Pastor Peter Haas

Honestly, it’s pretty fun to fall in love with a city. We fl irted. We dated. And even though I was born and raised a Packer, Minneapolis/St Paul and I got married when my family moved across state lines in the summer of 2004. It got even better when Brett Favre followed us over this past year. Needless to say, I don’t think that a lot of people get to have this type of blissful experience. We could have chosen to move to any city in the U.S., but we chose Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Almost every three weeks I get to fly to another U.S. city, and almost every time my host takes me to the hotspots of the area. So, I get to see a lot of churches, skylines, and people, but as a famous theologian from Kansas once said: “There’s no place like home.” Thus, I hardly go a month without someone asking me: “Why the Twin Cities?” (What they’re really asking is: ‘Why not somewhere warmer?”)

Truth be told, we did consider a few other (warmer) cities before moving here. Every time I’d propose a city, my wife would lovingly grab me by the chin and smilingly say with a fi rm voice: “Peter, the answer is NO.” Then one day, I came upon a stat that the Twin Cities was one of the youngest and most artistic metropolitan cities in the U.S.

For years, my wife and I loved the innocence and idealism of young people. And for some strange reason, we’ve always had an easy time attracting and discipling young people. Even more, my wife and I also love big city life: the music, the universities, the multi-ethnic flair, the opportunities. So, when I said to my wife: “How about Minneapolis?” she stunned me with her instant response: “Now, I’d be up for that!” (She was probably just thinking about the 16 shopping
malls).

But seriously, the truth that really sold us was this: Over 68% of the Twin Cities is under 34 years old (roughly 2 million); yet, less than 1% of this group goes to any church of any kind. It was mind-blowing to us. We kept thinking: “This cannot be true.” I mean, there are all sorts of well-known churches there. Yet, the most reliable research shows that less than 10% of people in this city consistently attend a Bible-believing evangelical church of any kind (from theamericanchurch.org). And the vast majority of this 9% are over 50 years old.

Frankly, my wife and I made the decision that we would rather die than see that reality remain the same – especially with all of the Christian universities in the area. Most major missionary movements in church history came out of college campuses. So if there was ever a place to launch a movement, this is the city. Minneapolis/St Paul is a wildfire waiting to happen; yet, where is the match?

Of course, there are a lot of great churches here, but when we moved here, we quickly realized that most of them are almost entirely focused on reaching baby-boomers (even though the vast majority of unchurched people are under 35 years old). It also might interest you to know that when the average age of churches’ leadership is over 40 years old, the odds of it reaching unchurched people plummets (as opposed to “transfer growth”). Why? Because most unchurched people are young, post-modern, and multi-ethnic. Hence, when they scan a church platform or see a church staff , and see no one like themselves, they automatically conclude: this is not a place for me. The words, the songs, and the message just gets lost in translation – even when, deep down in our hearts, we love them and we truly want their presence.

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve been slowly integrating hip-hop into our worship sets. And I know that all of the young hipsters on our worship band model a diff erent “uniform” than the classic suit and tie. But, these are small sacrifi ces considering that we have at least 20 radical conversion testimonies every month. Hopefully, you’ve read about a few of them in our past magazines.

But here’s the big picture: Our goal is not to be some trendy church service for college students. Ultimately, God’s vision for this city goes far beyond that. I believe it’s only a matter of time before Substance has nine diff erent locations across the metro – each with their own style and emphasis. I also see a small group catalog that has groups devoted to every spiritual discipline and every book of the Bible. But, most importantly, I see a Substance that does 90% of its ministry outside of church services. I see small groups taking back neighborhoods, manifesting Christ in Uptown, Dinkytown, and any town that is slumping under the weight of hopelessness. God hasn’t created our church size and demographics by accident. And here’s why:

God’s heart is like a powder-keg. Our organization is like a match. God never promised that our explosive church growth would feel clean and smooth. And, based on our commitment to his mission, God’s consuming heart for this city is either gonna set us on fire or it’s gonna burn us.

But one thing is for sure. A burning man doesn’t stand still. He doesn’t cloister himself. He doesn’t worry about other people’s fire. No. He runs to open spaces. Substance: Let that be said of you. Let’s reach our city.

Growing up, Mark saw only legalism and dead rituals at the churches his family attended. By his teens, he was disenchanted with Christianity and turned his back on the church.

He moved in with a friend and discovered drugs and alcohol as an escape. The next ten years were filled with partying, promiscuity, drugs and alcohol. For years Mark couldn’t seem to stay sober for more than 24 hours. As his drug usage increased, he was kicked out of school, lost friendships, experienced long stints of homelessness and did jail time.

Wondering where God was in it all, Mark began to believe that God either didn’t exist, or was evil. Hopelessness drove him to attempt suicide several times, but God always stepped in and prevented it. Needless to say, Mark was at the end of his rope.

He called a friend in St. Paul and asked for help. He moved back to the Twin Cities, hoping to get his life in order. He started to clean up his life, but it wasn’t until he passed through a Northwestern Bookstore that he confronted the God he had given up on. Defiantly he grabbed a book off the shelf and told God, “This is your last chance!” On the back cover he read, “Was God telling the truth when He said, ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart?’”

Mark soon realized that everything has a creator – God. He discovered that not only did he believe in God, he loved Him. He began sharing God with his friends.

In the years that followed, Mark graduated from college, built a successful career in sales and management, got married to his beautiful wife Bonnie, and the once homeless kid became a home owner. He now attends Bethel Seminary were he is getting his Master of Divinity and is in full-time ministry as a Pastor at Substance Church. Mark is seeking God with all his heart because he has a clear picture of the love of Jesus Christ.

For the full story of how God has moved in Mark’s life, in his own words, check out the podcast of his message from May 24th, 2009 “The Apple of your Daddy’s Eye” on Itunes.

Many of us who have been attending Substance for a while have heard Pastor Peter’s sermons on the importance of financial margin, but how many of us have actually applied them to our lives? For Heather Lee Anderson, practicing
financial margin recently saved her a lot of stress.

While turning onto a highway, an SUV smashed into Heather’s car, crushing the front end and deploying the airbags. Her car was totaled, but thanks to steady budgeting, she was able to buy a new one right away.

