Real Life Stories

Transparent Man—Steve Corcoran’s Story

I started attending the Transparent Men breakfast and was blown away by the close fellowship of the men who attended. They have an unbridled passion to serve a common goal of becoming more accountable in their Christian faith.

Being involved in this ministry has enabled me to step outside the social bubble and realize the true blessings that the Father showers on us every minute of every day. When I can look past the “tags” that are commonly placed on people (skin color, dress, wallet size, education, etc.) and get beyond the social and cultural fears I associate with poverty, race or addition. When a person becomes totally transparent to me, then I can experience the loving relationship God originally intended for His children.

So, I am celebrating diversity and striving to look beyond differences…letting the scales drop from my eyes…and God is revealing some incredible things!

STEVE CORCORAN is a longtime BPC member. Transparent Men is a group of men—white, black, rich, poor, fathers, sons, clergy, laymen—who come from all over Northern Ohio to fellowship over a simple breakfast served on the first Saturday of every month. Together they talk, worship, praise, study and learn what the Father has in store for them. For more about Transparent Men, contact Steve a .

God in Relationships—Scott Douglas’ Story

It was a noisy Friday afternoon outside the Fallout, BPC’s student center. Hammers were pounding as seven young men from The Bridge Avenue School (TBAS) created projects.

So how did this afternoon project come together? Well I guess it goes back to relationships. It started a few years back when I got to know Dan MacElwaine while serving as a techie at a street school national conference at the church before TBAS even existed. It was an exciting conference with people from all over the nation who worked with students that other schools would not and could not work with. By the end of the conference, the seed for TBAS was planted in Dan’s heart.

Carol Liston is a good friend of mine volunteers weekly as a tutor at TBAS. She mentioned she’d had a special time with the TBAS girls and she thought that it would be nice for the guys to have their own special day. She asked me if I could teach the students how to make a little woodworking project.

I have a pretty good relationship with Russa at the Home Depot where I take my own kids to do their Kids Workshop projects. I asked to purchase some projects for the TBAS boys. After hearing about the school they donated the projects and orange smocks.

So we spent and enjoyable afternoon working together, teaching the boys to work with their hands.

I was concerned that the wagon project was too easy for middle schoolers so we also spray painted the pieces before we assembled them. While we waited for the paint to dry, it was a good opportunity to get to know the students better and discuss such things as why a triangular tool is called a square. A student named Joseph correctly answered that it’s called a square because it has a 90 degree right angle. I think he answered all my questions correctly. Carol Liston said she saw the boys making the connection between real world measurements and math class.

The older boys finished their projects first and immediately started helping the younger ones without me asking them. One young man named Jordan did not think he was able to build it, but working through it step by step with some help, he turned out a fine little wagon. Whenever you build something, things don’t go quite right the first time and there was time to take apart, rebuild and improve upon (and learn from) the mistakes. This gave me the opportunity to use a favorite analogy about sin – how God can remove the nails but the holes (consequences) remains.

Ands so the story comes back to relationships. I have been blessed to get to know seven young men a little better. At the end of afternoon, we’d made a little sawdust, learned a little bit about carpentry and math, talked a little theology, and no need for an emergency squad. Overall it was a very good day.

SCOTT DOUGLAS is a BPC member and elder. He also serves on the technical team for V2 Student Ministries.