PREFACE
PREFACE
I can sing Great is Thy Faithfulness with my whole heart and from my experience. I have found God's faithfulness to be true in my life.
Through the pain of childhood - dysfunction, divorce, and distress.
Through sexism and discrimination.
Through anxiety attacks.
Through miscarriages.
Through disappointment layered on loss.
Through near-death experiences.
Through caring for and losing two parents to cancer.
Through adopting two times, one on each coast.
My understanding of God has come as I have lived this life journey. These things I have experienced, and the presence of God, in the midst of those experiences, has changed me. Here I am. Alive, whole, and healing. God's deep call to me has ushered me into a place that I would not be on my own. God has anointed me and renewed my call. We don't control what happens to us, but many times we can choose how we open ourselves to growth. Then, for the times we cannot choose, it is simply grace upon grace.
"I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace, given me through the working of His power."
What I get to share with people in my work as a pastor has all been formed by my experience of God's grace in my life. Each sermon, small group, and meeting I lead are a reflection of the gift of grace, God's power in me.
My son Josiah loves stories. We read together all the time and we also make up stories. At bedtime one night when he was four-years old, I started to weave a made-up tale. Many times, he gives me promptings and I need to run with it. "Tell me a story about when a butterfly crashed into hot lava," was my story prompt one time. This night though, when I started to make up a story, Josiah interrupted me.
Josiah: "Remember we were in the car ride and driving around the parking lot at the Redlands Market, mommy?"
Me: Yes.
Josiah: "Remember when we drove fast and you held on and we had so much wind in our hair?"
Me: Yes, I do.
Josiah: "Tell me that story."
Yes, son. In the midst of the beautiful, creative stories that we read and tell, we must remember to tell our own stories. The ones that actually happen to us. Yes, my boy, I will tell the story of us. I will tell the story of what happened and what we really experienced. I want to savor that story.
It's easy to forget to tell our story. Yet, discipleship is about telling our story. We are shaped and formed by God as we share our own story with each other. Disciple-making is being willing to share our lives. In First Thessalonians two: eight, Paul says, "Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well."
This is the call to discipleship: to share the gospel and to share our lives. So, on these pages, you will read about being rooted in the gospel, how God can root believers in your church or ministry or small group in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You will read about the invitation of God and the transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit through this journey. You will also read about my life. Because the gospel and my life are intertwined.
As you lead and make space for discipleship in your church, business, small group, or your family, would you have the courage to show up and tell your own story? Yes, share the good news-we all need to hear the good news. Yet right alongside the good news, will you share your story?
Let me pause for a moment to speak to those of us who are struggling to believe. Yes, leaders, elders, pastors, administrators, and long-time members, we can all struggle at different times. Perhaps right now it feels like too much-an invisible God who wants a relationship with us. Look for a moment. Love is visible all around you. Ask God to wake you up to notice grace. Then look at the evidence in you. Whenever you want to love someone, not for something he or she can do for you, but just simply from love, whenever you forgive someone for a wrong, or you share sacrificially, these evidences show the Spirit and grace at work. Even if you don't see and don't feel what you have believed before, when you do these things, we see God in you. You evidence God's goodness.
When it feels dark and we don't know the way, hear the words of Jesus to Thomas that become words for us. Thomas had a mix of doubt and faith, confusion and confidence. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have come to believe."
Seventh-day Adventists believe that all life change starts with responding to God who loves us first. Turning towards God in response to grace.
You and I are invited into a relationship. You and I are invited to live in this love as a disciple, and to make other disciples on the journey.
"Now to Him who is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us."
May God bless the journey before us.
CHAPTER ZERO
CHAPTER ZERO
Making Space for God
THE SMALL GROUP IS GATHERED in a tight circle around the audio recorder. They have been on a journey of growth and change over the last three months. They have laughed, prayed, and cried together-sharing themselves as they have grown closer. You can see by the eye contact and the affection in the room that the space between them has grown sacred. This is the last time they will be together as part of a twelve-week discipleship process. The relationships will continue between them, but the group time has come to an end. Now they are taking a few moments of this last session together to record their thoughts and experiences for my doctoral research. Significant themes arise from what they share. These are some highlights.