Category Archives: Atlanta

When God Changes a City – A Prayer for Atlanta

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Here is a prayer that Renovation prayed together at our gathering last Sunday at the end of the sermon “When God Changes a City,” preached from Acts 19:1 – 35…

God I pray too safe, and believe too little. Would you help me to pray dangerously? Would you help me to pray foolishly? Help me God to pray in such a way that when that which I have prayed for is accomplished, there will be no doubts that God and God alone has answered. And that God has visited us in a unique and significant way.

With that Lord, I pray for a city wide renewal, so powerful that it rivals the great awakening! I will not be satisfied with less. I pray that those confused about what they believe would receive Jesus, and be filled with the Spirit.

I pray that racial, social, economic, and educational barriers be broken down, and that from Atlanta, all the nation would hear the good news of the gospel. I pray that You would do miracles God, and I’d see people healed holistically. I pray that Jesus name would be made so great that people would come in off the street, confessing their idolatry, and destroying their idols.

I pray that the economic systems that support trafficking, pornography, strip clubs, drug abuse, and all the idols that plague Atlanta would be shut down and irrevocably altered. And I pray that the places that house and host them would close forever. I pray that places of false worship would cease, and that those who oppose the gospel would be riotous because they don’t know what else to do to stop the change it’s causing.

God, I pray that you completely and thoroughly change my city…I will not be satisfied with less. Let it be here, let it be now, let it be us. In Jesus name, amen.

Movements vs. Organizations Part 2

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Christianity started as a movement of men and women who were so compelled by the words of Jesus that their lives were overtaken by them. They DWELLED on LIVED, SPOKE, and DIRECTED every nuance of their existence by those words, and do you know what happened? Inside of a century Christianity grew from 12, to 120, to 3,000, to millions throughout the Roman empire. In fact Historians like Wayne Meeks say that by 300 A.D. nearly half of the people living in major Roman cities were followers of Jesus! How does this happen? Did it happen because they had incredible programs, beautiful facilities, or incredibly talented staff teams? Did it happen because they had full funding, dynamic music, and creative environments? No, it happened because they believed so strongly in who Jesus was, and His word, “Make disciples of all people,” that it permeated every facet of their lives. When the “visionary” left, His vision, a world reconciled to the God that created it, did not. That’s a movement! The question I’m left asking myself as I lead Renovation Church is this, “what would it look like to catalyze a movement rather than maintain an organization?” My hope is that you would ask yourself the same.

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Renovation Church-Preview Service’s Oct. 31; Nov. 21; Dec. 12

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What if there Were a Church That…

….was willing to admit they don’t have all the answers

….believed you can know God

….had the same questions about faith and life that you have

….existed to serve and love our city

….met real needs in our communities

….valued diversity and equality of all people

Would you Come?

What to Expect on Sunday

  • Passionate worship in song
  • Practical Jesus-centered preaching
  • Prayer
  • Communion

On Sunday mornings you can expect Jesus-centered, age-specific ministry environments for your children, as well as nursery care for those 2 and under.
Children are important to us and they will be served well through Renovation Kids ministry.

The Preview Series

In one week, October 31, 2010 at 11:00 A.M. Renovation Church will gather for the first of three monthly preview services…and you’re invited! Come and share in the grace of Jesus, in whom all hope is found. For these three monthly gatherings we will do a short series entitled “In the City, for the City.” This series will present the heart of Renovation’s reason for existence, which is to love, live, and serve in the city for Jesus’ glory and Atlanta’s good.

Directions
We will gather at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School located at 545 Hill St. SE, Atlanta GA 30312.

Traveling from South of Downtown on I-75/85
Take Exit 246, Fulton St.
Turn left at Fulton St. SW
Continue onto Glenwood Ave. SE
Turn Right at Hill St. SE
King Middle will be on Your Right

Traveling from North of Downtown on I-75/85
Take Exit 246, Fulton St.
Keep Right at the Fork
Turn Right at Fulton St. SW
Continue onto Glenwood Ave. SE
Turn Right at Hill St. SE
King Middle will be on Your Right

Traveling from East of Downtown on I-20
Take Exit 56B, Windsor St.
Turn Right at Windsor St. SW
Take 2nd Left onto Fulton St. SW
Continue onto Glenwood Ave. SE
Turn Right at Hill St. SE
King Middle will be on Your Right

Traveling From West of Downtown on I-20
Take Exit 58B, Hill St.
Turn Left at Hill St. SE
King Middle will be on Your Right

 

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Mwen Se Atis-Bringing Beauty from Haiti

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This summer Audrey Jones spent several weeks in Haiti, working toward the rebuilding and revitalization of the country….but more importantly, its people. In the camp where Audrey worked there were some 55,000 people, 13,000 of those being children. These families gripped her heart deeply, so deeply in fact that she will return to Haiti soon to continue to love and serve this camp community with creativity and beauty through art. Tonight she is hosting a show here in downtown Atlanta that will bring to life her experiences in Haiti, and the love she has for the people there. If you are in the “A”, I encourage you to attend, and be gripped by this look into the human soul and it’s ability to persevere through tragedy. Friday, September 24 from 7-10p.m in the Mattress Factory Lofts[300 M.L. King Jr DR SE]



WHO BELONGS AT RENOVATION CHURCH?

