SUMMIT Magazine | Issue 30 | Here & Now

Here & Now Issue 30 / 2019

LETTER FROM JOHN

THE PARKERS Archike, Abush, Sinkenesh, Brandy, John, Samuel, Aschalew, Mulunesh

One of the great joys of driving an old truck is getting to talk with people I wouldn’t otherwise meet. At traffic lights, I hear from old timers about how they learned to drive in a truck like mine on their uncle’s farm. One very enthusiastic fellow, who I am sure claims to have caught many world record fish, told me that he rolled a truck like mine 15 times after losing control at 120 mph, after which he drove home in the same truck. This is of course not a true story as I am quite certain a truck like mine can’t manage to go faster than 80 mph.

My truck also affords me interactions with interesting people when I find myself stranded on the side of the road.

Now, before you judge my truck (which, if it can roll over 15 times and still get me home, would never simply break down), you should know that most often I am stranded for lack of fuel. One can hardly blame a truck for an empty tank. At such times, it is almost certainly a very interesting person who will stop and offer to help.

One such person was Sunshine. He saw me stranded on the side of the road and beckoned me over with a commanding enthusiasm I couldn’t resist. “Get on over here! I’m gonna help you out,” he said.

Ignoring my better judgement, I accepted his invitation. Over the next hour, I got to run errands with my new friend and quickly learned he was still pretty much living in an era of drugs, sex, and rock ’n’ roll.

Now well past his prime and well into the irreversible effects of an irresponsible youth, Sunshine regaled me with stories of the exploits of his younger years.

Occasionally he took a break to declare undying love for 1) his insurance agent who happened to call, 2) his neighbor who he also cussed out with a sailor’s prowess, and 3) his best friend and even more burned out roommate, Ray, in whose cargo van (heavily ladened with empty beer

cans) we finished our errands. Leaving his neighborhood in the van, I sat enthroned on a pile of empties between Sunshine who was driving and Ray who...well who knows what he was doing—he certainly didn’t. As we left the neighborhood, I noticed vultures ominously circling above the van. While I wondered at these portents and pushed the possible newspaper headlines out of my head, Sunshine also noticed the vultures and declared his love for them, saying, “See that?! I just love those beautiful hawks flyin’ around.”

Not long after, Sunshine, true to his promise to help me out, returned me to my truck with a can of fuel, declared his undying love for me, and went on his way with Ray sitting vacantly in the passenger seat of the van.

As I reflect on that encounter years ago, I marvel at how two people could occupy the same space and be worlds apart in their perspective. Where one saw vultures circling, another saw hawks soaring. Where one saw several hundred felonious beer cans, another saw a middle seat. Where one saw a need for fuel, another saw an opportunity to make a new friend.

In this issue, we are looking at what it means to live as citizens of God’s kingdom.

In Matthew 4:17, we see that Jesus began his preaching with the declaration that God’s kingdom was near. From then on, his teaching was laced with references to how the kingdom of God stands in contrast to this world and challenges the basic assumptions of the kingdoms of this world. The first shall be last, the proud humbled, leaders become servants, and the weak become strong. In God’s kingdom, it is only those who are unworthy that find their worth and receive the status of children of the king.

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PHOTO BY RACHEL VASQUEZ

The kingdom of God occupies the same space as the kingdoms of this world. His kingdom, dwelling in those who bear the name of Jesus, is not walled off from the world or insulated from its brokenness.

Rather, the kingdom of God is advanced by our footsteps as we tread the roads of the kingdoms of this world. Unlike my friend Sunshine, whose reality was rooted in illusion, kingdom citizens have been disabused of the lies that have brought untold brokenness into our world. Where Sunshine saw the world as it was not, we, as citizens of God’s kingdom, see the world both as it really is and as it one day will be (though our vision is often imperfect).

We occupy the same space as those we work with, live near, and pass in traffic, but we, in a sense, are worlds apart. We ought to see the world differently, and not the kind of different that feeds pride, but the humble kind of different that yearns for the world to find what we have found—hope, true hope, stripped of illusion and disappointment.

True hope more real than the ground we walk on and surer than all the promises of this world. Because we see the world differently, we can love the world better.

As you read the pages of this magazine, and catch glimpses of the kingdom of God on display, my hope is that you will see the world a bit differently. Ultimately, I hope you will own your citizenship in God’s kingdom.

The world needs you to.

John Parker, Lead Pastor

Contents

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Community Kickoff Soccer became a cultural bridge for African refugees in Central Florida.

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Rhinos and Rabbits

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Give Me a Sign

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One Lamb

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In Our House

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Rewriting the Story The Kallenbach family finds that moving to action is often the start of a beautiful adventure.

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Game Time

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Cover Design: Greg Perkins

Looking Back to Move Ahead We took a step back to get perspective on the hard realities within our city.

CONNECT

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r eT H I N K

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Presence Over Place

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Born Loyal, Again Why do we need to forsake our former loyalties as citizens of God’s kingdom?

F A M I LY

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Burning Brighter Together Thomas Hester uses his gifts to honor Black History Month.

ETC.

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Prayers for the Sunshine State

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Learning is the First Step

From Sermon to Screen

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One Big Family

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Little Victories

Artist Feature Stephanie Baur finds joy in creating worlds and characters by acting and writing.

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12 Questions

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Our vision is to form biblically functioning communities that reach lost people, connect in Christ-centered relationships, teach truth, serve others, and worship God. WHO WE ARE Summit Church is one church in multiple locations, living out our vision so that people can know they matter to God. Whether you find yourself unsure about who Jesus is and why that matters, ready to jump right into community life, or somewhere in between, you are welcome here.

Locations Summit Herndon 735 Herndon Avenue, Orlando, FL 32803 Service Times: Thursdays, 7 p.m., Sundays, 9 a.m.*, 11 a.m., & 6 p.m. (*ASL interpreters available)

Summit Lake Mary 100 Technology Park, Suite 110, Lake Mary, FL 32746 Service Times: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

Summit Waterford 11602 Lake Underhill Road, Suite 110, Orlando, FL 32825 Service Times: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

Summit at 33rd Street Jail Men's & Women's Services: Sunday Afternoons

Connect With Us Find us on the web: summitconnect.org

Summit Church

@summitchurch

@summitchurch

summitconnect.org/blog

Contact Us Office Hours (Herndon Campus Location): Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Phone: (407) 897-8130 Email: summit@summitconnect.org

Church Staff

LEADERSHIP TEAM Our senior staff members are responsible for leading the church and its ministries according to Scripture.

Lead Pastor John Parker // jparker@summitconnect.org Worship Pastor Andy Simonds // asimonds@summitconnect.org Organizational Development Pastor Jeff Kern // jkern@summitconnect.org Herndon Campus Pastor Zach Van Dyke // zvandyke@summitconnect.org Lake Mary Campus Pastor O.J. Aldrich // ojaldrich@summitconnect.org Waterford Campus Pastor Garry Abbott // gabbott@summitconnect.org Teaching Minister Jim Keller // jkeller@summitconnect.org

Magazine Staff

Editorial/Art Director Greg Perkins Lead Editors Lauren Margheim, Kari Freeman Graphic Designer/Photography Manager L J Judy Production Manager Virginia Schultz Contributing Editors: Leah Beth Carrier, Laura Freeland, Chelsea Fretwell, LJ Judy, Anna May, Jessica Meyer, Ann Miller, Reagan Perkins, Virginia Schultz, Ashley Simonds, Katie Sweeney

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DIRECTORS These folks oversee the departments and staff at Summit, helping to make sure everyone who comes through our doors feels welcomed, informed, and enabled to step into community here. reGROUP Director Kailey Newkirk // knewkirk@summitconnect.org Technical Director Joel LeGros // jlegros@summitconnect.org Herndon Children’s Ministry Director Deanna McLellan // dmclellan@summitconnect.org Herndon Executive Director Tracy Beeson // tbeeson@summitconnect.org Herndon Summit Connect Director Dan Sherfield // dsherfield@summitconnect.org For a full staff list, please visit summitconnect.org/staff.

Contributing Writers: Nathan Boyett, Chad Buel, Laura Cook, Elizabeth Cronlund, Julia Dennis, Francis Diaz, Kari Freeman, Asha Junot, Lauren Margheim, Michael Margio, Doris Misomali, Kailey Newkirk, John Parker, Zach Van Dyke, Lexi Winship Contributing Photographers and Designers: Mya Blanton, LJ Judy, Whitney Keilman, Jessica McCarty-Carvajal, Greg Perkins, Rachel Vasquez, Mark Volz, Beau Wingfield Special Thanks To: Mike Adkins, Heidi Armstrong, Lindsay and Terrell Burt, Keely Hardaway, David S. Jacques, Aubrey Sarasty, Mitch Todd

CONTRIBUTORS

Contributors 3.

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CONTRIBUTORS

1. Julia Dennis

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Chelsea Fretwell

3. Mark Volz

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Francis Diaz

5. Whitney Keilman

6. Michael Margio

WRITER Writing has always been present in Julia’s life in one way or another. Between entering writing contests and joining after-school clubs, she manages to weave writing into everything she does. Julia started attending Summit 10 years ago and has never felt more at home than within the Herndon Campus walls. A sophomore in high school, Julia also has a deeply rooted passion for music and an eager interest in medicine (specifically neurology). She serves as an athletic training aide for her school’s sports department and is a self-proclaimed coffee addict who hasn’t met a cup of joe she didn’t like. Julia is currently preparing to take the SATs and getting ready for her first year on Summit’s High School Dominican Republic Team while also steeling herself up to take the driver’s test this summer.

PHOTOGRAPHER Mark first started photography almost four years ago to capture the memories and emotions of his family and friends. It began as an outlet for him to remember important moments, but quickly morphed into a professional career. Mark chose to be all-in at Summit two years ago because of the overflowing joy from the people here who have made it feel like home. He has enjoyed being a part of the media team and loves that he can use his passions and talents to serve his church. Mark also likes to surf and will be traveling across the country in a van this summer to shoot freelance projects and combine his passions—people, photography, and travel—together in one adventure.

PHOTOGRAPHER Whitney has loved photography since she was in high school. Growing up, she watched her mom find extraordinary beauty in the everyday through her photography and learned from her mom’s incredible eye. Whitney started her own business, Whitney Keilman Photography, two years ago. She moved to Orlando in 2011 and met her husband, Brandon, at Summit. The two have been married for over three years now and their son, Caleb, is almost 2 years old. Besides photography and motherhood, her other calling is working for the Orlando Health Foundation. With a focus on pediatrics, she gets to meet and interact with incredible families, donors, and volunteers in the community.

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EDITOR Even since grade school, Chelsea has always had a knack for writing but ironically hated reading!

It wasn’t until her 10th grade English class that she fell in love with literature and learned how to analyze the deeper meaning of novels. Her 11th grade English class then honed her writing skills and molded her into the writer and editor she is today.

Since then, Chelsea has enjoyed using her love for writing and editing to serve others. She has used her skill set to start the grant writing department at a local nonprofit, serve as an English teacher in Thailand and the U.S., and currently works for Pioneers as a receptionist and an aid in grant proposal writing. She’s also writing a book that she hopes to finish this year! Outside of writing, she loves running, traveling, watching Netflix with her husband Michael, and investing in the people around her.

WRITER Francis believes you can never underestimate the power of a good story to make a difference. After graduating from the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications and interning with UN Women, she came to Orlando for a job in behavior-change marketing. In her role, she gets to use strategy and storytelling to advance the public interest. Francis has been at Summit for almost three years and serves in Summit Students where she helps a group of teenage girls navigate life and faith. When Francis is not working, she's probably at a coffee shop with her fiancé planning their wedding.

WRITER Michael has always been intrigued with visual composition and storytelling. Looking for a way to combine these two interests, he started exploring the world of videography in high school. He has now been producing videos professionally for almost 10 years. He and his wife, Heather, began attending Summit regularly in 2016. He joined the worship team at the Herndon Campus before coming on staff as Video Producer in late 2018. When he’s not filming videos, Michael is creating wooden block castles with his 1- and 4-year-old children and working on perfecting the science of bread baking.

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Looking Back to

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F O R H O W W E S E R V E L O C A L LY

ELIZABETH CRONLUND

Throughout the history of Summit, we have looked beyond whatever walls have contained us—an apartment complex, movie theaters, schools, and eventually more permanent places—to where God would call us. A specific focus on global service was made clear for our church. We would go deep into narrow places serving alongside strategic organizations already at work turning the tides on the AIDS pandemic in Africa, aspiring to match good intentions with sound development strategies. Defining and communicating this as part of our story became part of who we were and are very quickly. On the local side, a specific focus was harder to nail down.

