Lets say you’re getting ready to graduate high school, or perhaps you graduated in the last year or two, and you want to go to a private Christian University like John Brown University….eventually.

But right now now, you’re thinking, “I want to get out there with people and make a difference. I’m not sure I want to jump right into college. I need a year where I can figure it out a bit more, and help people in the process.”

So, if this person’s parents are saying, “Hey, that’s great…but what if there was a way to get some real-life experience serving people, AND get some college under your belt?”

We have an answer, and it could be the most educational year of your life, and you ‘ll still get a good deal of college credit!

John Brown Univerisity has asked CQ Missional to provide a program site for theirLink Year program. We are one of 3 sites this coming fall. Kanakuk Kamps in Branson, and Camp Eagle in Texas are the other two. While we love the idea of students spending a year in a great camp setting, preparing for life, we believe that an urban setting like ours, doing youth ministry internships, taking classes, and helping real people in a real city like Tulsa will be very powerful, and a great investment.

Students will live in community, with hand picked Resident Advisors with a heart for ministry and great experience in helping young people, in a great dorm complex owned by our partners Literacy and Evangelism International. They’ll have a safe place to live, great ministries to serve with and learn from, and great classes and discipleship that we will provide. Also, they can get 15 hours of college credit from JBU for the classes we teach, which includes a Spring mission trip to experience another culture.

Want to know more, including our list of guest teachers and speakers? Check out our website at: www.tulsalinkyear.com!

We are so excited to get this rolling. Remember, as a not for profit ministry, students can raise funds toward their fee to us for the year, like they could for a mission trip. (And JBU will work with them for Financial Aid on the tuition part of their fees.)

If you are interested in participating, or assisting a student with their Tulsa Link Year fees, please contact us!

Where will we serve?

Will it be a good thing for our students to choose their own service sites?

Where are we each on our journey- after last semester started with our analogy at the Route 66 Diner?

Will there be Buffalo Wild Wings again?

How will it be meeting at the Green Country Events Center?  (one thing is that there is much more room for risk free frisbee throwing…)

Will Paula come on Tuesday ever, now that she’s a married woman?

What will we learn that will make this semester more powerful?

Will we still like each other like last semester?

Will we get college credit for GPS?

Are there new GPSers coming?

Will GPS be involved in creating and running the first East Tulsa Community Kid’s Day Camp coming in June?

Will we zip again?

Will anyone get fired from volunteering this time?

Will Grant continue to be a shotgun gaper?

We start finding out the answers to these questions and much more starting tomorrow.  Join us!!

ck

I stayed up late last night writing little notes on our year-end letter we are sending out to contributors to CQ Missional.  And, while we are  really a little operation, there were at least 35 contributors to this ministry last year, not including the support different people provided with their prayer, counsel, volunteering, and joining us as clients.

That is a humbling thought, and I looked out the window at my back yard on this cold day and said Thank You to God, who is the creator and giver of all good things.  We working at CQM say thank you also, to all of you who join us in this desire to help young adults discover their unique purpose, and to all our partners who believe that engaging service to our neighbor is something we were all made to do.

Our open house is coming up Tuesday, and I also got great news this week that we can pursue becoming the urban ministry site for John Brown University’s Link Year Program.  We are growing.

Below is a copy of our year end letter to contributors and to those interested in this work.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if we can be of any service or support to you.

Dear Friends:

With 2010 coming to a close, I wanted to thank everyone who has helped CQ Missional invest in many lives this year. In our first year alone, we were involved in coaching and counseling relationships with around 10 young ministry leaders on a regular basis, and saw the successful completion of our first session of the Certificate in Missional Leadership (our 10-month internship program) & GPS Tulsa (for recent high school grads).  I have included some thoughts and comments I’ve received recently from GPS students at the end of this letter.  Please pray for them, and the new students who will join us this spring.

