Living missionally, calling, life, etc.

Missional is a buzz word these days in my life here at SEBTS. I seem to hear it often, but rarely do I hear it defined in any kind of tangible terms.

Yesterday at church, Charles Lyons, pastor of Armitage Baptist Church in Chicago, spoke at Bay Leaf, where I go. It was phenomenal. His words weren't even what left the biggest impression on me, but rather seeing how his church says they want to be missional and they ARE. They reach out to the gangs, to those who hang out on street corners, to the Muslim community, all in the name of Jesus. It stirred such a longing in my heart to see all people, the beautiful unloveable people, of my community, to come to Christ. I want to be involved in a church that is involved in the community and puts their faith into action. Although I think my church as a whole has that vision, I don't know that we are implementing that vision as well as we could be. That could be wrong and my own misconception as I haven't been there that long and don't know the inner workings of the church.

Nevertheless, the College and Career Ministry seems to be very much on fire for turning Raleigh upside down for Christ. Chad and Heather (the minister and his wife) have such a passion for the lost, and they do a great job at reminding us why we gather together as a body of believers: To worship God and tell others about Him so God gets all the glory. To that end, I am so thankful and excited to be a part of the leadership of that group, and to see how God works through us to establish his Kingdom here in Raleigh.

Along with all of that, I am excited about the direction my small group is going (emphasis intended). Though we are few, may we be powerful for Jesus! Ron said last night he would like us to view our WePod (as our small groups are known) as a church plant in the North Hills area of Raleigh. That means our goal is to encourage one another and bring those who don't know Jesus into our group and teach them. We're praying about ways to make that a tangible reality in the coming weeks. Our area is very high-end, filled with a lot of upper echelon, young, working professionals. It would be so cool to see God use our group in reaching that demographic!

On the flip-side, but in conjunction with all this passion for reaching Raleigh for Christ, I am beginning to brainstorm and talk to people, again, about doing an ESL class, specifically directed at the Hispanic community. There is a huge portion of Hispanics in the Raleigh area, and especially around a certain church we have connections with. This is something I believe the Lord keeps bringing up in my life (reaching the Hispanic community) for a reason. I am pumped to find out what exactly may happen there!

Ironically enough, I am listening to "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. We keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change. One day our generation is gonna rule the population. So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change.

I don't want to sit and wait. I want to do something.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." ~Mohandas Ghandi