With the proximity and prevalence of pain and brokenness surrounding our current campuses, we have been doing our best to understand and respond to issues affecting our community. God has been doing wonderful things with each investment of time, talent, and resources. However, through prayer and pointed research, we decided to stop reacting and start discerning our path to local service. We wanted to pull from our model for serving globally as we explored what it meant for us to go deep into narrow

Move Ahead REFINING OUR FRAMEWORK

places in regards to serving locally. We took a step back to get perspective on the hard realities within our city. God led us to leverage the gifts he had placed within Summit to be on mission with him in the midst of these realities.

What emerged was our goal to support the systems, structures, and relationships that reach and serve vulnerable children in our city. We are doing this by engaging with the Foster Care System and with local schools.

All children are vulnerable because they are inherently dependent as they mature.

As each person journeys toward adulthood, they rely on systems, structures, and relationships to build a foundation for understanding the world. When the things children rely on are broken, unhealthy, or under-resourced, children’s vulnerabilities are exposed in a way that can be harmful to them. By supporting the Foster Care System and local schools, we hope to bolster systems that already exist to care for children whose vulnerabilities have been exposed.

Jesus cares deeply not only about our eternal destination, but also the current situations in which we and our neighbors live. In “Dare We Be Christians,” author Walter Rauschenbusch writes, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.” We dare not wait for heaven, but rather we seek the good of our city, its children, and its families right now.

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Supporting Foster Families The Foster Care System is meant to provide temporary care and placement for children and teenagers while their parents or caregivers work through crisis. Children and teenagers need a safe and loving environment during that time, but the system is overwhelmed.

Awaiting each child entering the Foster Care System is a complex network of investigators, case managers, judges, counselors, and temporary caregivers. The goal is that each child would be able to walk through this process with a family.

there are not enough foster families to care for the children who need them. Part of the problem is that only 50 percent of foster families continue fostering after their first year. However, we learned that in foster families supported by a Care Community, that number increases to 95 percent!

Though there are currently over 1,700 children and teenagers in foster care in Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties, almost 150 of them are not in homes with families. When a child has been removed from their biological family, a process is begun that seeks first a relative or safe friend for the child to stay with. If that process fails, a licenced foster family is the next prefered placement. The sad reality is that

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Not everyone can open their home to foster children, but every person could find a meaningful role in a Care Community. We can help more foster families stay active and engaged so that more children find a safe place to land while their families work through crisis. From mentoring children to making meals and providing respite for families, each role makes a difference. We as a church are choosing to invest in the Foster Care System by surrounding foster families with Care Communities.

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Johnny Needs a Home

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Florida Department of Children and Families

Responds to reports of abuse or neglect and determines whether or not Johnny is in a safe environment 02

Court System & Investigators

Determine follow-up actions if Johnny’s environment is found to be unsafe 03

Community Based Care Organization

Finds a new home for Johnny; also, provides services for community outreach, case management, foster care, and adoptions A trusted adult in Johnny’s life suspects that Johnny may unfortunately be living in an unsafe environment with his biological family. So, he or she files a report with the Florida Department of Children and Families. If DCF determines Johnny’s environment is unsafe, police will be notified if a crime has taken place and officials in the court system, other investigators, a Community Based Care organization, and case managers will move forward with finding a new home for him. Since he lives in Orange County, Embrace Families is the CBC organization that takes his case. Ideally, Johnny would move in with relatives or a close family friend. If those options are not available or viable, he would be placed with a foster family or, as a last resort, in a group home.

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Case Manager

Becomes Johnny’s temporary legal guardian, along with his or her caseload of 15-30 other children; is hired by a case management organization that partners with a CBC organization 05

Johnny’s Foster Family

Cares for Johnny while his biological family works through crisis

A couple who lives in Orlando who are licensed foster parents are approved to take Johnny in as a foster child. Johnny’s case manager stays in contact with this foster family throughout Johnny’s stay with them. After being so quickly uprooted from everything he knows, Johnny can be best cared for now if he and his foster family have a steady support system. A Care Community

becomes this support system that both the foster family and Johnny can depend on in the midst of this transitional time.

What is a Care Community?

Team Leader

Commission 127 is an organization that helps churches form Care Communities.

A Care Community is a well-engineered team of people who live near each other and near the foster family they are serving. They provide practical and tangible help and give the foster family any emotional support, prayer, and/or childcare as needed.

Communicates with the foster family and leads the Care Community

Family Helper

Advocate Team

Assists the foster family with scheduled household tasks

This team facilitates, plans, coaches, prays for, teaches, and leads the creation and support of Care Communities. They answer questions and provide guidance about supporting a foster family.

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Child Mentor Provides daytime childcare and/or transportation

Interim Caregiver

Able to provide intermittent overnight care

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Heidi Armstrong Ryan & Becky Johnson Ryan and Becky attended a Care Community Orientation in spring of 2019. They left feeling like being part of one of these communities would fit easily into their regular routines. At the orientation, they learned that if every church in America raised up one foster family, every child could have a loving home. This really stood out to them.

They have seen first-hand from some friends how challenging taking in foster children can be. After learning how a strong community surrounding the family does help, they decided to get involved.

“When this opportunity came up to be a part of that type of an intentional community in this way, it was something I didn’t want to pass up,” says Ryan. He and Becky came out of the orientation specifically interested in the family helper and child mentor roles within a Care Community. “Both my wife and I would love the opportunity to pour into the lives of the children on an individual basis,” he says, “and be able to help the family by providing resources as needed.” They felt the orientation was a good balance of learning about the reasons and the means to support a foster family. They can’t wait to get started.

Serving the Foster Care System is something that’s extra important to Heidi.

During childhood, she could have been included in the statistics of vulnerable children and since then, she’s had a heart to get involved and serve where she can.

After hearing about Summit’s plan to serve vulnerable children, she quickly realized that this would be the perfect opportunity for her to continue pursuing that passion.

Heidi is now the Lead Advocate in facilitating Summit’s partnership with foster families. She helps lead Care Community orientations, which prepare congregants to step into new service roles. She is then integral in connecting the newly formed communities to the foster families they will serve. “I think as a volunteer, the rewards of that are seeing so many great God stories within it,” she says. “And we've already had numerous people come up to us and want to know more about fostering and are interested in getting involved in fostering. So I think that's just really exciting to be a part of.” She is also excited about what she says is the bigger ministry in this service—reaching out to and serving others who don’t go to Summit and may not know God.

Members of the Advocate Team speak at a Care Community Orientation.

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Summit congregants walk through the Hall of Flags on a tour of Lyman High School.

These flags represent the nationalities of the students who attend the school.

02.

Serving Summit campuses have committed to building a partnership with a school near them—investing time, talents, and resources toward these schools’ goals for the benefit of the students, families, teachers, and communities they serve. Schools provide more than an education for the children who attend them.

Schools should be a place of safety and stability for children, even those whose families may be facing many barriers. Teachers, administrators, and other school staff are often some of the most impactful adults in children’s lives as they grow up.

According to the federal standard, schools where 40 percent of students’ households qualify as low-income are eligible to receive Title I financial assistance and resources. This classification would qualify 180 of the 190 schools in Orange County as Title I, stretching the federal aid to so many schools that it would not be helpful. So, Orange County Public Schools enacted a clause in the Title I program that essentially raises their qualification threshold to 71 percent of students’ households. This prioritizes funding to schools with the most need allowing the funds to be more functionally distributed. However, with fewer schools receiving these federal funds, we see increased levels of distress and need in schools that can no longer benefit from the program.

Schools

“Title I provides additional resources to schools with economically disadvantaged students. These resources provide additional teachers, professional development, extra time for teaching, parent involvement activities, and other activities designed to raise student achievement.”

—Florida Department of Education, fldoe.org

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The issues mostly stem from a lack of basic resources, which means that schools are not able to focus on educating and inspiring students. If these resources were available, schools could help students to be fully present and accommodate for existing barriers such as hunger or trauma. Teachers do their best to give students the educational experience they deserve even without quality classroom resources.

Summit wants to be a caring neighbor and community for each school. We want to stand beside those within the schools we connect with in a way that allows them to thrive for generations to come. We want to see children given the tools and resources to discover their talents and value under the guidance of educational professionals who know they themselves are appreciated and supported. We know that stressors can isolate, discourage, and disrupt their home, health, and relationships. We want to build relationships and serve in ways that encourage and empower entire families that may be under immense stress.

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Jourdan & Krystin Richmond

Babita Hinduja Babita is a Certified School Counselor at Rock Lake Middle School and goes the extra mile to serve her students. She strives to build genuine relationships with the students by engaging in conversations about who they are. “I usually have a common point of interest with each student,” she says, “whether it is about loving [the musical] Hamilton, being a dancer, loving to see pictures of their pets, or even sharing some of my struggles that I had growing up...so that they do not feel alone.” She takes these relationships she builds seriously and follows through by keeping in touch with the students throughout their time in high school and sometimes college as well. “My goal with my students is for them to feel heard, for them to feel validated no matter what they feel, and for them to be coached or helped thereafter,” she says.

With 480 students assigned to Babita, she struggles to find the time to build relationships and offer support to each individual the way she hopes to, so she’s developed a few ways to get this face time with the kids. One of these is a goal setting bulletin board she and some other counselors created. This interactive board allows students to contribute ideas, which gives students who may not otherwise seek out an appointment the chance to meet Babita or the other counselors. The board covers goal setting as well as other topics such as thankfulness and acts of kindness. “In my counseling work with students,” she says, “I feel I am in one of the main purposes of my life and I'm so grateful for the ability to relate to students this age.”

“My students know I am not going to pull the wool over their eyes or sugar coat anything for them, but that I will listen and talk through things with them,” Babita explains. She wants to be a safe person in her students’ lives and feels blessed that God has given her a personality that aligns with this passion.

When Jourdan and Krystin learned about the long term plans for Summit to serve alongside local schools, they decided to switch from attending the Herndon Campus to the Waterford Campus because of its proximity to their neighborhood. As Summit continues to learn what it may look like to partner with local schools long term, an opportunity came up to serve with East River High School to prepare their baseball fields for the upcoming season.

Jourdan and Krystin jumped at the chance to get to work. Matt Gerber attends Summit and is also on the coaching team at East River High School. Matt was able to share some of the baseball team’s needs and practical ways for Summit to serve the players. The goal was for the team to be able to feel good about their home field on opening day. So a group of around 25 people came out on a Saturday morning to power wash the bleacher areas and dugouts, paint the inside of the press box, and clean up overgrown vegetation along the outfield. As the group worked to the team’s music playlist that morning, Jourdan and Krystin couldn’t help but feel one step closer to the community they had committed to serve.

The Waterford Campus partners with East River High School by writing notes to teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.

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Surge students get together to make signs for the East River High School baseball team. Go Falcons!

Zack Morson

Nancy Dickens

Zack’s Connect group launched after hearing about Summit’s commitment to serving locally. “We are a group of young men that want to grow as brothers in Christ and be able to hold each other accountable for staying connected with Christ,” he says. They felt the call to specifically focus on Colonial High School as they internalized the “serve, learn, and worship” mission of Connect groups. Since he is in his late 20s, Zack remembers many of the overwhelming aspects of high school and the challenge of figuring out what’s next in life. He wants the students there now to know they have a community rooting for them.

Nancy felt both inspired and compelled when learning about how Summit is serving local schools and the Foster Care System. Her first thought was about how she and her family could “reach out through our church to demonstrate and live out the love of Jesus around us.”

When Waterford Campus Pastor, Garry Abbott, shared about an opportunity to serve the East River High School baseball team, she began thinking about how this could include students at Summit as well.

The answer came from the team’s coach and his wife—the students could work on encouraging the baseball team members.

While they are still learning the best ways to serve the high school, they have committed to find a way to serve every six weeks as they develop a relationship with the school.

When their group meets, Zack says that they discuss ideas for service, what it means to be a man of Christ, and “being a man in this world as well as the good that we are able to do with Christ in our hearts.” Zack also stresses the importance of community and finding the people with which you can do life.

Jenn Stasak “I’d been involved in serving in the community and specifically vulnerable children in the past, so it has always been on my heart,” Jenn explains. “But the opportunity to cheer on Colonial High School’s soccer team stood out to me because it was a tangible way to show support.” Jenn remembers when she was in high school and how important it was to her for people to just show up to watch the after-school activities on which she had been working so hard.

