Transitions

For many people change is a curse word.

The fear it.

Run from it.

Hide from it.

I embrace it.  It is a reality and inevitability of life as well as growth. However, just because I like change does not mean its always easy.  Specifically those large transitions in your life that change everything.

Today is a rough day because the realities of the current transition and coming change have befallen me.  Where as my wife will struggle and mourn the changes once they have happened I struggle and mourn long before the changes actually occur.

I love the church we are leaving.  I love the people, the leadership, and the vision.  Over the past three years (specifically the last year and a half) we have shared intense brokenness and healing together.  We have shared frustrations, joys, heartache, and much ridiculousness.  It’s hard to just walk away from that, even if it is following the call of God on your life.

As I finish up at Revolution, doing my best with the ministries I am involved with and helping in the transition of new people, I also am looking ahead to New Orleans.  I never knew how overwhelming it could be to be in the middle of the two worlds. On the one hand you have the realities of New Orleans.  Obvious facts like, the city is different since we left, most of our friends are gone, we have no place to live or jobs to make money, and then we have the exciting but complicated and time consuming process of beginning a community center and possibly a church launching out of that community center.

Couple that with the realities here in Southern California, namely, not being around family and friends as often, walking away from a ministry that you know God has used you in ways you didn’t even think possible, finishing strong, and the odd sensation of helping plan for a future that you will not be apart of.

It is all of these things that for some reason have all come crashing down on me today.  It will all be fine, I know that in my head and heart, but today I mourn the transition because I need to.  I need to wrestle with the pain, fear, doubt, and loss that accompanies change.  If I don’t how can I move forward with the excitement and passion that is lurking deep within?

So I guess I leave you with this, transitions and change are not the end of the world…

but today, for me, it kind of feels that way.

Until next time…

An Announcement!

Well my blogging fast is finally over.  Of course I am 13 days late in breaking said fast but I needed to wiat for a few things to happen first before I broke my fast with our announcement.  So here it is…

Leanne and I are planning to move back to New Orleans. While leading Revolution’s annual mission trip to New Orleans during the first week of July, Leanne and I were overwhelmed with a call to return to a city we’d left almost 4 years ago.  After much prayer and fasting by us and many others, it became clear that we needed to take a giant leap of faith and commit to an unknown calling in a city that we care deeply about.

When that decision was made in early August, we only knew two things. 1. We were going back to New Orleans and 2. We felt strongly it should be near the beginning of 2010.  Other than that we knew nothing.  We had no idea where we would work or live.  Nor did we know what specifically we were being called to do in the city.  All we knew is that we had on overwhelming sense that we were supposed to go and serve the people as best we could in ways that would meet their tangible, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs.

Although we still do not know where we are going to live or work, there are a few exciting things that have become clear to us that we want to share with you.

1. Leanne is going to (once again) pursue graduate level studies in Community Counseling.  This is something that Leanne began before Katrina, but was forced to put on hold after the storm.  Leanne has never lost her passion for making a difference in urban areas and now, as we get ready to move back, it appears that God’s original call in this area wasn’t wrong…it was just preempted.

2. The Center – Having a job is one thing.   Having a call and purpose are entirely different. Last weekend, Leanne and I felt that God finally unveiled his purpose for our lives in New Orleans.  A community center.  A community center that targets kids, teens, and adults of every background, socioeconomic status, and education level.  A community center that lives out what being “missional” is all about–going into the community to be the hands and feet of Christ by meeting the needs of the people.

This is obviously not a small undertaking…let alone something either one of us knows anything about.  It is a God idea- something that we fully believe is from Him, but we want to be sure.  Which is why we are asking you to pray for continued clarity and direction.  We want to ask you to pray for us about this and give us your honest feedback.

We want what God wants. Period.  So as we begin to move forward, it is important for us to have people praying for us every step of the way.

Please pray for….

• Vision, Clarity and Wisdom.
• The time frame in which all of this is happening.  We don’t want to move before God wants us to move.
• Location of our future home as well as a site for The Center.
• Fellow workers who are committed to the city to be called alongside us in this endeavor.
• Financial provision/jobs
• Provision for Leanne’s schooling.  God began to answer this prayer four years ago, so we are confident He is able to do it again!
• Comfort for our families, friends and church family we are leaving behind.
• For Bella’s purpose in all this to be evident as well.  God gave her to us for a reason.  We want to honor Him with her.

Feel free to email Leanne and I with any questions, thoughts, and encouragements.

So there you have it!  As we move forward Leanne and I will both be blogging this process, and you know me, I’ll always have the random blogs thrown in.  We thank you in advance for being there for us.

Ready to see what God will do,
Christopher  and Leanne Lytle

Christopher@revolution242.com
562-505-8302

LeanneLytle@gmail.com
562-484-4852

I have a responsibility

I have a responsibility…one that is not put on anyone but myself. The responsibility is to bring people’s attention to the realities that still exist in New Orleans as the entire area continues to try and rebuild.

Already, I know that some will have stopped reading this post…which makes me sad and angry…because I have to ask the question why? Why have so many moved on? I think its because people do not understand the realities. Right now we have a team gutting a house, feeding homeless people, and doing a VBS…all in an effort to not only help people rebuild…but to help them overcome and give hope when so many have been so deeply scarred by the experience…especially the children.

