Dr. Tom Grassano

Follow Me and I will make you!

Christ said to His disciples, “Come, follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19, Mark 1:17). In this passage, we see the essence of mission of God through His hands in our lives:  Come, follow Me and I will make you!

Discipleship sometimes manifests the ugly before the beautiful. Christ-likeness is formed. Working out our salvation is a behavioral change. Our behavior will be significantly challenged as He makes us. This behavioral change is worked out through the choices we make in every situation. Thus, every choice is important, and the choices that lead us to the complete surrender of our lives into the hands of Almighty God will change our lives forever.

God is always moving. His purposes never cease! His desire is to keep His hands working in and through our lives at all times, continuing to mold and shape for His glory and pour out from us into the lives of others. As Paul said in Philippians 2:13, “God is at work in you to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

How then can we measure success? Simply allowing God to have His way in our lives, seeking Him wholeheartedly, being truly available and faithful to all that He has called us to do.

Don’t get off the Potter’s wheel. Let the Master Maker’s hands mold and shape and trim and prune as He who knows all things, knows best.

Remain in Him and He will remain in you. He will make us fruitful in every good work, and we will see His glory.

From Beethoven’s Diary

The following words were found handwritten in Ludvig van Beethoven’s diary, copied from Sturm’s book Observations concerning the Works of God in Nature:

“In praise of Thy goodness, I must confess that Thou didst try with all Thy means to draw me to Thee. Sometimes it pleased Thee to let me feel the heavy hand of Thy displeasure and to humiliate my proud heart by manifold castigations. Sickness and misfortune didst Thou send upon me to turn my thoughts to my errantries.”

Then this prayer appears, one which all of us can pray from our hearts to our Maker:

“One thing, only, O Father, do I ask: Cease not to labor for my betterment. In whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to Thee and become fruitful in good works.”

Worship

Worship is our response to God’s initiative of grace toward us.

He reveals; we respond.

He discloses; we respond.

He unveils; we respond.

He loves; we respond and love in return.

He calls; we respond and answer.

He leads; we respond and follow.

Worship begins and ends with God.

Your attitude of worship can turn any mundane task into an offering unto God.

Worship should really matter to you, because whatever you worship, you imitate, and whatever you imitate, you become.

Worship is not about us; it is wholly and completely about God. And the focal point of worship is the cross – the place of unconditional love where grace and merciful forgiveness flow freely.

True worship begins at the cross and becomes a whole-life response to God’s grace, greatness, and glory.

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.” (Romans 12:1 NLT)

Father’s Day

I recently heard Josh McDowell speaking about the “King of Pop” Michael Jackson. Michael is quoted speaking about the first year of the Jackson Five. Michael was only five years old. In a rehearsal with his brothers, he stopped to ask his father a question. “Dad,” he began. His father abruptly responded, “I’m not your dad; I’m your manager.”

Speaking in a graduation ceremony to 800 students in England several years ago, Michael began to cry. His tears turned into weeping, so much so that a student rose from the audience and brought a tissue box to the podium. Upon gaining composure, Michael stated, “All I have ever wanted is to be loved by my father.”

This Sunday will be a different Father’s Day for me. My dad passed away last July. I have so many memories leading up to this day of my time with him, his words, his laughter, his joy, his counsel, his teaching, pitching baseball almost daily in the back yard, learning to drive, riding bikes, walking together, listening for hours to my piano playing, watching classics like Hawaii 5-O, Gunsmoke and Wild Kingdom. I remember sitting on the floor outside his office door listening to him pray and prepare his sermons. I remember talking to him about being a husband, being a dad, being a minister and pastor, seeking his advice, listening to his words … I remember his prayers.

I give honor to this great man whom God used to form me, guide me, inspire me and cover me with prayers and Biblical direction. I give honor to this husband, father, grandfather, pastor, and leader. I give honor to my dad.

But I also think about the many Michael Jackson’s in this world, especially in the inner city where we focus our ministry. So many are like him. A pastor from Detroit recently told me about his teenage daughter’s friend coming home from school and staring intently at him. She eventually asked the pastor’s daughter, “Who is that man in your house?” The daughter replied, “That’s my dad. He lives here.” The friend replied, “I’ve never been in a house where a man lives there.”

This may be extreme, but not abnormal. Fathers are absent. They have disappeared from the lives of their children. More than 85 percent of children in the South Bronx are fatherless, and our government has aided the process by robbing from men the role of working and supporting their families. “We don’t need you to do that in poor communities. We will do it for you.” And men are reduced to making babies. And children grow up with a vacuum and a lack of understanding of and relationship with fathers. And the enemy of our souls takes advantage of it by screwing up their understanding of Father God.

Despite all of these things, these words are true: He is a father to the fatherless, and He brings the orphans into a family. God does this. Through His blood, His mercy and His grace, He repairs the wounds of father absence, neglect and abuse and heals the hearts of the wounded. He is faithful. He is loving Father and Healer, Friend and King.

Let us not forget that He chooses to be Father through us, His church. To what wounded soul can you be a godly man who points to the wonder and majesty of Father God?