Take it from Heather Lee:

“I have been saving for over a year now since hearing the message about ‘Bad days being worse when you don’t have 3
to 6 months of your income saved.’ I have about 3 months of my income saved at this point. Sure, I don’t want to buy a car with that money, but I need to and I can cover whatever insurance doesn’t cover to get another reliable used car. Right now, I’m going to rent a car and see a Doctor about the injuries, but I know I’ll be ok. This incident will not take me three steps back fiscally and I can’t tell you enough what a relief it is to not worry about money right now. I will just thank the Lord that it was not worse and focus on healing.

I hope you can use this in a way to encourage our congregation, and particularly our younger attendees. Even though it’s hard to save while paying for school, rent, utilities, food and dining out, it is possible and completely worth it in the long run.”

Email your story to stories@substancechurch.com

Men of the City builds brotherhood through prayer and accountability, providing men with a link to belonging and a link to spiritual transformation.

Men of the City leader, Patrick Lambertz said, “God has put this call in me, but more specifically in the church and society at large to redefine what male Christianity is.” Patrick’s wife, Ellen Lambertz, spoke about her husband’s involvement in the ministry. “Men of the City has truly been an answer to many years of prayer. I can see my husband growing in ways I never thought possible. This group has given him the courage to share his faith journey in a safe place, receive support and acceptance. Then he returns home as a better man, the kind of man every woman wants to be in a relationship with,” she said.

Men of the City provides a way to let men talk together, listen together, struggle together, grow together, and ultimately live life together.

Come and live life with Men of the City.

Sometimes you hear stories that spark the imagination and cultivate your faith about unshakable men and women doing extraordinary things. I can recall a time or two hearing this kind of lore regarding characters on the other side of the world. “If only that kind of thing could happen here,” may cross our minds when we hear such tales. It can. And it does.

Summer 1967, North Minneapolis

Mothers hurried their children into houses from games in the front yard.

As the summer sun beat down on the blacktop, the heat rose in the atmosphere; physically and otherwise. First, threats and heavy words were hurled, followed by stones and bottles with flaming rags. Everywhere, the sounds of screaming and smashing glass filled the air. Businesses were trampled and looted. The community became a mini war zone centered at Penn & Plymouth. Sirens descended upon the scene, but they were too late. The riots were out of control.

Since the early twentieth century, citizens of North Minneapolis, mostly Jewish and African Americans, had been marginalized and steeply discriminated against. Whether from restrictive land grant agreements prior to WWII or racist practices in distributing federal housing loans after it, anger and frustration had been building between and amongst these two ethnic groups. They felt trapped, repressed and they resented it.

The rioting and destruction only helped a community struggling with identity, poverty, and oppression turn against itself. The streets weren’t safe. Kids with classes on the North Side had to hurry or leave school early, fearing a knifi ng or beating on a simple walk home. A similar climate remained for years after.

Already on their way out, the riots hastened the departure of many Jewish residents and business owners. The departure of so many area residents in such a short period of time, along with their businesses, only served to heighten the already formidable economic woes of the community. The area fell apart.

A Calling

Throughout the turmoil of North Minneapolis in the late sixties, a determined mother made the weekly commute to church, children in tow, with the hopes of raising them right. As spirited gospel music and shouts of praise came to a fever pitch, the Lord met a 4-year-old girl in the predominantly African American congregation of the First Church of God In Christ. Though her young mind did not fully comprehend the full scope of the encounter, God had very special plans for her.

By the time Melanie was a fi ery teenager, she knew that her life’s purpose was to serve God through full-time ministry. As she completed high school, she could still feel that call, and still felt the impact of the area’s history during visits with her family.

Initially, Melanie felt called to be a Spanish Speaking Missionary to Latin America, enrolling at North Central University and Christ For The Nations Institute. During her training, she had the opportunity to evangelize on the streets of Minneapolis, but it was a outreach trip to the French Quarter in New Orleans that stands out in her mind. “It broke my heart for urban America,” she remembers.

While doors were not opening for her to move to Latin America she found herself following the Holy Spirit’s prompting to lead teams and equip the Body of Christ for evangelism in the Twin Cities. For the next several years, Melanie worked with at-risk and counter-culture youth in the city, but she remembers a cousin asking her when she was going to minister to “her people.” “I told him ‘I have to obey the Lord, and go where he sends me,’” she recalls. She did.

A Reconciliation

Fast forward to 2007. Melanie and her husband John had long been serving God in the Twin Cities, and were heavily involved with statewide prayer initiatives. While attending a conference with a focus on prayer for North Minneapolis, she remembers the congregation acknowledging that it was the 40-year anniversary of the North Minneapolis riots.

Messianic Rabbi Ed and Rebbetzen Alberta Rothman were in attendance and were called to the front of the conference to receive and lead out prayer for healing on behalf of the adversely aff ected Jewish population. Melanie could feel a tug at her heartstrings. During the prayer with the Rabbis, an overwhelming sense came over her that something more needed to be done. Prayer was good and necessary, but a deeper conviction to repent on behalf of the African American community brought Melanie to action. “I felt like God was showing me what I was supposed to do.”

Through experiences and blessings throughout her life, Melanie knew to listen and follow through when she was lead by the Holy Spirit to do something. In faith, she stepped forward.

“As I came and knelt before the Rothmans, generational repentance flooded me. We had been friends prior to this, but something happened as we stood in the gap for the past sins of our ethnic groups.” A weeping embrace opened the floodgates of reconciliation between the two groups. In an instant I recalled multiple dreams that the Lord had given to me about North Minneapolis over the previous years. One of them even involved the receiving of a ‘Macedonian call!’ I understood that they were God’s way of calling me to serve the community. It was an amazing encounter!” “Within weeks the Lord started to unveil to me His strategy of service,” she says. “There was an awakening that took place within me!”

Melanie has taken the momentum from that very moment and run with it. “What the Lord showed me in the summer of 2007 was to develop a program that serves every generation; children to senior citizens. It will impart to them wholeness in spirit, soul, and body, give them life skills, freedom, hope and dignity, and equip them with Kingdom dynamics. This will empower them to fulfi ll God’s purpose for them as individuals and as a community in every area of their life. People are longing to see their hearts’ desires become a reality, and in the words of Ed Silvoso, “It’s God’s Time for North Minneapolis!”