New things for 2011 include:

• • Starting our own 501c3 non profit, making us grant-worthy for our community service work, and creating better communication avenues between supporters and our team. This will mean  contributors can give directly to CQ Missional, and we will connect with folks directly from our office here in Tulsa.
  • More GPS groups, a new CML internship program at Camp Loughridge that we run, and being an urban ministry site for The John Brown University Link Year Program  starting this coming fall.
  • Official partnerships with Camp Loughridge and Garnett Church of Christ, opening the door to new opportunities to invest in the lives of young people.
  • Adding more team members who offer vocational coaching and pastoral counseling for young adults-increasing our capacity to offer more of those services.
  • Continuing to enjoy the work we do!

All that is to say, as our year ends:

• Thank you for your support and friendship!
• Please pray for our work- that we might hear God’s voice and join Him in blessing people.
• Please consider making a year-end tax deductible contribution as much of our regular contributions are also being used to pay insurance, legal, and other costs of doing business.  Our goal this year is to get full funding for the Director Position, and provide funds for administrative assistant work.  We are at 50% at this time.
• Lastly- consider paying it forward by sharing what we do to other potential clients and contributors who may join us in this work..

We are doing our part to invest in lives, and help young people invest in more lives…
Some words about investment from 2 Corinthians:

He throws caution to the winds,giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out.

This, I believe, is supposed to be a defining characteristic of our story. We were created to contribute.  Thanks to all of you for working with us to contribute and see how God’s giving doesn’t run out.

You can send your year end tax deductible contributions directly to:
CQ Missional
1212 W Albuquerque Pl
Broken Arrow, OK 74011

God bless each of you.

Chris King
Director, CQ Missional

GPS Tulsa has proven to be a valuable experience for everyone involved-students, leaders, and their parents as well. GPS is about helping people discover the purpose they were made to live. Here’s some short  reflections from  our first students:

“Sometimes we might feel useless and unpurposeful but we are making a difference in peoples live whether we see it or not…sometimes we don’t see it though. All we think about is ourselves, we walk through our day thinking about the next thing we have to get done, the next place we have to go to, the next meal we are going to have…or how we are going to finance the next meal. We don’t realize the homeless people sitting on the side of the road-They have a life too. we are not the only ones on earth…

God put us all together to compliment and help each other.  to fit together as puzzle pieces, to help create one big beautiful masterpiece.  when we all come to this point of asking ourselves “is our existence necessary?” we should all ask ourselves “can one mosquito make a difference in a tent of sleeping people?”

“I graduated from a small highschool (TSAS), and alot of my friends moved away. Even the friends that stayed and went to TCC became more distant because we didn’t choose similar classes. College is so unstructured that it’s hard to make new friends in your classes (especially lecture based classes). Making new friends is something I’m not skilled at anyway. I feel like I have friendship (or at least something incredibly similar, perhaps community) through GPS.”

One seemingly “directionless” 17 year old closes our last one on one with this question:  “Am I doing OK?  How can I get better?  Do you think my path is a good one?”

“I don’t think we could make the impact, learn as much, or become the group we have become without the time that GPS gives us. GPS has helped me see God loves all people, and maybe I can try to do that too.”

“I love all of it.  Especially the people.  I would have never figured that this group of people would become good friends and trust each other.  I guess thats possible in other places as well.”

Good day everyone.  I am here to report that GPS Tulsa had its first session with 5 awesome students this past Tuesday.  We expect 2 more to sign up this week as well.  I have so much to say about our first day together, but if you want the whole scoop- we’ll just have to get together over lunch and I will give you the 3 dimensional deal.

1st United Methodist provided a great setting for us to consider some big ideas.

That being said- here are 10 observations (peppered with a few opinions) about our initial gathering:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. • Grant, Conner, Imran, Lyndsay, and Justin are beautiful people.  Knowing our students so much better now after sharing a road trip around downtown, and a meal together, just seals in stone the idea that they are unique and have a big time contribution to make to this world.  We like them.
                  • The team of Beth, Paula, Nathan and Mitch really provided fat support, and it was fun for all of us to come around these young adults with some love and food.

