Missionaries Wanted

Sun Ministries is looking for dedicated Christians that feel called to the mission field of America. This is not a clergy only position. Ministering in the desperate places in America requires all kinds of gifts and skills. Perhaps God is nudging you to take what He has gifted you with and dedicate it to building His kingdom.

If you think this might be the case, just submit the simple form using the link below. We will send you a list of available positions and locations along with an explanation of how you can get involved. Some positions are part time and some are full time. Some require the missionary to raise support and others can be done as a volunteer.

Today is the Day to answer the Call.

Click here to apply.

Virtual Volunteers

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. When it looked like the country was heading toward lockdown I began to think about how that would affect our elderly and at risk neighbors. We knew that many of them had very little income or support network. Some relied upon public transportation. What was heading our way would be very difficult on many of them. How could we respond?

We met with Alderman Brandon Bosley, Committeewoman Lucinda Frazier, and Linda Primer to discuss some ways we could help. We had staff on the ground but connecting with the at risk was the hard part. Going door to door was out of the question. The solution that was birthed out of this necessity was the concept of virtual volunteers.

The Alderman provided us with a phone list and we recruited people to work from home calling the at-risk in our neighborhood. We have now called about 1200 phone numbers. We are providing care to many as they shelter in place. Our missionaries on the ground are delivering groceries and doing minor emergency repairs like fixing roof leaks.

As the pandemic moves along and people struggle to embrace a new normal, we too are looking at how things get done. We are currently brainstorming other ways to volunteer virtually. Much of the country has ground to a halt but the needs of people have only increased. Use the link below to sign up as a virtual volunteer and help us meet needs during this trying time.

Click here to sign up to volunteer!

How do we plant faith communities?

Sun Ministries plants faith communities by operating in eight core values

Properly structured and functioning church leadership - God has designed the church to function in a certain way. This way is defined in Scripture and must be followed. A return to this design is the fundamental first step of reformation.

Sacrificial attitude towards money – living a moderate lifestyle. Jesus said you couldn’t be His disciple unless you sell all of your own possessions. He also says you can only serve one master.

Building the Sacred assembly – no unbelievers in the worship gathering. The most dominant and unbiblical corruption of the modern church is that unbelievers are allowed in the worship gathering. This practice is not supported in Scripture. Correcting this error is foundational to restoring the sacred assembly.

Believers working in their spiritual gifts. The church is designed to function on the basis of spiritual gifting. The only way for the church to function by design is to teach and lead every disciple to operate skillfully in their God given spiritual gifts.

Spiritual Warfare praying  Prayer is the key to living a victorious life. Spiritual warfare praying is the key to walking in the Spirit and obeying Christ.

Manifest power, presence and leading of the Holy Spirit  The New Testament emphasizes the spiritual dimension of the Christian life. The disciple of Christ is empowered to walk in the Spirit. Knowing and understanding spiritual gifts, prayer, and spiritual warfare enables the disciple of Christ to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Discipleship for personal consecration and spiritual freedom. This core value highlights the need for spiritual transformation, sanctification, and maturity. As we fulfill the Great Commission we bring people to maturity in Christ. This process frees them from sin and their past and leads them to find their Ephesians 2:10 works.

Love. Without love, everything else is meaningless. Jesus said the world would know we are His disciples by our love for one another.

So how do we live out these core values? We start with disciples making disciples in obedience to the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20. As we gather around this core mission we find that the focus of the congregation stays on serving the world. This is the core of the Christian faith. Be a disciple, make disciples and serve others in love.

The Church@HydePark is the result of the leadership of Sun Ministries making disciples and teaching them to make disciples. We help these disciples rediscover God's design for the operation of the church. As other local churches are planted by Sun Ministries both across North St. Louis and the country, we will unite them in service to each other and the world. We are facilitating the launching of a movement. No denomination, no clergy class, no consumer mentality. Instead, we see a movement of unity based on service led by spiritual gifts making disciples that make disciples.

