Going Public

This is a journal to document what God seems to be doing in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Lawrenceville. It’s really an account of what goes on—good, bad, and indifferent—so that we can all remember and celebrate after the fact. It’s a conversation on how to be a missional church as told from the trenches – not from a book or church-growth conference. There will be stories of success, risk, and failure. Most of all, it’s about generating prayer support, resources, personal connections, better ideas, and, hopefully, a great source of encouragement for all!

Catalyst Faith Community is an embryonic church plant out of a thriving congregation, Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community, on Pittsburgh’s south side. Catalyst is not going to be a Hot Metal clone, however. We are going to be whatever God needs us to be here in Lawrenceville. But many of the same values will apply: rich, radical community; loving the broken; getting out of the church and into the streets; and sharing in communion (the bread and cup, as well as meals together).

This Saturday, January 13^th, we will be hosting an art event called Cataclysmic: An Art Revival. It will feature the works of 20-30 local artists on display and for sale, live music, poetry readings, great food, and interactive art where anyone can join the fun and create something. It’s from 6pm to midnight at the Stephen Foster Community Center, 286 Main St., in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood. And it’s FREE!

We are doing this to connect with the many local artists and to create a community, family-friendly event that builds relationships and good will. As a fledgling church, we hope to generate a small group of people right here in Lawrenceville that might be interested in meeting over dinner to talk, listen, dream, and seek God for what Catalyst might look like.

In future days, I’ll go into how Jean and I got to this strange place (us starting a church in our mid- to late-forties is not far behind the strangeness of God telling Abraham and Sarah to start picking out strollers and onesies!) We’ll get into questions of doctrine and ecclesiology and such. But this is all about a party. This is all about Jesus, just hanging out with Matthew and the gang with no agenda, no seven-step strategy, and no business plan.

So, while you’re on your knees this week, please send one up for little Catalyst Faith Community. Pray for Jean and me (our furnace went out, our smoke detector is beeping even though we changed and then removed the battery – coincidence?). And pray for our party with the pierced, tattooed, college student, substance addicted, geeky, young and foolish, intellectual, gay, yinzer, old and foolish, artistic, democratic, punk, straight, unemployed, poetic, searching yet hopeful of Pittsburgh—and we’re expecting some guests to show up, too!