“But, honestly, it was more than that too,” Jenn continues. “What really struck me as a kid was when people from my church showed up. It was one of the first instances in which I really tangibly saw the church showing up for people.”

Jenn describes a night when folks from Summit cheered on the teams, learned players' names, and really felt connected and invested in the outcome of the game. “Funnily enough, I remember the fact that we all cheered and good-naturedly groaned whenever the refs made a call we didn’t agree with,” Jenn recalls. “I don’t think we should ever underestimate the power of passionately showing up for others. It might seem small, and maybe it is. But it’s not unnoticed, and it definitely is what God has called us to.”

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So, several Surge students (Summit’s middle school ministry) from the Waterford Campus got together to pack goodie bags for the baseball team members and make signs of encouragement with which to line the field. Nancy got to watch as the students used their creativity and worked together, but more importantly enjoyed serving with their church family. “These gals are given a good deal of instruction about being a disciple of Christ,” Nancy reflects. “But this type of service project gives them an opportunity to live that out, which is a great way to cement in our hearts what exists in our heads.”

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Rhinos and Rabbits JOHN PARKER

T H E F U T U R E O F M U LT I S I T E

Information like that is an end unto itself for people like my 10-year-old, who will gladly let me know that “a peregrine falcon is the fastest animal in the world when diving but is outperformed by other birds in level flight,” just for the joy of sharing the knowledge. However, for Nairobi Chapel (a faith community with a strong focus on church planting and one of our longstanding global partners in Kenya), the rhino and rabbit comparison serves to illustrate the changing face of church planting in the world today. They note that up until now, most churches try to plant rhinos and most church plants try to be rhinos (big, resource heavy, and labor intensive). They contend that rhinos are not the ideal normative for church planting. While there is a place for rhinos, it is the rabbit (small, agile, easily reproducible, and resource simple) church plants that seem to be proliferating better in nearly every context they are found around the world.

Multisite for Summit is changing and I am here to tell you why and how.

But first, a bit of animal trivia...

Pregnant rhinoceroses carry their young for 1516 months, just a bit longer than our own Florida manatee. After that very long pregnancy, a single 100-pound baby is born (ouch). That baby then stays dependent on its mother for another three years. This leaves mother rhinos able to produce one new offspring about every five years. Assuming all goes well, which it often doesn’t, in 10 years a healthy mother rhino could see two or three babies to successful maturity. Assuming one of the babies was a healthy female, we could add another baby to the multi-generational total, making it a grand total of about four new, healthy rhinos in 10 years. Such an endeavor is slow, high risk, and demands a huge amount of resources.

I encountered this thinking when visiting Nairobi Chapel last year and found that it confirmed much of what Summit’s leadership has been thinking in regards to the future of multisite at Summit. If our model for multisite in the past was more toward the rhino side of things, then how we will build new

By contrast, a single rabbit could produce up to 1,000 young in that same timeframe. Factor in the breeding potential of these offspring and there is the possibility of 100 billion new rabbits in the same time it takes rhinos to produce four offspring.

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expressions of Summit in the years ahead will definitely be more toward the rabbit side of things (but without the dizzying proliferation rates!).

seems like nothing. However, when I consider that it’s been over seven years since we last started a new campus, our goal of three seems like a huge deal. The prospect is as exciting as it is scary.

Let’s look at Summit Waterford, for example. As a church, it is a big one—larger than 90 percent of churches in the U.S. Summit Waterford was born to be a rhino! We took a ton of money and a ton of people and put it all toward getting the Waterford Campus to look, feel, and function like the present day Herndon Campus as quickly as possible. I would not undo that strategy for the Waterford Campus, nor would I wish that church family to be on any other path than the one it is on. However, as we have learned along the way and now look to our future, we are building a different vision for how new expressions of Summit will come to life.

I want to be clear that our intent in moving toward new expressions of Summit is rooted in the following three things.

It is what Jesus intends for his Church.

2

New churches are the most powerful evangelistic environment in our context.

3

In new expressions of Summit, we won’t be pouring all our resources into hurrying them toward the rhino status of the Herndon, Lake Mary, or Waterford Campuses. We will be starting small, agile, and highly contextualized. The first year of one of these new expressions will look more like the original Summit did in our own humble beginnings in an apartment complex clubhouse. It will look more like a church plant, like a community of people gathering to worship and serve God.

Central Florida needs more than just a few new churches committed to reaching the lost in our communities. With almost 1 million of our neighbors having never been to church nor having ever heard the gospel, we have a lifetime’s worth of opportunity and 1,000 new churches’ worth of redemptive potential in our city.

As you read this article, I would ask of you the following three things.

New expressions will come to life in new areas around our city through the passion of committed leaders in our Summit Connect communities and as we serve the most vulnerable. They will begin in homes, in Connect groups, in service projects, or in neighborhoods. They will look a bit different than other Summit campuses but will be exactly what Summit has always been—people bound together by a common vision and a passion to see God’s kingdom built through this church in all its varied expressions. New expressions won’t be in a rush to grow up, they’ll be in a rush to do good in our city.

1

Pray for our church–that we will have a heart that is desperate to reach and love the lost in our neighborhoods.

2

Engage fully in Summit’s vision in whatever Summit campus you attend–until such a time as God may let you be a part of launching a new expression of Summit.

3

Give yourself with reckless abandon–if God asks you to participate, be willing to be used by him in seeing his kingdom built in new ways and places in our city.

As we approach this summer, I am excited to say that a family from the Lake Mary Campus, who has been traveling some distance to attend church for years, is well on its way to forming a new expression of Summit in their community. Another is edging its way to life through the Waterford Campus. The Herndon Campus? Well that big ol’ rhino may still be trying to wrap its head around the idea of a rhino giving birth to rabbits. However, I imagine that once that little trick is sorted out, it will be hard to keep up with those at the Herndon Campus who are eager to see God’s kingdom come to life in new ways throughout our city. By September, my hope is that all three new expressions will be identified, at least by their leaders and location, and that we can spend the fall investing in them and cheering them on to whatever version of Summit that God has in mind for them.

We entered this year prayerfully committed to seeing three new expressions of Summit begin life by the end of 2019. I have to admit, stating such a goal, especially in print, makes me a bit nervous. Compared to Nairobi Chapel’s goal of 150 church plants in the same timeframe, our goal of three

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In 2016, Ciru Mutura, founder of One Lamb, visited Summit and I had the great opportunity to meet her and hear her story. I learned how years prior, God had used a CNN documentary in the middle of the night to wake her up and introduce her to the challenging reality of human trafficking in the world—and that it was happening even in her home city of Nairobi, Kenya. God used this unsettling realization to prompt her to action. To combat human trafficking in Nairobi, where she lives, she started an organization by the name of One Lamb. For seven years, Ciru and One Lamb have been working in one of Nairobi’s slums to identify and rescue girls that are being exploited.

They provide a safe place for the girls to begin the long healing process from the trauma they have experienced and introduce them, possibly for the first time, to what it means to walk with Jesus.

In 2018, I was able to visit the HEART Home, which stands for Healing and Restoration Therapy, with a group of Orlando churches as Ciru gave us updates on One Lamb.

The home is located outside the city, away from the hustle and bustle, which adds to the peaceful environment that is so conducive to their work with the girls in their care.

As we learned about their efforts and their hopes for the future, Summit ultimately decided 2018 would be a great year to dedicate their annual Christmas Eve Offering to One Lamb. Ciru and her team worked on a proposal for how this offering would be used. They hoped to provide vocational training to help the girls secure gainful employment and to create a computer lab where the girls could learn valuable skills to use in the workforce.

The purchase of a van was also an important part of the proposal. As the program grows, providing transportation for the girls between the school and the HEART Home as well as to visit their families has become a significant challenge. This need could be met with the addition of a large, reliable vehicle.

We were so excited to present this opportunity to the Summit congregation, and Ciru came to many of Summit’s Christmas Eve services so we could hear directly from her about her hopes for the offering. After many of the services, someone approached her with a few simple words or a hug. In Ciru’s words, “It was always so moving to have someone come up to me after the services and give me a heartfelt, emotional hug because they had been deeply touched by the One Lamb story. It would be a moment of special connection without many or any words but with a special universal understanding of experiencing hope in and through Christ.”

2018 CHRISTMAS EVE OFFERING

$128,728 The hope in Ciru’s story of One Lamb certainly resonated with Summit’s congregation throughout the Christmas season. Far exceeding expectations, this Christmas Eve Offering became the largest ever given at Summit and the largest gift One Lamb has ever received. “We have been over the moon about it,” Ciru explains, “and so excited about all that can and will happen through it. We continue to marvel at God's amazing goodness.”

Not only will One Lamb be able to accomplish the initial plans for the offering’s use, but the Summit and One Lamb leaderships now had the exciting task of expanding on the initial proposal. The new plans include acquiring a reliable water supply for their HEART Home, purchasing additional land for One Lamb, and providing financial support for staffing.

To those who gave to One Lamb this past Christmas season, Ciru says, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am so grateful for you. You have given to help a child you will never meet and who will never personally thank you, but whose life you have impacted by not only making it better here on earth, but also eternally impacting it through an opportunity to hear the gospel, be discipled, and one day disciple others. Thank you so, so much.”

As for Ciru, she is continuing to dream big and has a grounded, long-term view of our role as Christians bringing God’s kingdom to earth. “My biggest, most audacious dream is that ministries like One Lamb will one day not be needed. But for now and as long as we're on this side of heaven, I hope that One Lamb will deeply impact many lives for Christ long after I'm gone.”

One Lamb has undoubtedly been deeply impactful for many, and we are excited to cheer them on into the future.

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LAURA COOK MARK VOLZ

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-year-old Nathan pops up in bed and looks around the room. It’s still dark outside, but he can tell the sun is almost ready to rise.

He can’t be late.

K ickof f His feet hit the floor and he gets dressed before waking his sister, his parents, and anyone else still asleep. “Today is soccer day!”

Nathan announces in the dark house. “We need to be ready! I need to be there on time!”

It’s 5 a.m. on a Saturday. Soccer doesn’t start for another four hours.

But the boy just can’t sleep any longer because of the excitement. This is his league, after all, created just for him and his community.

That community is made up of more than 60 African refugee families who are part of Africans Family and Community Outreach, an organization that serves as a support system for African refugees who are living in Central Florida.

And that’s where the idea for a soccer league began. “Soccer is one of the cultural backgrounds in Africa,” says Yves (pronounced “eve”) Bouele who is on the AFCO Board and

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originally from Cameroon, West Africa. He came up with the idea of a soccer league for African refugee kids. “I figured with soccer, we will enhance camaraderie within the community...I thought, ‘Let’s see how we can have an activity where our community, who are originally from Africa, can play an essential role in making sure that we collaborate and work together...and create an environment where we enjoy living together and learning about one another.’”

But Yves needed a team of people to help with logistics and league organization. He reached out to the Refugee Church Alliance, a network of seven churches (including Summit) seeking the well-being of resettled refugees in Central Florida. Summit staff and volunteers were eager to help with organization of the league along with staff and volunteers from Metro Life Church in Casselberry. Metro Life also became the location for the games, sharing their facility’s soccer field and equipment.

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The idea for a soccer league quickly became a reality.

“This is my favorite part about this—this was not an idea that Americans came up with to help African refugees,” says Kirsty Ortega, who leads Summit’s Refugee Care Team. “It was one of those ideas that came from the community and a couple of us said, ‘That’s amazing, let me help you do that’...but it was their idea that we helped make possible.”

And the idea wasn’t anything super regimented. It looked like about 30 kids from all different African countries showing up around 9 a.m. every Saturday morning for eight weeks in the summer of 2018. They warmed up and did drills with volunteer coaches and players from Metro Life and Summit. Uniforms and cleats were handed out and kids were divided into two teams according to age and skill. One game was guaranteed, but there was usually enough time (and desire) to squeeze in a second one before noon. Entire families came to watch and mingle, some kids got dropped off by siblings or parents, and others would all jam into a carpool van from one neighborhood.

Kirsty—who is slightly obsessed with the game of soccer herself—enjoyed helping make the soccer league come to fruition but says that she honestly didn’t plan on spending eight hot Saturdays of her summer out on the soccer field. However, that changed after she spent the first Saturday there. The experience of meeting the kids and the families, the joy of watching the kids play, and the opportunity to form relationships made her want to go back. “It was amazing, and I ended up coming to almost every single one,” she says. “And then I ended up picking up kids [and driving them] every single week.”

It was also impactful to work alongside another church. Kirsty says that she explained it to her own children by calling Metro Life a “brother” to Summit.