Sun Ministries' role will decrease as each faith community is established locally. In Hyde Park, you will see Sun Ministries' visibility decrease as the role of the Church@HydePark increases in service to the community. Sun Ministries will continue to work in the background training, resourcing and empowering the local faith community. This frees the leadership to work to establish new faith communities in other areas. This is where we find ourself in 2018. We are ready to work to plant new faith communities in new areas.

Planting Faith Communities

As we've stated in the last few blog entries, Sun Ministries is focusing on what we've always wanted to do: make disciples and plant faith communities.  The Church@HydePark is the first faith community planted by Sun Ministries. We say planted because like a seed we will nurture it and help it grow. Modern Christianity in America is largely an institutional endeavor. The New Testament contains no instructions for establishing an institution over the church. It does contain ample instruction on how the church should be organized, led and operate. We are looking to help people discover the organic and mission oriented nature of the Christian faith as instructed in the Bible.

Sun Ministries supports the leadership and provides resources to stabilize and establish the local church. Then Sun Ministries releases the faith community to pastor the community by sharing the Gospel of Jesus and meeting the needs of those around them. Sun Ministries plays an ongoing leadership role by promoting unity through service among the local faith communities.

For many years we have referred to those supported by Sun Ministries as “Missionaries”. We did this because without a local faith community it was hard to put what we were doing into generally understood terms. We are no longer using this designation. The staff of Sun Ministries is simply spiritually gifted leaders who have dedicated their whole lives to the vision and mission of Sun Ministries. Our goal is to plant faith communities that operate on the basis of spiritual gifts under biblical leadership and function by God's design. In order to facilitate that we must start with spiritually gifted leaders who will equip people for the works of ministry. These leaders are the staff of Sun Ministries.

The New Opportunity Center Expansion

The facility that will replace the Penrose Project is located at the corner of 14^th and Salisbury. The first stage will be to finish the garage at 3624 N. 14^th. This will house our woodshop, maintenance services, rehab and auto repair shop. Phase two will finish the lower level of 3628 N. 14^th where we will relocate The Second Chance Bazaar. Phase 3 will bring the sewing center into the building. Phase four will add the audio and video recording studio.

There is no time frame for completing this project. We are still recovering from the damage that was done to us. We invested two years, hundreds of man hours, a considerable amount of money, and our reputation into a project that was ended outside of our control. We also realized the need to focus on making disciples and developing faith communities. We will spend 2018 rebuilding our relationships with volunteer groups and our supporters. There is a lot to do.

Our goal is to focus our energy on the core businesses that allow us the flexibility in our schedules to do what our mission and name declares. We are first and foremost a ministry.

If a business is not accomplishing our vision and mission then it does not serve its intended purpose. This is the conclusion we have come to regarding Sun Cafe. Sun Cafe has become the most visible expression of our ministry. Some people even refer to us as Sun Cafe and not Sun Ministries. This is not what we want to be known as. We are not a restaurant. We have also concluded that Sun Cafe has not moved the mission of Sun Ministries forward in proportion to the effort, management time, and cash required to operate it. So we have made the decision to permanently close Sun Cafe.

Upon completion of the Opportunity Center Expansion, we will have all of our core businesses operating out of our own facility. We will prioritize adding alternative energy sources to the building to lower our overhead. This will give us the lowest possible operating overhead and allow us to operate with as little management time as possible. It will give us new tools for empowerment and the operation of our core mission. We are ready to plant more faith communities.

Moving Forward

We had embarked on the Penrose Project because it was an incredible opportunity. The building would have been an impressive resource, we could stabilize and expand our businesses and offer all kinds of empowerment for the community. And then, after two years of labor, networking, and promotion, we got the letter from the city that they didn't own the building and were immediately cancelling the lease.

