Bono says it so well at the end of the U2 tune, "Walk On"...
Gotta admit that I didn't exactly jump for joy when it became clear that God was calling us to Columbia. I sort of wondered why God would call us back to our hometown when Jesus didn't do so well when He passed through His hometown (Matthew 13:57-58). :-)Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme...
Not long after we started the journey, the unique opportunity that God was giving us became clear. Because we grew up here, there was a bit of street credibility that we could leverage. We've paid our dues here. We know the culture. We know the people. We know the lay of the land. We have an inside track.
As part of leveraging this, we felt like God called us to leave behind every form of church we've ever loved, hated, wondered about, worked in, dreamed about...everything. He called us to leave it all behind, join Him in Columbia, and spend considerable time getting to know people. Without a big vision to sell my only option was to listen.
As we got to know people...people far from God, people very near to God, and people at all parts in between...the question became "what does church look like among these people?" Instead of me asking, "How can I get people to do what I want" the question was, "How can I join what God is already doing and do what He wants." I'm telling you, we would have never arrived where we are without this beginning point.
We'll use the same beginning point with all of our missional community leaders and anyone else who embraces the missionary call of God on their lives. God is already at work in every man, woman, and child drawing them to Himself in and through Jesus - He's calling us all to join Him. But joining Him often times means we have to leave it all behind.
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