Bits of Wisdom

Pastoring is not my only job. When we planted Journey Fellowship, there was not enough financial support to make ends meet so I started working for a company run by a man who I had known casually for several years. Over the past 5 years, Dan has become a friend and a mentor to me in several areas, in addition to being my boss. We spent some time together today hashing through a bunch of stuff, not the least of which were some big questions about the place of faith in life.

Dan is a man who daily integrates his faith with his life. He is honest and a man of high integrity, not to mention a man who knows his Bible. We were talking today about essentials. What do we have to agree on to agree to work together. Dan mentioned that he felt there were many things he could overlook, but the one essential was the person and work of Jesus. Who do you believe Jesus to be and what do you believe He accomplished in His death, burial and resurrection? That's why I like Dan so much. He gets it.

That set of essentials is what we are all about at JFC. We know the most important thing is what the Bible says about Jesus, where He came from, what He did, and what that means for us as people- humanity, sinners to use a tough term. Because we choose to only separate over these closed hand matters, we have freedom to invite people from all walks of life to come and meet Jesus. And as a result, we see people meet Jesus on a regular basis. Our church is made up of people from Nazarene, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, and completely pagan backgrounds- just to name a few. Some of us grew up in church and some of us only made it to church for the first time last month, but we are all learning to chase after one thing- Jesus.

Is that a messy way to do church? You bet. Does that mean we have conflicts and discussions over some things? Sure we do. But it also means we have a standard for settling those conflicts that is not rooted in tradition or opinion. We simply go to Scripture, and what it says we do. That means we leave a lot of debatable matters to an individuals conscience as scripture has told us to do. So we can focus on the main thing, making Jesus known and helping those who know Him to follow Him more closely. I like to think that's changing a community one person, one family, one neighborhood at a time. Last time I checked that is what we are supposed to be about. Thanks Dan for reminding me of that today.