We have suffered greatly due to this error. Our reputation has been damaged. We have alienated financial supporters. Our relationships with volunteer groups were damaged as we had to cancel at the last minute, leaving them no place to serve. We lost revenue from our woodshop. We incurred debt and spent thousands of dollars on obtaining the building. Most importantly, we did not get to add the Art and Technology Center to our community. Instead, the building is used as storage by the City Treasurer's office as it sits and deteriorates. What could have been an incredible community asset will instead sit and continue to be a blight on our neighborhood.

The result of these events over the last two years have caused us to re-examine how we approach our work in the city and the businesses we run. Sun Ministries is going back to basics. We have wandered off track a little. Our good intentions to build the community and form beneficial partnerships did not take into account the greed, corruption and incompetency that has led to the current conditions all around us. We firmly believe that God is doing a great work in the inner city and we are called to facilitate that work.

We know our primary function as Sun Ministries is to plant faith communities that operate by God's design. These faith communities will rebuild the inner cities of America. We cannot do this in partnership with the government, people motivated by greed, or people looking to control our work or control those in our community. We want to see unity in our community and these things can never achieve unity. They are fundamentally divisive. They bring their unholy motivations into everything they do.

Sun Ministries has had a rough year. We are turning the corner as we move into 2018. We are refocused and ready to continue planting faith communities that are united to serve by showing the justice, mercy and love of Christ to the world. We plan to do this by multiplying disciples that live under the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. We have already been doing this through the Church@HydePark.

Today we are announcing that the Opportunity Center expansion will still take place. It will happen in a building we already own. It will take a little longer to accomplish but it will happen. Once it is finished we will have an incredible tool of empowerment in the Hyde Park neighborhood. The goal is to concentrate on our core businesses and the tools we need to fulfill our mission. The complex will house an expanded woodshop and sewing center, an audio and video recording studio, our second hand store, our maintenance services and rehab operations and give us space for the Opportunity Garage.

What will be missing from this version of the project? There will be no space dedicated to community use. This facility will be for our use. It is unfortunate, but the facility is not as large as 1901 Penrose. We really wanted to facilitate that kind of space but we are not able to do that in this building.

What happened to the Penrose Project? Part 2

In order to complete the lease of the property, a law would have to be passed through the Board of Alderman and signed by the mayor. The bill was submitted by our alderman and passed through the board vote. When I got the paperwork, I noticed that the original proposed lease document had been passed and signed. I asked why they changed their minds only to find out they submitted the wrong bill. They quickly submitted a repeal and replace bill (Board Bill 304) which included the correct version of the lease with the shorter term and oversight board requirements. That bill also passed the Board and was signed by the mayor and all required parties.

We were full speed ahead and very excited. We had hundreds of volunteers lined up. It was spring break time and the weather was cooperating. All we needed were the keys. We insured the building, as was required by the lease terms and asked for the keys. We were told it would only take a few days. We started working on the outside of the building. We were cleaning, landscaping and painting. We asked to get let into the building and started removing the trash and debris. The project was on track and looked like it would soon be open.

As we worked with a large volunteer group one day, we were told to leave the premises. Immediately after this my emails and phone calls were not returned. I still did not have keys but I had a signed copy of the lease and insurance on the building. I couldn't understand what the problem could possibly be. Several influential people agreed to look into it for me. Everyone that did would soon stop returning my phone calls and emails. I knew there was a problem but I never expected what came next.

Approximately three months after the lease was signed, over two years since we started the whole process, I got a letter from the city of St. Louis. Are you ready for this? They didn't actually own the building! They had offered an RFP to sell a building that they did not own. They passed two bills through the Board of Alderman, had both signed by the mayor, signed and executed a lease with us, supplied us with copies of all of these documents and did not own the building.

We were floored. We had invested hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in the project. We had weathered all the issues and obstacles. We accepted the restrictions and the shorter lease terms. We arranged for and scheduled hundreds of volunteers. The cost to us was staggering. We had taken on debt expecting to have facilities for expansion. We shut down our woodshop in order to prepare it for the move. We invested labor and money over a 2 year period. All we got was a letter saying the city didn't own the building so the deal was over. The Penrose Project was dead. 