Melanie’s ministry, M.A.R.C.H. (Mobilizing And Releasing Caring Hearts, Inc.), is a non-profi t organization dedicated to the transformation of lives and communities. Her vision for reaching North Minneapolis focuses on three primary initiatives that anyone can get involved with: Global Day of Prayer, Community Renewal Greater Twin Cities and Kingdom Community.

Some ways you and/your subgroup can get involved:

Global Day of Prayer (GDOP)

Global Day of Prayer (GDOP) is more than an event. It’s a movement. GDOP began in Africa 10 years ago and last year 220 nations participated! The movement is realized in North Minneapolis through prayer meetings, citywide gatherings, prayer walks, outreach and service projects. Some of you might be asking yourself, “What is a prayer walk?” Prayer walking is a time of connecting with neighborhoods, knocking on doors, and offering prayer to residents. In North Minneapolis, the movement has undeniably changed lives. Last year, crime dropped dramatically in the neighborhoods in which we held prayer walks. It was unbelievable to see how God answered our prayers.

Ten Days of Constant Prayer: May 13th through 22nd

Beginning on Ascension Day, May 13, millions of Christians around the world will find ways to pray, night and day, throughout the ten days leading to Pentecost. Ways you can participate include: Attend a prayer meeting/room or Host a prayer meeting/room.

One Day Citywide Prayer Gathering: May 23rd, 5-8 PM

On the afternoon of Pentecost, we will gather at Roy Wilkins Auditorium at the River-Centre in St Paul. We will worship God openly in Christ’s name and pray for healing and blessings for our city, our nation and the nations of the world. Last year, 220 nations participated for the first time ever! Ways you can participate include: Volunteer, Attend

Ninety Days of Blessing: May 24th – August 21st

We will be answers to our own prayers, becoming servants who bring practical, transformational blessings to the Twin Cities. Ways you can participate include: Service Projects, Prayer Walks/Meetings and Outreach Opportunities.

Find out more at www.globaldayofprayermn.com

Community Renewal Greater Twin Cities

Community Renewal Greater Twin Cities is in partnership with Community Renewal International (CRI) and replicates CRI’s systematic strategy that grows and sustains safe and caring communities with concrete, measurable results. This faith-based organization is very inclusive and welcoming to everyone in the community that seeks to disciple individuals. Its three initiatives include:

1. The “We Care” Team: This team brings together everyone in the city based on a common capacity to care for each other.

2. Haven Houses: Volunteers are trained to reach out to their neighbors, restoring the relational foundation on the blocks where they live.

3. Friendship House: Volunteers and key partners use a house with a large “community room” in low-income and high-crime areas to help care for the resident children, youth, and adults.

Some ways you and/or your subgroup can get involved:

Join the “We Care” Team/Invite a friend to a Community Renewal event | Provide refreshments for an event | Mentor a student | Arrange for a speaking engagement | Provide general administrative support | Volunteer as a tutor at a Friendship House | Teach a special skill to children, youth, or adults | Participate on a planning team for an event | Teach a life skills class | Provide financial support | Become a Haven House leader

Find out more at: www.wecaretwincities.com

Kingdom Community

Kingdom Community is a sister ministry of Community Renewal Greater Twin Cities that focuses on long-term discipleship. It is a transgenerational ministry that empowers and strengthens the community by equipping believers. Each element of the Kingdom Community builds upon the previous one. All ages hear the gospel message, receive personal prayer, gain life skills and have opportunities to minister.

Volunteers are needed to teach in the areas of the Bible, house maintenance & car repair, sewing, cooking, dietary and other life skills, and the arts. Volunteers are also needed to mentor, pray & intercede on behalf of the people of North Minneapolis.

If you are interested in partnering with Melanie in this initiative, please contact her at wecaretwincities@aol.com

Lamar has always been a cool customer, a cat as cool as the other side of the pillow. He was so smooth that our junior high basketball coach nicknamed him “silk” because of his laid-back demeanor. In fact, while most people are confined to simply walk with choppy, individual steps, Lamar appeared to practically glide as he strolled towards his destination.

He was quiet and reserved but when something made him laugh his cheeks would ball up to reveal a warm and permeating smile. He had an ear-to-ear smile that he often used. But behind the cool demeanor and the warm infectious smile, years of secret hurts and scars were hiding. Even before we participated in our kindergarten graduation service he had endured sexual abuse from someone close to him. The pain began to take a toll on him immediately.

Fast-forward to high school and Lamar was still cool, still smiling, still hurting and it was getting worse. The scars he had from childhood abuse had turned into practically paralyzing insecurities, which were compounded by another insecurity that had sprung up during his teenage years. Lamar is mixed. Half-black, half-white. He didn’t feel black enough for the black kids, or white enough for the white kids. He felt like he didn’t fit in with either race. Often times he found himself simply dressing, talking, and acting like his closest friends, who happened to be white. But simply disguising himself like them didn’t make him them; he was haunted by the fact that he was different.

These insecurities and scars took a toll on Lamar’s self-image and self-confidence. He began to be seen as shy and timid by others at school. Late in his high school career Lamar found something that seemed to help boost his self-confidence and help him cope with his insecurities and hurts: clubbing. The flashing lights, the girls and the music became an escape for him. Best of all nobody there knew him as the shy, timid Lamar. While he was clubbing, he felt free from his reputation at school. Beyond that, girls at the club were showing interest in him, something he didn’t experience at school. He was hooked immediately.

Clubbing was the beginning of a downward spiral for Lamar. He went from clubbing sober, to clubbing and drinking, to going to house parties. Eventually, Lamar was getting high every day, doing ecstasy every weekend and even trying acid. This downward spiral dropped him in the hospital after an alcohol overdose. He was kicked out of high school during his senior year and had to watch graduation from the front row, while the rest of the class was on stage. He racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt, flunked out of technical school and eventually, after a mental breakdown from dropping acid, hit rock bottom.

Though Lamar seemed to have no hope, a few things were with him through all of this: God, the church and a mentor named Pete Morse. In a conversation with him in October, we talked about his transformation since he rediscovered Christ.

