Yes! I am guilty of “supersizing” the titles to grab your attention. I believe this thing is just that crucial.

I sit at the edge of my bed wondering, had those boys, at least one of them, in Chicago, would have been able to express himself, to cry, to be angry without violence to say it hurts inside and i dont know how to fix, to scream from the top of his lungs that i just want to fit in…. maybe little Derrion would still be alive today. Just a thought. Mind you i just watched this video and am in tears…

I believe pastors across this country MUST and SHOULD be dealing with the emotional illiterate men in their churches. I believe its an issue that men with sons ought to be sharing with their boys and their daughters. I believe women must stop putting up with men who are emotionally constipated and strongly suggest they get help, my wife did!

There is no soap box involved here. I am learning to share, to heal in public, to be broken in the midst of my family. I am learning that my boys NEED TO and MUST see me deal with my emotions in a healthy manner so that they too will know how to respond to all of the difficulties that await them. For most of my life, i wondered about me. I wondered if i was ok. If i was normal because I seem to express, mostly in written form, the things I was feeling that weren’t, “man-like”. Meaning, that I recognized that there was more to my emotional calendar than rage, anger, or frustration. That sadness, that joy, that fear, that loss, that gain, that vulnerability were all emotions that i either experienced or were afraid of experiencing. NO ONE said to be, its ok to cry. Now i’m not advocating crying for the hell of it, or being manipulative, or just being a push over, but i am speaking to the hearts of men everywhere who have been told that “women are emotional”. To those people who spread such empty rhetoric, i ask, then what the heck are men? Do you not “feel”? Do you not “long”? Do you not know what it is to be empty?

How do you deal with your emotions? Do you even recognize that you “have them”? Do you hide in your “cave”? Ever wonder why something so amazingly small sets you off? Do you conceal, hide, put away, grow numb until one day you explode?

IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT YOUR SONS OR DAUGHTERS TO EXPERIENCE?

FAMILY WE’VE JUST BEGUN THIS DISCUSSION… PLEASE COMMENT, ASK QUESTIONS, LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS SO WE CAN CREATE A DIALOGUE!!

LOVE YOU!

Greetings

I am sorry first of all for not providing updates more regularly, but I wanted to take this time to update you on my family, peculiarplace and all that God is doing and how you can be praying with us.

The last two and half months have been a major adjustment. A good one at times, and well a difficult one at others. The boys are back and in school. Enjoying, so that is something to get up and do a praise dance for…lol Esther and I are in an amazing place as far as our relationship is concerned. Still growing, but enjoying the time and growth as opposed to fighting it. Did I mention my little man, Zion, is now 9 months old!!! Whew! He will be 1 in less than 3 months, where does time go?

At this point, she (Esther) is a full time mom, and I have found myself being a pastor, freelance graphic designer and a potential business owner. With that said, things are tight, or are getting tight. We are needing God to show up in a MAJOR way in our sources of finances whether that is support, or a job for me. My desire is to raise enough support, 2500.00, to pay our bills- rent utilities and car insurance, and get a PT job in our community to pay for the rest of our daily lives. I include numbers because I believe in being specific when going to the Father. A PT job would give me the freedom to BE in the community working versus OUT of the community with a job. I believe God has called us to this community and therefore want every stitch of our efforts, work, toil, frustration & joy to come out of this community.

We have an amazing project coming up next month. God has shown us a possible way to touch the lives of 10,000 people with a simple flier. We are going door to door with a flier we are designing that will ask our community “How can we serve YOU?” on one side and on the other will ask how we can help making this a better community. We will then direct them to a website where they can submit their ideas. We will also provide a phone number for those who do not have computers or cant get to a computer. We will take those ideas and create a list of serving opportunities that will run every month until our public launch. We will also be asking for those who share ideas to get involved and help, a way to get some face time and build relationships with people in our community. To top it all off, i must brag on God, we have a possible army of 200-400 college students who will provide 3 hours of their time to help us pass out these fliers next month!

We had a meeting this past weekend where two important things came out of that meeting. One, we will begin sometime next month, all of us, serving at least 10 hours in the Old Fourth Ward community. Whether that is at John Hope Elementary, the school we partner with, or at a homeless shelter, or at a community clean up… this is going to be somewhat STRONGLY encouraged behavior for the peculiarplace launch team and then the church when we go public. Imagine a community where 80% of your church membership spent 10 hours somewhere, someway affecting the lives of others by giving up a small amount of one of the most precious commodities, time. That’s what we are striving for!! Serving Groups!!! We want to BE the church Monday through Saturday, giving us a REAL reason to come together and celebrate on Sunday!!

