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We’re coming off a couple of great interactions with pastors and people at young church plants. Early last week, I had the opportunity to grab coffee with Troy Campbell, who pastors New Life in the middle of the Crossroads District in downtown Kansas City. Troy told me about his church planting journey and gave me a tour of the remarkable loft-like space currently being developed for New Life on the fourth floor of an office building.

New Life already has its share of stories, as they’ve served in one of KC’s worst neighborhoods, seen people come to Jesus, and essentially worked and prayed their way into the ideal new location, despite the sky-high costs of real estate downtown. I deeply appreciated Troy’s willingness to share his experience (and prayers) with a young buck he doesn’t know from Adam.

Then, this past weekend, Lindsay and I enjoyed a similar experience, as we packed up Asher (travels well), dropped off Aidan at his grandparents’ (travels like a caged Rottweiler), and drove north to Ottumwa, Iowa. A couple months ago, Marty Schmidt, who pastors a young church plant in Ottumwa, had asked me if I’d think about coming to preach at thebridge. When I asked Marty what had possessed him to invite me, he said it was more of a Holy Spirit thing, at which point I clearly couldn’t say no.

Kidding aside, it was an almost surreal opportunity to go preach at a growing church, talk with Marty and others (thanks Brandon and Johna!) about their stories, and get a good look at what these Christians are doing in Ottumwa, which is the drug capital of Iowa, an urban/suburban hybrid city where the two sides of the tracks are pretty clearly marked. Once again, I was amazed at the generosity and graciousness of Marty and others in welcoming us, praying for us, and investing in us during the time we were there.

These types of meetings remind me what an alien, illogical things the faith, hope, and love of Jesus are. Apart from the gospel and grace of Christ, there’s no reason for busy, established leaders to take the time to pour into a dude they’ve never met before. As well, only Jesus makes a lasting difference in neighborhoods riddled with drugs and guns.

Experiences like these will help form our vision as we move forward. As I talked with Lindsay about the last week, we were refreshed by the rare goodness of grace, as people who have been loved against all odds by God extend that same love generously to people they hardly know.

We want to see the same grace of Jesus take root as we serve Kansas City.

(If you missed it, here’s our first update.)

I just stumbled across KupOfJoe.com, a list of KC’s coffee places with comments, maps, and links. Not bad. This is in addition to KC Perky, a regularly updated coffee blog with more detailed reviews, but fewer places listed. In an hour I’ll be checking out Rev! Cafe & Gallery for the first time…which is a Christian place, The Pitch tells us. Who knew it?

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I started a group on Google to help folks keep up with our progress toward the dream of seeing KC’s urban arts district transformed by the landmarks of the gospel. Right now, urban KC knows more about bar-b-q, blues, and mediocre baseball than Jesus Christ. We’d like to see that change. (We’d also like the Royals to stop sucking.)

If you’d like to receive the occasional update via email or jump in with questions or discussion, come on over. Membership is open, so you can join on the homepage.

The Pitch has an interesting comparison between KC’s Power & Light District and Westport. The article outlines the differences between the two entertainment districts, but in terms of a general conclusion:

What did we discover? The liquor still flows, the music still plays and the cops are occasionally still necessary. And we figured out that this town seems capable of supporting two rocking entertainment districts at once.

There’s also a good article on Troy Campbell, who pastors New Life, a recent downtown church plant.

Let’s Go KC:

Walk Score is a great web site that lets you calculate just how walkable your address is.  That is, how many services like groceries and barbers are within walking distance. Now they have calculated city-wide ratings for the top 40 US cities.  It’s no surprise that car-dependent Kansas City ranks a lowly number 34 with a walk score is only 44 out of 100.

However, there are several individual neighborhoods with really high walk scores.  They are mostly concentrated in the central corridor between Downtown and Brush Creek. Westport and the Plaza rank at the very top, with scores similar to Lincoln Park in Chicago or Manhattan in New York City. They key is that the Plaza/Westport area is the only place wtih high concentrations jobs, residences, and retail in close proximity. A few more neighborhoods in Brookside, Waldo, parts of the Northland also rank fairly high.