“We worked with them on the field, on the sidelines, like we were at the same church,” she says. “They were asking some of their church members to come and volunteer, and I was also telling people from Summit... We [were] all showing up like we were the Church... We were all one.”

Yves had two goals for the league. The first goal was to build a sense of community among the African families and children who are part of AFCO. His second goal was to give the families an opportunity to contribute to the Central Florida community with an activity of which they can easily take ownership given their cultural affinity for soccer. “If we make them responsible in a way to also shape and improve

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" I FIG U R E D W I TH SOCCER, WE WILL E N HAN CE CAMARAD E RIE became the “herder” of all the children under the age of 5—teaching them the rules and skills of soccer.

“We came out and were able to interact with others and were able to serve others, but at the same time, the refugees have been an influence on us,” says Leo, “opening us up about what is going on around us and the joy that they have in their lives.”

WITHIN THE C O M M U N I T Y. . ."

-Y V E S

This same joy overflows in 11-year-old Nathan who can’t help but wake up before dawn to play soccer in a league where he knows he belongs.

the new cultural makeup of Orlando, they won’t feel like they’re in a strange land or like they are always in need,” Yves says. “The hope was that we would include other [people] and that the African families would kind of lead the activities so that when they go back to school and their families after this program, they will not feel strange anymore. They will know this is their community.”

“I think [it is] just showing up and showing kindness and treating them how you want to be treated,” explains Leo. “Refugees are in a very vulnerable position and the love of Christ has got to be tangible...interacting with them, building that rapport and relationship. Not out of trying to gain something from them, but just to be there and be a human being along with them.”

Some of those people who showed up every sunny Saturday morning were part of the Valencia family.

Leo and Aura, who are also Summit partners, are originally from Colombia and Guatemala and have called the U.S. their home for more than 25 years.

Both have experienced the isolating and vulnerable feeling of living in a new culture. They not only have a heart for refugees, but they and their two children (Isaac and Alisa) also have a deep love for soccer. The volunteer opportunity through Summit seemed like a great fit. In addition to volunteering, 14-year-old Alisa—who is a skilled soccer player herself—played every game alongside her peers. “The two teams would fight over Alisa and who got to have her on their team,” Kirsty laughs.

The planning is already underway for the 2019 summer soccer league. Given the impact it had on refugee families and children the previous year, this next year will be no different. Volunteers are quick to say they don’t want to miss it, and the kids are anxiously waiting to play with and against their friends. The league will continue to impact the lives of those who participate and those who volunteer. Yves says that he’s already seen results from last summer’s league in the participants’ desires to strive toward building up their communities. “I’m not sure if it’s circumstantial, or what, but all those families who participated with us [in the league]...we just know that those families feel comfortable now here in Orlando,” he says. “If you let them be responsible and contribute in some way, they will feel like they can strive.”

Aura made connections with parents across language barriers as she helped hand out waters and snacks.

Sixteen-year-old Isaac broke through cultural differences with some of the older kids by way of typical teenage banter and joking. And Leo somehow

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I

n 1992—the same year that my mother gave birth to one of her greatest hits (i.e., me)—the Swedish pop group Ace of Base released one as well: their song called “The Sign.” If you’re over the age of 25, you would almost certainly recognize this bop if you heard it.

“I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign.

Life is demanding without understanding.”

Even before Ace of Base’s greatest hit, humans have been fixated on the concept of “signs” for basically as long as they’ve been living. We rely on physical signs to tell us when to stop or go, if our favorite restaurant is open or closed, or when a much-needed restroom is occupied. When facing a big decision and paralyzed by choice, we often stand with both feet at a crossroads, shouting up to the sky, “Just give me a sign,” begging for a flashing arrow pointing to the proper path to appear. Why? Because Ace of Base got it right—without understanding, life is demanding.

As a child, Rachael Aldrich was always fascinated by sign language and had a strange feeling that she was supposed to learn it, but didn’t really know what to do with that feeling. As she grew older, the desire to learn American Sign Language simmered on a back burner, occasionally getting stirred up, but never quite boiling over...until she met Hannah, a nowteenage girl who attends Summit’s Lake Mary Campus along with Rachael. Upon meeting Hannah, who is Deaf and uses ASL to communicate, and her family, Rachael remembers thinking, “It’s not OK that I can’t speak to her.”

Sydney Gillis is a high school student who also attends the Lake Mary Campus.

Sydney's family is in a Connect group with Hannah’s, and they both fall in the same birth order slot in their respective families.

Noticing that her own siblings were bonding with Hannah’s, Sydney longed to find a way to connect with Hannah in the same way, so she signed up to take ASL classes at her school.

Give Me a Sign LEXI WINSHIP

JESSICA MCCARTY-CARVAJAL

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Soon after meeting Hannah, Rachael traveled to Malawi with Summit for the first time. In one of the villages that Summit visits in Malawi, there lives a child who is Deaf and her teacher, John.

John is also Deaf and teaches ASL to the child and her family. While Chichewa is one of the primary languages spoken in Malawi, indigenous language versions of sign language are not yet widely taught or utilized in Malawi; therefore, many Malawians who are Deaf primarily use ASL. One day, while the team from Summit was participating in a niceSERVE project at a hospital in town, John came along to help. Midway through the project, Rachael became distracted from her task when she noticed John motioning to some of the hospital employees—they didn’t understand him. Rachael, feeling helpless, looked at his hands. Considering her very minimal experience learning ASL in grade school, she was shocked that she recognized the sign for “toilet” and was able to direct John to a nearby restroom.

It was a seemingly small thing, but this experience had a profound impact on Rachael. In a place where she had the expectation that she would not be able to understand anyone (or they, her) because of the spoken language barrier, ASL had served as a bridge in a completely unexpected way.

“I knew this was what I was bringing back with me from Africa,” Rachael says of her experience. “I just couldn’t not listen to that.” At the same time she arrived home, a local church happened to be offering a free series teaching ASL—further confirmation to an already-convinced Rachael of what God had planned for her.

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For both Sydney and Rachael, learning ASL has been a journey. Neither considers themselves particularly skilled in the art of retaining language, and they both express frustration over how easy it is to “lose it” if you are not frequently using it. In order to stay in regular practice, Rachael has even started teaching it to her kids—who have, in an cruel twist of fate, started using the sign for “no” when she tells them it is time to leave the Chick-fil-A play park.

Learning ASL isn’t always easy, but there are moments that are clear wins and moments that serve as powerful reminders of why it’s important to keep going.

As they’ve both grown older, Sydney has now become Hannah’s leader at Surge (Summit’s middle school ministry) and has been able to use ASL to interpret for Hannah in that setting. Through this interaction, other girls in their group have started learning bits of ASL here and there because they want to be able to communicate with Hannah too.

“It’s not about you and what you can or can’t do. It’s about how he wants to use you.” –Sydney Learning ASL has quickly become something of which all the students what to be a part.

In addition to signing with Hannah, on a recent field trip with her ASL class to Gallaudet University (a university in Washington, D.C. for students who are Deaf or hard of hearing), Sydney and her classmates were expected to spend the entire trip voice-off using ASL to fully

immerse themselves in the language and culture. While this concept scared her at first, over the course of the trip, Sydney noticed herself feeling more comfortable and confident signing than she did using spoken word.

As humans, we all long for understanding.

We were designed for connection—to communicate with one another often feels not like a luxury but a need. And when that path to connection with others feels winding, what if some of us intentionally found ways to build bridges over some of the gaps between spoken and signed communication? What if, instead of waiting for a sign to open up our eyes, we just started following the map that has already been given?

When we were without understanding, God sent Jesus to speak our language, to walk alongside us, and live as we live. He was and is the bridge that connects us to God. And now, we are offered the opportunity to be bridges ourselves.

He doesn’t ask us to be perfect. He only asks that we be willing. “It’s not about you and what you can or can’t do,” Sydney says.

“It’s about how he wants to use you.”

When Rachael went back to Malawi for the second time, she had some ASL

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instruction under her belt but was still lacking confidence in her ability to use it to communicate. Even still, she went into the trip with a goal of interpreting for John and his student so that they could be included as much as possible during Summit’s time with them.

As the trip went on, Rachael found herself feeling increasingly discouraged and foolish, wondering why she thought she would be able to adequately interpret for others using this language that she had not yet “mastered.” When John asked her to interpret for him during a time of prayer, she felt two things with equal strength: a complete lack of confidence in her own ability and a deep sense of the fact that this was why she was there. As she began signing, peace washed over her; she realized that God was using the little she did know to communicate that much more. In relaying this story, Rachael stresses to me that this situation was all God. “I wouldn’t

have had enough of the language without him getting me out of my own way and just doing it.”

While Sydney and Rachael’s stories are different, they have both seen ASL become a powerful tool. Are we all called to learn ASL? No. But we are all called to something… and it’s pretty likely that you have already felt the stirrings of whatever your something is—a spark flickering inside of you, a fire waiting to be stoked.

God doesn’t work in random happenings and superstitions like Ace of Base’s song “The Sign” suggests. His calls are intentional, as are the desires he lays on our hearts. In Rachael and Sydney’s lives, his call was to sign. And that’s the type of meta, totally unbelievably cool, only-Godcould-do-this kind of thing that I’d really like to hear a song about.

John and Rachael sign with each other in Malawi.

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LJ JUDY

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In Our

S

House

ilverware clinks against dishes and light laughter circles the restaurant. Isabella and Jeff Morgia’s local business, The Meatball Stoppe, grabs you by the

hand and brings you right into an Italian home full of good food and great company. The “Wall of Fame,” which is full of pictures of multiple generations of their family, boasts a rich heritage of warm and welcoming arms. Just past this wall is the Famiglia Room—“Famiglia” is Italian for “family”—a room where anyone can enjoy recipes from and inspired by the owners’ families. You might be familiar with The Meatball Stoppe if you’re a fan of Guy Fieri’s "Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives". Isabella was featured on the episode “Wonder Women,” in which she and Jeff were able

LAUREN MARGHEIM

to share their passion for good food and family.

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The Meatball Stoppe grew out of the Morgia’s catering company, Isabella’s Bella Cucina. When they began looking for a place to house their growing business, God provided more than they had anticipated. As they stood in their new space, Jeff said to Isabella, “What are we going to do with 1,200 square feet for a commercial kitchen? It’s just us.” The wheels in his head started to turn—what if they opened up a restaurant? “What do we have to lose? We’re already paying for the space.

You throw up a couple of walls. You put some paint on the walls, and you get a few tables and chairs. And that’s literally what we did.”

The Meatball Stoppe is as much a ministry of love as it is a restaurant. Isabella and Jeff’s mission is “Famiglia and love all rolled up.” They want to share their food with others and build relationships. “The food is the vehicle that we use,” Isabella says. Early on, Jeff and Isabella hosted local children and their parents for home cooked meals at a local community center. After the event they sent families away with the ingredients to make the meal again at home. During the meals, Isabella spoke to the children, investing in them practical skills in the kitchen and also the importance of using their lives to make a difference. She emphasized that they have a choice with what they do with their lives. She also encouraged them to use their lives to help their families—both previous and future generations. “God gave us this opportunity,” Isabella says. And she used the opportunity to inspire the kids to “become whatever it is that God wants you to become.”

Isabella and Jeff want their guests to experience their meals like they’re part of the family. They know that the secret to success is all rolled up in people and forming relationships. So, one way they now serve their community is by inviting others in for a meal.

“I said, ‘Honey, let’s take them out of where they are and bring them here,’” Isabella explains. They decided they want to serve by providing an experience. “Allow us to serve them. Let them feel like they are special. Treat them like Italian royalty,” she continues, illuminating the why behind the invitations. The Morgias contacted Summit and other local churches, urging them to feel free to send people in need of encouragement to The Meatball Stoppe, to their table, so they can spoil them.

“And I just put the word out,” Isabella says. “If you have a family who’s in need, ...a family who’s having a hard time, or maybe it’s a couple who haven’t gone on a date in a while and could sure use a date night.

You know, whatever it is. God put in our hearts—send them to us. We would love to serve them.”

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With the restaurant located close to Engelwood Elementary School, Jeff and Isabella decided to open their doors to these students as well. They consulted with school administrators and decided the best way for them to serve the school was to provide new incentives for good behavior. So, the best behaved classes were brought to The Meatball Stoppe for mouth watering meals—probably the amazing mac ’n’ cheese meatball. “We filled up this whole Famiglia Room with the kids!” Isabella says.

“They got all dressed up and it was so cute.”

