“I was done with ministry,” Steve, a pastor from California said. Our project leader, Ryan Bodine, and I sat in near him, listening as he spoke about how he’d been living in a desert for a while. “I grew dry. It was all work that I was doing and it wasn’t fulfilling. I was ministering to this group of college kids at the church, but I felt completely empty inside. I wasn’t alive. It was all by my effort!”
Today I received an email from that same pastor. He wrote:
into the mission field. I have always had a heart for missions, but
experiencing God the way I did while in Haiti, makes me want to consume
myself in that environment each and every day! I want to encounter God
daily the same way I did while serving in Haiti.”
I’m wondering now what it took for him to get to this place in just one week. AIM is great, but we just set God up for the work He was already going to do. It took a ready and willing person, the Holy Spirit working and us as a group putting ourselves in situations for God to show up and do something awesome. I challenged Steve in my response to his email and hopefully encouraged him.
I’m realizing that God is doing an awesome thing in the U.S. He’s bringing His church together into radical action. Guys like Steve are going to do it!
I answered another email today from a guy that went to Guatemala with my sister. He’s requesting to be my “apprentice”! I couldn’t help but laugh when I read it, but I love the guy’s passion. Here’s a seventeen year old kid who just wants to grow. He may not know much about discipleship, the church, the Kingdom of God or the gifts of the Spirit, but he’s hungry and wants to get going! (I’ll let you know how this develops.)
There are a number of others who have gotten in touch with me about discipleship and ministry. These people are sick and tired of being nice Christians who do little more for their savior than show up for church every Sunday, and want to start doing what Jesus taught. I’m excited about seeing what God does in and thru them.
Where do you stand?
