May 17, 2010

[Retro] Active Faith

Do you remember your very first moment of spiritual awareness as a child? I’m talking about the first time that you sensed the presence of God and realized there was something bigger than yourself. For me, I was eight or nine years old. I was an altar boy, and I would carry this cross up the center aisle of our A-frame church with the pastor following me. I sat to the side of the altar, and this one particular morning the sun was just pouring through the floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows and hit the base of the cross.

Now at that point I had no theological training, obviously. I wasn’t in a church where the Bible was taught, but in spite of that I had this amazing sense that God was real. I had all kinds of thoughts cascading through my mind that I’d never had before: “I wonder what God’s like? I wonder why I’m here. If God made everything, I wonder why he made me? What am I supposed to do with my life?”

Then I had an emotional, God experience. I felt an overwhelming sense of love and acceptance. I remember telling my mom and dad afterwards, “I want to be the altar boy for the 8 a.m. service every week from now on.”

Well, my newfound spiritual passion lasted less than six days because the next week I realized that I didn’t really want to wake up that early. In fact, almost ten years transpired between that first “God moment” and the summer when I accepted Jesus Christ at an FCA basketball camp. Now there were other “God moments” along the way that made me think about stuff and ask questions that I’d never considered before about faith.

Looking back, I’m struck by the realization that God used each of those encounters – connecting the dots between them – to form the path that would ultimately lead me to the precise place that He needed me to be. Those dots were not individual moments, but a journey.

Earlier this year we did a series called r12: True Spirituality. In it, we explored Romans 12 as relational, grace-based pathway to true spirituality. Romans 12 is a passage that God has used in transformational ways in my life, my faith and my ministry. I can’t even express the joy that I felt as story upon story poured in from listeners, small groups and churches during r12! In fact, God took r12 to a whole new level in my own church, Venture, as we began a six week journey for all ages that really brought these principles to life, culminating in a massive outreach to our local community called Feed the Need.

You can see some of those stories for yourself in the r12 Stories section of our Web site.

Now, the principles outlined in Romans 12 give us a framework for how to grow as an authentic disciple of Jesus. They clearly define a journey that we’re ALL called to take. This journey began long before the teachings of Romans 12, though. As we begin r12 RETRO we’ll revisit r12 from a completely different perspective found in the Old Testament. We’ll examine the individual faith journeys of some of the fathers of our faith, like Abraham, Daniel, Moses, David & Jonathan and Joseph. Essentially they serve as the “prequels” to r12 Christianity.

During r12 RETRO we’ll focus on how these spiritual leaders responded in the face of many of the same challenges that tend to slow, stall and completely stop our own faith journeys today.

Many of you received a free copy of the book Living on the Edge or the new DVD True Spirituality According to Jesus back in January when we launched the r12 Series. The stories that began pouring in from that series haven’t stopped yet, and we realized that this message has far more momentum behind it we could have imagined! If you already have these materials, we want to help you take the next step with resources to help you share what you’re learning with others. If you missed the series and find yourself intrigued, this is the perfect time to begin your own journey to true spirituality. As you listen online, you can take the next step in your r12 journey by requesting a FREE DVD of True Spirituality According to Jesus.

God’s got a lot to say on the subject of true spirituality. This is a journey that we’re all on, and it’s designed to refine and grow us as authentic Disciples of Christ. Through it we’ll make an indelible mark on the world. Understanding and applying the principles of r12 may be the transformational key to closing the gap between faith and action in our hearts, our families, our churches and our world.

Keep Pressin’ Ahead,

Chip