From www.batesline.com regarding City Counsel Candidate Blake Ewing’s decision to accept a contribution from the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, and then pass it along to a local non profit making a real difference (he chose CQ Missional..which is way cool….):
“I was pleased with his decision to give the $1,000 to a non-profit, an organization called CQ Missional, a Christian organization that “helps people discover their role in making the world a better place.”

In an email, Blake wrote of the group:  ”Their aim to grow leaders out of young adults in Tulsa is something I’m also passionate about and I’m eager to see what these future leaders do for our community.  It’s one thing to serve at the point of need. It’s a whole different thing to train and empower young adults to be outwardly focused and intentional about serving their community. I believe in this organization and am proud to share the $1000 with them. The long term impact they could have on the city of Tulsa and the world around it is too amazing not to support.I love the idea that they are training people to impact their community. They are helping to form a new generation of leaders and servants, dedicated to changing the world. I wish them safety in the journey and pray that their nets be full and their compass true.”

GPS has had a great couple of sessions this semester.  However- we were supposed to have met 4 times so far and be into our service project- a great afterschool art program at Cooper Elementary.  But, because of snow-smockolypse (which I have honestly loved, even without four wheel drive), we’ve had to adjust.  Adjusting, flexibility…. its all good!  Since the kids wouldn’t be at school today- Counselor Rita gave us printouts of the students’ goals and aspirations which we read and got to “know” them at bit.  Some of the highlights included the fact that this elementary school will be producing an incredibly high per-capita rate of future veterinarians, many of whom will be holding down jobs as teachers and doctors as well.  One student who we are sure to love stated that his goals were to learn to read weird symbols, and (sort of a footnote…) he wanted to live forever.  Cool.

After our “one way get to know you session”- we went over to Cooper and shoveled off their bus waiting area which was full of old snow/ice and there wasn’t anyone available to clear it .  It went fast, and the 0 degree windchill was almost fun.  Here are some pictures below.  Our theme for February is “Made to Create” and that will fit in quite nicely with the 21 excellent elementary students we get to walk beside for the next several weeks.

A big thanks to the Nathan Weber family for their support in monthly meals, and to our friends at Buffalo Wild Wings on West 71st St for their support of the work of GPS.

ck

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.”

Before our hike to Big Bluff on the Buffalo River

I think the phrase above means it is something that is difficult to do.  Not sure.  However, one thing I am sure of is that it is a difficult thing to measure growth and positive change when you’re in the moment.  Most of our “learns” and our ways of articulating “what God taught me” or “what I figured out” are retrospective.  Most of the time for most of us our ability to get our minds around something that has changed in us sounds like:  ”I didn’t know it then, but now I see that_____________.”  Or “I lived like I believed this thing was true, and now looking back I see that I was changing, that perhaps God was changing me.”

Working with young people (our GPS group is ages 17-20) who are in the midst of a personal and directional upheaval is great fun, and meaningful for me.  It is also hard to measure progress outside of the increased open-ness, overall level of smiles and laughter, and occasional new insights that our people bring at the times you least expect it.  We are a group of very different people- who are growing to like each other very much- that is evident.

But regarding growth, effectiveness for our people, I wish they would give me more.  Right now.  I want to force the learning.  I want to force the change.  I want to be the Holy Spirit and get inside people’s heads and hearts and help them to see truth to the point of complete “ah ha!” moment.

I am not good at this techinque.  As a matter of fact, even though I try to force the change in people here- I resent it when I see others do it somewhere else.  It bugs me when we give tons of energy to creating “God moments” rather than gathering and celebrating the ones that are happening all over us all the time.   I suspect the people I judge for being in the God business, who seem to be forcing change and shoving stuff down people’s throats would judge me too, when I try to manipulate people through other means to get them to change.  Actually, I bet they would laugh, because the attempt is feeble.

On my good days, however, I just help our people help others, and ask them a few good questions.  I share a scripture, quote, and/or story, and expose them to other people who understand their place in the world.  When we do this, great things happen- and I don’t always get to see it, and I am sure many who experience those great things will not even know how to articulate what has happened until after the fact.  Sometimes it will take years.  I am ok with that.    (More and more every day!)

What does all of this have to do with “catching lightning in a bottle?”  Well, I have comitted that we will do our work, and give students a chance to reflect, and be good with whatever they reflect back to us.  If they don’t give us a bunch to work with regarding a verbal or written reflection of “growth” or “change”- its all good.  We still love our people, and do our work.  God is big enough to use it all- and we trust that.  Some of our people love to work out what they’re learning in discussion and writing.  Some of them tend to shut down when asked these types (What are you learning?) of questions in an organized fashion.  Yet, you get them one on one the change is obvious and they share all kinds of good stuff that is honest, real, and reflects growth.