Daniel: When you think back on everything you’ve been through, where would you say God was during all of it?

Lamar: [He was] waiting patiently for me; tugging at me every once in a while, dropping little signs.

D: Like what? What were some of these signs?

L: Well, there was the time Pastor Nick came up to me one Sunday and told me that God had put me on his heart, and I don’t remember exactly what he said, but at this point I was back and forth between the party scene and church. Anytime I would go to church I could feel Him tugging at me but I was too prideful to respond. I was more worried about keeping some image than I was about my relationship with God. There was the time when I was tripping and my mind was racing and it was kind of a crazy night and it was weird because I went to my car to listen to KTIS because I felt like it would bring me some peace.

D: So when was the turning point for you?

L: Memorial day 2008, it was 2:30 in the morning. I was lying in bed high and trying to fall asleep; and it was just like God came into the midst of my restlessness and anxiety and pierced through all of it and made it clear that I was living in rebellion and had been ignoring him for an extremely long time. I could sense so clearly at that moment that I was at a fork in the road and there were only two choices: obey or die.

D: How did you respond?

L: I got up and went to my mom’s room and told her what I had been doing.

D: What all did you tell her?

L: Well, she knew about the drinking from times I had gotten caught in high school, but that night I told her how I had been using harder drugs like ecstasy and hallucinogens.

D: So you woke your mom up and dropped this bomb on her about how you had been using drugs, how did she react?

L: She didn’t know what to do, I mean I woke her up out of her sleep to tell her, you know “I’m on drugs.” So she called someone who had a better idea of what to do, someone who had dealt with that kind of stuff before; she called Pete Morse. Pete didn’t pick up, so she drove [me] to his house.

D: She drove you to his house at three AM?

L: Ya! And we started ringing the doorbell trying to get him to wake up so we could talk. I couldn’t really wait until later because I felt like I was literally going crazy.

D: Did he answer?

L: After a while. We were actually on our way back to the car by the time he answered the door, so we went back and he let us in and we sat down with him and his wife Missy.

D: Did you have a close relationship with him? I mean I would have to be pretty close with someone to let them in my house at 3 am!

L: I’d say ya. He was the dean of students at my high school. But even more than that he led a Bible study that I went to my senior year so he knew a lot of the hurts I went through when I was younger; and was basically like a mentor and a second dad to me during my last two years of high school.

D: He lets you in, you sit down to talk, and then what?

L: Honestly it’s kind of fuzzy for me…maybe we should let Pete answer that.

We go to find Pete…

D: First off, what was going through your mind when you heard Lamar and his mom knocking on your door?

Pete: At this point it had been months since I’d talked to Lamar and I knew the less I heard from Lamar the more reason I had to be concerned, so I knew things had to be bad. Lamar sat on the couch and just poured out his guts for at least forty-five minutes. The drugs were still so much in Lamar’s system that some of the stuff he was saying didn’t even make sense. This all the more proved that he needed some intense help. The sad reality of his situation was that nobody close to Lamar really thought he needed help, nobody knew how deep the trouble he had gotten himself into was. But the cool part of it all was Lamar knew that he didn’t need to just stop doing drugs, he needed to have a relationship with God again. And while all of his friends at the time thought he just smoked pot a lot and it wasn’t a big deal, Lamar knew that this could be his last chance to get his relationship with God back.

D: How did the night end?

P: The night ended with Missy and me recommending Minnesota Teen Challenge to him. We knew that he needed a completely new environment, and time away from his current one, in order to get his life right.

D: Lamar described your relationship to him as a kind of second father, do you agree with that?

P: Totally, I absolutely agree with Lamar on that. I was very protective of Lamar along with six other guys from Maranatha Christian Academy. He was one of those guys that could have my time no matter what and no matter when. I will always be on Lamar’s cheering squad, because Lamar is a guy who is willing to truly face the music. When tough times come Lamar has always squared his shoulders and faced up to it. I would even go so far as to say that Lamar is definitely the kind of son I would want to have, because even in his most down time he always remained humble and was willing to face the consequences.

Back to Lamar…

D: Did you end up taking Pastor Pete’s recommendation about Minnesota Teen Challenge?

L: Ya. Two days later I was in the program and I signed up to be there for 13 months. It happened so fast I knew it was a God thing. Normally getting into Minnesota Teen Challenge can be a lengthy process because of paper work and such, but they let me in right away. It happened so fast!

D: Do you feel like it needed to happen that fast?

L: Yes! I was nuts, and not in like a funny way, I actually felt insane. While we [he and his mom] were at Walmart shopping to get my stuff for Minnesota Teen Challenge I honestly thought someone was following me. We would walk around corners and I felt like someone would be closely shadowing me to keep an eye on me. I honestly thought that! You would not believe some of the stuff that was going through my mind!

D: How did Minnesota Teen Challenge help you?

L: It fed me spiritually every day. It gave me discipline and order in my life. It gave me accountability and it put leadership over me; and I hadn’t had that in a while. I tried to run my own life and it didn’t work out well. I needed to be under leadership that could show me how to walk life out.

D: What about Substance Church? Where did Substance come in?

L: Before Minnesota Teen Challenge I attended Substance halfheartedly. After I graduated the program, I returned to Substance.

D: What was different about your experience at Substance after MNTC?

L: Before, I just wanted to be a face in the crowd. I wanted to come in, punch my time card, and leave. The second time around I actually had a desire to be involved and to serve. And that’s where you [Daniel] came in and gave me an opportunity to get involved with Verve. Church changed from being something I did to please my parents, and as a religious duty, to actually being a part of my life. For the first time I actually became part of the body instead of just a spectator.

D: If you had the chance, and you could go back in time to when you first were attending Substance, before the breakdown and before MNTC, what would you tell yourself?

L: Wow! I have never thought of that before… Oh man, I would tell myself not to isolate, but instead to humble yourself, and get connected. I wish I would’ve let people in, and let them love me. I kept myself in such a small bubble. I wanted to keep an image [at church] of “oh he’s not a bad kid.” I wish I would’ve not been so afraid of getting to know new people. I would tell myself to get involved in this place instead of just coming in, not meeting anyone, and leaving.