I want you to take a look at this trailer for a documentary called Katrina’s Children. I want you to understand the realities that exists because that is the responsibility I have. The need is overwhelming and it has been almost three years. We have moved on, but so many have been unable to…which is why I ask you to continue to pray and help in whatever ways that you can.

Thanks to Kim Bechtel for bringing this documentary to my attention so that I can share it with all of you.

Revolution will be leading another trip the week after Christmas. If you are interested it’s never too early to sign up.

Until next time…

NOLA Mission Trip – Day 3

Day 3

I’m going to try to make this a little shorter than the previous 2 days because, quite frankly, it’s late and I’m tired.

Today went really well. VBS was good this morning. Our team heard a couple of stories that really helped give us a glimpse of what life is like for these kids. One child, Calin, lost his mom just 4 weeks ago. He’s 7 years old. We’ve all noticed him being very clingy and affectionate with us, but now we know why. Please pray for him.

Karina was feeling well enough to come with us today, so she was able to be there for the VBS. However, by the time VBS was over she was starting to get that worn out day-after-the-flu feeling. Since I had to get a tetanus shot anyway, we dropped the other 3 girls off at the house, went to get my shot (we went every direction except the right one to get to the clinic, by the way), then headed over to the BBC office to see if they needed any help. We weren’t there for more than 10 minutes when I got a call from Arthur (the Volunteer coordinator working with the other 3 girls) saying that, (1) Heather stepped on a nail, so you know the clinic you just went to? Yea, she needs to go now…and (2) The dumpster still had not shown up at the house and we can’t do anymore work until all the stuff we’ve already knocked out can come out of the house. So that was the end of house gutting for day 2.

It worked out really well, though, because we were able to come back to BBC and play with the kids for a while before heading back home a little early to shower and take a quick tour of the Garden District before Kati, Paul, the Petersons and the Homs joined us for some of Ray’s famous Shrimp Pasta.

After dinner, we all sat around the living room and heard Paul’s “Katrina story”. Not only did Paul grow up and live in Gentilly (a neighborhood demolished by the floods), but he was in college at the time at Tulane University, so his story has some different elements to it. We also got to hear the story of how he met his fiance shortly after returning from the storm. For a group of girls, that was a great addition!

At 9, we broke for a few minutes so our team could officially do a short debrief so everyone was free to go to bed. Jessie’s been having a lot of problems sleeping this week. She’s very literally exhausted and needs to sleep more than anything else right now. We prayed over her and her bed and we haven’t seen her roaming in or out of the room yet, so my (our) hope is that God is showing himself faithful to our request.

A few of us took a quick trip out to Morning Call in Metairie for Beignets, then I took a liberty as the leader and driver of the car and swung by my adopted Mama’s house to wake her up (as I usually end up doing when I come to town) and say hello. I can’t come to this town and not at least see her for 5 minutes.

Now everyone is sleeping but me and I’m very quickly heading in that direction. Thank you to those who are reading these (very long) updates and keeping us in prayer. The team is really starting to function like a team and I’m really proud of us. I look forward to seeing what God does in the next few days in the girls and in the people around us. Keep praying!

Until tomorrow…

Thank You, Please Stay

As promised, below you will find the videos from our Murder Mystery Volunteer Appreciation Night. The staff of Revolution had a ton of fun putting this together and our volunteers appeared to have a blast. Thanks to Dave Gaw as always for the video editing. i will be posting a slide show of pictures sometime soon.

The first video is the fake newsreel.

The second real is the actual silent movie.

The third video is our thank you.

Enjoy!

“Thank You, Please Stay”

Next weekend is our Ministry Appreciation Dinner.  This years theme is a murder mystery and it’s going to be awesome!  The setting is a 1927 silent movie premier…of course that means we had to make a silent movie.  Here, are a few pictures from the Movie starring Jenny Platt, Devon Delozier, and stunt double Christina Walker.  After we premier the film I will make sure to post here on my blog for the world to see.

Silent Night, Scary Night

Yesterday Revolution held their Christmas services at 2 different locations welcoming over 900 adults and children.  In the 8 years I have been active in ministry I have never been  apart of such a unique Christmas service.  For those of you that came, you know exactly what I mean.

It was awesome!  The people that came to both campuses were challenged, entertained, and had a whole bunch of fun as they watched a 30 minute production a 15 minute teaching film and some rocking music.

The production that was written and directed by my friend Evan was intense to say the least.  At times it was like watching Trainspotting.  For 30 minutes you see this guy, who has basically lost his marbles, kidnap 3 different individuals to find out the truth of Jesus was.  There was rope, gags, blindfolds, screaming, gunshots…yeah not your typical Christmas production…but it all served a beautiful purpose and ending.

Next week we finish up our Christmas series “He Will Be Called” and I again am lucky enough to be able to do the teaching film.  Then in January we begin our brand new series QT: Learning to Slow Down in a Frantic World.  I am looking forward to this message series a great deal and I think it is the perfect way to kick off the New Year.

All that said…I hope everyone out there has a great Christmas.  God Bless.