Their growth is also reflected in just how they approach people and situations on a practical level.  We can see it- sometimes they can’t- just yet.

So, with all that being said- I’m going to share some November thoughts from students over the next few days.  They might be things they wrote down, or things I heard someone say.

I can’t change people.  We can’t catch lightning in a bottle.  We can provide people with a space where change can occur, and is occurring whether we know it now or not.

We appreciate your support and are looking forward to finishing up well this fall, and hoping for more groups in the spring.

ck

gather round the coffee table for the "informal" learning circle!

Today we go on our first GPS Tulsa fall retreat- a trip intended to involve camping, but may in fact involve cabins (more on that after we return) because we are experiencing our first freeze warning of the fall.  I’ve heard that all the best families camp.  Its because when you camp, nothing ever goes as planned.  There’s not enough space for all your stuff, the weather isn’t what you expected, dad snores, and sometimes you wake up looking a skunk in the eye about 2 feet away (this happened to me back in the day- spent the rest of the night sleeping on top of a state campground picnic table).

Really what happens is a great opportunity for adventure, and all the possibilities that can be birthed from it.  A retreat that has elements of adventure (meaning- we’re going to do this thing, and we’re not exactly sure how its going to turn out, lets try it!)- is a great chance for a group of people to put to test a great quote from our friend Parker Palmer:  ”If you can’t get out of it, get into it.”

Stuck out on the trail, stuck in a car with people you don’t know that well, stuck on that zipline, stuck overlooking that beautiful valley, stuck believing its time to tell the truth because you trust these people, faced with a choice to “live in the light”  as John says in the Bible…. well, it doesn’t all sound difficult or terrible.  But, when we create space to engage our identities as image bearers of God- and live out as creators and contributors with a group of people trying to do the same thing, something great happens.  We face points of choice.  We see God and each other in new ways.  We tell the truth, and hear truth with more mercy than is normal when we are engaged in our self absorbed busy life.

This is the beauty of retreat.  This is the beauty of committing to a group of people over time.  This is stuff God uses to alter our direction, and create memories that influence our future.  This is stuff worth getting into.  (cause once you’ve signed up for it, you can’t get out of it.)

(Kinda like life.)

Here’s a few learns from our recent experience.

• Service makes us feel like saviors who rescue the broken, while Justice means God does the rescuing, but often he works through the united power of his great and diverse community to do it.
• The goal of service is to help others, but the goal of Justice is to remove barriers so others can help themselves, and look to a Savior with little obstruction.
• Everybody is normal till you get to know them.
• Our group would never choose to hang out together on their own merit- but now their gathering produces more laughter and goodness than I would have imagined 2 months ago.
• 3600 lbs of bikes to the metel recycler is a lot of jacked up bikes.  They get heavy.
• Our past influences us greatly- and every part of it can be used by God to make something great in us.
• Grant wants to work at the zoo.
• People older than us have something to teach us.
• Conner needs a compass (or hard wired GPS in his body.)
• Its fun helping people, together.  The people we help have something to teach us as well.
• There is great value in commitment.
• Everybody has a kite they’re carrying around, that is your gifts and experiences.  When you use your gifts that kite tends to take off, and everyone around gets to see and enjoy the flight of it.  When you keep them to yourself, carrying that kite gets a bit awkward and cumbersome.
• Imran plays a mean version of “Sweet Child of Mine.”
• Dinner together is important.
• People are very helpful when you are trying to find a lost teenager deep in the city.

Please continue to pray for us- that our students and all the people we work with come to believe and live out the mission they were created to live.

Cause- if you can’t get out of it- you gotta get into it!

ck

This was the word from a good friend this morning.  He asked how we’re doing (we meaning my family).  I said, “Really good.  The financial challenges have been hard- but everyone is doing great overall.”

Then he said it- “Persevere.”

Hang in there.

Don’t give up.

If you know its God’s deal- keep going, do whats right.

While you might get discouraged- don’t stay there, there’s more adventure around the corner and you won’t want to miss it.

Persevere.

The more you hang in there, the more stories that will be told and the more stuff to be thankful for.

Don’t forget why you did this in the first place.  Remember who you are.  Never forget who God is and how His love and care for you is bigger than what you know.

Don’t be afraid to express your weakness.  Apologize.  Ask for help.  Build alliances.  Be honest.  Keep it real.  Say no to the job when one competing for your time is related to you.  Say yes to the one life you have to live.

Persevere.

Live it well.

Remember that side stitches work themselves out over time.

Remember that uphill leads to a summit that precedes some downhill sweetness.

Remember that going against the wind may not have a flip side today (like a hill climb) but there will be another day when the wind is at your back.  Thats a great day.  Enjoy it.

Persevere.

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

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