D: If you had to sum up everything you’ve learned through this experience into one phrase, what would it be?

L: God will never leave you nor forsake you, and nothing can separate you from His love.

D: Thanks bud

L: Love ya bro

It was the last night Abbey (Fedje) Menth was going to make a fool of herself. She had spent many nights out drinking with friends while her then soon-to-be ex-husband cared for their son, Benjamin. But this was the last time she was going out.

Her marriage was dissolving, her son was diagnosed with a debilitating illness and she said she wasn’t making good decisions for herself or her family. Her mother, Deb Peterson, had been praying for her. So when Abbey told her mother she felt like she was missing something in her life, Deb knew it was Christ. She suggested that Abbey go to Substance Church, where her step son attended.

Abbey called her step-siblings, and asked about service times. Though Abbey had grown up going to church, she hadn’t had any interest in it in a while. “I stopped going to church when I didn’t have to anymore.” So when she woke up on that crisp December day three years ago, Abbey didn’t know what she was getting herself into.

Abbey said she remembers clearly what made the difference between just attending a church service and knowing God. The sermon was entitled God’s Care for a Bad Day. It seemed fitting because she had recently been having a lot of bad days. Her marriage had fallen apart, her son was diagnosed with a debilitating illness and she wasn’t living how she wanted to be. During the message, Pastor Peter Haas preached on Lamentations 3:22-23. It said, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is “His” faithfulness.” This verse made God’s love a reality. “It was the first time that a personal relationship with God was a real thing.” From that day on, Abbey was ready for something new and real. “[My relationship with Christ] makes me want to be a better mom, to take my life seriously.” Changes began taking shape in Abbey’s life. She quit smoking and drinking within the first few months after coming to Substance. She joined a mom’s group and added Christian friends to her life, something she attributes to the countless sermons given by Pastor Peter. In the past, Abbey would party with her friends from high school. “I was the life of the party. Now, I’m still a good time, but not the same way.”

While she remains close with her old group of friends, she has formed new relationships with women at Substance and found community in the body of Christ. Through the Wednesday night mom’s subgroup, Abbey met Kaaren Tyvoll. Kaaren remembered meeting Abbey at a parenting seminar at the New Brighton Family Service Center. “I saw the back of her hair and thought, ‘I want to meet that mom.” She introduced herself, and the pair connected instantly. Though she thought it would be difficult to be a divorced single mom in church, Abbey said she “didn’t feel judged” the way she had expected to feel. Instead, she felt loved. Kaaren said Abbey’s faith and steadfastness has rubbed off on her. “What has brought me closer to God is [Abbey’s] need for God. It’s encouraging.”

Things in her life were beginning to come together. However, her son Benjamin, was in a tough spot. Around the same time she started at Substance, Benjamin was diagnosed with a Specified Immune Deficiency. With this condition, Benjamin’s immune system was seen to be absent, causing his body to be vulnerable to illness and unable to fight against an attack. What would take a healthy child one week to heal from a sickness would take Benjamin months.

Strength in PRAYER

Immediately, Benjamin began treatments in hopes of curing his disorder. The doctors put in a permanent IV to streamline remedies into Benjamin’s body. “He calls it his ‘Robot Part,’” Abbey said. After a year of treatment, the doctors saw no change in Benjamin’s health. During this time, Abbey was seeking the Lord for healing in a spiritual warfare subgroup, led by Deb Calhoun and Renee Buss. Since the medicines weren’t working, Benjamin was going off the treatment for the summer.

After a meeting, Deb and Renee stayed with Abbey to pray for Benjamin’s health. Abbey remembered leaving the meeting unsure of what the Lord was doing but with faith that He was with them. When she returned home, Benjamin was hot. He seemed to be running a fever. She instinctively went to the medicine cabinet to get the Children’s Tylenol and a thermometer. But something held her back. “I felt like I was going to vomit,” she said.

 Spiritual HEALING

Abbey felt that God didn’t want her to do as she had done in the past. She said he was calling her to have faith in Him. Within the next week, Benjamin went in for another doctor’s appointment. Instead of returning no results, Benjamin’s blood work was “robust.” The doctors tested again to be sure Benjamin was fine. His blood levels had come down, but were in a good place. Benjamin was taken off treatments. He was able to enjoy the summer like the healthy kid he was. Abbey said he grew into age appropriate sizes, something he had never experienced before. The illness that had held him back in the past, was now gone.

After testing him again in the fall, the doctors found the same results. On October 23, Benjamin’s robot part was removed. Abbe said, “I stick with my belief that [Benjamin] was healed at Deb’s house.” And as Abbey’s life keeps moving (she married Gus Menth on November 7, 2009) she attributes life’s everyday miracles to God.

“He Knows What We Need.”
      -Abbey Fedje

 Enter Omot Aganya.

After drawing the curtain on twelve years of school, Omot, a native of the state of Gambella in the country of Ethiopia, longed to pursue a postsecondary education. The abusive environment and guerilla soldier encampments in the villages around him meant college was not an option. This prompted him to exit stage south to Kenya. His relocation in no way mirrored a western teenager’s transition to collegiate life. There was no dorm room with furniture from Ikea, no weekend visits to his parents’ home with the requisite load of dirty laundry. Omot was twenty years old, forced to leave home and live in a foreign country. His college degree dream would have to stay in dreamland.

Jesus, Please Speak to Me in Anuak

At the refugee camp Omot did not have access to books or entertainment of any kind. The next part of his life’s script found him borrowing a Bible from a friend. He began to read it “for fun.” In his quest for a diversion, the “fun” in the Bible led to truth-seeking and transforming times with God. One evening in the Walda Refugee Camp, his sleep was interrupted with a very personal encounter with Jesus. The discussion was difficult because Jesus’ words were in English. Omot had God’s boldness in him and asked Jesus to translate into Anuak, his native dialect. With more precision than a U. N. Translator, Jesus spoke to Omot in Anuak about many things. He quoted the letter found in the Bible written by Paul to Timothy telling him that the love of money is the root of all evil1 . The conversation also included Jesus telling Omot that he would someday relocate to study and learn about the Bible. Within one month this came true as Omot began the process with the American Embassy towards becoming a permanent resident in the U.S.

