I know block parties are not a revolutionarily new idea, but the one that Serve Burlington hosted this past weekend sure felt like it. The idea was pretty simple- host a cookout and block party to promote the third round of Conversational English Club. Continue reading
Author: kevinpounds
Peacemaking
My good friend Michael Ly gave an insightful and challenging talk at the Lumens conference concerning peacemaking between Christians and Muslims. I believe it’s incredibly relevant to our work here in Burlington. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Your will be done… maybe
I woke up this past Saturday excited to be alive and why not?! I had just awoken from seven plus hours of sleep on my memory foam mattress. I was relaxing on the couch, sipping freshly brewed coffee from my french press, looking out the window at Lake Champlain in the distance. I quickly caught up on the weekend’s news on my iPhone’s USA Today app. I could hear my two year old son, Jude, beginning to stir and call “Daddy, you downstairs?” It would only be an hour until my wife and infant daughter came down too. I could not help but think, “isn’t it wonderful following Jesus in Burlington, VT.” It’s so easy to pray your kingdom come, your will be done under these circumstances. Continue reading
Giftedness meets Focus & Discipline
This morning I was reading an interesting USA Today article about wrestler (think Olympics not WWE) Cael Sanderson. The article stood out for two reasons. Number one, as some of you know, I was a wrestler in high school and an exhibit of athletic mediocrity. Continue reading
Disaster Relief in VT
I know many of you have asked about how disaster relief is progressing in VT, in the wake of Hurricane Irene. Burlington seems to be relatively unscathed, but the destruction is pretty intense in many of the mountain towns. I’ve been especially encouraged with how local churches, ministries, and nonprofits have stepped up to serve their communities by meeting both physical and spiritual needs. If you are interested in helping with disaster relief, here are two great opportunities Continue reading
Changes to the Serve Burlington site & blog
This past Thursday I received an exciting letter from the Vermont Secretary of State’s office: Serve Burlington is now an official Vermont nonprofit corporation! God has provided an amazing platform to mobilize churches, campus ministries, the faith based community, and the greater Burlington community to serve our city’s at risk populations.
Due to this exciting news, you’ll notice a few changes:
- The Serve Burlington website is now dedicated exclusively to our nonprofit/community service work.
- I’ve moved my blog to a new site: kevinpoundsblog.com. Not a very original name, but it does the job.
- In the near future we’ll be launching a church website that focuses on our efforts to launch home fellowships around the Burlington community.
Thank you for keeping up with us and we appreciate your continued prayers.
Building bridges by building fences
You never know what God will use to help you build a relational bridge with others around you. Recently, I’ve discovered one more way: building a wattle fence for a local community garden. Until a few weeks ago I had no idea what a wattle fence is nor how to build one. 
If you know me well, then you probably already see the humor in this: you should rarely trust anything I do mechanically and I mass murdered vegetables in my one attempt at gardening. So, I figured it must be God if the organizers of a community garden are asking me and the “Volunteer Wednesdays” crew to build something. Continue reading
Partners in the Gospel
When I reflect on what we’ve seen God do in the arena of church planting over the past few years in NJ and past few months in VT, I realize very quickly that very little of the fruit we’ve seen is due to our brilliant strategic thinking or exceptional spiritual intuition. As we continue on this journey, God continuously reminds me of the incredible grace He has shown us through our “partners in the gospel.” Three groups of people especially stand out in my mind: Continue reading
Making Disciples-Asking The Right Questions
As I continue to pray through the issue of making disciples, I’m increasingly convinced that the average Jesus-follower in America today has little idea how this works. On a personal level, I’ve been burdened by this question: with all the time, energy, and resources that I’ve poured into “doing ministry” (teaching, organizing worship services, serving the community), how effective have I been in equipping others to make disciples? Continue reading
Thoughts on Making Disciples
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the whole concept of making disciples. Maybe it’s the discussions my Home Fellowship is having as we dig into the gospel of John. Maybe it’s the byproduct of researching the role of the 1st century rabbi. Maybe it’s praying through who God wants me to invest in and how that should look. Continue reading
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