I dream a world . . .

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Transitions are hard,
and sometimes difficult to navigate.

A few months ago I decided to move my Friday email
back to Mailchimp.
It was a bad decision.
People are being overwhelmed with email marketing.
My voice is just one more email in a lot of spam.
The Friday email list went into free-fall
I didn't change.
The method of communication has.

I have decided to come back to Substack.

Right up front, if you unsubscribed in the past few months,
feel free to do it again.
Please accept my apology.

I am using the version of my subscriber list from a few months ago,
and it was too complicated to merge it with the mailchimp list.
Please don't send me hate mail.
I have received a higher number of nasty emails lately,
I have to read them,
and then forgive the sender.

Be kind to one another.

When you are living in changing times,
you have to be flexible.
Learning to listen to God often forces us
to be flexible and adaptable.

For instance,
God asked me to go to New York City twice in the past two weeks.
Some of you might think this is a new thing,
but New York has been part of my story since the
late 1980's.
Back then I felt called to plant a church in New York
through the North American Mission Society
of the Episcopal Church.

A lot of stuff got in the way,
and my own brokenness and the brokenness
in my denomination
were a poisonous cocktail.
That plan got derailed.

And this morning,
I was prayer walking Broadway and Times Square,
and walking down streets I have not walked
in thirty years.
God led me all over the world,
and I was transformed and changed.
I went all over,
only to come back home.
I am a very different person
than I was thirty years ago,
and the old hooks
from the past are gone.
This is what it means to be in an
endless process of becoming.

In our daily prayer meeting
we pray for four cities,
New York,
London,
Jerusalem,
and Hong Kong.
All four are cultural centers of influence,
and all four are places of contention.
Each is in a unique battle over
who will control the arts, information, and media.
There is a war for the cultures of the earth.

I dream a world where the artisans
overcome the powers of the nations
to bring God's people to despair.
Imagine if every artist,
writer,
playwright,
musician,
designer,
and financier
were disciples of Jesus Christ?

I dream a world
where the voting box is an afterthought.
I dream a world where cities
are centers of the culture of the Kingdom.
It has happened before in New York and London,
it can happen again.

On Sundays I have been doing a series on the Image of God,
and this week I will be teaching on Jesus the Master Artisan.
Come if you want to have your mind expanded.

Thanks for taking the time to read my work.
I am grateful.

He Never Fails,
Christ