Story:
What's LIFE-LIFTING got to do with it?

You want me to do what? Our culture primarily sees the glass half empty. That's not a new notion for some of us. But, for those who visit our churches what is it that they see when they enter our church culture? Do they see people who see that glass half empty or half full? A year ago our leadership team began imagining a new culture of what we call "life lifting." How do you build something? By building it! First we began by defining what life lifting is. Those who have adopted this new cultural word have become life lifters. See, life lifters build on the bright spots. Instead of asking ourselves in our evalution of sunday morning service, "What went wrong?" We began asking ourselves, "What did we do right?" Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with the first question. However, we began to notice the momentum of the latter. As a result, our thinking has shifted in our thinking and in how we tackle complex challenges that we face in ministry.To borrow a concept from Andy Stanley, "Limitation drives innovation." We've choses to see our "limitations" as launching pads for world changing ideas in the context of church work. Our ministry base is in the inner city. Therefore, we face challenges of all sort from kids who are being neglected to youth who are gang bangers. How do we treat the gang bangers? Do we see the gang banger half full or half empty? Well, because we've created a new culture we see them as potential world changers. Because of this life lifting value that we have we no longer tell gang members "get out the gang," instead we say "don't get out the gang-JOIN a new one!" This value has transformed our lives! The innovative dynamic is that this value is reproduceable. We've began a city wide movement where other pastors and leaders are catching wind of this and are now incorporating it in their very ministries. Life Lifters build on the Bridge Sports!