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Wednesday, Jan 18
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DEVOTIONAL: “GOSPEL GROWTH IN 'SAMARIA'"
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Back in the days of Duos (a coffee/ice cream shop located in the now Century 21 building), I was at the counter getting ready to order my usual hot tea when I heard a voice behind me say, “I’ll buy the tea of a church planter.”
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That’s how I met Patrick Ray.
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Patrick was in Waverly visiting his brother, KWAY broadcaster, Matt Ray. But while Matt was in broadcasting, Patrick had felt called to church planting since his childhood years. At the time I met Patrick, he was single and helping with a network of house churches in the Twin Cities. But within a couple years, he not only got married, but shifted to doing a church planting residency at a different church, with the dream to plant a church in North Minneapolis.
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Many of you know Riverwood has been supporting Patrick and Shelby for the past 5 years. When Patrick shared with our Elder Team about their efforts, our response was unanimous - we wanted to be a part, even though Patrick’s neighborhood was vastly different than ours.
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North, the neighborhood the Rays live in, is extremely diverse racially and linguistically. It is also a neighborhood plagued with violence. (To understand how violent: https://bit.ly/CNN_North22)
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You could say North is about as different as you could possibly find from our tiny section of Iowa while remaining in the U.S.
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Here is how we view Patrick and Shelby’s efforts: The North neighborhood is in our “Samaria.” In the days of Jesus, Samaria was a region north of Jerusalem filled with a biracial population (half-Jew, half-Gentile) worshipping with a modified version of Judaism. Most “good” Jews avoided the area. But the people there clearly mattered to Jesus. Not only did Christ travel through the region (see John 4:1-42), he specifically told his followers to go there (Acts 1:8). It didn’t matter the people were racially and religiously different. They mattered to God, so they should matter to Jesus’ followers.
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And so the people of North matter to us because they matter to God.
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- For Patrick and Shelby’s physical, emotional, and spiritual safety
- For Patrick as he leads Northside Neighborhood Church
- For residents of North to find and follow Jesus
- For peace to come to the neighborhood through the gospel and ministry of Northside
Feel free to open your Notes app to write down a thought or two from today's reading or write out your own prayer.
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Send Patrick and Shelby an email letting them know you prayed for them today. Patrick’s email is [email protected].
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