Friends,
In the culture of the gospel, Jesus is all about relationships! Something Jesus has really taught us over the years is the importance of being intentional and consistent. Relationship capital and trust are built with time deposits. I want to be real and raw though; it isn’t easy. Especially when God calls us to mission.
When I say mission, I am not talking about how we think about special missionaries. God called every single believer to be on mission when he commanded His disciples (that’s us) to go into all the world to make disciples. That means going to places where there are no disciples. If we are going to places to build relationships with unbelievers, it can be messy because an unbeliever is usually dealing with a lot of sin and brokenness. And to consistently build trust with anyone, you have be present with them really on a weekly basis. So it is not a sprint, but a marathon. This takes commitment. In our culture where “Success is God”, this can distort our perspective on being committed to God’s work and command of making disciples. Because many times we feel we have to see a system or input numbers or achievements to feel we are making a difference or seeing fruit. But relationships don’t work like that. Relationships are personal. God has had to remind me how many years it took for me to finally come around and give my heart to God. I had specific Christians in my life constantly reaching out to me on where I was with God. They drove me crazy. I just wanted to live my life without them causing me to think about my life, where my life was going and of course the sin I felt like I was enjoying. I will never forget my friend Matt sticking with me in my messy process for 5 years! Sometimes I forget this and I think I can just overnight someone into the faith and move on. Or I think I can just plug someone into a church culture and they will get it. I remember experiencing a little bit of church while my friend was trying to lead me to Christ. Church felt like the weirdest environment I had ever been in and I didn’t want anything to do with it. None of it made sense. But the difference with my friend was that he constantly met me in my environments. What a special day after I had fully committed my life to Christ, found my amazing Christian bride, Leah, and Matt was one of the men who stood in my wedding. I know that sometimes, Matt thought it was never going to happen. I know he probably wanted to give up and go back to his comfortable life. But I thank God he didn’t! Each of us are called to lay down our lives to people. I know God is calling many people to commit to relationships in the city of Grand Rapids. And for others, it is somewhere else. But it won’t be easy and clean. Especially if we are meeting people where they are at in their environments. I can testify, I am constantly out of my comfort zone as we stretch to reach more people! But it is so worth it. Why? Because I know the person I would be and the life I would be living without Christ. I was on a road of a lot of brokenness and emptiness. I end this writing with this, will you make the persistent consistent commitment to reach the people God is calling you to? If it’s Grand Rapids, no reason to wait, join with GRDC as God continues to pour out this love!
