Seeing the City with Fresh Eyes

The Keystone Houston team has been in the city for 6 years now, and in those 6 years we've undergone many changes - things like splitting to 2 locations, running a school for a bit, restructuring leadership, etc. In fact, the only 'original' team members that we still have are LJ, Nicole and Jacob. And even LJ and Nicole have been working their way out of the team lately to pursue a greater role in the Keystone Project.

The way that God has developed this team has been great, and everyone that's a part of it now is totally committed to making disciples, whatever the cost. But we've noticed that lately the team has gotten caught up a bit in the day-to-day ministry, and more and more we lack a perspective of the greater vision. The thing is, since none of the new team members were a part of moving into the city and spiritually mapping the city, they naturally have a hard time owning the Kingdom work of the whole city for themselves.

So basically, we're excited to share the gospel and teach our disciples, but sometimes we lose sight of the fact that there's a whole city here to reach beyond our own apartment complexes. And because of it, our strategic nature as well as our sense of urgency have been diminishing.

So the past couple weeks we've taken a bunch of time to make trips as a team to different areas of Houston, both to minister as well as to view the enemy's strongholds up close. The goal is that as we witness in-person the diligent, constant and shameless work of the enemy throughout the city, we'll have a greater sense of urgency to get the job done as well as a keener awareness of the strongholds we'll have to work through right in our own neighborhoods.

Last week we spent time prayer walking through the Montrose area, which is the gay capital of Houston, where we prayed over many clubs, one of the secular universities there containing a 'gateway' to the city, a field where a large mosque will be built (one of the largest mosques in North America) and a few other buildings.

Last night we visited Hermann Park, which is somewhat the heart of Houston. Throughout the park we prayed against the many Masonic strongholds of the city. Tonight, then, we might prayer walk Bissonnet, which is one of the most heavily prostituted areas of the city.

Please pray with our team as we continue combating the enemy and discovering strongholds. We know that as we continue to intrude into the enemy's territory we're opening up ourselves to more spiritual attacks. So (1) please pray for spiritual protection, (2) please pray each one of us would have a larger perspective of what God wants to do in and through us this year, and (3) please pray that we would be prepared for our retreat this weekend and that God would be able to use it to spark fresh passion and fresh unity.

Thanks guys!