Missio Dei

Yesterday the church I am working at started a new series titled Missio Dei. The phrase means, "The Mission of God" and it is going to be awesome! The Mission to give up our lives and comforts for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of advancing Christ's Kingdom into this world. For as John said, He must increase and I must decrease! Pray that this wouldn't be some fad that the church is going through, but a complete change in church culture! A passionate determination to follow Christ regardless of the cost, to whatever lengths for the sake of the gospel and His Kingdom.

 

My Starbucks friend, Chris and I are going a small group that meets on Monday night during the Missio Dei series. I personally am very excited about the chance to connect with more people who are going after God's mission. The group meets for eight weeks, during which we will have a work book that we are going through and hopefully different projects to get involved with. I know at the very least that there is going to be conversations that take place during the next few weeks that will change my life and people that I will meet that will have great influence in my spiritual walk.

Another big event that is taking place over the next week is Men's Retreat. Friday afternoon into Saturday evening a bunch of men from our church are going out to a camp ground to learn about God and mentoring others to grow in their relationship to Christ. Older men to younger men, peer to peer relationship, even younger to older. It is going to be a relational weekend that will challenge me and push me in my own spiritual growth as well as train me to push others in their relationship.

Rachel is doing well last I talked to her. She got to help with flood relief on Thursday in north east PA where they got hit by Hurricane Irene. The whole school shut down for the day to help the community, incredible.

Then of course there was when she came out to visit me last weekend. The Cleveland orchestra was incredible as well and I can hardly wait to see her again - probably toward the middle of October.

One thing that I learning right now is this: Be content. With where I am, what I am doing and the job God has given me. Not spiritually, but positionally. It is very easy for my to start complaining about being in Ohio as an intern at this successful church that is doing very well. When I have more spiritual conversations with people from the city, that seems like the place to be, but God has me here for some reason. It wasn't until last night that I had any idea why.

In the midst of a conversation about Missio Dei I said that being a Christian is more than just being saved or even bring other people to salvation. Christianity is a continuing process. It is about bringing people closer to Christ whether they are saved or not. That is what I believe am doing here, helping believers people grow to a closer relationship with Christ in the context of a Christian community I call church. This might seem like common sense or even obvious fact, but it came as a surprise to me. I have felt confused about what I am doing here the last couple of weeks, but now I at least have an idea. My job would be to make followers of Christ into passionate followers of Christ, to move people to a deeper relationship with Christ from wherever they are. To quote the phrase at the top of this page, to enjoy bringing others along on the journey.

Blessings from a pilgrim

Later