 In 1992 the scenery in Omot’s world shifted dramatically as he moved from Kenya to the United States. He lived for nine months each in Atlanta, Georgia and Sioux Falls, South Dakota before relocating to Minnesota.

Once in Minneapolis, Omot began his studies at North Central University. Meanwhile Omot was ministering to a group of emigrants living back in Sioux Falls. These Ethiopian, Kenyan and Sudanese people were adjusting to the many changes they were facing with their new lives in the United States. It followed that Omot had to make an adjustment of his own: from Mr. Omot to Pastor Omot. The group he had been mentoring became his first church plant. Pastor Omot continued to equip the men and women in his congregation to live their lives for Christ.

The dream-only version of a diploma was exchanged for the real thing when Pastor Omot completed his undergraduate work in 2001. In 2004 he attained his Master of Arts in Christian Ministry. Jesus’ words had come to pass. The scenery had changed, the character of Pastor Omot had developed and the major climax of his life’s story was about to be revealed. The revealing was more of a shove.

 No One is ‘Playing’ the Martyr

Pastor Omot’s life’s story now included the casting of his leading lady, Hannah. Hannah knew Omot from Gambella High School. Pastor Omot then became the interim pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Roseville, MN. At Calvary they worshipped in his native dialect of Anuak yet he yearned to reach more people. He made five trips back to Gambella, Ethiopia to preach and plant churches. He conducted seminars, leadership and pastoral trainings and taught the Gospel. He often noticed, “my heart is there even though I am here.” During his visits he worked alongside his wife’s father who had been a pastor and a church planter for over 35 years. Both men passionately loved preaching the word of God. As Pastor Omot stated, “Jesus Christ is the only Way, Truth and Life. I am not ashamed to be His servant. In Him I live!” Pastor Omot’s fatherin-law also drew his wisdom, energy and direction from Christ. In Him he lived too.

And in Him he died.

The stage of Pastor Omot’s set faded to black when his father-in-law was martyred for his faith in Christ. His father-in-law’s church had begun in his home. He was murdered because his church was Spirit-filled and because it had grown very rapidly. The accelerated expansion was seen as a threat to the local Churches and it also fueled the already divisive conflict between some of the tribes in the area. A total of 422 men were killed, including Hannah’s father, in one three day weekend.

Hannah had lost her pastor, her mentor, her father, her friend. Omot’s three sons and one daughter had lost their grandfather. The churches he planted had lost their leader. The atrocities of Christian persecution were not geographically or chronologically distant for the Aganya family. Pastor Omot’s father-in-law wasn’t ‘teased’ for his faith; he was murdered because of it. Images of the horrific torture and abuse that Pastor Omot had fled as a young person came flashing back.

While Pastor Omot and his family processed their grief they came to a time of decision. Should they step back and reassess the goodness of God? Should they be like most others and distance themselves from people in order to nurse their own wounds? Should they just change the channel? It would be easier.

Again the words of the Apostle Paul came to Pastor Omot. Paul was also unashamed of Jesus. Paul was also martyred for his faith. In one letter Paul wrote to the believers in Rome. Pastor Omot, nearly 2000 years after they were written, drank them in: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.2” For Pastor Omot reading these words was not enough. He needed to act them out.

 I Will Not Miss the Call

Pastor Omot now has an even clearer vision for the next scene of his life. He has been given a desire to not love money. He needs those words to leave the abundance of the United States. He has been given a desire to bless those who have persecuted him. He needs these words to return to Ethiopia. Hannah Aganya is convinced that “the seeds planted in me, and others, by my dad, are still alive. He was my mentor, my pastor, my dad and my friend. He is not here physically but the mentoring he poured out is still here.” Her vision is to follow her passion as her father’s understudy while mentoring Ethiopian young women.

Ethiopia, the country of their childhood, is categorized by Voice of the Martyr’s as a “hostile nation” towards Christians.3 The countries that border Ethiopia to the north, east and west are all considered “restricted” nations. The statistics of murder, wrongful incarceration and indescribable human abuse in Ethiopia, and the surrounding countries of Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea are horrific to imagine. This is especially true in light of the fact that the men who killed Hannah’s father are still in Ethiopia. How can they bite past the gnawing fear of reentering this region? “What I can say is this, it is a call. If you know that you are called you are not afraid of anything. We are not doing this by ourselves. I know that God will protect me. He knows how He will protect me.” Pastor Omot knows that “many people are called to go or called to help, but many miss the call.” Pastor Omot and Hannah are following the role model

The churches planted in previous visits will be encouraged to see them because it is almost unheard of for someone to return to an African nation after having come to the United States. In Pastor Omot’s words, “most Africans come here to follow the American Dream.” The Aganya’s are following God’s dream. The other part of Pastor Omot and Hannah’s vision is to plant a church in the capital city of Addis Ababa. When they go back their suitcases will be heavy.

They carry with them the encouragement and lessons learned from the teachings and subgroups at Substance Church. In Ethiopia people will wonder “what if church were different?” When they meet the Aganya’s, they will discover that church can be incredibly passionate, tenaciously relevant and surprisingly fun. They will not “do church” exactly as Minnesotans do, but they will be changed forever because one man and his family decided not to change the channel. Pastor Omot and Hannah are not looking for a fictitious “happily ever after” ending to the script. In fact, they are aware that “We share in the terrible sufferings of Christ, but also in the wonderful comfort he gives.5”

This is the end of their beginning. Pastor Omot, Hannah and their four children are grateful that Pastor Peter Haas and others from Substance Church have a heart for missions. During his time at Substance Church, Pastor Omot has learned that “humility and servant leadership are the secrets of a successful leader.” Pastor Omot hopes to create churches in Ethiopia that have the same “enthusiasm and authenticity” as Substance Church.

Pastor Omot is not like many humans, the moral of his life’s story is ‘I should face the pain in order that I might bring others close to God.’ The aforementioned Nehemiah took others with him and the Aganya family is in need of some “others.” Their needs are for prayer, for finances and for partners to follow their hearts to Ethiopia where the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.6 If you think you might be one of the “others” who will join the Aganya’s please contact Pastor Omot at his email address: aganyaomot@yahoo.com. The Assemblies of God denomination has agreed to support them and Substance is contributing over $30,000 to help them with their church plant in Addis Ababa. One last thought before the curtain goes down, Pastor Omot knows that “some of you will come there one day.”