In addition to treating the guests like family, Jeff and Isabella are committed to loving their staff. They make sure they pay their staff well and give them holidays and every Sunday off work, but it’s the dayto-day care that they effortlessly practice that makes the staff like family, too. “So

you know, like today, when I went to the store,” Jeff says, “I bought four gallons of milk and I gave one to our prep girl. I said, ‘You need milk at home?’ She said, ‘Yeah, I was gonna get some.’ And I said, ‘Take it.’ ...And you know, we have our limitations within reason...but to me, that’s where it’s important. Because it’s their everyday life.”

“But we really do what we do because we just have a very huge passion for people,” Jeff says. Food is central to our lives, and this is no mystery to the Morgias. “I think we just offer something totally different that is lacking in many restaurants,” Isabella says. “I think that’s why they come

back.” Just like Jesus invited anyone to his table, everyone is invited to The Meatball Stoppe. It’s about the food, but it’s also about treating customers like they’re guests in their home. It’s about meeting others’ needs personally. And it’s about choosing to make people a priority.

“ALLOW US TO SERVE THEM. LET THEM FEEL LIKE THEY ARE SPECIAL. TREAT THEM LIKE ITALIAN ROYALTY.” -ISABELLA

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Rewriting the

Story KARI FREEMAN

WHITNEY KEILMAN

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here's this yearning, I think, I think, in each one of us, particularly Christians, to write a bit of a different story, to stand out and be unique. Not to be standing out and to be unique for unique’s sake, but because God is all about adventure,” Zach Kallenbach describes.

Rachelle recalls. “So when these kids start coming in and you hear a bit of the backstory, it's like, whoa, this is real.”

By the time she was in high school, Rachelle already felt that being a foster parent might be part of her story as an adult.

Zach also describes a time as a child when he felt God plant fostering in his heart. Though he had never heard the term “foster care,” Zach felt a gentle pull to provide a peaceful and loving space to children who weren’t born into one.

Zach met Rachelle in college. They were both surprised and thrilled to learn that the other felt God had granted them a glimpse of what may come to be written on some of their future pages. Both had contemplated becoming foster parents at some point in their lives.

How often do we feel ourselves drawn to something bigger, something more, something different? We can all relate to that. But how often do we also find ourselves longing for a sneak peek of our story before taking that first step?

Rachelle’s parents started fostering around the time she was in middle school. “We had a good life and I really thought that was pretty normal,”

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“And you see what's possible,” Zach adds, “and you see that you can and probably should rewrite your own story. And how do you do that? By taking some action and swallowing hard and practicing courage...

We were doing good [in life] I suppose, but you know, at the end of the day, we weren't being very radical.”

As many in their Connect group started the adoption process, the Kallenbachs took the leap and began attending information sessions about fostering. They asked questions, took notes, battled fears, and prayed.

And at the end of it all, though they knew their lives would likely never seem “ready,” they also felt confident that God wasn’t looking for perfection—he was looking for willingness. So with willing hearts, they became licensed foster parents.

The need was huge—they received four phone calls to take in children on their first day. Their first placement of two children lasted seven months. That time was riddled with ups and downs—tantrums and tiny hugs, new friendships between the kids and fights over toys, feelings of inadequacies and small victories.

“That's where I really feel like our Connect group kind of sustained us,” Rachelle recalls of that first placement.

“They brought food over early on...but more than that, it wasn't the stuff they brought. It was the emotional support of me crying and having someone to talk to or me feeling like maybe I made a mistake... And I needed to be able to be honest about that. I needed to be able to say everything on my mind and not feel judged for it.”

After they were married, Zach and Rachelle had three kids. Between raising their children, jobs, and Zach working on a master’s degree, it never quite felt like the right time to pursue their goal to start fostering children. But then their Connect group picked their next book to study: “Radical” by David Platt.

She tells the story of one night when a friend from their Connect group, Emma, called up to let Zach and Rachelle know that she was coming over to put their oldest foster child to bed. This child had come in, like many foster children, with fears and insecurities brought on by some rough life experiences. In his case, they manifested in an extreme fear around going to bed at night. When Rachelle didn’t even know to ask for it, Emma anticipated how good it would be for Rachelle to spend some extra time with the other four children that night. Emma took this hard but necessary task taken off Zach and Rachelle’s plate. It was that “in-the-trenches-with-you” kind of help that Rachelle found invaluable from their Connect group.

Rachelle explains, “The premise of the book is basically that the Christian life should look radical to the rest of the world. If we're really living out the Bible and loving and serving the way the Bible says to, then we should really not be chasing ‘The American Dream.’” The group of young couples began to recognize that American culture tends to focus on comfort and protection. They saw pretty quickly that this focus didn’t line up very well with what God teaches us in the Bible. One by one, many of them began to describe how their hearts were changing, their eyes were opening, and desires to adopt or, in the Kallenbachs’ case, foster were beginning to emerge. “There's just this camaraderie that we built through it all,” Rachelle says.

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When each of their foster children eventually left to be reunited with family, it was difficult for Zach and

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Rachelle as well as their three kids. But, as a family, they started to learn an invaluable lesson. “You’ve gotta love them so big but hold them so loosely,” Rachelle explains. “You have to hold them with open hands constantly, which is how we should hold our own kids really, you know—these are God's kids, not mine.”

“There are a bunch of excuses,” Zach says, “but there aren't really that many good excuses. We're not so much defined by our thoughts as we are our actions. And obviously thoughts can lead to actions, but oftentimes, thoughts don't lead anywhere. That's what happened for us for ten years—we thought it would be a nice thing to do. We thought that we could do it and we thought we had the gumption or the skill to do it. We thought that we had built a good home that would be welcoming to someone else. And nothing ever happened until we were moved to action.”

The Kallenbachs’ journey eventually led them down a path to adoption. They’re currently taking a break from fostering as they work on settling in as a permanent family of six, but that has not taken foster care off of their hearts.

That move into action came with risks and fears and uncertainties about the mess they were about to step into, but it also came with the joy of seeing dreams realized and new and exciting chapters written. This world is full of messes, but it’s also full of beautiful adventures. The Kallenbachs have found that sometimes you can’t have one without the other. If it means following our radical God, the adventure is always worth the mess.

“It is a mess,” Rachelle admits when describing the many challenges in the system. “And I think, you know, we were OK with stepping into that mess. Because...I think that's kind of what Jesus did. He was on this earth, right? He stepped into the mess.”

“THERE ARE A B U N C H O F E XC U S E S , BUT THERE AREN'T R E A L LY T H AT M A N Y G O O D E XC U S E S .”

-Z AC H

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FRANCES DIAZ

Game A

Time

s 12-year-old Gary Fleming took the field for the state championship, he had no idea that he was preparing to play in one of the most historic Little League games right on Orlando’s own Tinker Field. Other than the thousand observers in the stands, where there were usually no more than 20 or 30 friends and family members, it felt like any other day at the ballpark to Gary and his team, the Kiwanis. But this game was taking place in 1955, the players on the other team were black, and they were about to compete in the first interracial Little League game in the South.

When the Pensacola Jaycees, the Kiwanis’ opposing team, were selected for the Little League All-Stars, they were ecstatic. However, when it came time for the Little League World Series Tournament, all the other all-star teams in the Panhandle District refused to play them, which, according to the official rules, meant that they forfeited. Since they were unopposed in their district, the Jaycees were declared the district champions and had the opportunity to advance to the state tournament in Orlando.

After much deliberation by the Orlando City Council, the city decided to allow its Little League team to play in the tournament. So the Jaycees packed up in a bus and began the

journey to Orange County which, at the time, was the sixth deadliest county for AfricanAmericans in the country.

Though this game was a historic step toward racial integration, Gary and his teammates would go on for the next 60 years and not think much of it, outside of the fact that they had won. That is, until production began for the documentary “Long Time Coming,” which follows the events and conflicts that led up to the Pensacola Jaycees and the all-white Orlando Kiwanis meeting on the ball field in 1955. The documentary brought Gary and six other players from the Kiwanis together to talk about what their lives were like at the time of the game and, for the first time, asked to reflect upon their experience playing in the championship against the Jaycees.

“It was a neat time because they put together both of our Little League teams. For all of us to get back together, that was really special,” Gary says. “After they asked us what our thoughts and our feelings were about the game, it piqued the interest in our minds about what were [the other team’s] thoughts and what were their feelings. Because we never had even thought about that or really thought what it would be like for a young black team coming all the way down here.”

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At the same time the Kiwanis were gathered and asked these questions, so were the Jaycees. During production, the film crew conducted all the interviews of the players separately and never shared responses, so Gary didn’t know what others had shared until he watched the documentary after its release in 2017.

“I had no idea until I watched the movie, but we really did live in two different worlds—and it was sad. I cried because I just didn’t know what they were going through [during the Jim Crow era]. It was emotional.

It’s emotional for me right now,” Gary recalls as his eyes begin to fill with tears. “I was embarrassed about what was happening to black people. I don’t know how people could treat other people like that.”

For Gary, hearing first-hand how racism affected his fellow players set in motion a journey of introspection.

“It gave me a chance to rethink how I think,” he explains.

Toward the end of the film, the Kiwanis and the Jaycees meet again on a baseball field in Pensacola— for the first time since 1955. This meeting developed friendships which have continued on after filming.

Since the documentary released, members of the two teams continue to travel back and forth to spend

“It gave me a chance to rethink how I think.” -Gary

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time together. Through these new relationships, Gary has discovered what he feels is the solution to the strained race relations we see in society today: love and community.

“It’s being with someone who’s different from you,” he explains. “We were a group of black people and white people, and we got to know each other. That’s when love can develop—when you’re together and having dinner and going to church and having a good time. Then love is a possibility.”

Gary goes on to break this explanation into two parts: 1) you have to know the unconditional love of Jesus, and 2) through that, you’re spurred to demonstrate that love to others. And that means getting to know and develop relationships, especially with people who are different from you.

“You don’t know unconditional love until you know Jesus—and then when you do, unconditional love changes it all,” he says.

One of the obvious places unconditional love and community are supposed to coincide is the church.

But as Gary points out, there’s still a lot of work to do there too.

“On Sunday mornings, the churches are the most segregated places in America,” he says “You have to scratch your head and ask, ‘Is Jesus happy about that?’” Gary goes on to explain how the church can step up to improve inclusivity and race relations in society today. “I think the church can start by just doing things together and build a trusting relationship. I sometimes wonder whether we get too excited about going 10,000 miles away and don’t get excited enough about doing something right here in our communities.”

This coming together across different racial and cultural backgrounds can be a difficult process— one that requires members of the church to be introspective as well. This process may not always be perfect, and we won’t always get it right, but it is worth it to do all that we can because of our call to live like Jesus.

“We’re sinful people and we like to keep our prejudices to ourselves,” he says. “Even if you know Jesus and how he looks at you, it’s still hard to look at other people like that too. You should stop and take a minute to think about what your feelings are

and why they’re like that. It’s a heart problem—and it’s your heart problem because you don’t have to be that way.”

Gary has found that in reconciling differences, taking an eternal perspective can help. “I’m convinced we’re on this earth for two reasons: to love the Lord and to love other people. And anything other than that doesn’t satisfy the purpose we’re here [for],” he explains. Gary goes on to emphasize that in heaven, we will all be able see one another like Jesus does, not through the often inaccurate earthly lens we tend to look through. “So let’s start a little earlier and enjoy it while we’re here,” he encourages.

This journey and the new friendships Gary has formed through “Long Time Coming” have allowed him to see racial reconciliation and the issue of societal racism that exists today in a whole new way, and has encouraged him to do his part to continue progress.

“In some ways, we’ve made so much progress, and in other ways, we’ve made none,” Gary observes.

“That’s what weighs on my mind, and then I ask, ‘What are we going to do about it?’ I’ve gotten to walk in my friends’ shoes. Even though we have differences, we can still love and worship together.

You’re not going to solve all the problems, but you can certainly do that.”

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Local newspaper covers the baseball game between the Kiwanis and Jaycees.

Courtesy of Orlando Sentinel

RETHINK

Presence Over Place CHAD BUEL BEAU WINGFIELD

Have you ever thought about what makes a kingdom a kingdom? Aside from a high school civics or government class or maybe while watching a royal wedding, probably not. And that’s totally normal. When you boil it down, the core elements that you need to have in order for a kingdom to exist—aside from, you know, a king or queen—are power and place. You can call yourself a king all you want, but unless you have the power and place to back that up, you don’t have a kingdom. As foreign as the idea of a kingdom might be to those of us who have lived our whole lives in the constitutional republic of the United States, it was the only form of government that the Jews with whom Jesus interacted would have experienced. The Jews were acutely aware that, as descendants of a fallen kingdom who were subject to a foreign king, they no longer held the power or the place that had defined their kingdom.