• • • • • • • We sat in front of the courthouse and talked about the question “what do you trust?”  A nice, possibly homeless dude named Nathan joined in our conversation.  His perspective on trust was helpful for us, and he liked having some folks to talk with.   The experience informed a discussion about trust, and value.
            • Sometimes it is harder to heat up lasagna than to cook something up fresh.  It helps if you read directions, especially if you are an aerospace engineer.
  • • • • • • Conner and Grant just met, but actually went to elementary school together and knew each other as kids.
• I am blessed to have great people around me.
• Our spot on Quaker Ave is just right for this (although a fridge would be helpful.)  It feels cool, the location is right, and students are comfortable there.
• This format of training, service, teaching and counseling is valuable.  The students are worthy of investment- and they will be investing in children in Tulsa all year long.  Cool.
• We visited two beautiful places in Tulsa:  1st Methodist Downtown, and Global Gardens on W 21st st.  They provided a great context to deal with issues of love, service, and responsibility.
• This is fun, but there is much work to do in creating stability for this experience- including getting all the students fully funded and expanding the community of people who invest in young adults discovering their unique role in God’s big story.

Remember you can contribute in all kinds of ways- we just are trying to provide one way to do that.  I am blessed to be a part of this.  We can still take students before Sept. 1.  Shout at me if you are interested at sendtochrisking@gmail.com.

More coming!

Someone once told me that ministry was building bridges to help people get from where they are to where God wants them to be.   Being a hack carpenter- building decks for my house that may not be the most sturdy or level, I know how inadequate I would be at building a bridge of any scope.  Bridges come in all shapes and sizes and accomplish things as simple as providing a way for a person to walk over a shallow creek (like the cool little suspension bridge on the back side of the island at New Life Ranch).  They can also be massive in scope and require unbelievable vision, resources, and energy to produce.

The other thing that is interesting about bridges is that in order for them to fulfill their purpose, people need to take responsibility to move across them.  The bridge doesn’t take people, or cars, or whatever, and move them from one side to the other.  It provides a way for the person to engage, to move forward under their own power, to get to the other side.  The bridge makes it possible- and yet the “bridge crosser” is responsible.  This is a beautiful thing in that a given in this equation is the ability and strength of the bridge crosser to make it over.  It’s the bridge builder’s responsibility to create a way across.

Bridges require people to give input at various levels in order to be constructed, right?  I can be the project manager, builder, purchaser, quality control officer, and HR dude when I make a bridge across a ditch in my back yard.  And a fine bridge it will be!

However- the bigger the bridge that I am involved in building- the less I am involved in the entire operation.  I am best operating in a specific role and trusting others to fulfill their own specific role.  Some valleys, or rivers, or spans require big time vision- and big time operation.  Might this be your bridge?

Or maybe this is the one that looks more like you:

What I know now is this:  getting in on doing ministry is a beautiful thing.  It is worth being thankful for.  And, there can come times where your purpose is  to build new bridges.

CQ Missional, and our educational projects the CML and GPS Tulsa are bridges.  They are designed to help people who are in a specific stage of life, with specific needs- move from where they are, to where God wants them to be.  Students in Tulsa looking for life direction, for a vocation, for some purpose, for some people to share this search with- get the opportunity to walk across the bridge of GPS Tulsa together.  We get the privilege of creating the context for this discovery.  By the way- this will be a blast to get going!  People who are young adults but a little farther along, perhaps they have graduated college, or have been working a job for a few years, get the opportunity to walk across the bridge of the CML together- serving a community, creating new life in neighborhoods, and taking a chance on their own vocation shift.

Right now we are putting together what looks like a foot bridge, the kind you can wear sandals while walking across, or even go barefoot in the process!  However- the span between where 1000s of 20 somethings are, and where they could be is huge.  I pray for wisdom and community to join in building the right bridge to help you adults figure out their purpose in life.  This is a Golden Gate type of need.

Whats next in the bridge?  Raise more scholarship money, raise awareness of how we can serve young adults, make more friends and offer real support to help our clients make courageous decisions.  In other words, keep moving forward.

I am thankful today to be a bridge builder.  What does your bridge look like today?  Are you walking across one?  Are you in the middle of building one?  What does Ministry look like to you?

ck

There are two voices I hear in my head.  They are similar to the ones described by Henri Nouwen in his book Spiritual Direction (and others.)

