We are well into our next phase of life and ministry as we are in the process of starting Vertical Church in the West End/Vine City area of Atlanta. It’s a big shift for us, as I am sure it is whenever someone has been doing the same thing for 16 years. Now, we have entered the new normal. It’s a major challenge because our lives weren’t easy before. So things have an additional level of complexity.

Most people don’t realize that I had left my career of 10 years in 2009 to be a stay-at-home dad to my son with special needs and to focus on speaking and completing my book, College Impact. It didn’t make sense financially, but my son needed his father, and my wife and I felt that it was time for me to start living my dreams. This was more of a challenge because my wife was working at a church, and church salaries are less than spectacular. Add to that, a son with severe special needs who incurs high medical costs and is completely dependant us. You get a small glimpse of our lives.

All of these things considered, we are the last people who should be called to start a church, right? Especially when doing so in an urban, under-resourced neighborhood.  But, God in His infinite wisdom and whimsical humor decided we would be the perfect people to do so. Now we live on faith with random speaking engagements, short-term consultant opportunities, and the kindness of people who believe in us. Which all boils down to faith and a massive trust in God, which we have.

I am convinced that this is the type of life that God desires His people to live, one that is so far on the edge that He is the sole reason for our success. That looks different for every person and/or family, but the point is to trust God with it all. So, we are risking it all to follow our God who is more than able to keep us from falling.

Please pray for us and consider supporting us as we continue forward in this journey.

Supporting Vertical Church –Donations sent to P.O. Box 965161 Marietta, Georgia 30066

Supporting the Boyd family – Donations can be made on-linewww.hhmin.org then clicking the make a donation icon on the home page, then select the Donate to Helping Hands Approved Projects icon, then select Ministry on the category drop down list, then select DamianZarat Boyd 

If you have questions, ideas, or suggestions, contact me at damian@damianlboyd.com 

Yes, after much prayer and preparation, Zarat and I are planting a new church in Atlanta. This may seem to some as a sudden move, but this is anything but sudden. When I was twenty years old, I knew this was in the God’s path for me. A few years later when we married, my new wife agreed that this day would come as God had spoken to her as well. For the time being, we were just focused on working faithfully in our church, and twelve years later it was clear that this was God’s timing for the next step in our life journey. Last year, we went to our pastor and his wife and shared with them that we would be following God in planting a church. We are eternally grateful for the countless years of prayer, investment and support from the Destiny family.

We are headed back into the city of Atlanta to love on the West End/Vine City area and the Atlanta University Center (AUC) where Spelman, Morehouse, Morehouse School of Medicine, ITC, Morris Brown, and Clark Atlanta University are located. Although with tremendous potential, this area is largely under resourced, and the median income is around $17,000 (one mile around AUC). We desire to serve these neighborhoods and become a catalyst for change. The uniqueness of these communities is that the largest collection of African American college students in the country runs between them. I have been a college pastor for well over ten years and look forward to strategically serving and being closer to this amazing population. My wife and I are graduates of two of these schools and are excited to give back and invest in the future generation.

We are currently transitioning from the church of almost 16 years at the end of May. We are both on staff, and my wife works full time there. It’s a both a scary and exciting time as we are endeavoring to follow the Lord forward. Our lives are already complex with a son with severe special needs, but when God calls you must go and trust Him for people, resources, and support. We are receiving prayer, training, coaching, wise counsel, peer support, and encouragement as we leap forward. We gathered a prayer team 6 months ago and have begun to connect with people who have decided to join us. We are also in a massive effort to both raise funds for the church ($200,000 by end of 2012) and support for our family as we will be urban missionaries.

The churches name is… Vertical Church, and we desire to turn the city toward God. It’s our goal to be light and hope in that community in a way that we are vital to those who live there and partner to make a difference. We also desire to help draw business and commerce back to this overlooked area. We will, by God’s grace, develop leaders for the next generation. We will be holding preview gatherings and service projects starting this fall.

Please consider partnering with us by: 

Praying for Vertical Church

Serving with Vertical Church (i.e. launch team, events, service projects)

Supporting Vertical Church –Donations sent to P.O. Box 965161 Marietta, Georgia 30066

Supporting the Boyd family – Donations can be made on-linewww.hhmin.org then clicking the make a donation icon on the home page, then select the Donate to Helping Hands Approved Projects icon, then select Ministry on the category drop down list, then select DamianZarat Boyd

If you have questions, ideas, or suggestions, contact me at  damian@damianlboyd.com 

I have been pouring my heart, passion, and vision into my college students for over twelve years. I am very proud of this class of graduating seniors, as it is the first graduation of the College Impact. When I wrote College Impact: Empowering Collegiate Christians for Campus Influence, I wanted to inspire students to use their lives to make a difference on their campus. This class of students has actually done exactly that, and as their pastor I am proud to have served them.

