Jose Humphreys

Also see: Open Source Preaching Pt. 1
I had a sermon prepared for our church’s weekly gathering at the National Black Theater.  I also had a question prepared at the beginning of this sermon.  In anticipation of preaching about The Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father” in particular, I began the sermon by asking our community, “When we [...]

Open source is a software phenomenon that allows one developer to allow others to modify/improve upon the original design.  Mozilla Fire Fox is an example of an open source search engine that has gone through many modifications by different developers.
This term has become more widely adopted in theological circles as well, looking at theology as [...]

Church planting has some intense moments of  loneliness.  This is what I’m hearing from both seasoned planters and “rookies” alike.  I’ve experienced it  for myself as someone who is a new church planter and pastor here in East Harlem.  I’m finding more and more, loneliness is not so much about whether people around, but the [...]

David Olson, director of church planting for our denomination asked me a question over some good Korean BBQ at Ham Ji Bak Bayside Queens today.  Thanks for picking this place out Peter.  I was hesitant to try out the food because of a stomach virus the previous day.  But it was too delicious to resist…
David [...]

Folks from my church threw me a surprise birthday party at a nearby Pizzeria Unos. This was after our final gathering for 2007. It was a nice surprise and a great end to an adventurous year.
Afterwards I caught, I am legend with my friend Jeff. Will Smith was great and the movie was awesome. The [...]

Some pics from our church launch team retreat. We had an awesome time…
1. Our space, Mount Laurel Lodge
2. Some of our people lounging
3. Saturday afternoon wagon ride.

I continue my readings of They Like Jesus but not the Church.  Author Dan Kimball writes about Charles Templeton, a powerful evangelist and close friend of Billy Graham.  Templeton eventually doubt his faith and abandons it all together.  He became one of Christianity’s greatest critics too, writing a book called Farewell to God: My Reasons [...]

Some great stuff has happened the last few days. Our church, Metro Hope, had its first annual barbecue at Marcus Garvey Park. We had friends, neighbors, and relatives come down for a great time. Mayra happened to overhear some people in the park talk about the diversity of the group, which was [...]

Having relationships only with Christians made it difficult to obey the teachings of Jesus about being on a mission for him and being salt and light to the world…I started to feel convicted that I had become a part of the Christian subculture, that strange bubble which little by little sucks you into it, and [...]

In both the introduction and first chapter of They Like Jesus but not the Church, Dan Kimbal talks about people’s misconceptions of Christians. He partly attributes this to a few Christians on television, who pretty much represent the whole bunch of us. Meanwhile there’s a whole generation of twenty to thirty something [...]

“Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
-Jonah 2
The conversations continued yesterday as we addressed the topic of concern.  Folks were able to express both personal and communal concerns. We were also able to look at culture overall and the negative aspects which are communicated to our youth.
These were some loose threads concerning [...]

The title of this video is, Stuck in Limbo, directed by Joseph Martinez. Angie is a launch team member of our church plant. She’s also an advocate for the rights of the undocumented. Hear the story about those who were born here, educated here, but cannot pursue higher education.
Perhaps your church can [...]

Christ, Community, Call, Concern
Our Conversation yesterday focused on community.
The highlight? I think it was meeting new people with similar journeys and feelings about community. This included the good, the bad and the apathetic.
One thing we know for certain is that we all need community. At its best, community shapes us to be a [...]

I recently read some core values that belonged to a certain missional church in the northwest. The church was a restart and looking to reach a new community with changing demographics. The core value that caught my eye at the time was, “A willingness to inconvenience ourselves for the gospel.”
It’s interesting, in a [...]

About community that is… But community is hard work.
I don’t like to lose my privacy. I often want the world to be about my own concerns. Meanwhile it seems so much easier to hang around people we’ve known for years, and do life with them.
It’s so much easier to have church [...]