One voice says, “Make sure people are ok with you.  Be pleasing, impressive, and set yourself up to be loved and respected.”  Listening to this voice can set a person up to be a “hyphenated” person.  I’m a teacher-counselor.  I am a pastor-outdoor leader. I’m a worship leader musician- leader of a non profit. I’m a Christian-person of the world.  I am not of this world- very much a part of this world.

If you don’t like a part of me that is a big part of me, I usually have another part of me that should be ok with you.  This position in life can curtail the deepest fears that I may not be acceptable, lovable, worthy of relationship.

There is another voice I hear, and I hear it at times when I know it will be loud and clear.  These times include times where I listen, times where I engage the Bible, times in the wilderness, times when I observe the beauty of those I love, times when prayer isn’t asking for things- but is more about listening and loving.  Here’s what the voice says- “Whatever you do, stay close to the heart of God.”  This voice that calls me the son of God, the child of the loving Christ, the target of the Spirit’s support…. it resonates and informs the things I do, whether “hyphenated” or not.

I can work at our new canopy tour in the Buffalo River Valley in the context of staying close.  I can listen and counsel all the while I am staying close.  I am a father, a husband, a musician- who makes his choices staying close to the heart of God.

Friends- as we work together in exciting new projects like GPS Tulsa, ask me what voice I am listening to.  What about you?  Is there a voice that resonates with you as an image bearer of God?  Does this voice affirm your ability to create, to contribute? Or, is there a voice that keeps you on edge to “conform to the pattern of this world” by goading you to continually please, impress, or position yourself for success.  What do you do about that?

The late artist Rich Mullins brought me back to my original inspiration for a life based on being an image bearer of God as I browsed his biography last week.  He said- “We were created to create.”  I remembered seeing him play his music, with his friends who called themselves “The Ragimuffin Band”.  Their music was folksy, loud, emotive, and more meaningful than much of anything I had experienced in my life at age 24.  He sang of communion in a literal and figurative sense, he expressed to God that he was “shaking like a leaf” and never really had it together, and he thanked God for the color Green.

He sings: “And the wrens have returned and they’re nesting
In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been
And he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again
And the streams are all swollen with winter
Winter unfrozen and free to run away now
And I’m amazed when I remember
Who it was that built this house
And with the rocks I cry out

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green, the fills these fields with praise.”

Rich was created to create, and God’s creation always reflects its creator.

What were you created to create today- or maybe, this year?  May we help each other live in this knowledge and encourage the courage required to be a creator, and not just a consumer.

ck

We just had some of the CQ Missional Team over for some good eating and home made ice cream and we were talking about what it is we do.  We say we help people discover their unique role in making the world a better place.  I believe we do that in several ways, and thats good.  We believe that everyone has, as a created child of God, something unique and valuable to offer.  We believe in the people we serve- and we help them believe that they play a role unlike anyone else in history- and that is a beautiful thing.

The question that comes up, though, is huge.  Can people in their searching to discover “their thing” forget about what we would call in church “God’s general will” for people?  Is it possible that people miss the boat in their search and “journey” and forget that there is a way of living out of gratitude for what God has done- that is characterized by a life of thankfulness, taking responsibility, and integrity?

Tony Campolo was speaking to students and faculty at John Brown University when I was doing some adjunct work there and he asked students to fill in the sentence they would hear from time to time from mom or dad.  It went like this:  ”I care more about you than about what you do for a a living.  I just want you to be ______________.”

Whats the answer?  The crowd in unison shouted back:  ”HAPPY!”

True.  This is what we tell our kids, and what many of us have been hearing from those who love us most.

Tony, on the other hand, heard a different word from his mother, and in fact many of his classmates heard the same word.  It went like this:  ”I just want you to be __________.”

Whats the answer?  Students didn’t know.  His answer was:  ”GOOD.”

“I just want you to be good.”