On humble mission with GOD

One of the greatest lessons that we can learn is that we are on mission WITH GOD. When we get to wherever we are going, HE is already there! He is always working, always moving, always preparing, always sculpting a masterpiece for His glory!

God is always about His purposes, moving and working the things in our lives and the things around us to accomplish the plans He has foreordained in us and through us to make a mark in this world for His glory. It’s not about us; it never has been. But it is about us being faithful, holy and available when He calls to use us.

Are you ready to be used by Him in 2010?

Isaiah 26:8 says, “… Your name and Your reknown is the desire of our hearts.” If this were true in God’s church, nothing could stop us from turning this world upside down through the power of our Savior Jesus Christ in and among us.

I look and wait and long for the day when Jesus Christ reveals Himself however He chooses to the nations. I look and wait and long for the day when the book of Acts is reality in my nation as it is in so many places around the world. Like Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones, I want to be there to see it, and I want to be an active participant in whatever HE chooses to do around me and wherever He chooses to take me!

When your mission becomes God’s mission, then and only then can powerful, anointed and great things happen.

Let us not tie ourselves down to what is humanly possible in 2010. This could be our last year on earth. Let us be those who take the kingdom by force, who are unafraid of the Lion’s den or fiery furnace and stare it in the face with faith, vigor and an unshakable commitment unto death; who have the faith of a mustard seed to say to this mountain, “Be removed and cast into the sea!” and persevere until it is accomplished!

Let us be accused of turning our community, our city, our nation and the world upside down for Christ because He is worthy of our faithful commitment to live co-crucified with Jesus and walk under the power of the Holy Spirit in humble submission to the Lordship of Christ and passionate pursuit of the glory of God among us! As Paul said to the Ephesians, let us “lead a life worthy of our calling, for we have been called by God!”

O Lord, I want to be wholly Yours, completely surrendered, deeply grateful for Your grace, broken under Your mercy, faithful and ready for Your call.

O God, accomplish Your purposes in me!

Instructions from the Maker

(I heard this message recently, and felt compelled to share it with you.)

The Maker looked at the pencil and instructed it on five important things:

1. You will only be useful when you are in held in your Master’s hand.
2. You are going to experience some painful sharpening from time to time, but if you don’t, you will lose your effectiveness.
3. You are able to correct your mistakes. (All that has happened, all that you have done in your life, mercy has followed behind you!)
4. The most important part of you is on the inside. It’s what’s inside of you that makes you useful and a blessing to others.
5. Everywhere you go, you can leave a mark.  So give your very best.

Wallbuilders

Nehemiah was a wall builder. He saw his city in ruins with physical and spiritual eyes. He heard the voice of the Lord as He cried out to God. Then he went to the city, sounded the call and led God’s people to rebuild the walls of their city. They accomplished their task, with a weapon in one hand and a tool in another. The city was fortified, and God was glorified.

Robert Lupton’s book Renewing the City shares this story in narrative form. I share these words from this book with you. May the Holy Spirit speak to your hearts.

“The temple, rebuilt several generations ago, had been upgraded under Ezra’s leadership. Many original gold and silver vessels and adornments from Solomon’s great temple had been returned from the imperial treasury in Babylon, and he had inspired many Babylonian Jews to give liberally to temple operations. That was certainly important, Nehemiah told himself. But a temple huddling in a burnt-out city laid open to the appetites of predators, a city devoid of governance of elders at the gates, a city whose economy was little more than a haven for charlatans and loan sharks – what good was a house of God when there was no city of God to implement its beliefs?” (Emphasis mine.)

_____________________________________________

“And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins. You will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called the repairers of the breach, the restorers of the streets in which to dwell” (Isaiah 58:12).

Setting up Shop

I was blessed during our recent block party in the South Bronx by being reunited with one of the former drug dealers from our community.  I sat in The Harvest Center with him and his girlfriend, talking about their lives and what God can do. We wept as they wept over their pain, and we cried tears of joy as they prayed to begin a new start with Christ.  Another former dealer who has been clean and living out of state for several years is in the Bronx again and has spent time with me in prayer and discussing God’s Word and his destiny. God has filled my heart with love for him. He, too, is striving to make right choices.

As the girlfriend talked about how bad Johnny (not his real name) used to be, I mentioned how well he and the other drug dealers accepted us when we came to the South Bronx. Johnny said, “We didn’t have a choice.” I didn’t understand, so I asked what he meant.

“We didn’t have a choice because you set up shop on our block and you weren’t leaving.”

What a powerful statement about incarnational ministry in the inner city!  The streets of our community in the South Bronx have changed because, by God’s grace, people have changed. It started with someone “setting up shop” and, no matter the opposition, even death threats, not giving up. It took years, even eight to ten years, of patient endurance and unconditional love for some people to change. Transformation is not always overnight. But when it’s God, it’s real.

