sifted!

Overwhelmed. Challenged. A bit undone. Encouraged. Excited. Challenged some more. These are just a few words to describe Bryan's and my feelings following today's sessions. The theme of this year's conference is Sifted, a reference to what Satan desired to do to Peter in Luke's gospel, chapter 22. We've been talking about the struggles, trials and dangers inherent in church planting, and how God wants to take each situation and use them for our growth. 

There have been rich times of worship and testimony at the main sessions, and lots of nuts-and-bolts discussion at various workshops. Always great for me are the opportunities to meet other workers, especially those a few steps ahead of us, and connect with them about what they're doing in relation to what we're doing. 


My "aha" moment of the day actually came tonight as we attended a special gathering hosted by New Thing, a church planting network. Australian Michael Frost (right), special speaker and church planting leader, talked about the relevance of our message about Jesus in the US. His observation is that people find it more exciting to speak about their favorite sports hero or movie star than Christians typically do about Jesus. And that when we do speak of Him, we've become trapped in predictable cliches that have little impact and leave our hearers cold. We need to speak of Jesus like He is our hero, our best friend, the greatest person we've ever met.

I had sensed this very crisis recently in a discussion with a person in need, that my "Jesus talk" felt somewhat hackneyed and trite, realizing that the way we reference Him often creates little or no tangible connect for those who need Him. Oh, that I may speak of Jesus as my passion, my reason, my all...and may that depiction be clearly understood by those who hear me!


Because Jesus is my hero.