That’s the historical, cultural subtext that the Pharisees carried into the interaction we find in Luke 17:20, when they ask Jesus when the kingdom of God would come.

It’s a bit of a strange question considering that Jesus had just miraculously healed 10 lepers. Miracles should have been a sign to the Pharisees that Jesus was the Messiah—the long awaited one who would come and set everything right for the Jewish people and establish the kingdom of God. So, in the following verse, when Jesus replies, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst,” it’s clear they’re not on the same page.

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The sort of kingdom that the Pharisees had in mind was a static, measurable, and physical place.

They expected the establishment of a kingdom that would conquer those who had conquered them and take back the place that had been promised to them by God. But what Jesus has in mind is something far more dynamic.

To Jesus, the place of the kingdom of God isn’t about a specific fixed location, but is instead about his presence.

What Jesus was saying to them in his response was, “Are you being serious right now? Did you not see what I did just there? Haven’t you seen the other miracles? How will you know the kingdom of God is coming? Don’t you get it? The kingdom of God is already right here—in me!”

Since Jesus was fully God and fully human, when he came to earth, he brought the kingdom of God with him. But the Pharisees didn’t get it because that wasn’t the sort of kingdom they were looking for and Jesus wasn’t the sort of Messiah they were looking for. His continued proclamations threatened the power that

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"If his physical presence meant the presence of the kingdom of the Pharisees and religious leaders wielded over their fellow Jews and that threat would ultimately lead them to have him executed. This leaves us facing the huge question of how to reconcile Jesus’ death with the presence of the kingdom.

If his physical presence meant the presence of the kingdom of God, does his physical absence mean the absence of the kingdom of God as well?

God, does his physical absence mean the absence of the kingdom

kingdom of God known by doing exactly what Jesus did: obeying and acting.

We can see the centrality of obedience and action to Jesus’ kingdom mission in John 6:38 (as well as 4:34 and 5:30) where he explains that he came from heaven to do the will of the one who sent him. God had the plan, and Jesus came to do the work. That’s our model, and the greatest commandment, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and...

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’,” is the basis of our obedient action. Until Jesus returns, there will be evil, brokenness, pain, and loss in the world. But during this period of “already, but not yet,” there’s also still time to be a part of God’s ongoing redemptive work in the world.

of God as well?"

No. The kingdom of God is still in the midst of this world! His kingdom is present even though the manner in which it is present is different than when Jesus was physically here. That’s because when Jesus laid down his sinless life to pay the penalty for our sinfulness, he made it possible for those who accepted this gift by grace through faith to be reconciled to God and enter his eternal kingdom.

He made kingdom citizens of those who believe in him, and just as with any citizenship, being citizens of the kingdom of God means that wherever we are we represent that kingdom.

Though it’s beyond our ability to fix every broken thing we encounter, as we await the return of the one who will, we who represent the kingdom of God to this world are called to set right what we can.

Citizenship also means responsibility, and our responsibilities as kingdom citizens come into focus as we consider a couple of promises that Jesus made to us. First, Jesus promised that he would come again to set things right once and for all by establishing the kingdom of God in its fullness. We live our lives in that tension of hope awaiting fulfillment.

However, Jesus didn’t just tell us to sit tight until he comes back to fix things. Instead, he promised that until he comes back, the Holy Spirit will be here empowering us—the representatives of the kingdom of God in this world—to make the presence of the

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We do that by listening for the calls of those around us and for the direction of God. We come alongside those who are fostering children to make sure they have the support that they need. We make sure that at-risk students have access to the resources they need. We invite those who look different than us to sit at the table. We listen to those that disagree with us. And we do these things because when we love our neighbor as ourselves, the world will know that the kingdom of God is still in their midst.

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Born Loyal, Again KAILEY NEWKIRK GREG PERKINS

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air… gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts…” says Ephesians 2:1-3.

Just take a minute to think about where we spend our time. How much of it goes to our appearance? How much to financial gain? How much to the admiration and respect of our peers? How much goes to the tiny computer screens we all carry around in our pockets?

When we hear the word “idolatry,” it may conjure ideas of Indiana Jones movies or distant ancient religions we once learned about in a high school world cultures class.

But the reality is idolatry today is probably easier, more accessible, and laden with a greater pantheon of gods than ever existed before. Idolatry is simply the act of worshiping something that doesn’t give life back, and we are more guilty of it than we realize.

We can easily dismiss the reasons the first-century Israelites may have bowed their heads to foreign gods as antiquated superstition. We are intelligent, modern people, right? We no longer erect Asherah poles to ensure our beauty. We don't call upon Baal to bring us success. We would not petition mammon to increase our wealth. Still, one has only to look around to see we still worship money, sex, and power—we have simply eliminated the middle man. It’s incredibly telling that 20 years ago, the word “followers” was used to identify the adherents to a particular religion. Now it’s used to identify adherents to an Instagram feed.

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My mom once discovered a “stash” of missing valuables in a shoebox under her reading chair. She noticed her watches and earrings started disappearing—usually when she was babysitting my nephew, Aiden, who was 5 years old at the time. As bait, she left a watch unattended on the table. Sure enough, Aiden shortly crept in and snatched it when he thought she was upstairs. She watched him from behind a door as he crawled under the chair, opened the box, laid the watch deliberately on top, and whispered in Gollum-esque triumph, “My treasures…”

Each of us has been born into sin—into our sinful nature. You don’t have to teach a child how to steal or lie. In our sinful nature, we are born loyal to happiness, security, pleasure, power, leisure, comfort, and gain.

These loyalties are constantly reinforced by the world.

Media and culture tell us, “Have it your way,” “Because you’re worth it,” and, “You deserve a break today.”

When an immigrant or refugee wishes to become a citizen of the United States, they must take an oath, which begins: “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that

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I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic…”

When we become followers of Jesus, we are born again as citizens of his kingdom.

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,” says Ephesians 2:19.

We are fortunate creatures indeed to serve a God so gracious that he demands no performance to keep our citizenship secure. But, we can offer him our worship— an outflow of our gratitude for grace already given—by living as kingdom citizens. We may volunteer our own oath of allegiance as thanks for his unfailing fidelity to us even when we have not deserved it.

Living as a kingdom citizen means first and foremost to pledge allegiance to Christ, our king, and renouncing our former loyalties to the kingdom of this world. We re-prioritize what matters most—what we value so much we would give our lives to defend.

When I first became a follower of Jesus, I think one of the hardest parts was the realization that my former loyalties weren’t gone forever. Of course, there was the honeymoon period. When I first heard the gospel, I was so grateful God had forgiven someone like me that I was all in for Jesus—even at the cost of relationships with friends who didn’t understand my new behaviors and new passions and even at the cost of things I wanted to do but knew I shouldn’t. In the beginning, it was easier.

But as those early, blazing flames evened out to a steady burn, old habits and attitudes plucked up their courage to approach my heart again.

As “The Princess Bride” so wisely warned us, “...mostly dead is still slightly alive.”

The selfish and bent desires we were each born loyal to receive a stunning blow from the entrance of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. Our old self is crucified with Christ; the new creation has come. But the new creation still lives in Orlando, Florida, where my 4-year-old demands we take bike rides after work when it’s 89 degrees. New creations still live in the fallen world, and while we are no longer slaves to our old loyalties, it’s easy for

muscle memory to take over if we’re not intentional to pursue our new ones.

Getting up early, getting my body in the right place to read Scripture, getting help to change bad habits, praying when I’d rather worry or complain, being in community with people who often exhaust me, talking to my daughter about faith when I’d rather plug her into an episode of “My Little Pony”: this is where the rubber meets the road. When we do these things, it sometimes honestly feels like dying, but that’s because it is. It’s a death to a part of us that was loyal to something unworthy of our worship.

As kingdom citizens, we are also called to defend our kingdom against enemies, foreign and domestic. The foreign enemies are outside—perversions of justice, hatred, systemic poverty, racism. But perhaps more challenging is the domestic enemy, the enemy within— the greed, laziness, pride, and lust lurking outside my room, just waiting for a crack in the door.

I’ve spent half of my adult life trying to figure out how to renounce my former loyalties. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is simple. And more than that, it’s worth it.

The one thing those former loyalties don’t tell you is that no matter how much of your life you give to them, they will not give you life back. The pleasure is always temporary and leaves us sick for another hit.

When we give our lives and our loyalties to Jesus, we never have to wonder if he intends to give us life back.

We never have to wonder because his life, death, and resurrection reminds us he already did.

"It’s incredibly telling that 20 years ago, the word 'followers' was used to identify the adherents to a particular religion.

Now it’s used to identify adherents to an Instagram feed."

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Burning Brighter Together “I

t was the most surreal experience I’ve ever had in my whole entire life—hearing other people say

words that I wrote down,” says Thomas.

The event he and I sit down to talk about happened a month before our interview, and still, when he tells me about it, the tears come.

The script Thomas Hester wrote was performed during Base Camp Live at the Herndon Campus in February of 2019. Base Camp Live—affectionately known around Summit as BCL—is a 25-minute family production that kids get to take their grown-ups to after service. BCL helps families learn about God’s Word together—all while watching hilarious, relatable characters and enjoying freshly-popped popcorn. Each week, families watch the Clubhouse crew navigate life together.

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Thomas runs audio for the shows and also plays Clubhouse character Vinny. Thomas is black, and when he plays spunky skateboarder Vinny, he intentionally wears clothing that gives a nod to his race—whether it’s an MLK Jr. T-shirt or an African pendant. Like Vinny, Thomas is proud of where he comes from and who he is. Yet even above the color of his skin, Thomas knows his faith in the one who created him is most important.

It’s something he thinks about often—balancing his identity as a Black-American with his identity in Christ. “[I’m] trying to submit even what I hold most dear to the foot of the cross,” he says.

Thomas first walked through the doors of Summit in 2011, and at the time, he says, “I could only count people—who were not children—that were black on one hand.” He says that he was used to being the minority, but still needed to know that even though he looked different than most of the folks he was worshiping with each week, their hearts were the same. He had long conversations with Lead Pastor John Parker and Waterford Campus Pastor Garry Abbott and found the answers he needed.

“Seeing their hearts and talking to them, and realizing they also care about the things that I care about and what God cares about,” says Thomas. “I can not only be here, but we can also join together as going toward what God wants us to do.” And “join together” is exactly what Thomas did. He started regularly serving in BCL in 2016, in the midst of one of the darkest and most difficult seasons of his life. He’d just been fired from his dream job after things just “didn’t click,” and he felt like a failure.

Enter BCL Coordinator Darling Heldt and her husband Brian, or “EB,” to the scene. Thomas says that they became his family and helped him to realize his worth wasn’t in the things he could or could not do.

Thomas recalls a specific conversation in the Heldts' car outside of Summit one afternoon. “They were like, ‘Honestly, if you burn down the console, we still love you. We wouldn’t ask you to do it again, but we’d still love you,’” he remembers.

Love from the Heldts and the BCL cast and crew changed things for Thomas. That love allowed him to live out a dream by writing his script for the Clubhouse in celebration of Black History Month. It was years in the making, but fear had always held him back. In 2018, he mentioned writing a Black History Month sketch to Darling, and her response threw him off.

Thomas and the BCL cast perform the script he wrote.

“She was like, ‘OK, if you want that, you do it!’”

Thomas laughs out loud as he recalls that moment and then proceeds to tell me he often has a hard time taking ideas from his head to the real world.

“My struggle is waiting for the perfect time, waiting for the right equipment,” he says, “waiting for the whatever-whatever.”

Waiting for everything to be “perfect” before we take the first step—it’s something with which a lot of us struggle. It just seems like we can’t do the things until... But the truth is, we can. And he did. Darling’s sincere response empowered Thomas to just start, not to wait for everything to be perfect or wait for the fear to go away, but to lean into the imperfections and choose to pursue his passions in spite of the fear.

“It was scary and terrifying, but also great,” Thomas says, with the biggest smile on his face. “The happiest I had ever felt, and I just cried.”

The tears came because people were saying the words he had written. Thomas recalls the first rehearsal that Thursday before the show, and tells me he didn’t even make it through Darling’s first call of “Lights up!” before emotions started leaking out of his eyes. He says that he couldn’t help but pull out his phone and take video of everything because he just wanted to soak it all in and never forget the feelings.

