Here was the plan:
First, go through my things and pack up everything I want and get rid of everything else.
First, go through my things and pack up everything I want and get rid of everything else.
(I only mostly completed this task. I’m pretty sure I packed
up everything I wanted to take with me, but I didn’t go through everything. There’s
still a good chunk of stuff in parent’s home that I just couldn’t part with.)
Second, take some friends on a road trip that crosses four
states, has a layover at my grandparent’s home, gets us into Detroit with enough
time to do a little exploring, and drops me off at my new place of residence as
my friends complete the road trip circle.
(After some last minute yes’s and no’s five of us left on
the road trip. With my father and brother in one vehicle, and two friends and
myself in another vehicle we traversed a total of five states. Exhausted from
the thirteen hours to get to my grandparent’s house we ended up spending our
morning sleeping and playing the Wii, and caused us to leave much later in the
afternoon than first anticipated and lent to our desire to just get food and
get to my new home. Thus, no exploring was done, which was fine by me, since I
was reminded of my loathing of city driving. On the morning of the third day,
we traded hugs and my fellow voyagers left.)
Third, find a job while joining the wonderful Bono family in
planting a church.
(This is still in progress. So far I have no job, and as far
as the church planting goes, I’m still learning what it means to plant a
church.)
That was the plan, and it still is, but it also is becoming
more defined.
In the last two weeks I have moved into a room, started the
process of having this new residence with the Bono’s feel like a home, while
also being aware of any opportunities of getting a slightly more permanent
housing situation, applied for a couple of jobs and have not gotten any
feedback, started and finished a painting, finished a couple books, and have
had many discussions on what the future concerning this church plant will be
like.
In these discussions Sal Bono, the church plant pastor and
husband/father of the family I am with, has shared many different ideas, but
they all come together under a vision for church supported by social
entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship takes the basic principals of being
an entrepreneur and places the value of the business not just on profit and
financial return, but also, and more so, on the positive social return that
business has. Basically, whatever business we go into, our desire is to increase
it not only in profits, but also in the how many jobs we can create. Our
profits will then be sown directly back into any of the church’s ministries or
other non-profit organizations in the Detroit area. Our goal isn’t just to
start a church, but to affect the community. We want to be missionaries without
burdening the people we are serving as Paul did with his tent-making business.
We want a church with ministries that will not only be able to sustain itself,
but be able to create jobs and opportunities to help reclaim the city of
Detroit. My favorite of these ideas we’ve already started to work on a little
bit. We’re calling it Re:Troit.
Detroit is a city that was built for 2 million people, but
now only has 700,000 people occupying it. It is pretty easy to imagine the
number of abandoned houses and building. In fact, Detroit is known to be the
poster city for urban decay. Abandoned and trashed things are very easy to find
in every neighborhood. It’s with this knowledge that Sal came up with idea of
collecting these forgotten and eyesore things and turning them into beautiful
creations that we can sell. After a little thought and debate Re:Troit was
birthed and named. We’ve already collected a few things and are working on our
first project. While the basic upcycling of the waste in Detroit is a great
idea, we have decided to add an extra perk with everything that we will be
making. Each item will be given a QR code that will link whoever scans it
information about the neighborhood in which the items were gathered including
its beauty, its hardships, and different ideas on how to pray for it. How cool
is that!?
There are so many other things involved with the church
plant that I had never really thought about their importance. Things like
mission statements, picking names, what our focus will be at the beginning, and
how to get the word out about a new church. The amount of lists I am balancing
is incredible. It’s actually quite a scary venture, but it’s also exciting. I
still don’t know much, but I am growing and learning a little everyday. While I
have been getting antsy to get more things started, I’ve been realizing how
quickly the pace will be increased to a sprint, so for the moment I am enjoying
the time to reflect and prepare.
