{"id":411,"date":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.northcentral.edu\/blog\/what-it-means-to-be-called\/"},"modified":"2021-12-28T22:58:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T22:58:39","slug":"what-it-means-to-be-called","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northcentral.edu\/blog\/what-it-means-to-be-called\/","title":{"rendered":"What it means to be called"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life Center Church<\/h2>\n

As people gather at 11:30 a.m. each Sunday at Life Center, the church\u2019s name rings true. The singing is powerful and real and comes from deep within the members of the congregation.<\/p>\n

Life Center, formerly known as Inner City Church of Minneapolis (ICCM), \u00a0is anything but traditional. Pastors Chris \u201991 and Monica (Tajbakh \u201991) DeLaurentis, will tell you that this ministry began \u201cin a pastor\u2019s paradise,\u201d where city blocks were being vacated by the long-term residents and filled with gang members relocating from Chicago and Detroit.<\/p>\n

Called to serve in Minneapolis<\/h3>\n

Monica was planning for overseas ministry, even studying abroad in Nepal her sophomore year, but something happened when she returned to her home in New York for the summer. \u201cI lived in the Bronx,\u201d Monica explained. \u201cOne night a crack addict put his fist through a window. It cut an artery and he just kept screaming three words: \u201cSomebody save me, somebody save me.\u201d He kept screaming as the police tried to help. When Monica woke up the next day she saw police tape and realized he had died.<\/p>\n

Monica told her co-workers about the disturbing incident. \u201cThey just looked at me and said, \u2018Monica shut up; we don\u2019t care. It\u2019s another troublemaker dead,\u2019\u201d she winced as she remembered. \u201cAnd that was like a pierce in my heart. I went home that night and started crying out in prayer, \u2018Nobody cares\u2026no one on the block cares.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat night I realized I wasn\u2019t going to go overseas; I was going to stay in the United States because that\u2019s where the Lord was leading me.\u201d Monica returned to North Central and changed her major to pastoral studies.<\/h4>\n

Chris and Monica were friends at NCU for four years and realized just before graduation that, according to Monica, \u201cSomebody had to bust a move because I was going back to the Bronx and he was going back to San Diego.\u201d Neither one recalled which one made the move, but after that thought they knew they were going to be married\u2014and they were, three months later.<\/p>\n

Their ministry first began working for Teen Challenge, helping start residential facilities for the drug and alcohol recovery organization. They loved serving in the city and eventually felt a call to start a church.<\/p>\n

The DeLaurentises bought an old house, fixed it up, and started their ministry there. \u201cWe lived on the second floor and had church services and discipleship and youth ministry on the first floor,\u201d Chris noted. \u201cThat\u2019s where it began\u2014just bringing in drug addicts, prostitutes, people from the streets, into our house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually they bought an abandoned commercial property from the city for the cost of the back-taxes\u2014the perfect location (after two years of renovation) to reach a neighborhood in need. \u201cWe have always looked for the worst spot,\u201d Chris said. \u201cThat\u2019s where we want to put our influence and our time. Our target group is those who struggle with addiction, those who are homeless, those living below the poverty line. If you\u2019re violent, if you can\u2019t work\u2014you\u2019re our target audience,\u201d he continued emphatically: \u201cThat\u2019s who we want to meet!\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no shortage of stories that come from ministry this real and raw. They\u2019ve had fights break out during a service, ably handled by trained ushers. They\u2019ve had people selling drugs in the bathroom. \u201cOf course we go deal with it,\u201d Chris said, \u201cbut the right people are in the building. We\u2019ve got the biggest problems in a place where they can hear the Word of God! If they can\u2019t hear the Word of God, they\u2019ll never change. You don\u2019t get fixed and then come; here, you come as you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

A model for changing lives<\/h3>\n

In addition to hearing the Word of God preached on Sunday mornings, those who come to Life Center are served through their 4T ministry model<\/a>\u00a0to provide practical help and tools to change lives. In the T3 stage the focus is transformation, during which many people learn for the first time how to live life, how to work, how to escape poverty, how to develop a family. Those who make it through the program successfully become trainers and leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonica has 75 leaders who meet with her every other week,\u201d Chris said. \u201cThey\u2019re running our kitchen ministry, doing men\u2019s and women\u2019s groups, driving vans\u2014they\u2019re the workforce of our ministry.\u201d They\u2019re the people who came from the streets and now are giving back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are hundreds of stories of people\u2019s lives who are changed or changing,\u201d Chris said. \u201c[We provide] tools for people to learn a new way to live. It\u2019s Romans chapter 12\u2014that we renew our mind by the Word of God!\u201d There are currently 40 adults in Life Center\u2019s life skills training programs, learning and applying how to live a successful life.<\/p>\n

Following the call on their lives<\/h3>\n

The DeLaurentises emphatically agree that they have been able to do what they\u2019ve done because they were called to do it. Without the call, it wouldn\u2019t even make sense.<\/p>\n

\"MinneapolisSome\u00a0parishioners have told her they hated her at first, but Monica said,\u00a0“Love broke them down. It just changed everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris shared with admiration about how Monica uses what God has given her. \u201cWhat Monica has is this incredible empathy where she can understand people even though she hasn\u2019t walked in their shoes. So she gets it. That’s the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some would say it makes no sense for a church filled with so many people below the poverty line to even exist, but Chris, whose role in the ministry is to use his gift of helps to do administration and fundraising, said that 95 percent of the ministry is funded from the outside.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Chris said, \u201cThe call makes everything easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monica agreed. \u201cIf you’re not called you won’t make it; you’ll quit. You’re surrounded by negativity: life’s despair, addiction, abuse. Hurting people who want to hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the changed lives that keep the DeLaurentises going.<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re more like foreign missionaries here in America\u2014where you go and become part of the community, learn the culture, and work within that community. We are blessed with fruit falling all over the place! That\u2019s the greatest thing for me, seeing a life change. It\u2019s just as special to me as when we started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeling called to serve in ministry?<\/h2>\n

If you are feeling inspired by the story of Chris and Monica DeLaurentis, it might be time for you to pursue a degree in Pastoral or Urban Studies at North Central University!<\/p>\n