Footnote: From 2005 to 2009 Substance Church has assisted in planting over 50 churches in the U.S. More than fifteen percent of the tithes and offerings received at Substance are used to support church plants and missionaries in hostile nations and restricted countries like the ones mentioned in this article. Please consider clicking around the two websites for Substance Church (www.substancechurch.com and www.beingsubstance.com). Here you will find detailed information on how we do church a little differently including detailed subgroup information, Pastor Peter’s Backstage Pass essays and a free virtual visit.

1 From the Apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy chapter 6 verse 10

2From the Apostle Paul’s one and only letter to the Romans, chapter 12, verse 14 thru 16

3 Visit www.persecution.com to read more about believers today around the world who face ongoing persecution

4 Nehemiah wanted to rebuild the city of his fathers. He asked for and received help because God’s favor was upon him. See the Old Testament book of Nehemiah starting at chapter 2 to read more.

5 From the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the people living in Corinth, chapter 1, verse 5 the book is AKA I Corinthians

6 These are Jesus’ words to his disciples recorded in two places: Luke chapter 10 verse 2 and also Matthew chapter 9 verse 37.

Summer, 1999
“Look guys, what we got here is family” said Armin, as he looked around at his diverse, tight-knit crew. These were the boys he grew up with, fought with, and did everything with. They were all at the same place in life.  They always backed each other up. After watching his real family turn their backs on him, these guys had become his new family.

As they sat there at barely the age of 19, Armin was extending an invitation to his new family. It was an idea far beyond his years, and it was brilliant. “Look guys, it’s simple, we all come from different backgrounds, and throughout history, we’ve followed our families in their businesses. But why do we gotta’ follow their lead? I spend more time with all of you than I do with my own family, and I know you spend more time with me than you do with your family. So why don’t we bring our connects to the table, why don’t we open doors and opportunities to each other, come together as a family, and come up in this world as a family?!” Sure, they had been doing little stuff to make money for years; buying and selling drugs, buying stolen property and selling it, but what he was talking about was big. “Let’s get this money, get our girls, and get this power, but do it together as a family,” he said. They loved the idea, and they ran with it.

1999 – 2006
It didn’t take long for everything to come together. Within a year or two they were bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. The money was pouring in from everywhere, and the lifestyle was crazy. Money, girls, drugs, power… they had gotten it all. Heading to Vegas and dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars in one night.  Partying with pro athletes, music stars and the like. “The money was jus’ coming in from everywhere” Armin says. “The life was fun… It was fun for a long time. For the power, vacations and the family that we had…”

For years he ran the show, but at the age of 26, the lifestyle caught up with him. “You’re just chasin’… Just chasin’… That high… that sex, that money. You can have it all… but that high only lasts for so long… and then you crash.”

Armin describes it as a strategic game of chess. “I constantly had to know: where do I place my people? Where do I place myself? It was constant vendetta, it was exhausting. “I’d either sleep three hours a night, or if I could get a day off, I’d jus’ sleep all day. I was so drained, and jus’ constantly playin’ catch-up,” he says. “People would say: ‘Oh, you’re making the easy money Armin. An’ I’d look at them thinkin’ ‘Man, you have NOOO idea what you’re talkin’ about! Yeah, this money is fast, but it’s far from easy.’” He could see his life was going nowhere. He could see that nothing was coming from it. He was tired. “All I had on my hands was sin, and all I had in my pockets was money,” he says. The family that he had started this whole game with, was no longer family. It was a business: just hundreds of people making money off of each other.

Tired of a life of constant racketeering and the overwhelming burden of his sinful life… He went to all of his high-ranking connections and said “I’m done with this life. If you wanna take me out, then take me out.  I don’t care if you kill me. I’m already dead on the inside. You can have the money and the power. You can have what this life gives you…” His life had been threatened more times than he can remember. He was sick of his life. He wanted to be honestly happy from the inside.  He wanted to experience true joy. He walked out and they didn’t kill him.  Armin dropped that life and never looked back. “From the depths of my soul, I gave myself to God.”

“At one point I was on my knees in tears: God, I don’t know you… I jus’ can’t do this anymore. Show me you’re real. Talk to me. Do somethin’! Show me Your face. This life ain’t worth livin’. Please God, I can’t do this on my own. I don’t have the answers. I got nothin’… I got nobody… I got nothin’ but you to turn too!”

Armin started going to churches and seeking God out.  “A woman who was like a mother to me would talk life to me. She read me scripture and gave me scripture to read. It was redeeming. ‘God loves you. God forgives you. He is your second chance,’ she would say. Everything she had me read made me think, God really DOES love me. God really does care for me, no matter how much I screwed up. She knew I was involved in stuff, but she NEVER judged me. She never shook her head at me.  She never stopped loving me. She jus’ loved me more.”  Armin knew that God was now a part of his life.

After getting out of the business, he began mending relationships that were broken from his past choices.  He was seeking out God and getting peace in his own life.  Three months later, his past caught up with him and there they were, US Marshals knocking at Armin’s door…

January, 2007 – Minneapolis, MN
As Armin hung up the phone, his eyes told the story. “There are 16 US Marshals waiting for me at my parent’s house” he told his girlfriend. Another friend or two stared on in disbelief. He had been smart, never listing anything in his name, always choosing instead to have his girlfriend’s name listed on leases and such. It had worked in this case. The US Marshals were visiting his parent’s home looking for him. A home he hadn’t visited in months, a home that wasn’t home, and a family he barely knew.

They “cleaned out” the apartment, just in case. Drugs, money and other paraphernalia moved to a safe place.

As his friend drove him, Armin had an idea of what was ahead of him. Although he had recently walked away from a life of organized crime, he had a past, and it was catching up to him. He would face indictments from 13 federal agencies including the FBI, ATF, DEA and ICE, although he didn’t know it at the time.

As they pulled up to his parent’s house, he saw that it was a less than perfect night for this to go down. His parents were hosting a large party, with close friends and family in attendance. The Marshals had left, although he knew they were watching. Armin got out of the car and in surrender raised his hands in the air. The Marshals were on him immediately. “Let’s go inside” they said.  They just wanted to “talk.”

