UniteBoston

Nurturing Relational Connections Across Boston's Christian Community

The Testimony of Oneness: City Transformation in Lowell

Local pastors and leaders praying for Pastors Najem and Hernandez during the 2nd Annual School of Transformation in March 2014

The last prayer that Jesus prayed in the Bible concerned unity. What beautiful departing words Jesus spoke comparing the oneness between himself and the Father, to the oneness that was now possible within and among believers. His message was clear; the testimony of a people united in the love of God speaks a compelling story of love and redemption to future generations.

Jesus prayed, “I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these. My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Father—that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are—I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.“ John 17:20-23 (TLT)

In this spirit, a group of 12 pastors in the Greater Lowell, Massachusetts area gathered at the invitation of Pastor Rafael Najem of Community Christian Fellowship, and Pastor Cecilio Hernandez of Iglesia Christiana Ebenezer Asambleas de Dios, to examine the prospect of working together. The two pastors presented the concept of a citywide church, an influential, evangelical church body that would bless the city and help to fulfill God’s purpose and will for it. Pastor Najem, a longtime proponent of church unity shared his heart with the group saying, “I cannot save the city, you cannot save the city; but together we sure can make a impact for the Kingdom of God here.”

The group responded enthusiastically and the pastors began to gather monthly to pray, fellowship, and strategize. Together they host annual events including a men’s conference, youth training and outreach, a citywide Block Party, and the School of Transformation designed to train and empower Christian leaders. They call their affiliation the Citywide Church of Greater Lowell – a catalyst to ultimately transform the City of Lowell into the City of God!

The Citywide Church of Greater Lowell (Citywide) strives to unify, empower, and mobilize God’s people to love with his heart and to serve with his hands. As Jesus expressed his love through both spiritual and practical means, so too does his church. The objectives of the Citywide church are to be: 1) Salt and Light in the City, 2) Prophetic Voice for Social Justice, 3) Catalyst for Church Building and Development, and 4) Catalyst for Cross-Cultural/Ethnic Unity.

The number of churches actively participating in Citywide has almost doubled with a wonderfully enriched membership of multilingual, multi-ethnic, and multi-denominational believers. This diversity reflects the population in the city of Lowell, and the differences among them are respected and appreciated. Since no one church can meet the needs of all people; diversity broadens the access for new believers to settle in a church that suits their individual expression.

The message of God’s love and redemption is preached through various means. In the case of Citywide, God is using the marvel of oneness.“ Jesus prayed, “I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these…”

Written by Donna Dougherty
donnad@AllWeatherGod.com
www.AllWeatherGod.com

www.ebenezerag.org

Click here to listen or download the messages from the School of Transformation

To learn more about Citywide Church of Greater Lowell please visit: https://www.facebook.com/CitywideChurchOfGreaterLowell

Pastor Rafael Najem, Community Christian Fellowship, www.ccfcca.com

Pastor Cecilio Hernandez, Iglesia Christiana Ebenezer Asambleas de Dios,

Signs held by Citywide church pastors & leaders around the city of Lowell

Mennonite Church Plant in Boston

By Vicki Sairs
Originally Published on Mennonite World Review, reprinted with permission

Every day, we hear about more and more churches that are being planted in Boston, and Tim and Alice Colegrove are a big part of that. They are planting a church in Jamaica Plain within the Conservative Mennonite Conference and we are excited to share their story today. If you would be interested in getting involved in the church the Colegrove’s are planting, please contact them at timothy.colegrove@gmail.com

Above, Tim and Alice Colegrove with their sons River and Elias

Together, Alice and Tim bring a powerful combination of gifting and experience to the task of church planting. For the last four years, they’ve worked with homeless youth and young adults in Boston through InnerCHANGE, a Christian order among the poor. They’ve acted as advocates and friends for young people on the streets, trying to provide “a healthy community where healing and hope can be found.”

Now they sense a call to step back from their street ministry and focus on building a church in their neighborhood, which they describe as “incredibly diverse” and which they enjoy tremendously.

Here’s how they describe that call: “Our vision is to plant a multi-ethnic evangelical Anabaptist church in the city of Boston committed to discipling new believers, breaking down socio-economic barriers, and gathering an eclectic community around Jesus’ table.”

It will, they say, take “outside-the-box thinking,” but their goal is “to build a church where people from all walks of life can come and experience new life in Christ.”

They see a “great need for church growth and Gospel witness” in Boston and believe that the CMC’s “historic emphasis on peace and simplicity” uniquely position them “to offer a fresh angle on Christian faith… . Boston is rich soil for Kingdom movements towards racial reconciliation, peacemaking, and economic justice.”

“Part of our vision for a church will springboard from the ministry we’ve had with homeless youth and folks on the street. We would love to be able to have a church where they are welcome…where church and non-church people, poor and rich, intellectuals and non-intellectuals come around the table.”


