The Passions That Should Define a Christ Follower

I copied this list out of the book Unchristian and just found it in some notes: - Worshiping God intimately & passionately. - Engaging in spiritual friendships with other believers. - Pursuing faith in the context of family. - Embracing intentional forms of spiritual growth. - Serving others. - Investing time & resources in spiritual pursuits. - Having faith based conversations with outsiders. How does reading that make you feel? I did a yep, uh huh, okay, oh oh, shoot... Some yes, and some are a little lacking. Unchristian was a great book; if you think Christians are a bunch of hypocrites, I'm sorry. The list above? That's what we're supposed to be like. I doubt many people would be able to say that all seven of those characterize them, but the thing is, a lot of us are working on it. *note - I just posted the above on my own blog, but thought I'd add it here for you, too.

I have to tell you about this place...

I went down to the old St. Andrews building on Dewdney today. A pastor friend and I met with a girl from Soul's Harbor Rescue Mission, who bought the building, and got a tour. Amazing potential there. We went because we've been thinking all year that for our next city wide young adult event, we would do some sort of service project, probably in north central. At our last coffee 'meeting', we decided that we'd see if there was any way we could help as they do renos and get it ready for use. Um, yeah. No need for a plan B. There is a lot of work to be done there, and we will be able to use every body that shows up. What got me, though, was not the amount of work to be done, but what they will be able to DO with that facility when it is ready. Because it's so not about a building, but about the people around there who will come in to find what they need and find Jesus. It's all about him. I love that this old building, a place of worship, will be used by the church once more. The sanctuary is being remodeled into a day care which will open in September. The basement under the sanctuary and the gym beside it will be a drop in center for youth. There are a bunch of classrooms, too, and kitchen space, and offices for Mission staff... I hope we get a ton of young adults from all over the city on our work bee day, and I hope that as we clean and scrub, the Spirit stirs in many hearts, cleaning and scrubbing and making us ready for more work that he may have for us there; that he may plant ideas that day about how they could be using their gifts and talents and passions and love for people there, and make a difference for Jesus. You'll get details here when we finalize the day and time, but I just wanted to post this while it was fresh in my head. So neat to see God moving in our city and how great to be in on what he's doing.