The tears came because families would be watching and enjoying the story he thought up. When time came

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for the show on Sunday, Thomas says he felt every emotion at rapid-fire pace—from proud to scared to excited to terrified to hopeful to anxious. He wasn’t sure what families would think, but the second he heard the audience laugh at his first joke, he knew it was all good.

The tears came because he felt so loved. He remembers looking out into the audience and catching a glimpse of friends he hadn’t seen in months. They’d come just to support him and cheer him on.

And the tears came because he could celebrate his race and his heritage on stage.

“If we’re talking about a kingdom, or a society, not everybody has the same life,” says Thomas. One of his main hopes for the sketch was that it wouldn’t come across as “corny” or as a one-time-only “very special episode.” He is proud to be black and happy to be a part of discussions on race, but his hope is that all people in God’s kingdom would be able to offer their unique perspectives on all things.

With his unique perspective on Black History Month, Thomas’ hope was that families would be entertained, of course, but that they would also leave the theatre with expanded viewpoints. “Just opening them up to new experiences so people can have those conversations,” he says.

Thomas says that it takes more than one of his hands to count the people of color at Summit now; but cultivating authentic diversity takes time and intentionality, and there is still work to be done. And we get to do that work together. In God’s kingdom, we may all be different, but we are never alone.

Thomas’ heart’s desire is to give people of color a platform to tell their stories, and he humbly admits that he’s not the only person with that same passion.

He tells me, “Somebody is doing what you want to do,” and I love this point. In God’s kingdom, having the same spark of passion means burning brighter together, not trying to extinguish each other for the sake of pride or competition. Thomas wants to tell stories, and that’s what BCL does. So he joined in. And in doing so, he's able to help us all better understand what God's kingdom looks like from his own perspective.

God has uniquely gifted and positioned each and every one of us to carry out our kingdom callings— the passion and purpose inside each of us that only we possess. Thomas writes and acts and is a whiz in the tech booth. Maybe you teach, or paint, or build, or calculate. Or, maybe what you want to do isn’t what you’re doing because you’re afraid or because things aren’t “perfect” yet. Take it from Thomas, and just start. And know that there will likely be a few tears along the way.

From Sermon JULIA DENNIS MYA BLANTON

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t’s like taking a whole bunch of puzzle pieces that look really bad on their own and putting them together—refining them—into this thing that you can call an enjoyable experience.”

This is what Joel Singer says about film editing and why he serves the Lord by polishing one puzzle piece at a time.

Joel is a high school sophomore and plays guitar in the school ensemble, which is a favorite hobby followed closely by racing. His love for all things automobiles inspires him to pursue a career in automotive engineering.

And of course, his passion for filmmaking allows him to create truly impactful videos.

Since sixth grade, Joel has had a passion for creating videos. When asked to name his favorite film director, he quickly answered “Edgar Wright,” who is the director of the action movie “Baby Driver.” “Every single cut in the movie is [set] to some sort of beat to some sort of music,” he explains, describing the way the film correlates visually with the movie’s soundtrack. This is just one of the not-so-significant details that can impose significant effects upon an entire film. The budding filmmaker sums it up brilliantly, “It’s very simple, but it’s very complicated at the same time.”

He uses his passion for creating videos to serve the Creator. Three years ago, he was searching for a way to be on the Summit tech team. “I saw the Thursday night opportunity as camera operator as my way to get my foot in the door,” he mentions. Joel quickly flourished on the tech team, admiring the good spirited musicians and fellow techies he works with to bring the 33rd Street Campus sermon to life.

building lasting relationships with its community. The students continued strengthening the foundation of their relationship with God as well as serving his kingdom with their new friends from the DR. Joel was inspired by previous mission team members to create a recap video for his trip to the DR. He borrowed short phone clips from various students and put together a video that warmed the hearts of many, even making its way into a film competition.

Joel explains the techniques he uses to influence how the viewer perceives the video. For example, when filming sermons for the 33rd Street Campus, he makes sure to always center the camera on the speaker versus filming from an angle or panning the camera across the stage.

“As the video tracker, it’s important to keep the speaker in the middle of the frame so that the audience can get the best quality message and pay the most attention to the message and gain the most from the message,” he says, already showing the maturity, technique, and critique that compares to the Hollywood greats.

Joel is in awe of God’s unconditional love, but most importantly—his grace. “We mess up countless times every day and he can just wash that away. It’s incredible.” He knows that God led him to a love of filming, but believes that God is still leading him to his true purpose on this earth. He says that he loves Summit’s “almost unlimited hospitality” and is excited to see what the Lord has in store for him.

If you missed Joel’s first DR video, fret not! The eager student is returning this summer for a sequel.

In the summer of 2018, Joel (along with sixteen other students from Summit) flew 947 miles to the Dominican Republic. Partnering with the organization Children of the Nations, they served the small town of Altagracia,

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DORIS MISOMALI

My name is Doris Misomali and I am from Malawi, the warm heart of Africa. l joined the family of Children of the Nations when l was 9-years-old.

I was so thankful for the opportunity to come and spend time with everyone at Summit as an intern during the fall of 2018. During my time there, I got to work with the Base Camp team to put together curriculum sharing about what life is like in Malawi. We wanted the kids to have a chance to learn about the different cultures that we have between us and that, even though we’re different, we all serve the same living God no matter where we are.

We got to share how God’s family lives in Malawi—how children walk long distances to go to school and often learn under a tree instead

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of in a classroom or how children find things other than toys to play with since they don’t really have toys. But also how we always pray for our brothers and sisters at Summit and how, by learning more about our lives, kids from Summit can learn how to pray for us in return.

Teaching kids about God’s family in Malawi and all over the world was very important to me. I hope they learned to be grateful for what they have when many other members of God’s family have so little. But most of all, I hope they learned that we all have the same Creator. And that Creator is the same God who died for each of us. It doesn’t matter where we live, what we look like, or what we have in life—we’re all people, and we all praise the same God.

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What does God’s family look like?

Different people around the world who celebrate God in different ways and different churches and different languages. Everybody who believes in God.

Everyone looks different, everyone speaks different languages because a lot of people believe in God. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you believe in God, he loves you.

People with blue eyes and green eyes and brown eyes, any color eyes. Oh, and any color hair or skin. Like us and our neighbors and anyone who believes in Jesus.

Lots of old people and Christians and Americans and African American people.

Anyone who believes in God. But who wouldn't believe in God? If they don't believe in God, they won't live.

What does it look like to live as God’s family here on earth?

Looking forward to new heaven and new earth.

We need to be nice and respectful and loving. We help everybody around us, like turning on the lights if someone can't reach them or cleaning up our neighbors yard for them, like Dad does.

It looks like every single person in the whole world s’pposed to be helpful, s’pposed to love him so much as much as he loves us.

To have friends and family that care about you.

It feels really good, 1,983% yes, that there is a lot of love in God's family!

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Little Victo ries RACHEL VASQUEZ

MICHAEL MARGIO

Meet Randy. He is positive, honest, and immensely amiable.

And he is a special-needs buddy in Base Camp at Summit’s Herndon Campus. Randy’s journey to become a special-needs buddy started with his daughter, Rachel.

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community of Orlando for 55 years.

While on the board at Quest, he realized once again how challenging it can be for parents of children who have special needs to find rest.

“I love the kids. I know God loves them greatly.”

-Randy

Rachel’s passion to help people who have special needs led her to start volunteering with the Young Life Capernaum ministry.

This program helps families of children who have special needs by hosting an event once a month that caters to both the children and their parents. Randy would tag along at these events, and he told himself, “I’m doing this for Rachel.

I’m here to support her.” Yet, what Randy didn’t know was that God was saying to him, “Randy, I’m preparing you.” As Randy reflected on his time at Capernaum, he found that was true—God was preparing him for something in his future.

Randy also joined the board of Quest, Inc., a local organization which has been working with the special needs

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Taking what he learned from his experiences with both Capernaum and Quest, Randy found himself with a question for the church: how can we help the families of children who have special needs feel Summit is a place they can bring their children? A place where their children will know that they belong. In essence, Randy was asking what Summit’s role is in helping families of children who have special needs. After volunteering for several years in Base Camp on the First Impressions team, his viewpoint led him to an interest in the special needs classroom.

First, Randy approached Herndon Campus Elementary Groups Coordinator Laura Hunt, who oversees the sensory-friendly classroom that some of the children who have special needs attend at the Herndon Campus. He felt he had to at least have a conversation about the class and express how he wanted to help these families. As it turned out, just having that conversation with Laura was the confirmation he needed. “I felt like this is where God wanted me to plug in,” he says.

Just weeks following that confirmation, he was put on the frontlines as a leader in the sensory-friendly classroom because his compassion for these children and their families was so tangible.

In the first few weeks of class, Randy quickly realized how much he had to learn. He didn’t have it all figured out. He was “scared to death the first few times,” he says. “[This was] pushing me outside of my comfort zone. That was something I've been needing to do for a while, because I know that's where I grow. And I know that’s where I learn to rely more on God's ability than my ability.” He summarized it

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all by saying, “My hope is that I get more reliant on God and just be content being uncomfortable.”

To add to his discomfort, Randy is not formally trained in early childhood development or special needs education.

But nevertheless, he does have plenty of kindness, compassion, childlikeness, and a positive attitude. And I think when you stir those qualities up, what you get is someone who is genuine, honest, and immensely present. It is the latter—the presentness—that Randy steps into the classroom with each week. He says, “It's just me being available for God. And I know that he's going to give me what I need to handle those situations. [He] knows more about what's happening with that family than I ever will. And I just need to trust that he's using me in the right spot.”

Being present in the classroom is often the agent of openness for these children.

Randy iterates this point, “I love the kids.

I know God loves them greatly. And it’s just showing an interest in what they're interested in because that's where the connection happens.” They may barely get through the lesson some weeks. In

fact, they may have more conversation about Super Mario than Jonah.

Nevertheless, those little morsels of God-talk that do happen are significant, and the relationships forming along the way are vital.

Those relationships produce trust and, consequently, space for these children to become comfortable and for their families to sense that.

Every action that Randy takes as a special-needs buddy is centered on the very question that steered him to serving in the first place: What is Summit’s role in helping the families of children who have special needs? This question emphasizes that a family surrounds each child—that our focus doesn’t have to be solely on the child. “I just want their parents to feel like we’re coming alongside them, partnering with them, and truly trying to help them and their family,” Randy emphasizes.

“That's what I really want to come across.”

The key to Randy’s success has been the time to form relationships with the children and their families. “I gotta keep reminding myself of that because I have

lots of plans. And I get ahead of God. I need to make sure I slow down,” he says of building relationships. Remembering to slow down is a valuable lesson for us all— slowing down gives us a chance to see what God is doing through relationships being formed. Randy is a great example of slowing down, of being present, and of leading with compassion. As he takes the necessary time to build those trusting relationships with these children and their families, the victories that come out of the connections are amazing.

It’s a hug from a student as he leaves. It’s a gregarious wave as a child walks into the building. It’s a family that smiles together as they drive to church in the morning.

Those types of victories are not what Randy had in mind when he first thought about success as a special-needs buddy, but he’s realized over time that the little victories matter to these children and their parents, to this church, and to God.

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PRAYERS FOR THE

Sunshine State What would it look like for the kingdom of God to come alive in Central Florida? We asked local pastors to share their hearts for this concept through prayers for their church and their city.

Dear Lord,

David S. Jacques THE KINGDOM CHURCH Lead Pastor

We have so many homes that lack fathers and so many children looking for acceptance, affluence, and affirmation. I pray families will return to the focus of dedicating and devoting time to the eternal things. I pray you would rekindle the heart of many in the inner city to be their brother's and sister’s keeper. Bless the mothers and fathers losing their children to crime and injustice. We pray you raise up strong leaders and followers of Christ to care for the least, the lost, and the less fortunate. Send a wave of revival that lasts beyond a song and a sermon, but permeates our hearts and homes.

Amen.

Heavenly Father,

Mitch Todd RIVER RUN CHURCH Lead Pastor

We know that only a unified Church can heal a divided nation. We pray for the capital “C” Church all over our community that we would join together to reach every man, woman, and child in the Greater Orlando area—that they would see Christ lived out in us as your followers. We pray that they will hear the gospel proclaimed through the simple and profound stories of how you have transformed our lives. We pray that all would respond to the life changing message of Jesus. May we be unified and one as a body of believers.

Amen.

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God, I love you, and I love this city. For all those who feel as I do, I thank you for the privilege you have given us of belonging to you right here—of carrying your gospel forward here in this place and at this time.

