Trashed

This is an example of our lives before Christ.

Can Epic Life buy this building? We are pursuing the possibility of making this a reality. It has been a three year process, from a dream, many questions, many closed doors and then having them opened when God was ready. Please pray with us as we enter into new conversations with the owners.

The vision of Epic Life Church: “We envision North Seattle to be transformed by finding an epic life in Jesus Christ.”

This vision draws us to invest in Aurora Ave. North and to see the Church of Jesus Christ grow and flourish along Aurora Ave.  We are intentionally investing in the community in many different ways as we reach far into the marginalized communities along this vastly diverse corridor looking for different ways of sharing the Gospel.

Over the past two years we have dreamed and pursued the possibility of purchasing one or several of the Motels along Aurora and transforming them from houses of corruption to houses of beauty, creating a place for healing and redemption. Historically these motels have been a hot bed of drugs, prostitution, sex trafficking, and the like. We have sought after this vision with great care as we follow God’s leading. We have sought out much counsel and invested much time in research and prayer. God has been directing our steps to move cautiously yet faithfully confident.

After many options have not lined up over the past two years we have come to a crossroads of action where we strongly believe God is calling us into an actual purchase of one motel.

It is ugly, trashed and used.

Can you say, “Transformation?”

What a testimony to a Savior who changes people’s lives. This building is such an example of a life sometimes… trashed, used, abused and unkept. It had once been new, clean and shiny, welcoming new-comers to Seattle, now it sits…trashed.  I believe it can be recreated and given a new life.

This will be a place for community and life. Rooms to live in and a place for a pushing church planting movement into the city.

If you information on the project please leave a comment or email me directly.  keith@epiclifechurch.org

We will be talking about the project on Sunday at Epic Life Church‘s Sunday gathering.

Prostitutes on Aurora

I have recently learned some information from the Seattle Police North Precinct about the prostitution on Aurora. In the past few years prostitution has been decreasing in numbers of “walker.” There has been a concerted effort to clean-up the Avenue, which supposedly has lead to a lesser number of ladies on the streets. But recently the numbers have risen. Estimates have said there are 40+ walking ladies on the North Aurora corridor, who move up and down this stretch of historic Highway, and the numbers are growing.

A few months ago I heard a popular talk radio host, Ron of the Ron and Don Show, tell his audience of 300,000 + listeners that there are no “walkers” on Aurora any more. Well he’s wrong and sadly his listeners are now thinking the problem has been taken care of. (I like listening to the Ron and Don Show, by the way and usually there are some great thoughts and discussions on the show.)

My thoughts on this have been growing as I discover some of the sad truths of what is actually happening on Aurora and around Seattle. When I moved to Seattle two years ago and found God directing my path to start a church on Aurora, it didn’t take long to begin noticing the same girls walking the same blocks. Taking a tour of the underground of Seattle we learned that Seattle use to have quite a prostitution problem down town and somewhere around the time the World’s Fair came to town the city moved the prostitution out of the city, north and south on Aurora. The tour leader told us that the prostitution still exists on Aurora because of that move.

Then we learned more about the motel situation on the Avenue and the drugs, alcohol, homelessness and prostitution being supplied from these old rat trap motels. Now the city has closed the worse four trying to cut the crime, the calls for emergency personnel and the nuisance in the neighborhood.

Now the prostitution problem is growing, according the North Precinct and the lesser known issue of sex trafficking (link, on world trafficking) along with it. All right in our back door. Sounds like it has been around for quite a few years, like 5,000.  Maybe the growth of the street ladies is in direct proportion to the closing of those four motels.

But there is a bigger picture here than a problem…these are lives, human lives being consistently and methodically destroyed. All of these women were little innocent girls at one point with no dreams of becoming something to be used, but wanting and dreaming of being a princess who would be cherished and loved. And through the years, “The enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy…” John 10:10 An he has done just that in so many lives.

“…But Christ has come to give life!” John 10:10. So this all comes down to my thoughts as of recent.  ”What can I do?” I wish I could just spend some time with one of these ladies and share with them the beauty that life was suppose to be and that there is a way out of this “career” of brokenness.

Maybe it is time to buy an hour and a cup of coffee and talk. Maybe my wife and I could do something more than see and shake our heads in sadness. Maybe Epic Life Church can make a difference in a woman’s life. Maybe…

Mural Unveiling

Tomorrow, 10.16.2010, 10am, we are going to have a “Mural Signing” event at the incredibly colorful mural that we got to be a big part of. It’s located on the North Park Grocery south wall on 103rd & Aurora. We got to take the wall from this…

 

Blank Wall

 

To this…

 

New Mural on North Park Grocery 103 & Aurora

 

And looking at it from the walking bridge it adds a lot of color to the neighborhood.

 

Mural looking north from the walking bridge

 

If you remember in a blog post a couple of years ago I talked about God’s vision in which he showed me that we were bringing color to a colorless place. I look at this mural see only a fulfillment of a three year old vision coming to fruition.  What a blessing to get to be exactly where God wants us, bringing color, life and transformation to a city.

Worshiping In Diversity

This past Sunday at Epic Life was so sweet! The power of God’s Spirit is amazing and the place I get to journey at this particular moment of my life is phenomenal.

There is nothing I am about to write that I mean to be disrespectful to anyone.

This month’s series at Epic Life is “Three Men Who Blew It and Made A Comeback, and One Who Didn’t.” My intro in the Journal is here.  We are speaking on the lives of John Mark, Peter, King David and Solomon and each Sunday will be from a different speaker. I spoke this Sunday on John Mark and told the story of a young man who ran away but was restored by God.

The Spirit moved and even though it was a Labor Day weekend we had many in the service, including several from the streets, many from international communities, families, singles, old and young.

As I finished up the message and Averi brought in music on the keys I told everyone that it is time to Stop running, Drop to our knees and repent and Roll – Turn back to God and follow after Him. He is always there to forgive and has, in fact, already done so. He will restore us.

Recently our Family has been expanding with several men and women from the streets who have the propensity to talk back while I am speaking from the stage. It doesn’t bother me. I just figure they must be paying attention because most of the time what they are saying out loud has something to do with the message. (Not always though). This week I offered prayer to who ever wanted to join me in the front. All of our homeless friends came forward along with a few others and we, (Jeff, David and I) got to pray over each of them. They smelled of alcohol and a lack of bathing, but they did step forward, a couple to repent, another to ask for prayer for someone else, another for prayer as she enters rehab.

So here’s my big prayer! I am praying that we as Epic Life will be able to exemplify the beauty of the Acts 2 Church and have all things in common with ALL the believers. I am praying that we never become like the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:20-22) who didn’t even share their wealth during communion. I am praying that we are able to break bread together: rich and poor, learned and unlearned, old and young, from every ethnicity, every language, every socioeconomic level, and every spiritually mature level.  I pray that joining us on our knees in the front of church repenting will be all of these people together, side-by-side, without judgement. I pray that this work the Spirit is doing will draw people to Christ and not scare them away.

I know that what happened this past Sunday was scary for many and way out side of their comfort zones, but it was so beautiful!  And, I praise God for counting me worthy to experience it first hand, to see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears the full family of God. If you are reading this and you are part of the Epic Life Family, be Bold! See beyond any selfishly focused motives and judgments. Be humbly confident that God has placed you in this place at this time for his purposes and you get the amazing privilege of being in the front lines of something completely remarkable.