Good people are humble, they know there is a God (and they aren’t Him), they look out for others, they stay married, they stay engaged in their faith community, they are nice, and they make a habit of telling the truth- even when its hard.  Not that they don’t mess up, or even do bad things… because good people are just, well, people.  But for them, goodness is a little more important than happiness, and contentment and joy flow from pursuing what is good.

Terry Ewing told me (among others) that people who seek after their own happiness first and foremost are the most miserable people he has met.  He knows- his counseling practice has been full of people who are hurting, and have sought happiness above all else.

So my question is, since we are in the business of helping people find “their thing”; Can people find their thing, their unique role and ignore general ways to live that have been prescribed for all men?  Can people really find their true identity, and not be true to an identity made for humanity,  first?

I have some ideas- but I’m curious what yours are…

ck

As we prepare to meet new students signing up for GPS Tulsa, and as this journey is taking me into conversations with new people and new friendships.  I am reminded of how much I enjoy getting to know people.  Each person (including you, Mr/Miss Blog Reader!) has such value and every story is interesting.  You are the only one of you, ever.  On a deeper level, as relational beings- we each long to be known.  So while I love enjoying new relationships, there are a few that have deepened over time in which I where I know my friend, and they know me.  I hear a song during the day, and I can text the title of the song to my friend.  My friend knows what I’m thinking and shoots back.  They get my jokes, and know my failures.  They accept me and enjoy me.    There are a few friends like this in my life who remind me through their love that I am known and that I am loved.  With their help, they have helped move me to a deeper truth where (in the words of Brennan Manning) I have accepted the fact that I am accepted.  As image bearers, we long to be known and when we’re not sure this is true, we live lost.

I want to remind you today that you are known, and you are not alone.  You are, in fact, completely known and people can give us a “dim reflection” of this beautiful truth that is much bigger than you or I.  Don Chaffer writes some straight forward words about his experience in the ground breaking solo work “You were at the time for love.”

And I used to bathe in tears at night

Cause I felt like I was on my own

I used to think I would never be

Completely known

I used to hold on tightly

To the sorrows that I owned

But they were all I knew

They had run me through

And they had left me

All alone

I used to pray every day

That God would mend what’s torn

Now I see the only way is to die…

To die…

And be reborn

I have finally found a way to live

In the presence of the Lord

- Don Chaffer “Completely Known”

Being known by another human being is a gift, its rare these days, more rare in our culture, and it resonates with our deepest image bearing self.

What do you think?

We have 2 unique opportunities that will help people and help CQM move forward.  We looking for:

A tenant to share small office space at the Quaker 4 plex where our Certificate students are living.  It is zoned for dual use, and one unit in particular will work well for small business space for someone who needs a quiet space in a very cool location.

Also- we have a space for new residents in a unit that can help offset the cost of officing there for CQM.  Its a chance for folks in their 20s who want to live in community, not expensive, and have access to great places to serve.

Folks in the Quaker House don’t have to be in our program- they just live as renters in this very cool place. This will allow us to house students, and access some good meeting space for 20s to gather, hang out, talk life direction.

No strings- just wanting good folks to be renters.

Its in an awesome spot- about 200 yards from Jason’s Deli right by 15th and Peoria (Cherry St). The owners want to support CQ Missional by being generous in offering their place up to us to fill it up with young people who love God, love people, and want to make the world a better place.   Its got a little pool and great deck in the back, close to Cherry St, Downtown, and River Activities- as well as beautiful opportunities to serve (the church 2 doors down serves free meals to the tulsa urban population every Friday).
Units are 2 bedroom (small) and there are washer/dryer hookups.

CQM people there as well as the owner of the property have a hospitable heart and will welcome new renters or residents.   This should be a great place to be this year. the address is 1430 S Quaker, Tulsa.

If you’re needing office space- it will be a good quite space to share with our leaders, making phone calls, working online, and having the occasional meeting.  If you need living space, this is a place where CQ Missional will gather in their 20s, and it will be a safe and warm place to live.

Let me know if you’re interested, and please shoot this to any friends who may benefit.   We hope to rent (and help the owners) space as soon as possible, and start basing operations here.

Questions?  Call Chris at 918-557-6128.