What happened to the Penrose Project?

It was our most ambitious project in our ten year history. We proposed to take a long vacant police station and turn it into an asset of empowerment for the community. The property is located at 1901 Penrose in the Hyde Park neighborhood of north St. Louis. It sits across the street from Windsor Park. We proposed a facility that would house our woodshop, sewing center, maintenance services and our main offices. We would add to that a computer lab, an audio and video recording studio, a metal shop, an auto shop and common space for the development of art and technology programming for the community by providing the space at cost for other community groups to use.

The City of St. Louis offered the property through an RFP (Request for Proposal) in the summer of 2015. We answered with our proposal and were selected to purchase the building. Over the course of the next year and a half we put hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars into the Penrose Project. We developed the plans, wrote dozens of grant proposals, lined up hundreds of volunteer hours and spent time and money stabilizing the property. We met with the city building division for the details of the plan. Everyone was helpful and excited for what we were doing.

As the plan came into focus, we took on a couple of private investors to help cover the costs we were incurring through the project. We cleared one hurdle after another. The only hurdle we could not clear was the purchase price of the building. So Plan B was proposed: the city would lease the building to us for 99 years for a dollar a year. We would invest the money needed to improve and repair the building.

Then the obstacles came. The local developer that had written the RFP objected to the lease terms. Then the Alderman changed the terms. Our agreement for a 99 year lease was reduced to a 20 year lease that would have to be renewed every 5 years. Other restrictions were added as people tried to use their influence to take control of the facility. A community oversight board would be required and have say in how we used the building. All of these terms were imposed on the project after we agreed to the 99 year lease.

Our goal was to have a place that would benefit the community. We were taking all the risk. The building was vacant (and still is). We were the ones investing the time and money into repairing the building. There was no guaranty in the new lease that we would retain the building for more than six months. It could be taken away at any time and for any reason with six months notice.

Our Board of Directors considered aborting the whole project. Our desire to empower the residents and rebuild the neighborhood outweighed our concerns over the powers that were souring the deal. We were willing to risk much because we felt the benefit far outweighed the negative possibilities, so we proceeded with the plan.

Interview with Alex Betts

We love creative expression.  Especially art that is honest and authentic, that connects us to the artist and the world around us.  Many of us at Sun Ministries are musicians, and we have written our own testimonies into songs, poems, and novels.  We have published 4 podcast episodes exploring creative expression.

This year, Sun Cafe has been hosting a lot of music.  One artist has stood out.  Her name is Alex Betts, and she is a resident of Hyde Park, the same neighborhood we work and live in.  She has written incredible songs that tell stories of herself and those around her.  She has a great voice and plays piano.

We want to encourage local artists, especially those we feel are expressing good things in a good way.  We interviewed Alex Betts to get some background to her art.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up here in St. Louis in Hyde Park. I've lived here my entire life.

What was it like growing up?

Growing up was good for me. I got the full experience. I have a big sister and a twin brother that I got to grow up with and I had a mother who taught me well and a father that was there when I needed him. I had lots of friends and I've almost never met a stranger. I loved talking to people and meeting people. I was a little wild but that was just my charm :)

What shaped who you are? Was it your neighborhood, community, education, family, an individual, faith, etc?

I believe all of those things shaped who I am. My neighborhood isn't the best in St. Louis but it's a relatively good neighborhood in my eyes. Church and community always went hand in hand for me because my church is very active in my community. Family was important because no matter what, you always have each other (my mom always tells me that I was born with a best friend). And education was also important. I was never bored in my house because everywhere you look there's a book or a magazine somewhere (my house was like a library). Speaking of libraries, my mom always took the 3 of us to Central Library. So knowledge was never a chore, it was always fun to learn something new. All of those things pretty much shaped who I am.

What is your earliest/clearest music-related memory?

