Salt & Light: A Guide to Loving Northwest Indiana

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I am eternally grateful that God called me to this project. It has been an honor to work alongside Andy Rittenhouse, Travis Vaughn, and Heidi Unruh. What a privilege to continue their legacy of seeking unity of the body in loving our neighbors. I cannot even begin to thank my wife, Julie, for her patience and understanding through many nights of research, studying statistics, and meetings. She is always a constant source of encouragement and strength, and I love her dearly. I am thankful for Chris Carr catching the vision of Salt & Light and allowing me to pursue my dream of seeing it to completion. Lastly, I want to thank Jason Topp for his unwavering leadership and guidance for the whole team as we took this journey together.

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This process has taught me to view our region through the eyes of Jesus, and to love it with my life. I am forever grateful for Travis Vaughn, who challenged me to escape my comfort zone and to come along on a captivating journey. I’m honored to not only have met the editors of Salt & Light Knoxville, Andy Rittenhouse and Heidi Unruh, but to now call them my friends. Their passion for seeking the welfare of cities for Jesus’ sake is inspiring. I am thankful for Chris Carr, who challenged me to pursue a new endeavor. I’m incredibly grateful for my wife, Jen, whose tremendous love and supWVY[ JHYYPLK TL [OYV\NO [OPZ LU[PYL \UKLY[HRPUN 3HZ[S` 0T KLLWS` PUKLI[LK [V T` MYPLUK 1VL` 4H`ÄLSK MVY OPZ WHZZPVU drive, and care in seeing this project to completion – you are a great example of what it means to love God and love neighbors.

Our Dream We pray that God uses this simple book to spark a dynamic movement of collaborative service across Northwest Indiana – one that seeks the welfare of our communities and saturates our region with the Gospel. We long to see every church member displaying radical generosity and actively engaged in spreading the glory of Christ by loving their neighbors as themselves.

We trust that as you read the chapters of this book, you will begin to see the concerns of our community through God’s eyes and discover that each issue is deeply spiritual. As such, if we only make Northwest Indiana great by loving our neighbors, and share not Christ, then we have merely bandaged the wounds of humanity.

We believe God’s church has the amazing potential to be the means of community and individual transformation through the redemptive work of Christ. It is our hope and prayer that gospel-centered churches throughout our region can join together - under the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3) - to proclaim the greatness of our Lord. May the incredible hard work by the many partners who served so well on this project signify just the beginning of an exciting salt and light journey.

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