Last Friday night I spoke at a leadership seminar for our church, Sanctuary. We had about forty-five people there, all who desire to be in some form of leadership at our church. We took them on an exercise where they were thinking about their missional core: What is it that really excites them about being involved in the mission aspect of our church – reaching out, not reaching in? All of them had to fill in the blanks of a sentence, and then we went around the room, and person after person said, “This is what I’m called to do. This is my missional core.” Well, I’ll tell you, it was a powerful experience to hear people from different walks of life, different occupations, and different social and economic backgrounds all commit themselves to saying, “I want to be more involved in reaching out to others around our community.”

Sunday, I spoke at Laurelglen Bible Church in Bakersfield, California. Their pastor of over twenty years had retired, and it was the first Sunday without him being in the pulpit. I spoke on the Emmaus Road, and after one of the services, a group of people formed around me, and we talked a little bit about how our lives had connected. I realized that all of those people had been involved in some ministry that I had been involved in before. We all had a common experience of being involved in some sort of mission outreach, whether it be Forest Home or the Center for Student Missions or Mexicali. And in this large church, as we began to talk to each other, I found a different kind of community. It was the same community I found at Sanctuary, made up of people who want to change the world because Christ had given them a burden for the people around them.

I’m very excited about our mission and our discovering new, different, and relevant ways that we can reach the world for Christ as Christ works through us.