I want to highlight a few students that have made a mark on their schools that will not easily be erased. One is Eugene who as a student at Elon University. He became, in many ways, the voice of the campus. He represented the school in international circles, and the school itself promoted his impact. He also along with others experienced bit of a spiritual awakening on his campus.

David is another student that took the words and teaching in College Impact to leverage his influence to touch his campus. David was literally the public face of his campus as the University of Michigan drum major. He led the band on the field for 2 years publically and led the band in bible study privately. He was selected as one of his school’s newspaper’s “Students of the Year”.

Last, but not least, is Samantha. Sam took the challenge to have impact to another level as she ran for senior class president of Spelman College so that she can love and touch the lives of her classmate for decades to come. She not only won the election, but also she has used her position to be a voice for the issue of child sex trafficking. She had the crazy idea of having the First Lady speak at their graduation, and she led the charge. Her wild idea was successful, and regardless of your politics, that is really cool.

When I wrote, College Impact, my dreams were that students would leverage their lives for Jesus. I wanted them to be in the most strategic place possible, to say the most important thing imaginable, to the most people possible. Each of these students has done that, and I am so proud of them. It’s been my honor to help them become missional adults, and I know that they’re future is lased with a passion for the Glory of God.

Have you ever noticed how people complain about their life situations and scream to the hills about their sorrow, and then when good things happen they are amazingly silent. We all go through things that challenge our perspective, our peace of mind, and our faith. That is a part of the human experience, but too often we keep a long memory of the bad and a short memory of the good. It seems like an unbalanced equation.

One of my mentees called me to tell me about a major award she received. This young lady is amazing at her craft and she won a prize in a category with much bigger names than she has, so this was cause to rejoice. My voice was elevated, and I was near shouting levels with the news that someone I love and encourage had such great success. She simply said, “Yeah, its pretty of cool”. I was not sure if I was more excited about her win or frustrated at her response.

This is the same young lady that calls me at least once a month singing sad songs of disappointment and woe. I am lonely, tired, bored, unappreciated, and overlook are a few of the recurring themes. Now, my wife and I love her very much and she is an amazing person, but this inequality caused me angst. I had to ask her why her cries in her troubles are louder than her praises in her triumphs. That seems to be the key question for many of us.

I wonder why we do that? Is it because we think that we don’t deserve the bad things that happen to us, but somehow we deserve the good? Or maybe we are just big whiney babies and we are not mature enough to see that the sun rises on the just and the unjust equally? I believe that the bad gives us contrast and context for the good. As a Christian my theology must have room for pain. After all, the faith is founded upon a brutal sacrificial death. 

So how do we change the equation? I think we start by complaining less. Then instead of talking about what we don’t have, lets be thankful for what we do have. Gratefulness in the positive times produces a greater capacity for gratefulness in the negative. I believe we would experience more joy in our lives if we learned to celebrate our successes rather than complain in our sorrows.

At a conference I attended recently, the questions of Text and Context immerged, and it has not ceased to cause me great contemplation. It resonated with me because I value culture. When in Rwanda I wanted to know the history of the people. I wanted to understand the genocide and what preceded it. When in China I wanted to know how the people were dealing with the western influences on their culture. I fully believe that if you understand a culture you understand a people. 

As a teenager I started attending a large church one town over. This church would bus in under privileged kids from a variety of towns. The problem was that these were rival groups who needed only to be in a room together for major brawls to break out. There were several large fights and one riot. (I was apart of a couple of those.) The church had an amazing heart and a critical message (text), but they didn’t understand the culture (context), and it went south fast.

On another occasion, this church invited some of us to come and play basketball. We went excited to get in a couple games in an actual gym verses the street ball we were used to playing. There was a change made, for whatever reason, and they closed the gym and took us to sanctuary. Now, this was a large mostly white church circa 1990, and the music and service style were different than what urban black kids were used to hearing. There was little to no drums or bass, and everybody was clapping at the wrong time. So, we ran across the 2-3 acre lawn toward home, which was miles away. Once again they had failed to understand our context. We had no problems with the text.

So many people hold up the Bible and tell its truth completely ignorant to cultural Context of those listening. That’s like speaking Korean to a Chinese person. You could tell them the most important thing they could ever know, and they wouldn’t ever respond favorably. The Text is the unchanging Bible, the word of life. The Context is whatever real life perspective the person is coming from. Generally, only when we explain the Text in light of Context do people feel compelled to respond. Now, we can’t control their response, but they are more likely to listen to the Text when we care about their cultural Context.