My earliest and clearest memory of music is not really just one memory, it's more like a collection of fragments. I remember singing in the Angel Choir at my church (which was like preschoolers singing), I remember watching my mom sing and play piano nearly everyday, when it was time to wake up for school in the morning, my mom would sing a special song that she came up with herself. Playing music with my family in our living room together in a family jam session, dancing around the kitchen all the time with my sister listening to radio Disney.

When did you start making music?

I started making music at 11. I can't really remember why, but I know before writing songs I was interested in poetry. I liked writing poems that rhymed and had rhythm a lot and I played piano almost everyday. So one day I wrote a song and them I started plunking out notes on the piano to go with it.

Why do you currently make music?

I make music because I love it. It's never a chore to do something you love. I do it because it makes me happy and because it makes others happy. I like seeing smiles on other people's faces and I like when people see what I see (and vice versa)

What inspires your music? What do you most often write about, or what kinds of songs are you drawn to?

I like songs about love. Not the crappy kind, but the real kind you used to hear in songs from before money and sex. I like feeling and sincerity. I like the feeling you get when you've found that song the makes your heart wrench because you know how that feels or because you can feel what the artist feels. I like songs that are fun or crazy but still have a meaning behind it. Like 90s music. I like 90s music. Or anything before 2010 to be honest.

Are you involved in any other forms of creative expression?

I like to dance, but only when I'm by myself or being silly with people, I like to draw. I love to draw, I used to paint, too, but I had to let that go. It gets everywhere. I like making people laugh, and I still like poetry (I need to go back to writing it though), I like acting (but that's once every blue moon). And I love to cook. And read. A lot.

Can you recommend 3 artists or albums?

Listen to Brian McKnight. Just any album. Pick one. Pick all of them. Leslie Odem Jr's Simply Christmas album is wonderful. I love it. La'Porsha Renae's Already All Ready. I've been hooked on that album for weeks.

What do you want to accomplish with music?

I want to open people's eyes and let them see from another perspective. I want people to know that I see them and that other people see them. I want to help people in the way I know best, and that is my gift of music.

The Second Chance Bazaar

Sun Ministries has opened it's sixth social enterprise: The Second Chance Bazaar. Since 2009, we have opened a wood shop, sewing center, cafe, maintenance services and lawncare, as well as engaging our own rehabs (3 complete and about 7 in the works), hosting dozens of work groups, assisting in and then running the Hyde Park Festival, and facilitating training for missionaries. No wonder we drink so much coffee!

The Second Chance Bazaar is a unique retail space. We offer a selection of second-hand items, including clothes, appliances, furniture, baby items, and other unique finds, as well as a great selection of our local, hand-made, repurposed goods, like coffee bag messenger bags and clutches, coffee bag wall art, pallet wood furniture, and children's furniture made from upcycled counter-top material.

for that bird-loving, coffee-drinking, glassware collector in your life

So why open Second Chance with so many other things going on? We have been making and selling items from day one with no real space to sell them. We've tried craft shows, earth day festivals, and online retailers with limited success. Once we opened Sun Cafe, it gave us a place to show items. But still, that's a cafe first, and a market second. Most people come in to buy a burger, not a table. We've also brought items to trade shows, but that limits us in both items offered and the audience. Having a dedicated retail space allows us to experiment with different items and get real-time feedback. It also allows us place to sell the numerous items we've been donated that have not found a home. We use items for our businesses, our missionaries, and our employees. But sometimes we get useful things that no one has need for. With The Second Chance Bazaar, we can turn those items into income, which means jobs and more ability to minister.

The Second Chance Bazaar is also a realization of our desire to repurpose, rebuild, and restore. We're repurposing burlap coffee bags, pallet wood, counter-top cut-offs, as well as fabric, yarn, and thread that has gone unused. And now we're giving new life to unwanted items, keeping them out of the landfill and using them to build a business and create jobs. We're rebuilding economy in our neighborhood. We've created 6 businesses, employed dozens of people, including over a hundred participants in SLATE's Summer Jobs League. We're rebuilding lives by offering opportunity through employment, encouragement, and training.

