Matt Anthony and I recently visited Pastor Kaynenn Parker in Fort Worth, TX. Kaynenn is a Boston native, a church planter and pastor, and he's one of our Executive Board members. And Kaynenn is a treasured friend.
We toured Kaynenn's new church building (a story of God's grace and generosity!) then settled into his office.
We got talking about some of the ordinary challenges of pastoring in neighborhoods with drugs, gangs, and violence. Which led to Kaynenn mentioning his knuckle gloves. We reacted with a surprised smile. "Yeah, knuckle gloves, and cut gloves," he said. "What are cut gloves?" I asked. "They let you grab a knife blade and snap it off without getting hurt. Unless the point goes directly into your hand." (Just to be clear, Kaynenn is “not violent, but gentle” as Scripture requires of elders (1 Timothy 3:3). In neighborhoods of gangs, dealers, and users, a wise pastor is prepared to protect the men, women, and children of his church family.)
"Okay then." Matt and I shook our heads as I sat looking at Kaynenn's well-supplied bookshelf of Bible commentaries.
Our friend Joel Kurz says you know you're an inner city pastor when you have drug testing kits on your shelf next to your Bible commentaries. The point is, the inner city is cross-cultural. Therefore we train pastors the way missionaries are trained. We prepare them for a ministry that is not native to them unless they grew up there.
Which is also to say, we are not looking so much for church planters as we are missionaries who will plant churches.
This year we are praying for 2 new missionary-minded church planters to join NEU. Would you please pray with us? Pray for men who are devoted to the glory of Christ, the centrality of the local church for the mission, and who are willing to learn what cut gloves are.
