Holy Discontent - The Birth of the I-61 Project

So much to share and so little space!  Today I'm going to diverge from the usual path and give you some history and an update of the I-61 Project.  

First a little history.  For those who don't know me, I'm an Oral Surgeon who grew up with a hand full of religion and ritual, a whole lot of pride, and a list of good works.  I neither knew God nor worshiped him.  In 2002 God allowed me to fall REALLY hard and when all vestiges of my pride were stripped from me, I heard his voice.  Audibly? No. Powerfully? Yes!  Someday, I'll share the whole sorted scene but for now I'll cut to the chase. God saved me, changed me, and has put me to work.  He made me see that my religious activities and my church membership did not put me in right relationship with him.  My religion and ritual were no substitute for relationship.

Until recently, Ivor Thomas was the Director of Operations for Habitat for Humanity in Grand Rapids.  I met Ivor about eleven years ago.  He sang James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" at my wedding and eventually we both ended up on the praise band at our local church.  I'll let him share his testimony but I think he'd be cool with me telling you that God has revealed himself to him in similar ways and through similar trials.

About two years ago it began to be apparent that God had placed a serious "holy discontent" in both of our hearts.  An understanding that many people who were "churched" were just going through the motions.  This wasn't coming from a position of judgment but one of personal experience.  They were coming to worship with their church faces on and their real lives hidden behind a mask of religious duty.  They knew church but didn't know Jesus.  They had fish stickers on their minivans, kids in youth group, but their lives were not radically changed by the power of Christ.  Bob and John would pass in the halls and John would say "Hey Bob! How's the family?"  "Great, you?"  "Oh, we're really great."  When in reality, Bob was struggling with an addiction to pornography and John's house was in foreclosure.  (These are fictitious names and situations so I don't expect angry emails from all the Bobs and Johns in our church.) 

On another note, we were gathering inside the walls of church and many were dying spiritually on the outside.  Many would never hear the good news of God's love because they would never walk through the doors.  If they did walk through the doors, many would see all the "good" people doing religious things they knew nothing about and singing songs to a God they didn't know.  Please don't get me wrong.  We love church!  We love our church!  But God was calling us to do something different, to share Good News with the poor (financially and spiritually), to free those held captive by sin, despair, and addiction, and to bring light to the blind (those whose eyes were unable to see God).  He was calling us to come along side the church and do something different.  Not to change, water down, or make more palatable God's Word, but to break down some real walls and some spiritual walls.  Thus, The I-61 Project was born!

Now for the news.  

The I-61 Project Blog is growing daily in its readership (thank you all!).  If you haven't subscribed, we'd love to have you part of our growing family.  Please share the address with friends and family.

Ivor will be releasing his CD "Nowhere Else to Go" at the end of the month.  You can check out the music on the audio player to the left of this post or visit his website: ivorthomasmusic.bandvista.com

A local newspaper recently highlighted Ivor and his CD as well as the I-61 Project ministry: Rockford Independent

Our main website is nearly finished and will have information about the ministry, news, as well as online audio podcasts (soon to be recorded at River City Studios). You'll be able to download the podcasts to your computer or IPOD.  We will also have a link back to this Blog.  The site is still under construction but bookmark it for future use.  The web address is: i61project.org

There's much more to share but I've probably lost a bunch of you already!  I hope you've been fed by the previous posts and I know you'll be blessed by Ivor's music and the I-61 Project.. in the future.

See ya next week.

 In Christ's love,  David