The Second Chance Bazaar is now open, but our grand opening celebration will be Thursday, November 3. Please visit our facebook page and give it a like. Stay tuned for give-aways in the coming months. Also, you can subscribe to our email newsletter to stay informed of developments and receive the occasional coupon.

If you'd like to donate items, please see our donation policy first. We simply aren't able to accept all items. To donate, you can contact Suzette Goodwin at 636-544-2152 or Suzette@sunministries.org

donation policy.  click to enlarge.

The Second Chance Bazaar is located at 1500 Salisbury Street, St. Louis, MO.  It is 2 blocks off I-70, across the street from Sun Cafe.  If you can't make it in, you can always check out our online store to see a limited selection of our handmade items.

Bricks

St. Louis is a city of bricks. It's famous for them. Here on the northside, we have some remarkable brickwork. The best in the city, in my opinion. However, this is not about those bricks.

Bricks are what the Jews were forced to make in Egypt. It was the fruit of their slavery. Bricks were formed out of blood, sweat, and tears. They were formed in the heat, at the demand of brutal men, to build an empire for the slave-owners. The bricks were made from the same stuff as we are – the dust of the ground.

Bricks were also the invention that led men to so proudly construct the tower of Babel. They built a whole city, and a tower that reached into God's domain, all to make a name for themselves. They made it waterproof. They burned the bricks thoroughly to remove all the water, and used tar for mortar to keep any other water out. Maybe they were afraid of another flood. Maybe they wanted to escape judgment, to show God that they were invincible, they were beyond His reach. Maybe they were saying, “You're not welcome here. We got this.” They built a monument to their pride out of the work of their own hands.

And what happened? God confused them. That's what Babel means. It's the city of confusion. They built a whole city to celebrate their pride, and it led them to confusion. They couldn't talk with each other. They couldn't talk with God. They couldn't understand anything.

Despite what's taught in sunday school and Old Testament survey classes, God never destroyed the tower. It never came tumbling down. So you can still live there. You can still choose to live in the waterproof city, the city celebrating your pride, the city celebrating the work of your hands. You can still choose to live in the city of bricks that shows what you can accomplish without God in order to make a name for yourself. You can still submit to the demands of this city. And once you're inside, you're left with only one thing – confusion.

How do you get out?

Through resistance. Resist the lie that says the work of man's hands will save us, that you can do it without God. This only creates slavery. Resist structures that exalt man. Structures that complicate things, that ignore the heart of God, the truth of God, the power of God to reach anywhere. Resist the desire to return to a safe place, to walls, to social clubs, to seclusion. A safe place where you get all the world has to offer, even if that means you're a slave to it. There is a perverted sense of security that comes with slavery. A sense of comfort in knowing your place, knowing where to go, what to say, knowing what today's work will hold. Knowing the precise dimensions of each identical brick. Faith involves risk. It involves the unknown. It's dangerous. Faith is unconcerned with your strength, but wholly reliant upon a powerful, living God that wants to get uncomfortably close to you.

You get out through surrender. To the King, to the Creator, to the Good Shepherd who lays down His life. He designed a City that is not dependent upon towers, bricks, slavery, and confusion. And in fact, it's much bigger than a city. It's a whole Kingdom. And it's not far off. It's here now, in your midst. And its ways and customs are good.

However, there is an enemy already at work, never taking days off, working harder than you ever will, all day, every day, lying, accusing, destroying, deceiving, and enslaving. All to cause you to surrender to the wrong master. All to get your back bent over the mud, making more bricks. He wants to get your eyes off Jesus and onto your self. He wants to get your eyes off God's truth and onto your preferences. He wants you to lay down the sword of the Spirit and pick up the sword of self-righteousness, self-preservation, hacking away to carve out your idea of comfort and justice. He's painting the walls of your cave pleasant colors so you will be complacent, unconcerned with what lies in the darkness, in your past, or even what lies just outside in the light.

