March Newsletter

Hey beautiful people,

We could be great. America could be great again. The church in America could be great again. One major obstacle stands in our way: how to be blessed but not introverted. We must learn how to live in Genesis 12 and be blessed to be a blessing. Where is all of this coming from? I’m glad you asked.

Vanguard, as you may or may not know, has been in the process of forming a tax-exempt community development organization called Urban Alliance (UA). We finally got all the paper work approved by the IRS and are faced with the new task of raising money for the ministry ideas we have been planning. Our first step has to be the acquisition of a building. Part of UA’s mission statement has to do with the work of restoring people and facilities within inner city neighborhoods. With this in mind we have been in negotiations for some abandoned facilities that we can fix up to start bringing hope back to the hood. To do this we need to raise around $80,000. As I began to think about how to do this the Lord began to speak to me about my finances.

The first thing I was confronted with was the fact that I was already blessed beyond imagination. The home that I live in, the car that I drive, the food I consume, all make me extremely wealthy in the eyes of much of the world. Yet in my mind I have been tempted into wanting more. Part of this is I watch too much TV. The media in America in conjunction with advertisement agencies have made sure I know exactly what I don’t have. My desires have effectively been adversely affected (say that ten times fast) and I don’t know that my needs are not actually needs. But as I began to come to terms with this I realized that the money we need to fix up one building is actually very simple to get. The problem is, the people who could give (like myself) who have so much more than they need, don’t realize that they have the money because (just like myself) we spend most of the money we get on ourselves. I looked at my checkbook and, besides tithing and minimal offerings, the rest of my expenditures are spent on myself and my family. And because I haven’t realized how blessed I am, I am considering other bigger ways to spend more money on myself and make more money so I can afford to spend more on myself. This isn’t blessed and being a blessing. This is more like blessed and continuing to bless myself. I repent Lord!

If I could find 100 people to give up $15.38 a week for one year, I could pay for and renovate the building with cash. When I look at my bills, what I pay to watch TV every night is more than that. What I pay to make sure I have more than just Cheerios as a choice in the morning is more than that. What I pay to make sure I have instant, speedy access to the world-wide web is more than that. All I’m saying is if I were a little less short sighted, I could join in with others to make a huge impact in the neighborhood I am ministering in. But if I continue consuming all God gave me on myself this will continue to only be a dream. How can this continue? It can’t. Not if we’re going to avoid the judgment that comes on a nation when they continue considering only themselves and ignoring the widow, the orphan and the downtrodden (And we haven’t even touched on what our resources, if they were put in God’s hands, could do in other countries).

This isn’t meant to be a letter of condemnation but I hope it does challenge us to consider the amazing resources we’ve been afforded in this nation and how to creatively use them to further God’s kingdom in the earth. I am certainly not against being blessed, but I do question the consumer culture I am a part of and how it has even affected the mission of the church. I do wonder what it would look like to spend more of our time and resources on pleasing and serving others than serving and pleasing ourselves. I have even begun to believe that this won’t even cause us to have to live a lesser lifestyle than we desire because if we seek God’s kingdom first, and further his kingdom first, all these other things will be added as well! (Matthew 6:33, 2 Corinthians 9:10)


Let’s spur each other on to great deeds and begin thinking about what needs to happen to us corporately and individually to become the spotless bride of Christ that Our Savior deserves!



I love you guys!




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