Most churches get kicked out of their building.

Not us. We got kicked into our building.

Our inner city multi-ethnic church plant had been meeting for some time around lunch tables outside in a public schoolyard. Our neighborhood houses the poorest school in the district. We welcomed people from off of the street, ate with them, and held our church service in the open air.

But one resident from a nearby apartment started writing us angry letters about the noise. We apologized, lowered the volume, and prayed. A few Sundays later, this same resident was taking out his trash when he was arrested by the preaching of Romans 8. He stopped and listened to the entire sermon while standing by a dumpster in the alley. Afterward, he rounded the corner, weeping, and told us he had heard God speak to him.

A few weeks after that, while I was preaching, somebody yelled over the wall that we were too loud. A lady in the service piped up that he was next. I apologized for the noise, nodded to our sound guy, ...