Also out of that meeting we discussed finding a person or couple to begin mentoring/discipling. We are all praying right now for God to openly make plain and share with us who in our lives or what “perfect” stranger He would have us invest in!! God is going to do something BIG here I know He is. Again, this is something we are starting today, that will continue long after we launch.

How can you pray for us & peculiarplace:

1.)Finances, we all could use more right now, but this is a prerequisite to us being able to live in the community God has called us to serve. Pray that He open doors for support, that He opens doors to freelance design gigs, pray that He multiply seed sown!

2.) A successful flier, “survey project” next month. We possibly have the man power, but we need funds to purchase fliers(270.00), tshirts 500, water for army of volunteers, & snacks(150.00). Pray that God through this simple flier awaken His sleeping spirit in this community. Pray that lives will be invested in, hearts will be changed, minds renewed, hope restored & that peculiarplace will be in the position to Shepard those who heed the call to be a part of what God is doing in O4W. Pray that the lives of those college students will never be the same after this project!

3.) Pray that our volunteer hours spent in this community are not in vain. Pray that Lives our touched, relationships are built, God is Glorified in our efforts to serve this community through a number of venues. Pray that doors are opened to new and innovative ideas in which we can serve this community in the future. Pray for our safety as we venture into realms outside of our safety zone in our volunteering efforts.

4.) Pray that Esther and I will come up with the finances to make two very important trips next month. One is to Houston, TX for an assessment. The other is to Tenn. for an amazing opportunity to be in the presence of people who can teach us and build relationships that may lead to partnership.

5.) Continue to pray that our marriage, our ability to parent, our ability to be sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, as well as friends continues to look like the image God has created these relationships to look like. We must first be an example of His Grace, Mercy & Redemptive Power before we can ever honestly share Him. The evidence MUST BE evident in our lives!!!!

Thank you and let me know how we can pray for you, because I BELIEVE HE IS A GOD WHO ALWAYS, and I MEAN ALWAYS, ANSWERS PRAYERS!

Love you!

GOT YOUR ATTENTION… GOOD!

Listen, let us be honest with ourselves, we are losing a battle that is bigger than anything we have ever fought. Look around you right now, where you live, work and play. Someone you know and love, a stranger at the coffee shop, a co-worker who cries themselves to sleep every night is hurting, dying on the inside and ultimately is going to spend eternity in HELL because of you, me, we wont… we just wont do enough about it!

This is not a “church” bashing post, but this is a cry, a plea, an urgent message that i believe we all need to hear. If you are offended, good. If you think I have no room to talk, then stop thinking and do something. I don’t care! We are sitting by arguing with each other while we tell our friends, family and others to: GO TO HELL!!, by not BEING the CHURCH!!!

MY HEART BLEEDS…

my heart concerning the Kingdom of God. These are the things I believe He has sent me to teach a group of people that He has set aside for a peculiarplace. That’s what I believe and nothing can change that. Church growth strategies, marketing, and all the other “church planter” stuff is great, and honestly a must have to some degree, but if we believe God IS, and not was, if we believe in the depths of our heart that He is ALL powerful and has created us in His image, if we believe that like Abraham, Paul and others that He has created a place for us, if we believe that He is the one who moves on the hearts of people as He did Pharaoh, then what is the fuss about? What are we debating theology, doctrine and church “styles” for? I mean really! People are dying and going to Hell, not because we don’t have the latest and greatest, but because we are SILENT! Because our lifestyles don’t match our perfectly coordinated/programmed services, because our words are not the Father’s Words, because our prayers are so self-centered, because we don’t GIVE without looking to receive, because we don’t die daily to sin, because we make excuses about sharing the greatest gift ever given, because we stop falling on our faces to confess and repent, because we choose a “private” savior over a PUBLIC LORD, because we hide behind past hurts and pains and assume vulnerability is from hell, because we have tolerated and not LOVED… I could go on forever and I am just as guilty as anyone else as being caught up in these issues! I am NOT PERFECT, nor do I LIVE the PERFECT life and I will never pretend to be! What I know is that the way we LIVE, LOVE & GIVE can and WILL change the world, or at least the parts of the world assigned to us .

