October

The last few months have been, well, interesting… Again and again I find myself in situations that I never could have anticipated, and I find myself at this stage of church planting doing things that seminary never prepared me for.

And I like it.

One moment I’m a preacher; an hour later I’m a custodian. One afternoon I’m encouraging and equipping leaders; that evening I’m contemplating starting a professional moving company as I carry boxes and bags out of an Aurora motel room. One day I’m reading Greek; the next I’m reading something even more complex – state and federal tax forms. Specifically, there have been countless administrative tasks lately. We’ve registered as a non-profit, we’re in the denominational “Yearbook”, we’ve opened a bank account, and we’re developing a new logo as we prepare to get on the web.

Now with all of these things happening, it would be easy to start thinking that we’ve arrived, that we “count” as a church. After all, Washington state documents say so, the Christian Reformed Church recognizes us, and the bank formerly known as WaMu sent us checks with AWAKE printed at the top! But guess what? The kingdom of God – God’s way, God’s dream for the world – is not a matter of talk. It’s not a matter of logos or yearbooks or bank accounts or non-profit status. Nor is it a matter of merely going to a worship service or attending a small group or talking about God. It is a matter of yielding to the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.

This news is a, well, powerful reminder for the church as a whole and for any Jesus follower that embracing God’s way is a matter of the heart. And it is an invitation to those who have kept their distance from God because of hot-air-filled Christians and showy churches to enter into the grace-filled and Spirit-filled way of Jesus.

So while some of the external features of AWAKE may change over the months and years, this is what we’re about!