Alice brings over a decade of experience in working on issues of homelessness and public policy to this topic of empowerment. She has worked with young people on the streets, service providers, churches, and academics; at the policy level, she’s worked at the state level in Massachusetts and with the governments of Romania and Peru.
“All those voices need to be heard,” she explained, “to create a bigger picture.” Navigating those worlds takes skill. “God has blessed me with the ability to speak the languages of those various worlds. I have navigated that in the secular world and I can bring that to the church, meeting folks from a variety of backgrounds across the table.”

Tim added, “Secular people are working on this. The church should be even more capable of doing that… .It’s a challenge to the church that secular groups are able to come together. We’d like to see a congregation that meets that challenge.”

Alice said, “At the policy level, it’s not only a good idea [that the poor are included in discussions] … the poor are required to be there. Is that the same in the church?”

Their focus will be on proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples in Jamaica Plain.

Tim explained that there already are “homeless churches and outdoor churches. The drawback is they don’t bring any relational wealth or social capital to the people on the street… It’s hard to overcome the barriers of addiction, poverty, lack of education, unless you have people who can support you in that. We want to build a church that can do that.”

Alice used the parable of the good Samaritan: “Part of our job is being the Samaritan, sitting with the bro- ken, tending to their wounds. But we still need an inn to take them to. An inn is not just filled with the broken, it’s filled with all sorts of people. We want our friends to come from the streets and find healing, and we want folks who are stable to be with them.”



Kendall Ramseur: Bringing Unity Through Music

Kendall Ramseur is a budding new artist in the Greater Boston area, and was recently awarded the Gospel/Inspirational Arts of the Year at the Boston Music Awards. This week, UniteBoston interviewed him to hear more about his journey, and how God is using his music to bring together Christians in Greater Boston.

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Kendall Ramseur describes one goal of his music: to inspire. And this is just the beginning of what he does.

When I first saw Kendall Ramseur play, I was struck by its unique sound: Classical instruments coupled with a strong rhythmic vibe and fresh lyrics. Somehow the instruments were able to pull in the older generation, yet the younger generation was head-bopping to the beat. The music had Christian undertones and values, and yet it wasn’t so explicitly Christian to turn off those who might not share the faith. As an artist, this tension is difficult to manage, and thus regardless of who you are or where you come from, Kendall Ramseur has something for you.

This was made evident at Kendall’s performance at First Night Boston, where a kaleidoscope of people were in the audience – Asians, African Americans, and Caucasians. Temi, manager of Kendall Ramseur Music Enterprise, states that “Kendall’s music is universal. It crosses gender, race and nationality. Everyone can listen to it and relate to it. In this way, it’s boundless.”

But Kendall hopes for so much more than just bringing people together. When asked about his dream for the Christian community, Kendall said that he hopes “We can all be in one accord, that we can be united and able to move past the whole denomination thing.” So how does he think this could happen? “It would be great if everyone could sit down together at the same table, making it clear that we’re all children of God and need to work together.” It sounds like God is already making this happen through the kaleidoscope of people that connect with his music.

For Kendall, it’s not just about playing music; he also sees the band as his greatest ministry. “When I played at the Dana Farber Cancer Center, someone came up to me and said that it brought him so much comfort. People sense things in my performance, and tell me that they have perfect peace.” He has also seen people physically healed by the power of God, simply through listening to the music.

It’s been quite a journey for Kendall this past year, and the one thing he would like to tell Christians in Greater Boston is that “God is faithful. I started out with no job, no income, and no clue of what I wanted to do. Within 8 or 9 months, I was playing fifty shows, and nominated for the Boston Music Awards. These are two opposite extremes – from nothing to great favor & blessings within a few months. This just shows that God is capable, God is faithful, and He is real. Once you find out what God is calling you to, give your all to that and trust it all to Him.”

What an incredible piece of advice. As you can see, God is using Kendall Ramseur to bring hope, inspiration, and unity to a world that is so desperate for it.

-Kelly Steinhaus
Team Leader, UniteBoston

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Learn more:
– If you’d like to see Kendall play, you can visit him at the Celebration of the Arts, downtown at the Fairmont on January 26th from 6 to 10pm.
– You can also help Kendall get a “real cello” by contributing to the Go Fund Me Account here
– Kendall Ramseur’s Documentary
– Click here to check out his TIME CD on iTunes

Lighting the Night

 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” (Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:14-15)

In 1630, as the Puritans were traveling to America, John Winthrop proclaimed that their future community would be a city on a hill, a light for the world to see true Christian charity. Last Sunday evening, a group of us had a chance to step into Boston’s inheritance that John Winthrop spoke of.

Gathering at the gazebo in Boston Common, seven bundled kingdom warriors came bearing candles. We huddled together to strike the matches and set the wicks alight. Although the frigid night air swirled around us and tried to snuff our lights out, Christ Otto found a few discarded cups to guard the light from the harsh wind, and soon scents of hot chocolate and coffee wafted around us like scented candles.

