In that break though came some magic time with my family. I got out on the Harley for a day where I didn't have to get somewhere for a meeting or ministry; something I haven't done for a few years. I read - no CONSUMED books (which for me means I finished about 5 books in the same period I might read 2 or 3). And most importantly, God and I re-established the barren and dry landscapes of my personal devotional time in an amazing way which I will speak of in a future post.
So yesterday it was back to business and today I am following up with some schools and churches for upcoming ministry tour to Canberra. My friend Mark Beresford at Burgmann School has invited me down to speak to his Christian Studies Ethics classes on the 17th and 24th of August, and Mel Doyle (my amazing PA) is working hard to help me hook up some other opportunties down there to make the trip viable.
One of the churches we found to contact was called Crossroads Christian Church (http://www.crossroads.asn.au/). I have never been there before and I do not know any of the ministry team there (that I am aware of - I've met so many people over the years you never know - so apologies if I have!) but when I went to their site to have a look, I noted what I reckon is their vision statement in their website's banner. You will understand why it struck me when you read it. It said:
GROWING FOLLOWERS OF JESUS (emphasis mine!)
Yes, you read it right! There is a church in this country that is openly promoting it's desire to grow people who understand their destiny as followers! While I am not suggesting that other churches don't have the same passion and vision, I must say that a church that is open about it is rare.
In the intro to the book, I put it this way:
Jesus called people to follow Him. The type of following Jesus calls us
to do is hard. It involves denial, humility, surrender and looking out
for others interests before your own. You would be forgiven if you were
to think that the contemporary Christian church has missed this. After
all, most churches these days, while often doing their best of putting
into action Jesus’ teaching, tend to have a public face that focuses on
taking the world by storm, growing the biggest congregations, raising
the most finances and empowering people to lead the way in changing
the world.
None of this is inherently wrong, but there are dangers of having people
miss the point of following Jesus. You can understand why they do it
though. As we have said, following doesn’t sell, and no promise of,
“But wait, there’s more! Call today and you will also receive this free
Cross…” is likely to help. So in order to reach goals that placate our increasingly
worldly mindsets when it comes to justifying, qualifying
and quantifying what we do, we make it a little easier to bear. We pad
the Cross, hollow it out to make it lighter and put little wheels on the
back. Much more attractive!
Seriously though, following wasn’t meant to be easy. Worse, there are
times when Jesus seems to intentionally throw things up at us to get us
to really contemplate what it seriously means to follow. Denying self,
selling all we have and giving to the poor, taking up our Cross and
even being dead to self and then come and follow Him – Jesus take on
followship is nothing short of a marketing nightmare! (p20-21)
In Law 1, I talk about how everything begins and ends in followship. And that we can't avoid making sure that this is a priority in how we grow disciples of Jesus.
I am stoked that someone seems to get it. I hope that many more do so as well, and begin to be unashamed to make this key point the main thing.
And I certainly hope to get the opportunity to minister with Crossroads, if not on this trip but at some stage in the future.
Keep following!
Mark G
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