Jesus brought something completely new, and the only way to fully embrace that is to let go of what we've been holding on to. We will receive back from God whatever is His, and the things of God are always the best things.

This is how we will be the Church, God's people, the Body of Christ, alive and moving here on earth. The Church, the people, the holy priesthood, is God's Temple. It is not made of bricks. It is made of living stones. It is powerful to overcome the best attacks and fortresses of the enemy.

God showed what He could do to the best systems and structures of men. When people walk in faith, in obedience, when they praise the only Living God, then even in the desert walls can come tumbling down. Even in the most glorious city, with fortified walls and a majestic temple made of costly stones, Jesus can overturn every last one of them.

What is the Resistance?

The work of Sun Ministries is established in the vision of the Isaiah 61 Initiative, which we've covered in length on this blog. It is a work of rebuilding ancient ruins and setting captives free. It comes from the very heart of God. It is a calling that costs you everything, just like any other call of God.

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple.”

“Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you.”

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross , and follow Me.”

“None of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

“Follow me.”

God called us from our “father's house” a few years before He brought us to the land which He would show us. Truthfully, our individual callings came years ago, through various and conflicting means, and followed curious paths, most likely due to our denial of the call. However, God specifically started stirring in us, before some of us knew each other, a desire to be the church we found in the Bible. We were discontent. We knew God was real, and we knew there were real problems in the American church. We saw a disconnect from the organic, sacrificial, interconnected lifestyle we saw in Scripture.  We knew there was a bigness to the Good News that had been laid aside.  We saw the pain in the world and knew the Church should be bringing the answer.  But this wasn't a call of bitterness and rebellion. This was a call to intimacy with the Father. It was a call of surrender.  He started showing us the cost of love, and how that makes it valuable. He started showing us the beauty of the Body that functions according to each member's gift. He started showing us the power of discipleship – of obeying Christ's command to make disciples and teach them everything He taught us.

We have come to find out that we are not alone in these longings or this discontent. There is a trend, or movement, present in American culture. It has been studied by survey groups and sociologists. Barna.org and Pew Research Center have conducted numerous studies documenting the declining attendance in the modern American church. A sociologist named Josh Packard has dubbed this population “the Dones” and is studying the phenomenon in what he calls the church refugee project. These individuals are “done” with church as usual, but are far from done with God. They love the Church, which the Bible says is His people, and long to see the Bride living free.  Because of this frustration, they often end up leaving the traditional, institutional church.  Some find serving and gathering opportunities, while some do not.

Historically, addressing issues in the church has been labelled as “reformation”. We've chosen another way of looking at it. We call it, “The Resistance.”

We have learned a lot since we first set out from our “father's house” and into the unknown territory of discipleship, sacrifice, and sharing resources. We've unlearned just as many things as we made our way to the “land which He would show us”, a land that happened to be located on the north side of St. Louis. A land that has a well-documented history of neglect, oppression, and racism.  A land which, surprisingly, our families had a connection to.

As we discussed and dissected and developed all these things God had shown us, we stumbled into the opportunity for a talk radio show. Through even more discussion and dissecting, “The Resistance Radio Show” was born. It was recorded and broadcast live on 1010 AM right here in St. Louis. We decided to put our hearts on our sleeves and use humor, satire, drama, music, Scripture, history, testimony, and lots of discussion to explore God's design and how man has diverged from it, and how we can start to make our way back. We shared a lot of our experience ministering in the inner city and the challenges it involved.

We have since made those recordings available as a podcast. You can find archived shows here: https://theresistanceradioshow.wordpress.com/ You can also subscribe and receive the most recent episodes on iTunes or stitcher. Because we're not the most technologically savvy, our oldest episodes don't appear on our iTunes feed, but they can all be found at our wordpress site.

To get you started, here's our eighth episode, where we discuss our work at Sun Ministries.