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

Noodles Aren't The Real Problem

You want to see something sad?... Go at the end of the month to your local supermarket and look on the aisle where they sell Ramen Noodles.  Chances are the shelves will be empty.  One might think, "Man, these items are popular!"  But when you look deeper into this issue, you will see that the cause is a little more worrisome.  People buy this because that is all they can afford at this time of the month. At the end of the month food stamps are low. If you get a monthly check, it is running out.  So for 39 cents you can satisfy your hunger.  The bad part is that Ramen Noodles are not healthy. Don't get me wrong! They are not like eating pure lard or anything. But in no way are they good for you.  They are high sodium and low in nutrients.  I am happy that people with low funds have a choice to eat.  Really what I am trying to say in this post is that the church and God's people need to be aware of things like this. Here are a couple of things that will help you serve your community.


1) Check the shelves in your community for one whole month to see if you can see when the greatest needs for food drives are.  Some states release food stamps all at once.  Some states issues food stamps based on the letter of your last name on a certain day of the month.  See if you are in tune with your community flow.  What if your church knew that from the 25th until the end of the month is when the hardest times for the people of the community. Won't that change things for you? Then instead of having a pantry full of processed food, you could have a food drive with fresh fruit and veggies for those days only. The rest of the month, you can give away the usual stuff.


2) The goverment has spent a lot of time to determine how much each family needs. So if families are running out then there is a problem.  The problem is usually mismanagement of funds or abuse of funds.  While there is not a whole lot you can do about the latter,  you can equip people regarding the first one.  Most people in my expereince who get food stamps will go to the store when they get their food stamps and try to buy all the food they need for that month all at once.  Some do this because that is the way their parents did it.  Generational poverty has a way of passing down those little habits.  Some buy once a month due to lack of transportation.  They don't know the next time they will get a ride.  If they could be taught to budget weekly and had a means of transportation, this would go a long way.  Families who seem to shop once a month will blow the leftover thinking they surely got everything they need.  They don't take into account for a visitor at dinner time, growing kids or food going bad.


3) Open your eyes - I wrote a couple of years ago about Jesus being a noticer. (http://mikep23.blogspot.com/2009/11/noticer.html)   Many times, caring for those less fortunate is all about caring enough to open your eyes and walk in their shoes. Recently, I attended a luncheon of an organization and during the lunch I heard all of the bad things that will happen to the people they are serving, if this organization does not help. Meanwhile, there are two tables of people that they serve hearing the outcome of their future, hearing the words of hopelessness that are coming across as pity, and hearing that the people they serve are a step below them.  If someone who had the power would have opened their eyes and noticed that even if this stuff is true, it might not be best for them to hear this.  Just have them outside for this part.  That's all it would take.  Step in their shoes. Don't prostitute the people you serve and the good you do just for a buck.

SO WHAT??????? Do we do with this!

Here are a couple of things:

Have people whose only role is to be a noticer. They walk the supermarkets. They walk streets. They walk the places that people in the neighborhood walk.  Their only job is to ask the question, "What would help people achieve heaven on this earth?  What can restore the kingdom of God to these people and this place?"

Be close enough to people that need budget classes that you can actually offer budget classes.  Be close enough to people that actually need a ride to the store in your community that you can hook them up with a person who could give them a ride.  Most churches/Christians would do these things in a minute  but the sad reality is that our churches are not in touch with these people.  This isn't a field of dreams where you can just program it and they will come.  You have to be in people's lives.

Train people to love and be with people not part of the church.  The church has attempted to be the police of the world's behavior instead of the light of the world.  We try to police people by our laws.  The Bible made it clear that we are foreigners in this world. Our kingdom's greatest laws are to love God and love people.  If the people of God would live by their own laws, our lights would shine brighter.  Which light will the people of God choose to be? Police lights flashing or a light house?  One goes a long way.