Mike Adkins GR ACE CHURCH Senior Pastor

I pray that your people here in Central Florida will love each other so well that our city will have no doubt we are your disciples. I pray that we will begin to experience so much of the love and grace of God that we can’t help but share it with our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our co-workers. I pray that you will keep us from straying from your Son and your word so that we might be powerful in both prayer and in service. And I pray that our churches will be unified so that your name will be glorified.

Amen.

Heavenly Father,

John Parker SUMMIT CHURCH Lead Pastor

It can be easy to look past the world that needs hope in my everyday life.

The people in line at a store. Those around me in traffic. Even the poor holding signs at a light, I see them as people who need help, but I don’t naturally see that they need hope. I ask that you open our eyes to the hopelessness in our city and make our hearts tender for the almost one million people around us who have never had a transforming connection with the Church. I ask, in the sentiment of the Psalmist, that you root in us the joy available to us through your salvation, so that in our joy we can invite others to the hope we have found in you.

We know you want good for the world through us, your Church. Help us to live in such a way that your goodness is evident in our words, actions, and relationships. Our words, that they bring truth that leads to hope. Our actions, that they speak of your love for our world and for every overlooked and undervalued person in our city. And in our relationships, that they reflect the radical inclusiveness and beauty of your kingdom.

Help us to shed the clothing of the kingdoms of this world and to—with humility—cloth ourselves as citizens of your kingdom. Give us the wisdom to stand in contrast with the world, rather than in conflict with it. Let your light shine through us and your kingdom be built in us. Let the hope we offer be real hope.

Amen.

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RESOURCES

Learning is the

First Step

We’ve gathered a few recommendations from Summit staff and volunteers of books, studies, or other resources geared around living as a citizen of God’s kingdom.

What's in the Bible?

From Phil Vischer The “What’s in the Bible?” video series comes from Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales. It features a cast of puppet characters who take biblical concepts that can be challenging for kids to grasp and presents them in engaging and clear ways. This video series strikes a perfect balance of silliness and deep biblical teaching that makes it accessible to all ages. It’s a wonderful tool for families who want to dig deeper into God’s word. As someone who works closely with kids’ curriculum, I'm always excited when I find myself learning new things about the Bible from a resource that appeals to kids! I'm passionate about families learning together and "What's in the Bible?" is an awesome tool to help that happen.

-Keely Hardaway, Children's Ministry Curriculum Coordinator

Culture Making

By Andy Crouch We as a church want to be good for the world around us. We are Jesus' hands and feet. We've been called to do whatever we can to make it on earth as it is in heaven. Andy Crouch's book “Cultural Making” is such a helpful look at the role we can play in building culture. It's not just about our culture being transformed—it’s about us making more and better culture! We don't need more Christian teachers, we need better teachers who are Christians. We don't need more Christian filmmakers, we need better filmmakers who are Christians. We don't need more Christian lawyers, we need better lawyers who are Christians. This book reframed the way I see the impact Christians can make on culture—the impact that I can make!

-Zach Van Dyke, Herndon Campus Pastor

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Savage Inequalities

By Jonathan Kozol “Savage Inequalities” exposes the disparities in schools that teachers have been aware of for years. Kozol examines how under resourced communities and the schools within them are struggling to provide the basic elements necessary for a quality education. His research shows this heartbreaking reality and how it perpetuates cycles of generational poverty. When I first read this book in college, I went through an extreme range of emotions and had to wrestle with the stark contrasts Kozol shares regarding the way our country has divided access and opportunity for children across socioeconomic and racial lines. I was so unsettled by his research and the narrative he wove that I almost couldn't believe it and had to do more digging—which only affirmed the shameful truth that our country cripples children in poor communities, especially minorities, from the first day of kindergarten.

-Elizabeth Cronlund, Community Development Coordinator

The Connected Child

By Karyn B. Purvis, David R. Cross, Wendy Lyons Sunshine Dr. Purvis was a developmental psychologist and was known for Empowered to Connect, which is a whole conference that they do. The book does deal with a lot of trauma that is from childhood upbringing, and how to deal with a child that has trauma. It's centered around that, but I think it's really beneficial for every parent to read. For example, when a child is having a meltdown and doesn't know what you know, like they can't understand why they can’t a have a brownie that they want—it gives you some real tools and tips you can use. You know, look a child in the eye and do a “time in” rather than a “time out.” But it is more directed toward a child that's been through some really difficult issues.

-Heidi Armstrong, Foster Care Advocate Team Lead

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Artist Feature

Stephanie Baur

“I feel like God has moved me towards this path based on the doors that have opened and the doors that have closed for me.”

Stephanie Baur is 23 years old and in the middle of her first year as a full time actor. It’s been a process for her to get to this spot and continues to be a journey, but it’s one that she is excited to be a part of and approaches from a place of humility.

Stephanie originally set out to be a doctor, following the same career path as her dad. “But my parents are actually very big patrons of the arts and not at all pushing me in that way,” Stephanie says. However, as a freshman biomedical major, she found that she hated her classes.

Needing a change of pace after a breakup, she took an improv class at Sak Comedy Lab in downtown Orlando. “And I really, really enjoyed it,” she says. “And it's the kind of thing that really brought, like, life back into me.”

So Stephanie spent time figuring out what she would really like to do with her life. She took her required honors supplemental courses all at once to avoid picking a new major right away. Then she applied for the film program at the University of Central Florida. “I didn't get in,” she admits, “and I was upset about that. But honestly, I think it was just God's way of being like, ‘That is not where you need to go.’ So I decided to do creative writing.” Since writing, film, and acting are all closely related, she knew she could find opportunities to bring her joy of storytelling into a future career. And around that time, she went on a vacation to Universal Studios Hollywood which inspired her to be a part of that world.

LAUREN MARGHEIM L J JUDY

“When I got back, I thought...maybe I could go be a princess at Disney or an improviser at the theme parks, and the only audition they had was a stunt audition for the Sinbad stunt show at Universal,” Stephanie

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“I think everything you do informs your art truly. explains. She’s a martial artist and although she didn’t quite check all the boxes for the role, they were willing to take a chance on her because the show was being completely re-cast and was closed for the long rehearsal process. “If I had auditioned at any other time, I would not have made it,” Stephanie says. This is a role that she will always hold dear. “It completely changed my life,” she continues. Eventually, she was also hired for the Jedi Training Academy show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which was her first gig as an actor and not a stunt person.

she was able to dive into her love of acting and had the opportunity to be a part of many different shows at both Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando Resort. But she realized she was at a turning point.

“I needed to either get serious or get out, you know,” she says, “and so I decided to get serious.”

Stephanie committed to taking an acting class every week. She continued performing at Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando Resort. She got an agent, took headshots, and is now auditioning all the time. She and her brother, who works in the film industry, make movies together when they get the chance. She chases every opportunity to learn and experience things that will make her a better actor. She still gets to work on her writing at home and continues practicing Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. She found that the joy she feels in storytelling through acting outweighs any hard shoots, rejections for roles, or other challenges that may come her way.

“But the goal is not to be a big deal,” she says. “The goal is just to work.”

She loved learning about the craft of writing and plotting story in her college classes. And for work,

Stephanie as Macy Ray on the set of the short film "Macy Ray and the Legend of Dead River."

One role that brings joy for Stephanie is playing Dorothy Gibson at a Titanic dinner theater. Dorothy is a silent film star from New Jersey. She talks with the accent and even gets to sing a song—but really terribly. She uses her improv skills all night interacting with the theater guests. “I just have a blast doing that,” she says. She also gets to play a lot of fun roles auditioning. “When I'm auditioning, the role is mine,” she explains. “I get to create that world. I get to create that character... But once I'm done auditioning, it's not my role anymore.

So someone else gets it.” The joy she experiences in acting is what’s most important to her. “If what you feel like you're good at meets with joy, I think you're in the right place,” Stephanie reveals.

You know, it brings your lens to this world."

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As an actor and a writer, Stephanie also finds that the two mediums inform each other. In her acting class, she and her classmates watch scenes and then discuss the “things they most admired.” In her opinion, the scenes that are acted the best are always the most well written. “You can't bring authenticity and surprise and humor to things without the writing being exceptional,” she points out.

“I think everything you do informs your art truly. You know, it brings your lens to this world,” Stephanie reveals. “Acting has been really wonderful because it has helped me appreciate a fuller, like, depth of human emotion.” She feels that acting is one of the only places where expressing genuine emotion is something admirable. She uses this celebration of emotion as a new way to look at her own feelings and brings that authenticity into her writing as well as her acting. And while humor and light stories are easier to write (and enjoy), she says, “The light is lighter when the dark is darker.” She explains that none of us like feeling sad, but when we lean into our emotions, we often come out on the other side having learned from them.

Stephanie says that she feels lucky to have discovered her joy in storytelling so early in college and that she had the time to intentionally pursue this joy. She recalls a western movie she made with her brother. They were re-shooting scenes over winter break and there were record cold temperatures in Florida. “I'm fighting in the cold, and you could see our breath. And it was just, like, hard,” she describes. “And I had a broken hand from a stunt show. So I had to wear this brace and do all my fights. And I actually had a stunt double...for a few of the dives, because I just couldn't do it. And so it was this just this grueling, like, dirty, messy process—and I just had the best time ever.”

“The thing about acting is it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Same thing with writing,” Stephanie says. “You just have to do little bits every day. And just find your way to sustain yourself so you don't quit.” And she keeps running that marathon a little bit every day, beat by beat.

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ZACH VAN DYKE

QUESTIONS

Will Alejandro FAC I L I T I E S A D M I N I S T R AT O R

What is your favorite word?

I'll have to say “can.”

How many kids do you have?

I have three now. Aiden is my oldest.

He's going to be 12 in July. Aubrey is 9. Austin is 4 months.

What is your favorite meal?

Now, you know you’re asking a foodie right? I’m gonna have to say my wife's turkey dinner casserole. Because she takes Thanksgiving dinner and puts it all into one plate, pretty much...and it's—wow.

What scares you?

If you asked my wife and kids, nothing scares me. But what does scare me is losing the family that I created for myself. And that's not just my wife and kids, that’s my extended family I created for myself, the church family that I have. It's ‘cause I grew up in foster care...and the family I created for myself, it's nurturing really. They push me to be a better man, always.

Why have you made Summit your church home?

Because they...saved my life and my marriage. And the way Miss Jill and Miss Deanna treated my autistic son—they didn't treat him like he was special. They treated him like he was just a regular old little boy. And the Easter Sunday that my wife made me come here, I don't remember the sermon and what Jim talked about, but one of the things that made me keep coming back was...I love what we say: this is your first time, this [service] is our gift to you...

That's the Sunday that I decided to turn Summit into my home church. I was here a couple of times before, but it was more because I was forced to come. That Easter was the one I was like, I'll just come.

What makes you laugh really hard?

I will have to say watching the kids and the dog interact with each other, because he gets to chasing them around. And we got tile floors, so he's pretty much, like—when he's chasing them around the house, it's like he's peeling out around the corners because he can't get no grip and that's hilarious. It's just too funny.

What do you think about how Summit is taking steps to serve locally?

I'm grateful for that... There are so many kids out there that...didn't have foster parents like I did. They jump from family to family, they get separated from the siblings and the kids… Nowadays, people are so caught up in themselves that they don't see the need until around Christmastime... and it's always out there. There's always a need for the kids that are stuck in those situations. And it's not their fault. And to be honest, depending on the situation, it might not be their parents’ fault because they might be caught up with something that was a mistake...just the situations that end up happening.

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What is your favorite exercise?

Either the elliptical or the treadmill— either or. Because I'm doing cardio...

I just want to zone out, I’ll...listen to a sermon, listen to some music, and just...focus more on my mental health.

When you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

An architect.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

If I had that choice–misunderstanding.

Because that's what causes most of the problems. People don't understand each other.

What do you hope that the people who come to Summit experience?

I hope that they experience the authenticity of Summit like I did.

What's one thing you like about the job you do here at Summit?

It’s when I'm able to be a fly on the wall and somebody says something that I just got finished fixing or putting up new or painting—and people just say, “Oh, that looks beautiful.” ...My wife says it plays on my ego ‘cause she’s like, “You love to hear people tell you, ‘Good job.’” I was like yeah, I do.

But I don’t like to hear it to my face.

735 Herndon Avenue Orlando, FL 32803

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Locations Summit Herndon 735 Herndon Avenue Orlando, FL 32803

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Sundays, 9 a.m.*, 11 a.m., & 6 p.m. (*ASL interpreters available)

Service Times: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

Service Times: Sundays, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

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