To Woodbine Family With Love

I left Nashville one year ago last week to move to Dallas to be with my love Heidi, for the rest of our time here on earth.  It was hard leaving Woodbine Family Church, I love preaching at that church. Sometimes I think I can't preach anywhere else because it would never add up to Woodbine.  In the past year, marriage has been great and I would do it all over again, but I still miss Woodbine.  My next 3 blog posts counting this one is about what I have learned in a year since leaving preaching.  This post i just wanted to share my last sermon at Woodbine with you.  Before this letter, I read an overview of a proposal for funds we wrote for a church in Nashville 9 years earlier. That proposal contained a history and vision of Woodbine Family.  Then as best as I could with tears flowing out of my eyes and cracking in my voice I read this letter to Woodbine Family with LOVE!!!! 

May 2012

Dear Woodbine Family,

Nine years ago on a hot July afternoon, you were born. The AC was out that day. As I look back, a lot has changed. The name(we use to be McIver Church of Christ), some people have came and gone, I will have come, gone, come, gone, come and gone again. What a surprise! Some things have remained the same. James Eubank’s height, our close partnership with YES, and our mission to be Jesus to the people of Woodbine. From the outside looking in: Most people see this lady being crazy and trying to feed and take care of everybody. A Wednesday night church service that gives the minister gray hair and tons of character. I don’t know what most people think when they see Michael Patrick, Robert Sutton, Jovian Hudson in a V-neck with his bike, Pede and Turtle. Toby Keith’s song about a bar might be the best way to explain us: We’ve seen short skirts, high-techs, blue collar boys (Josh McKenzie) and rednecks (John Schmidt). But on the inside, you see heart, love, grace. You see people that pray every day for their own kids and their church kids to become more like Jesus. You’ll see sacrifice and you’ll see people who give and give, sometimes without return. I am amazed at my church family, proud to be a part of them. About 7 years ago, a kid (Shane Schutt) left a picture in my car of him and a volunteer. I look over and saw this girl who caught my eye. I said man! It took about 15 months to wear her down, but I finally did. Then it took her 5 ½ years to ask. Just kidding! I am kidding. I really did ask her. So I have to leave to go see about a girl and her dog. But I believe you are in more capable hands. I knew when Greg and Kim became available, we had to have them here at Woodbine Family, even if it meant firing Kevin. Just kidding! But with Greg, Kevin, and now B-nell on staff, you will be just fine. They have a heart like yours. B-nell is more than a replacement; he is a brother. I wouldn’t leave my kids to just anyone. 

In close, I have two things I want to remind you of: 1) Fight for your dreams. Since the beginning, you have been a part of a dream. The best dreams are those that you are a part of, even when they are way over your head. A dream like eight college students starting a church. If I could give every kid and college student something, I would give them dreams that matter. We dream at Woodbine Family of college degrees, of kids breaking cycles, but more than those things, we dream of you becoming the person God intended you to become. We dream of drug-free neighborhoods. We dream of a world where nightmares only come while people are asleep and not while they are awake. We dream that you fight for your dreams. Satan will try to rob, steal and destroy your dreams. Fight for them! When I was 15, at the Urban Ministry Conference in Dallas, we sung a song called “One More Time” and in it, you would fill in the blank with a word that you were thankful God let you do “one more time”. I chose the word “dream”. God allows dreams for a glimpse of a better world. Growing up, it is all I had sometimes, those thoughts to be someone who mattered. When you’re a 7-year-old boy, running around the projects pretending to be a football star or a basketball star, in order not to have to face the way things are, the demons are reminders of a fallen dark world. But on May 22nd, 1996, I began to understand dreams differently. Not through the lens of hoping for a way out, but hoping for the life and world God intended. That is what we at Woodbine Family fight for. If you would ask me what I’m thankful for, it would be to dream one more time for the world he intended to create. Woodbine Family continues to dream, dreams like Carpenter’s Square. Carpenter’s Square is a dream about dreams – dreams of turning our teens into productive young adults, dreams of college degrees and making the neighborhood a better place. 

The second thing I would tell you is to follow Jesus. My life changed when I met Jesus. I knew of Him. I’d been to VBSs and maybe a couple of church services. But when I met Jesus, my life changed. In following Jesus, there are a lot of perks…forgiveness, which I need every day, is my favorite perk. Another perk is that it really is the best way to live. But when you follow and try to be like Jesus, that is when you are really living. But following Jesus is like a roller coaster ride. It is messy, because sin is messy. But it is nothing to fear. You actually look forward to your days. I know I fail miserably, but I try to follow Jesus. I believe Woodbine Family tries to follow Jesus, where love and grace are the rules, not the exceptions. I was really struggling with life at 21. My grandmother just died. I was heart-broken. I met up with someone and they told me if I wanted to succeed in life, you have to make everything about Jesus and make every day about a better relationship with Jesus. And on my best days, I do that. On my worst days, I do not. If you remember anything about my three stints here, I hope that my love and grace flows out of a love for Jesus and his people. My prayer for you is that you realize Jesus is closer to you than the blood in your veins. 

To Woodbine Family with love.

Michael Peters