Following a meager good cop/bad cop routine and a fiery phone call with his lawyer they ended up taking him. After 2 nights in jail he was out on bail. They had him on manufacturing with the intent to distribute, money laundering (over $2.3 million), wire fraud and 10 other counts. And they didn’t even know the half of it.

2007-2008
Throughout his legal proceedings, Armin was constantly seeking God, but it wasn’t always easy. “After I got indicted, that’s when people started talking,” he says. “People would say: ‘Leave the money, the power… leave all that stuff behind to be broke, and pursue some fake guy who doesn’t exist with white hair and a big white robe. Have fun in prison. That’s your God. That’s what he does for you…’ It was tough man.”

After attending a large number of churches, Armin came across Sanctuary Covenant in Minneapolis. This was the first church that he went to where he could truly say: “This is God, I believe this.” He made Sanctuary his first church home, and went there for over a month.

He can remember very clearly a call he got from Chris Rush, a believer from Sanctuary at around 6:00 one night. Chris said: “I have no idea why I’m calling you so late, but there’s this group of guys that get together on Thursday nights called Men of the City. We’re meeting tonight at 9:00, and I really think it’d be great if you could come out.” Armin doesn’t even remember filling out the prayer request card the Sunday before. Chris was answering his card. Armin went.

The meeting started at 9:00. He can recall seeing Mark Mellen and Chris, playing pool, getting to know each other. “I was playing the role, I’m a nobody and there’s nothing interesting about me,” he says. Although he was cautious at first, Armin was impressed with this group of guys. They were real. They shared their lives with each other in a way that he had NEVER seen. They LOVED each other, and without hesitating, they loved him. He had not experienced this kind of love in a very long time, and he had a true sense that it was God loving him through this group of guys. “I couldn’t believe how real these cats were,” he says. He began attending the group regularly.

A few weeks later, Chris and Mark invited him to join them at Overflow Café. “Just come on out and hang out,” they said. As Armin sat with them he recalls: “Even as I went out to join those guys, something that had started in me the night before was telling me, confess to them. I had been dying inside with the burden of not telling anyone what was going on in my life… what I’d done. ‘God, I just need to let this out…’ I remember saying to myself.” The problem was: he was knee deep in his legal situation, and confessing to guys he barely new was a potentially horrible idea. After an hour of hanging out, they looked at him and said simply “whatever you need to talk about, whatever it is… you can tell us. You’re safe. We’re here for you.” Armin just about got up and walked away. Instead they moved to a more secluded area of the café and he spewed out his life story. It was tough because the whole time he was thinking to himself: “Stop, you’re a moron for telling these guys your story. Stop!” It was a constant battle.

Armin describes the feeling of confessing his story: “The feeling was nearly inexplicable. It felt like someone picked a tree off my back. I was walking lighter, and my sigh of relief felt like it was 3 minutes long. It was like I hadn’t taken a breath in 10 years. It was my first taste of oxygen. It felt amazingly good. It felt like I was floating.” The confession was life changing.

Not long after, Armin attended Substance Church for the first time. He described the experience as follows: “I said ‘alright, I will go check out Substance Church.’ and I came to Substance and I walked in and immediately thought to myself ‘what is this, a youth ministry?’ I looked around and there were smiling faces – There was so much life. The body language was just people loving each other. There were no hands in pocket, no arms crossed. Everyone was WIDE OPEN to each other… it was crazy… there was love in that room… and it was a high school! (Laughs) So I followed the music into the auditorium and saw the band jamming out, and their hands were in the air, but they weren’t performing – I could just tell that it was authentic worship. I sat there and watched it and I loved it, thinking ‘that’s what I’m talking about!’ Then Pastor Haas gets on stage and I was like ‘what is this guy?’ He was just so chipper, and had the biggest smile I had ever seen… you could just tell that he had so much joy in his life. Then the first thing Pastor Peter said was: ‘Man, what a beautiful bunch of people! I love you guys!’ with this huge smile on his face, and it was so genuine.  He truly loved everyone there. He said it and he showed it. I remember thinking to myself: THIS IS MY HOME HERE… everything I saw…”

Over the next 10 months, Armin immersed himself in Substance. He continued to meet with Men of the City and even joined and led the load-out team! On top of it all, he kept getting good news on his case. His potential sentence started out at 15 years to life in prison. Then it became minimum mandatory 10 years, then 5, and as he prepared to walk into his sentencing hearing in Sioux City Iowa, he was looking at a minimum mandatory year and a day in prison.

July 11, 2008 – Federal District Court, Sioux City, IA
Armin still couldn’t believe what was happening. The day had been such a blur. The federal courtroom had seen more random events during that two and a half hour hearing than he can remember. He remembers it like this.

“The judge maybe spent 10 minutes in his chambers making his sentencing decision, which is typically not a good thing. After, he walked to his seat and began the sentencing. He started it out with No prison time, and I just started crying. I ended up getting an unheard of 15 weekends in jail. At the time I thought he meant 15 weeks… but he meant 15 weekends… and I got a year of house arrest and 5 years probation. Then in another unbelievable motion, the judge said: ‘Armin, if you do what I think you’re going to do, which is doing really well during this probation time. I’ll personally take you off probation in 3 years…’ Smack, the gavel strikes and he makes it final. My head dropped, and I realized that I had to thank the judge. I looked up and he was walking towards me. I couldn’t fathom what was happening because judges never do this. He walked directly towards me, reached out his hand, shook my hand and said ‘Armin, it was a pleasure and an honor to have met you. Take this, run with it.’ Then he shook my lawyer’s hand and said: ‘You did a great job. You have a great client.’ It was unbelievable.”

Today
The change in Armin’s life today is evident. He can’t talk enough about God’s love for him; how God continues to call him to his knee, to sit and be in His presence. The change comes from wanting to change because God loves him so much, not because he is trying to “be perfect” for God. Armin sums it up like this: “I just feel constant joy. Constant security. When I’m scared, He’s there.  When I’m lost, He finds me. He takes my worries, my anxiety… He takes them away. He’s always there.”