From the SURGE conference:

I am haunted by the testimony of one of Apostle Axel Sippach spiritual sons Emmanuel Allen. It's one of those things that tells me the heart of real victory for a ministry in a community. I won't steal his thunder, it should be shared, but he and his wife Belinda Allen sold everything and moved to Glendale AZ by the instruction of God. Had nothing when they got there. He took a rake and began to clean up the area around where they lived. Now 5 years later he has favor with the city, has a building he uses for nothing furnished by the city, sits in seat of authority and pastors a work that matters. All from the heart of a rake in his hand.

One thing he said that rattled me and I hope a few others. IF you start cleaning up the outside of your community (that means picking up the garbage, raking up the debris, trimming off the dead wood and mowing the grass) to make things look better people will notice and join you. They did for him.

There are THOUSANDS of storefront churches in Chicago. On 120th st there is 20 in an 8 block stretch. YET garbage litters the street. Dirt on the sidewalks. Dead branches lying around. Howcome? IF they really took after the outside of the mess perhaps the inside of the mess would begin to come clean.

I am admonishing the pastors of Chicago to begin to clean up the area around where you worship. When someone comes to your church stepping over condoms, candy wrappers and coke cans isn't a suitable path for entering the Holy of Holies.

I have a personal clean up ministry. I don't talk about it much. On Saturdays I visit the parking lots of a few of the churches in our area and pick up beer cans, condoms and junk. Toss it in my pickup an dump it in a dumpster. It takes very little time and in the end people don't have to see the mess. Do this...