Keep fighting the fight

Long Beachers,

It has been almost 2 months since you guys left beautiful California. I left you all over 2 months ago. Wow, has time flied by and has so much happened.

Last night after watching 2 episodes of Lost (season 1), I was lying in bed and tons of thoughts and memories came to my mind. There was so much I learned this summer about life, God, my walk with Him and ministry in general. I’m so grateful to go on that journey with you. I praise God what He taught me about trusting Him, hearing from Him, waiting on Him and how that plays out in ministry and planting movements. I also realize I have so much more to learn.

I find myself here in Mexico City with a huge magnanimous challenge before us to want to find significance in what I do and how I do it. Each day I want to hang my hat on something that I did for God, a web site, a conversation with a student, a phone call, sharing the gospel, etc. I so want to go back to a way of life where I can find acceptance in what I do for God, not in what I am in God’s eyes. I struggle with the same things we were learning this summer. Often I want to move ahead and say it was such a good summer and now back to normal. But I don’t want to live that way. I want to keep moving along, letting God change me, show me how to live after Him, show me how to live among the lost, listen and respond.

We are also challenged with being in a new area to start a spiritual movement in our neighborhood, not just on campus as part of “ministry”. We want to take the things that we learned this summer and not just call them good and done but to keep moving ahead in Prayer, finding pockets of people, being present and available with our friends and neighbors to see what God is doing and trust God to raise up a person of peace. I believe more than ever that ministry, walk with God, seeing Him move is all about “Growing Faith Where Life Happens.”

Thanks for being part of something that I believe will change the way CCC, the Church and missions will experience God and his Kingdom work. Don’t stop. Keep moving ahead in Faith. Keep encouraging each other to live for God and not for others. Keep fighting the good fight. Keep praying, listening to the Spirit, letting go of our cultural Christianity and grabbing hold of what God wants for you.

I pray our paths will cross again. I pray that some of you will join us again in LB next summer to share your experiences with others. I pray that some of you will take what you learned and head down to the biggest city in the world to plant spiritual movements. I pray that you all will lead the charge ahead on your campuses. Don’t quit, don’t settle, don’t get comfortable.

See many of you at DCC 07 in Denver.

Steve