About four years ago a group of us began to pray together on Wednesday night on how SRC could reach the city of San Diego.   I had been raised in church and my memories of prayer meetings fell into two categories. They either took place in a side room off of the sanctuary where everybody prayed quietly kneeling over a folding chair trying to stay awake or they were so loud that you couldn’t hear yourself think and you wondered if God was deaf. Visionary prayer is different. It paints the big picture of who God is and how much he loves your city and it asks Him to fill in the details for you. There was a lot of conversation with each other and with God. Everyone was continually reminded that the purpose of these times of prayer was for our city. God wasn’t deaf and we weren’t going to send you to a side room to fall asleep.

As we continued to pray on Wednesdays, God began to give us a target- the City Heights area of San Diego. I didn’t know much about City Heights so I began to learn as much as I could. It is the most diverse neighborhood of San Diego, full of immigrants from all over the world and under-served by churches. We asked God to give us City Heights and He has begun to answer our prayer.

Now four years later, we do a weekly outreach to children called SDMetro Kids. Dozens of children attend this fast-paced program each week. This year we gave away hundreds of back packs with our kids website, sdmetrokids.com, printed on them. One month ago, we launched a Spanish-language church in City Heights that is averaging 25 in attendance.

If you want to reach your city, no matter what size your church is, ask God for a vision. Pray until He answers. I don’t believe that God can deny a church who asks Him for His vision.

Today, we have taken our prayer times off site. We do prayer drives where we go to City Heights and other strategic neighborhoods and pray. We do quarterly House of Prayer Experiences (HOPE) which combine worship and prayer at the church.

In the past year, since Easter 2010, we have added four members to the pastoral staff, grown in size, relaunched small groups as life groups, started a fine arts ministry, added a biker outreach ministry and we are closing in on the goals of planting churches in City Heights and North Park! We also helped rescue 25 girls from sex trafficking in northern India. A couple of other ministry developments are in the works…we’ll let you know once they are confirmed.

SRC is at a great point- we are growing and preparing for multi-site later this year. I want to keep my mind and spirit sharp as we move forward.

(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review)

“The Next Christians” is the title of Gabe Lyons latest book  subtitled: “How A New Generation Is Restoring The Faith”. Gabe is a cofounder of Catalyst and now leads Q (qideas.org). Since reading his book, I’m finding his name popping up in other places (such as a webcast event on February 17th with Tim Keller).

It’s not news that Christianity is losing traction in America but Lyons takes the time to remind us that “Americans are spiritual, but they have begun to seek spiritual experiences outside the framework of traditonal religions.” He then takes the time  to describe the various reponses that Christian make with current culture- separatist, cultural or restorers (with great descriptions of each). Lyons makes an impassioned call for restorers.

The second half of the book examines six characteristics of restorers:

• Provoked, not offended.
• Creators, not critics.
• Called, not employed.
• Grounded, not distracted.
• In community, not alone.
• Countercultural, not relevant.

What do you do with a book like this? Read it with a pen handy because you’ll want to underline passages and write notes in the margins. With the swirling  debate on how we should live in a postChristian America, Lyons makes a lot of sense which cannot always be said about others. Second, pass this book on to a friend, especially if they happen to be in ministry. One of my staff is working on a church plant in urban San Diego and I plan on having him read this book as he prepares for launch.

I like Gabe Lyons because he writes about ministry and culture like he knows both subjects well. He’s not a pastor which works to his advantage in allowing him to talk to a broader audience from his own diverse experiences. This is an important book at a critical time for American Christianity.

We welecomed the latest member to our ministry team, Larry Pierce, to lead Small Groups. Larry is the City Engineer for Vista and holds credentials with the Assemblies of God. He joins Sue Hegle (Missions), John Bass (Children/Metro Kids), John Gordy (Spanish Language), Malee Prateeptintong (Mid-City Outreach), Jon Nichols (Outreach), and Lionel Jasmin (Worship). We have one of the finest staffs of any church. I love our team.

Perseverance. It is too easy to give up in challenging times. Learning the importance of working through, thinking through and praying through problems will bring about success. Creative solutions to our biggest challenges often are discovered in the midst of perseverance.

Networking. New coalitions are being established between people who might have been inclined to go it alone in the past. I’m meeting tomorrow with a several pastors from Anaheim who want to know how to do multi-ethnic ministry in their city. That’s the example of how new partnerships are being formed.

It is pretty exciting to realize that we can possess the skills necessary to navigate in a changing world.

I’m becoming increasingly aware that God has an urgent plan for people and he is expecting me to have the same urgency. God may not care as much as I do about scheduling an haircut appointment but He wants me to care as much as He does about the people of San Diego.

In our staff meeting this week we talked about urgency being an identifiable characteristic of a church that is reaching its community. We’re growing our sense of urgency as we spend more time praying to capture God’s heart and then doing to capture God’s creation.

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. He is also the author of In and Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase.

Primal, subtitled “A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity”, is based on the Great Commandment found in Mark 12:30- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. For Batterson, the heart of Christianity is primal compassion, the soul is primal wonder, the mind is primal curiosity, and the strength is primal energy.

If there was one word I would use to describe Mark’s writing style it is relevant. He speaks to the real world in which we live in. Never pretending to have it all figured out himself, his challenge is to leave mediocrity behind and become who God has intended for you to be.

One of the best ways to get the heart of a good book is to look back at the sentences that have been underlined as you read it. Here is a sample from Primal:

• Sometimes our minds interfere with our hearts. Logical objections get in the way of compassionate actions.
• Are you focued on what you have or what you don’t have? That is the difference between gratitude and greed.
• The Bible isn’t meant to be read reactively. It is meant to be prayed proactively. There are thousands of promises waiting to be claimed.
• I wonder if our certainties actually expose our insecurities. The more insecure we are, the more certainty we try to project, especially in the realm of theology.
• Lack of faith is not a failure of logic. It’s a failure of imagination.
• Don’t miss the link between creativity and energy. Most of us are not creative not because we’re not creative. We’re not creative because it’s too hard.

The danger in reading a Batterson book if you are a minister is that you can see ways to use it in ministry (message series or small group topic for example) but you may overlook the personal application for your own life. Make Primal a book you put at the top of your reading list but make sure you read it for yourself first.

We’ve been doing test runs for a Saturday night coffee house service during the summer in North Park San Diego. They’ve been going great. We have discovered that the business is for sale and will close in one week. Is this an obstacle or an opportunity for us to step in and buy it?

I think this question can only be answered by doing our homework and seeking God. If we omit either one of these steps- we can make a big mistake. It may also turn out to be a temporary obstacle that later turns into an even greater opportunity.