Episode 8: Seven Mile

Every dad has at least one funny story of their son or daughter coming home with a big surprise.

"We're having a baby."

"We’re buying a house."

"We're moving to Dubai. Or New Hampshire. Or Texas. (God forbid.)

For my dad, one of those surprises came at the very turn of the century when I came over to tell him that I felt called - unmistakably - to plant a church seven miles north of one of the least Christian cities in America.

That church would eventually become Seven Mile Road, and we built is on 5 gospel convictions, one of which we called "supertight community." What we meant by that was that we believed that the gospel is not just about showing up to church on Sundays. And that even a casual reading of the New Testament shows that Jesus’ church was marked by a beautiful, messy, holy closeness. Those first Christians knew each other’s names, stories, sins, strengths, weaknesses, issues, dreams, fears, all of it. Life lived long-term in tight-knit and transparent community: that’s what we are shooting for at our church.

And nobody - nobody - has embraced and modeled that conviction more deeply with more people than my dad. 

In this episode, I asked him to talk about the ways that God redeemed a really hard church experience with the sweetness of being a part of Seven Mile Road​.