Mission Houston Newsletter

Mark IS our elevator speech

From Our Chairman of the Board, Jim Herrington

May, 2008

The Mission Houston Board's communication team suggests that we develop an elevator speech. This is the speech that you make when you get on an elevator, someone asks you what you do, and you want to answer in a clear, concise and consistent manner. Getting the elevator speech done for Mission Houston has been a challenge, in part because, we want nothing less than the transformation of the entire greater Houston area. Since most folks don't have real life experience with transformation on this scope, getting the speech down to the amount of time that you could give to someone who was riding up on the elevator with you - well, it is a challenge.

But, the staff took the assignment seriously and has nearly finished. Our work in progress is at the end of this article. But, I was out running yesterday and remembered the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the face of Mark Day came to my mind. Mark IS our elevator speech.

Mark got really connected to Mission Houston when he participated in the inaugural Faithwalking Retreat, September 2007. Mark is married to Deana. They have two older teenage sons and are active in their church. Both Mark and Deana are very successful in their chosen careers - on every front they look like highly successful American Christians.

At the Faithwalking retreat Mark was challenged think bigger than he had ever thought in terms of the impact of his Christian life. He was asked to make a "Faithwalking declaration." This is a faith declaration in which you commit to being a catalyst for mobilizing the Body of Christ somewhere outside the walls of a local congregation for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God. It's a story in itself how this son of an Episcopalian minister determined what God was saying to him, but the end result was that Mark expressed the conviction that God was calling him to become a catalyst for impacting the poorest of the poor in his home neighborhood.

Within days of returning from the Faithwalking retreat, Mark met his pastor and told him about his Faithwalking experience. His pastor suggested that Mark hook up with Guido Piggott and Bob Newey, the co-facilitators of Cy-Fair CSA team. CSA - community service area - is a geographic area in the city where believers, congregations, businesses and ministries - are collaborating in the name of Christ to impact their community.

One of the primary ways that the CSA teams are impacting the poor is through the Whole and Healthy Children Initiative. After talking with Guido and Bob, Mark signed on as the Compassion Coordinator for the Cy-Fair team where he is leading this initiative designed to impact the kids at high risk of not making it in the public school systems.

Now, read the elevator speech and you'll see why we say that Mark is our elevators speech.

Mission Houston connects, unites and mobilizes the Body of Christ, as we pray and work for the spiritual and social transformation and revitalization of greater Houston and its communities. Currently, and for the next decade, we are focused in 3 primary areas:

Personal Transformation: Through our Faithwalking ministry, we are multiplying the number of Christians demonstrating on-going personal transformation through their mobilization of the Church in their workplaces (offices, schools, etc.) and neighborhoods. Our two premier stories are detailed on the Faithwalking website under testimonies. More like these are emerging. Our goal is to have 120 people complete Faithwalking by the end of 2008. To date, there are 29 graduates, and there are four more opportunities in 2008 (June 13-16, September 12-15, October 10-13, and November 17-19).

Community Transformation: Through the Whole and Healthy Children Initiative, we are committed to the transformation of the public school systems in the greater Houston area. We will launch this initiative in six public schools at the beginning of the 2008/2009 school year and expand the number each year for the next ten years. Ultimately, we will be in 135 public schools that have very high percentages of at-risk kids. In each school, we will recruit 100 mentors for K-3rd grade, raise $10,000 in cash or in-kind gifts requested by the school, conduct an annual campus facility improvement project, and recruit intercessors for all students, staff, and mentors. There is more on this initiative on our web site.

Community Service Area teams: By recruiting and training volunteers, we are establishing 45 geographically-based teams to lead in uniting and mobilizing the Church for transformation in their communities. These teams will primarily give oversight to the Whole and Healthy Children Initiative, but they also provide a highly relational, communications infrastructure for crisis responses (like Katrina/Rita in 2005) or opportunities (like CityFest in 2006). We currently have teams in nine areas, and our goal is to add five to seven each year until all 45 areas have fully functioning teams.

Today, join us in giving thanks for Mark Day, and ask the Father to raise up thousands more like him over this decade of focusing on raising a generation of Whole and Healthy Kids.