November 28, 2016
A Note from Luminex: Starting today and extending through the next four weeks, our Monday blogs will be centered on the Advent theme of the week (Faith, Hope, Joy, Love, Christ), and about how the theme in some way informs our mission to multiply. We begin our series with Dan Ackerman sharing thoughts on faith.
Embracing faith is never easy. I have a friend, Sam, who struggles against a fear of heights. When we had just become friends, we were part of a group that decided to go hiking. During our hike, we came to a place where the trail meandered on the top of an area about 4 feet wide with steep hills on each side. Suddenly, Sam sat down. Then, the rest of us became his audience as he embraced faith and crawled over the trail the rest of us had just covered. In those moments, I watched as Sam let faith overcome his weakness.
When God invites us to go on mission with him, we’d prefer that it is a path we’re equipped to walk, sometimes without even thinking about it. But that isn’t the way God’s mission is. God’s mission requires faith. God’s mission calls us to confront our fears – because our fear and weakness (the inability to create and control what God is doing) is the foundation of God’s mission through us. Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Corinthians:
“God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (1 Cor. 1:27-29).
God’s mission is faith.
Advent calls on us to embrace faith. Faith in weakness that appeared as a baby born in a stable to become the Savior of the world. Faith in a God who would use the weakness of sinful human beings to “make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that [Jesus] has taught us.” Faith in a God whose mission is to bring about a new creation in us and in the world.
Faith. It’s God’s call. It’s God’s mission.
Faith. It’s our call. It’s our mission that turns our weakness into strength.
Faith. It’s how God will bring about the redemption of the world.
Faith. Wait for it.
Breaking Church Addictions
Believe it or not, church addictions are fairly common. They are probably more common than we would like to admit. GO HERE.
Burnout or Breakout
How can church leaders be effective without sacrificing their marriage, their family, or their health in the process? How can good leaders get stuck churches unstuck without becoming another casualty? GO HERE.
Faith Based
A Biblical, Practical Guide to Strategic Planning in the Church . GO HERE.