There are many more young men and women like these in inner cities around our nation. To see true change in our cities, the body of Christ must get out of the doors of our churches and “set up shop” on the streets of our cities, empowering chosen people to honor Christ, make right choices, pursue their destinies, and bring radical transformation to their own communities through the power of our radical, holy God who sets up shop wherever we invite Him.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

John 1:14

Hood Kids

Hood Kids

In my last entry, I shared about reaching our cities. I now share the words of Mimi Webb, a teenager from a tough, low-income neighborhood who shares from her heart the cry of many youth in the inner city in her poem, Hood Kids:

Hood kids but good kids

not bad kids, just neighborhood kids

watch mom shoot up and dad shoot bullets

and combat the words that scream I’m useless

I’m not

just hot

and mad at dad who split and mom who took him back

even though he split her lip the third time

I watch from the sidelines and grow full of hate

from parents’ guidelines

and you, pastor, push me faster to hate

taking our crumbs to fill your already full plate

your frock is stained

you mock the name of He who commissioned

cuz you’re more concerned with titles and positions

than the mission to save me

don’t forget the babies; don’t be so lazy

cuz I need you greatly

it’s not about parking spots and who pays a lot

but who gives [of themselves] a lot and who prays a lot

for me, the lost sheep

but nobody’s looked for me

don’t you know God made the Good Book for me?

but I need direction, some protection, much affection, not rejection

I . . . NEED . . . YOU

man of God, woman of God

Be of God

and keep your eyes peeled for real

we’re crying and dying but still trying

though momma ignores us and daddy abuses us

I’m sure that God still wants to use us

when momma doesn’t hug us and daddy slugs us

I’m confident that God still loves us

cuz I’m a hood kid, but a good kid

not a bad kid, just misunderstood kid

and I need your help before it’s too late

and I walk the same path that my parents made

look at us behind the chain linked fence

pain wrenched kids, such tainted kids

who were struck but never fainted kids

we live hellish lives but can be saintly kids

if you just try . . . TRY!

until then we’ll continue to die, continue to cry

the hood kids that no one really cares about

it’s so obvious that no one really cares . . .

___________________________

“Jesus saw the city, and He wept over it.”

(Luke 19:41

Rethinking Urban Ministry

I recently read an article written by an author with a burden for reaching cities. He shares about a week of violence in his city which included a high school student being gunned down at a barbeque, a hopeless mother throwing two of her small children off a bridge, and a distraught father in the process of divorce tragically taking his life and the lives of his three young children. Sharing about the urgency of reaching our cities with the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ, the author then makes this statement:  “Jesus calls us to go to our cities as home missionaries to reach the homeless, the hungry, and the addicted…”

My question is very simply this: How does reaching the homeless, hungry and addicted help the very ones in crisis mentioned in the article, of whom none were homeless, hungry or addicted? Yet, this is the philosophy that occupies the majority of our discussions about ministry in the city.

What about:

• Dysfunctional families

• Generational cycles of abuse and neglect

• Illiteracy

• Joblessness (In some inner city communities, unemployment is 35-45 percent. The unemployment rate in Detroit is now 23.4 percent.)

• Disease (In our community in the South Bronx, 25 percent of expectant mothers are HIV+. Asthma is rampant and tuberculosis is on the rise.)

• Inadequacies in educational institutions  (On the average, a 75 percent high school drop-out rate is present in the inner city communities of our nation.)

• And the greatest ill in the city, fatherlessness.

Yes, we must reach the homeless, hungry and addicted. But for change to come to suffering inner city communities, we must reach those who are not homeless, hungry and addicted, such as abused and neglected children, disenfranchised youth, broken families, single-mothers trying to raise their children in a hostile environment, the illiterate, the unemployed, and the many unreached immigrants God has brought our cities. The condition of our cities is worsening, and in the process, more young lives are being lost and forgotten.  We must think more holistically and not focus the majority of our energies and resources on one small percentage of the hurting populations in our cities.

We must listen to and serve those who are in the city. At a recent seminar, a suburban pastor shared about how his church was preparing to randomly bring sandwiches and used clothing to homeless in the inner city. They were taking initiative with a very popular and visible method of urban outreach, but the focus was not on serving a resident ministry established in the inner city for the long haul. Two pastors and one church leader who had worked in the inner city for decades stood and pleaded, “Please don’t. You’re not helping us.” Initiative is wonderful, but we must focus on serving those who have the wisdom and experience of years in the trenches of the inner city, honoring those whom God has called to affect change in the urban environment.

Compassionate outreach is an imperative in reaching the poor. True compassion empowers and propels urban citizens toward the fulfillment of their divinely-ordained destinies. Our 19 years in some of the worst communities in our nation have formed a theology of urban ministry that is devoted to community transformation. It is our desire to bring change one person and one family at a time, to penetrate the gates of hell with hope, and to send out a cry for others to live lives that refuse to maintain a distance from the reality of human pain wherever people are lost and hurting.

We must hear the hearts of those devoting their lives reach the hurting in our cities. We must be better stewards and not expend our resources and energies placing band aids on the cancerous wounds of the inner city. We must seek to employ strategic principles and methods that will work toward long-term change and serve those in the city whom God called and placed there as the “strong and graceful oaks for His own glory” that through them “the ruined cities will be restored” (Isaiah 61:4-5).