Husband. Dad to 5. Student Ministry Pastor. Follower of Jesus. Yatta yatta.

GUTSY FAITH

I was getting caught up on some blogs after Africa and I ran across a reference to this video of a friend of mine. I’d like to say I have this kind of faith. I’d like to say I’m listening to God this attentively. I want my life to make these kind of decisions. But…. I wonder what I’d have said with 3 kids, a mortgage, and no clear alternative plan if I sat around this table.

I used to do youth ministry down the street from Jarrett Stevens when he looked around him as a youth pastor and saw a church he didn’t fit in. So he quit his job and moved to Chicago to go to Moody. That decision eventually lead him to serve at Willow Creek Community Church. That eventually led him to get hired to run their college ministry. He then left Willow Creek to go serve under Andy Stanley at their new Buckhead campus. Now he’s laying that on the line to follow Jesus again. Thanks for truly leading and constantly risking Jarrett. I’m proud of you.

I wonder if I’d have the confidence to trust Jesus and leave or risk leaving 2 of what many would consider to be “dream jobs” to follow Jesus. I’d like to say yes, but staying on the razor’s edge of faith is easier said than done.

I’ve been kicking around a quote I heard at the leadership summit this year, one that is said by the same pastor quoted in this pivotal video in the life of 7/22 above. It is this: “I realized that I had become a full time pastor and a part time follower of Jesus.” I fear at times that this has been me. I don’t want this to be one of those times. I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing so I can become what God has not called me to be. I want to do what only God has called me to do with a gutsy faith that is willing to risk it all for the Kingdom of God.

I only pray God gives me what it takes to actually jump when he calls.

Comments

  1. Thanks for posting that Brian.

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