Yesterday morning, I was privileged to pray with several Boston pastors at River of Life Church in Jamaica Plain. It was an honor to be invited by pastor Fred Elliot-Hart (Covenant Congregational Church). And I was very happy I got to meet Josh Wyatt, a fellow church planter and pastor of Charles River Church in Roslindale, as well as Doug, a chaplain to the Boston VA hospital. I also got to meet River of Life's pastor, Tom Griffith, is someone I have heard many good reports about from other leaders in the Boston church who's judgment I have come to trust. In what brief time I was able to spend with him, he lived up to his reputation as a discerning and visionary pastor. It was a blessing that Josh and I, both ~30, got to spend some time talking/praying with these older, wiser Boston ministers. Something in particular Tom talked with us about struck me, and I've been thinking a lot about it today.
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ECC Annual Meeting & Exponential 2012
 For the past two week I've been out of town, as a part of my church planting residency. Two weeks ago I was in Connecticut attending the Annual Meeting of the East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Miroslav Volf taught the ministerium on the subject of his latest book A Public Faith, I was voted to be accepted as a licensed minister, and I was voted to the board of the New England Seafarers Mission. The theme of the Annual Meeting was "Where Justice and Evangelism Meet", and Al Tizon, Professor of Evangelism and Holistic Ministry at Palmer Theological Seminary, was the keynote speaker. He did a great job, and I really enjoyed talking with him over breakfast. What a great topic for reflection and refocusing!
The highlight of our time together, for me, was when Rev. Michael Carrion shared a testimony from his ministry to the inmates of Rikers Island prison. Mike shared with them his incredible story of rescue and redemption—how God used various men and women throughout his life to witness the love of God to him, and ultimately to lead him to Christ. His testimony was so powerful, not only did all the inmates who attended that service (some 400 men) commit their lives to Christ, so did the guards!!
After a brief layover back in Boston, I was off again, this time to Orlando for the Exponential Conference (2012)—the largest church planting conference in North America. While I was in Orlando, I got to connect with one of my best friends: my brother Corey Hicks. Corey, his wife Nicole, and I all attended the same small Bible college in New Orleans. They have already begun planting an urban multi-racial church called The Vine in New Orleans, and I wanted Corey to meet my brothers from the Evangelical Covenant in the hopes that he too could find a home in this family of churches.
 Through Corey and another close friend Efrain "Brother E" Alicea, I was introduced to Tommy Kyllonen aka "Urban D". Pastor Tommy leads a wonderful urban, multi-ethnic church in Tampa FL called Crossover. It was really encouraging to hear his heart and more of their journey as a community.
 After that, Corey, Tommy, Efrain and I got to spend time talking and connecting with another mentor-from-afar: Efrem Smith. Efrem planted and pastored Sanctuary Church in Minneapolis, MN for many years before becoming the Superintendent of the Pacific Southwest conference of the ECC. He co-authored The Hip Hop Church with another Covenant pastor Phil Jackson—pastor of Da House in Chicago. Efrem has an incredible capacity to engage popular theology of mainstream US evangelicalism with the authentic sensibilities of a pastor. He has challenged the Neo-Calvinist paradigm of such popular authors as John Piper and has suggested that Pietism represents a much better framework for real and lasting racial justice. I happen to whole-heartedly agree.
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Church Planting Residency in Cambridge
 7 years ago now, I met a young pastor in Cambridge named Larry Kim. To this day, he is the coolest pastor I know. At the time, Larry was one of three pastors of an urban, multi-ethnic church that gathers in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge, MA. Today, Larry is the Lead Pastor of that same church: Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC)—a church planted by Dr. Soong-Chan Rah 16 years ago. CCFC started out an independent church, but joined the Evangelical Covenant Church where they have found a home ever since.
I'm honored to be able to serve along-side Larry (and Pat O'Donel: Associate Pastor) for these next 5 months. They have both been tremendously encouraging and supportive of our vision for church planting.
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God is Doing Something New!
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"
- Isaiah 43.19a
It's a new year, and God is doing a new thing. Osheta and I have accepted the call to form a new congregation here in Boston. We didn't set out to be church planters, but surprising to us both, the more we've explored church planting the more it has been evident that our gifts and experience suit us for the task. That's not to say we aren't appropriately terrified. Church planting is no walk in the park. But our life together never has been. We've each faced adversity individually, and as a couple we've had to face several challenges together. We trust that God knew what he was doing then, and knows what he's doing now. And we trust that God will continue to be with us in this new adventure.
So, as of January 1st, I am now a Church Planting Resident in a 9-month church planting residency. During these next 9 months, I will be serving at two Boston-area Covenant churches (Highrock and CCFC) where I'll be learning from and leading alongside some of the most dynamic ministers in Boston. Osheta and I are both humbled and excited!
This is also the first entry in what we're hoping will be your prayer guide for us. Please avail yourself to the vision we share here, along with updates about our family life, and pray for us. As the residency progresses, we will provide updates on how the church planting process is going.
Thank you for all the support you've provided us over the years, making us into who we are now. We look forward to how God will use us to shape others' lives as he has used you to shape ours.
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