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This is the latest post at the Renovation Church Blog by our exec. dude based on what I taught/we discussed last night as a launch team. Please Read

by Matt Burlew on September 20, 2010

Last night at our launch team gathering we discussed Renovation Church’s identity as a city church of Missionaries Like Jesus- a church in the city that offers the grace of God in Jesus Christ to all comers. Who can come to Renovation Church and who belongs at Renovation Church? We always look to scripture for our answers and in scripture we see that the grace of God is offered to the Weak, to the Ungodly, to Sinners, and to Enemies of God.

Romans 5: 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

It is a great lie that only “good people” go to church, that only “good people” should be in church, that one must be “good” first to come to God, or to a church. It is a lie.

The passage above lays out how God worked and is working today. God sent Jesus to die for the weak, for the ungodly, for sinners and for His enemies. In a bad relationship, God made, and makes, the first move.

Matthew 9:10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

There are no “good people” in any church anywhere.

At Renovation Church, we strive to be Missionaries like Jesus in the city of Atlanta. We strive to befriend, love, care for, and welcome those who recognize their need for a savior because we recognize this need in ourselves. Renovation Church is made up of the weak, the ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. That’s our default as human beings. And we cannot reconcile our lives to God without Jesus. Jesus made that reconciliation possible and He invites the weak, the ungodly, sinners, and enemies to himself. Jesus always does the work and his work is always effective. Our work to make ourselves “good” is always ineffective.

So who belongs at Renovation Church? Who is welcome and invited? Abusers, and the abused, liars and the lied to, cheaters and the cheated, thieves and victims, skeptics and religious bigots of every color, class and age.  The very same kinds of people that Christ spent time with, healed, changed, died and was resurrected for: the weak, sinners, the ungodly, his enemies. If you are one of these (and who isn’t?) you belong and are welcome. Christ has done and will do the change in our lives and reconciliation with God that we cannot- and that without the merciful of grace of God we would not.

Christ makes the weak, strong, the ungodly, Godly, the sinner, clean, the enemy, his friend.

Phillipians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Welcome.

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Not For Sale-Sex Trafficking in Atlanta

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Would you sell your daughter for sex? I am assuming if you are reading this blog, probably not…but, there are many in the city of Atlanta who would  and do.Craigslist, Backpage, and others like them are site’s routinely used to buy sex from children… young girls under the age of 18, and it has to stop! Men can go on these sites and shop for girls as though they were shopping for a new set of golf clubs…I use golf clubs as an analogy because statistically in Atlanta the largest concentration of men seeking to pay for sex from children are those in the North Metro area of Atlanta(A Future. Not A Past, 2010), outside of the perimeter, where the greater majority of this cities wealth resides.

Statistically:

North Metro OTP-42%

ITP-26%

South Metro OTP-23%

Hartsfield-Jackson Airport Area-10%

7200 men knowingly pay for sex with adolescent females each month in Georgia

(A Future. Not A Past, 2010)

It seems the wealthy, moral suburbanite’s are the primary purveyors of this heinous crime….Atlanta stand up and get involved. Go to http://www.streetgrace.org/ and get involved somewhere.

Church, stand up! Our God is a God of justice, and if you don’t believe that, then you don’t know Him. Fighting this is an implication of the gospel, and the mission of God to make right the brokenness of this world in Jesus. This has to end…

Movements vs. Organizations

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A few month’s ago this was posted on Atlanta’s 11 Alive news site:
ATLANTA (AP) — Civil rights icon Andrew Young says he has little use for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization he once worked in alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Young says that then, the SCLC was a movement and Dr. King resisted the idea of selling memberships. Infighting and allegations of financial mismanagement are threatening to undermine the social justice group co-founded by King in 1957.

The group is headed to court on Wednesday. Young says the fight is over an organization — not a movement — and that he is not interested in organizations but would be glad to support a movement.

“Not interested in an organization,” says Andrew Young…neither am I. In fact, most people are not interested in organizations…but movements are a different story. When Dr. King founded SCLC it was a movement. A band of brothers and sisters fighting against a common enemy, injustice, and standing for a common cause, the rights, justice, and equality of all men…as promised in our constitution. But what happened? How did this great movement deteriorate into an organization better known for mishandling money, scandal and in-fighting than they are for what they once stood for?

This happens when the vision of the visionary dies with him, or begins to be altered so severely that it can no longer be distinguished from the rhetoric that replaces it. Soon the vision that catalyzed the movement is relegated to writing on the walls, in pamphlets, or on websites, while the trajectory of the movement changes, momentum slows, and an organization then becomes immanent.

I am desperate for Renovation Church to be a movement in the city of Atlanta. One catalyzed by a clear vision, and carried by committed people. It is so easy to lose sight and become an organization instead of a movement, just look at Christianity itself! Though Christianity is now, at least by most accounts, considered an organization…it didn’t start that way.

7,200 Georgia Men Buying Sex with Children

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This is Taken from directly from the street grace website:

“A recent undercover study found that 7,200 Georgia men knowingly sought to buy sex with a child in just a one-month period.

This alarming statistic along with many others will be released tonight on Channel 2 Action News at 5 with Jovita Moore.  She will report on the latest demand study results that will let you know who is buying our children in Georgia.

Not only do we want to restore our children who are victims of sexual exploitation, but decrease the demand with the ultimate goal of eradicating this atrocity from our communities.”


Please support the mission of this organization, and get in the fight against this horror taking place in our city. These are not just statistics, these are people. Fight for justice!

Amos 5:24 “But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”