new city.

"You made my deserts into gardens; you made my ashes into beauty."

My friend, mentor and boss, Creighton Alexander, is in the building stages of a new ministry for young adults in Kansas City called New City. The whole vision is to create a transformational community of worship and mission that seeks to make all things new.

The prayer of this new ministry is adapted from Isaiah 61: "Jesus, Pour out Your Spirit upon us, Anoint us to bring good news to the poor , To bind up the broken-hearted, To proclaim freedom to the captives and release to prisoners, To proclaim the year of Your grace, To rebuild the old ruins, To raise a new city out of the rubble, Through Your love, make all things new."

Over the past week, I've been reading this prayer over and over, and longing to have this be the prayer of everything I do. Shouldn't every ministry be about being transformational? Shouldn't we be bringing good news that does something? Every moment, can't God use us to create something of whatever rubble has fallen around us?

The truth is, as much as I long to believe that through God's love, all things new can come, there are days when I can't even bring myself to have hope about even the stresses of my own fairly comfortable life. What is it that makes us forget about God's power to transform? What makes us so afraid of our own power? There is a poem by Adrienne Rich where she writes, "We are scared shitless of what it could mean to take and use our love. Hose it on a city, on a world." I for one, am tired of being afraid. I want this prayer for newness to be my prayer. Not just "on the job" in ministry, but in every moment.

There are a few songs inspired by the psalter that keep running through my head, which I feel are calling me towards a hope I often forget: "You turned my deserts into gardens, you turned my ashes into beauty... into my blackened branches you brought the springtime green of new life." So the questions I'm asking tonight are: where are the deserts in my life? Where are the ashes in the lives of those around me? What ruins are calling to us to begin rebuilding?

As I wrestle with those questions, please leave me your thoughts about the places you see needing transformation.

And, in the meantime listen to some of that powerful music of the psalmists. You can find some of my favorites here: http://www.entertheworshipcircle.com/