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We tromped through the snow bearing torches of these Starbucks cups, feeling the crusty ice crunching beneath our feet. We tread confidently, carrying the same good news of great joy for all the people as the angel that bore the news of Jesus’ birth over 2,000 years ago (Luke 2:10).

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This was a different sort of prayer walk. Rather than the usual standing and interceding together, we found ourselves singing carols, declaring Christ’s reign in this place. “Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king!…Come and adore him, born the king of angels. Oh come let us adore him.”

What impressed me most was the number of people who came to us to ask what we were doing. Passers-by stopped their conversations to listen and take it in, despite our lack of practice and my mumbling of the lyrics. We were blessed by the joy on stranger’s faces and cheery calls of “Merry Christmas.”

We traveled to a street deemed the combat zone of Boston, known for its crime, prostitution, and drug trafficking. We spoke prayers aloud, then continued singing. A man on the street came up to us with a tear in his eye. “I don’t know when I have heard people singing Christmas carols before.” We stopped and prayed with him in the dark. He was touched by us, as we with him.

The thought came to me: This is the way it’s supposed to be. When Christ’s light shines, people come to see. They can’t help but pause from their hurried lives to watch, to listen, and to soak up the love that lights the night.

My friend Christ Otto told me later that this was one of the most significant evenings of his time in Boston. This says a lot, because Christ has been laboring in Boston for nearing six years.

And so we sing, holding up His illuminating beam in our hands and hearts, declaring the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. We band together, joining our distinct lights as one until the day when the city of Boston does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of the Lord will give it light, and the Lamb its lamp, and the nations walk by its light. (Revelation 21:23).

Yes, here we are, love lighting the night in Boston.Image

Boston’s “Quiet” Revival Gets Noisy

Basil Yarde has a unique “birds-eye” view of God’s work throughout the region as Director of Church Relations at Salem Communications. It was an honor to sit down with Basil to hear more about the spiritual revival and awakening that he sees.

At a recent New England leader’s gathering, Basil Yarde enthusiastically proclaimed that he has the best job ever. When asked to explain, he said, “I get to interview and see what God is doing all over the region.”

These past ten years, Basil has seen remarkable change among the spiritual landscape of the city: “When I came to the city, I knew that revival was coming, but people told me that I was crazy. They would say to me that Boston is God’s frozen chosen and that nothing happens here. And some of these same people are now saying the thing that I came saying, that revival is here.”

What indicates that the revival is here? Basil has seen a number of churches recently inherit huge parcels of land and large buildings. One is the ever-growing North River Community Church, which was built recently on 45 acres of land. The same thing happened with International Family Church in North Redding, who was able to get a large factory for half price (7 million dollars). Basil remarked, “When the Reebok people were building, they had no idea they were building for God’s harvest!”

In addition to this, here in the metro Boston area, several large Catholic churches have become home to smaller Pentecostal ministries and churches, such as the Greater Boston Vineyard in Cambridge. Youth With A Mission in Somerville recently acquired a massive 21,000 square-foot building in Somerville. Other churches are forming new sites to reach more people, such as Fenway Church, Grace Chapel, Pentecostal Tabernacle, and Alethia Church. He says, “All of these churches have a vision for souls – God is giving them barns to bring the harvest in. These churches are not pulling people from other churches, but rather being filled with new people that are coming into the Kingdom. For me, that is major proof that revival is here.”

Not only is God increasing the capacity of churches, but He is birthing dozens of new ministries in the city. Ten years ago, Basil heard about one new ministry every month. Now, there are three or four times that many popping up.

There is one vision of revival that stands out as prominent in Basil’s mind, a vision that God gave him when he first arrived to Boston: “The Lord showed me that people were walking down the street crying. They didn’t know why they were crying, but the weight of God’s glory was so strong that people were feeling remorse and wanting to repent. Rather than churches going out, people were knocking on church doors to get right with God.”

Personally, when I moved to Boston, I was inspired hear many groups of Christians believing for a large spiritual revival and awakening in the region. However, each time I left the prayer room I became discouraged in my neglect to see the answered fruit of these prayers.

Despite this, I believe that the lack is not on God. He is working; it just takes eyes to see. Through creative genius, He is birthing new ministries, increasing the capacity of churches, and reviving our city. It is only when we are able to have a bigger perspective not on us and our church but on God and His Church that we are able to truly detect the mighty workings of our King. Indeed, there is a monumental fabric of redemption and restoration that is being woven through the Greater Boston region.

The Church is growing…do you see it?
Boston’s Quiet Revival is becoming loud…can you hear it?
What is God doing in your midst? I invite you to post below…

-Kelly Steinhaus
UniteBoston Team Leader


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