I am simply looking for people who agree to come along side of peculiarplace and get their freaking hands dirty!! Looking for people of all races, backgrounds, experiences and cultures to DO SOMETHING instead of all this FREAKING TALKING! LETS BE THE CHANGE!!

Interested?

I am often asked by friends and pastors or church leaders if there is anything they be can praying with us for… sometimes i have to search my brain for a minute or two, other times i have at my immediate disposal. I was made aware of a pure thought, never leave home without your “list”. Well,l for those who have asked or those who might have wondered but not asked here is our “list”:

Top Prayer Needs

1)  Location, location, location: We are interested in a venue that is probably the least
likely to be considered for Sunday morning service, but it is perfect for us! We are
praying for favor in not only securing space, but negotiating a rental fee we can
afford.

2)  Support!: It takes money to do ministry. We are raising 150, 000 for year one,
which includes my full time salary and housing allowance, ministry/evangelism
budget, rent/lease fee, children’s equipment, marketing, computers, and next
years BIG GIVE outreach budget of 10,000. We have 20% of our desired goal.

3)  People Power: We are assembling a launch team of 30-40 families. It will take a
strong team who whole-heartedly believes in the Vision that is peculiarplace. A
team that is 1000% committed and passionate about seeing the Kingdom of
God invades Old Fourth Ward.

4)  Move: We are praying that God has begun to work on the hearts of the residents
in and around Old Fourth Ward. That they are open to being served and loved by
peculairplace.

5)  Urban Missionaries: My family. My marriage. My children as they transition to
new schools, with new friends and new teachers. My wife as she becomes
acclimated to a “new” environment and makes new friends. Me, as I provide
the security she needs and wants while I continue to grow to be the husband God
created me to be.

Top Ministry Needs

1)    Props: Needing light, realistic, crosses made for a street theater idea we have for Easter. The crosses must be life size and
be able to be carried by individuals for long periods of time. We also need circular signs attached to cross that have “what
if God were one of us” on them.

2)    Collateral: Printing of Brochures, Business cards, Street signs, Letterhead, Envelopes and all other collateral.

3)    Tshirts: We need 400 black t-shirts printed up. On the T-shirts it would say “making Him famous.com” with the
peculiarplace.tv web address in white on the front. Need those before the end of March.

4)   A Whiteboard: Quartet® 5′ x 3′ Total Erase® Porcelain Dry-Erase Board with Aluminum Frame, Staples list price is
309.99
5)   TH3E: http://www.elevationchurch.org/three/ This is a one day conference that I feel like we would totally benefit from.
One of the fastest growing churches in America doing it with sound teaching and superb leadership. The cost of the
conference is 300.00.

Top Personal Needs

1)    A House: We are looking for a 3/2 home in the Old Fourth Ward community of Atlanta. This is where we are planting the church as well. We want something that we are able to live in for 2 or 3 years and possibly even purchase it by that time.

2)    Finances: In our efforts to raise funds for the church we are also raising support for my salary as well. My commitment
to God is also a commitment to my family. To be able to be the provider that He has called me to be.

3)    School: Our son is battling some learning difficulties and was recommended by an educational psychologist to attend
The Howard School.  We are believing for God to provide the necessary funds for his education.   The school is very
expensive!

4)    Reading: Kindle/Audiobooks, Some would say I have enough tech gadgets, but I am requiring of myself to be very well
read and that takes time. With a Kindle and audiobooks they both allow me to do multiple things, read multiple books
and get more work done.
5)    Vehicle: We are reaching a point where a bigger vehicle is a must, our family is growing and our children have
outgrown our current vehicle.

I DARE YOU TO THINK OF SOMEONE BESIDES YOURSELF

I DARE YOU TO LOOK BEYOND YOUR RIGHT NOW, YOUR CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCE OR SITUATION

I DARE YOU TO LOOK INTO THE EYES OF YOUR CHILDREN AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU CANT

I DARE YOU TO GROW

I DARE YOU TO GIVE LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER GIVEN BEFORE

I DARE YOU TO LOVE LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER LOVED BEFORE

I DARE YOU TO COME OUT FROM UNDER THE SELFISH ROCK YOU LIVE AND LIVE FOR SOMEONE OTHER THAN YOURSELF…

with this dare in mind… i am simply challenging you to visit one site before you move from the computer to the couch, or turn your laptop off and move one to something else, i want you to visit onevanonevillage.org.

Watch the video, read the story, introduce yourself to Laurie Kroll, and last but not least…

GIVE!!!