What's the Plan?

Last night we welcomed 41 people into the Art Gallery of Myers Park High School for advent worship services. It was a tremendous gift to see people from a variety of different areas coming together to authentically worship Jesus Christ.  We all came together with multiple lenses of faith and church backgrounds.  People with deep walks of faith and those who have given up on Church but not on God.

As we headed out into the cold night, people wanted to know what the master plan is.  After hosting these three weeks of Advent services, then what?

It is a valid question.  Our training often tells us to have strategic plans, a 5-year vision, and step-by-step instructions.  And while we certainly do, it is essential that we leave space for the Holy Spirit to work.  

After these three weeks of worship, our Trailblazer community will continue meeting at 7pm on Tuesday nights beginning on January 14th to start planning for those next steps.  These three weeks will reveal to us the steps necessary to help this community emerge as the full body of Christ.  It is still our prayer that we could move to weekly worship in the Spring and Summer of 2014, but to get there, we need prayer and people committed to this mission.  Our goal is to have 40 Trailblazers committed in order to build a foundation for weekly worship.  

We will need people who are gifted musically, those who love to develop video, those who enjoy teaching children, those who can setup and breakdown space, those who can run spreadsheets, those who can smile and make folks feel welcomed into our community.  Though we may not fully understand all that God is doing and will continue to do, we know that He has called us to excellence.  We want to do weekly worship when it can be done in a smooth and well-designed fashion; if done prematurely then we will quickly find ourselves exhausted having sprinted when in reality we are running a marathon.  

If you are feeling God's nudging that in some way you may be called to have an impact on this city, on your community, in your life...I would invite you to Myers Park High School over the next two Sunday nights to meet our community and consider becoming a part of the Trailblazer team.

Years from now, when you pause to consider what impact your faith has had, what do you want to be known for? I know for me the idea of getting to help God birth a new community of faith will be life affirming and changing.

The mantra I am considering is how do we move from being invited to being challenged by God?  How might God be challenging you this Christmas?

Reflections on Risk Taking

I was able to spend the lunch hour yesterday with 30 men from a variety of industries discussing the challenges to taking risks, through the Iron Project.  The leaders led us through the 5 areas that men need to risk: physically, in friendships, in our faith, emotions and jobs.

We highlighted that the largest hinderance to risk is FEAR.  (Perhaps this is why Jesus 17 times tells people “Do not fear”).  In many of my recent conversations with others considering church planting, or pursuing a new career, ultimately our conversation turns to the practical reality of money.  I believe that this not because money is the only concern, but because it is the easiest to wrap our brains around.  

Money is a very tangible marker…a balance sheet clearly declares whether you have the “margins” to make the move.  And if anything, hopefully our market crash of 2007/8 taught us the danger of leverage very little margins.

As a result, I left the gathering convinced that to make major risks in life, we have to have confidence.  Therefore, the question is how do you gain confidence.  I believe that in order to have the necessary confidence, we need to build out “margins” in our lives.  Not just financially, but also physically, socially, and spiritually.

Like wise financial training that teaches us to nest away portion of our profits in order to build the necessary margin to take a risk, our discussion made me wonder what would that look like in these three areas of our life.

1)  Physically:  If you want to take a risk like running a marathon, one of the most vital components is the taper.  You cannot train hard all the way up the race.  You have to back off, storing up energy to complete the 26.2 miles. 

Similarly, if you want to bench 300lbs, you cannot just keep living on the edge putting more and more plates on the bar.  Your muscles need time to be restored.  You have to build up, and time it just right to peak at the critical point.

2)  Socially:  Taking a risk socially is harder to quantify.  Perhaps it is asking out “that girl.”  Or opening up to a buddy to go deeper than the Duke/UNC game.  A friend who does campus ministry says that he will often tell a freshman boy who he knows has absolutely no chance, but  is asking nervously, “Do you think she would go out with me?”  ”Definitely.  Go for it.”  He is pushing this boy to take the risk, to fail, to pick himself up, because by doing so he is building up a confidence margin that will allow him to do it again the next time.

True community is formed through shared time, space and a common mission.  So to forge the bonds socially requires that we start set aside time and space on a common mission with other people.  This will then give us strong friends we can call upon when the stuff hits the fan in life.

To “come back” to church to learn how to listen and talk to God in this season is why its so hard to hear Him.  Life has gotten too loud with bosses, wives and kids all screaming for attention.

What is vital is building out that relationship in the calm and quiet seasons.  It’s nesting away 15 minutes with God’s word, trying to pray when there isn’t anything pressing, looking for God in the ordinary.   This builds out the margins in our life that give us the confidence when we are about to take a risk.

3) Spiritually:  I have often seen, heard and experienced the mantra that those youth who grew up in the church will return once they get married, an illness or have children.  However, whenever I can grab the ear of a 20 something, I try to explain that by that point they are drinking from the firehydrant of life desperately grasping for something to hold onto.  They struggle to understand why that perfect love is now a bit pedestrian; they realize they have to tell their spouse where they are going when they want to get a loaf of bread; and then discover that those rugrats need yet another diaper change. 

For me, it wasn’t that risky to leave the stability of a successful church to go out without a paycheck, without an office, without a phoneline, without much…but I believe that is because I had built over the past 12 years a healthy body, a strong marriage and a deep faith.  In a way I am cashing out all the margins I had stored up in my life–my savings account, my energy, leaning on friendships, and clinging to my faith.  Becaue at the end of the race, I long to hear God’s promise, “well done, good and faithful servant…”

F3::Signposts Along the Way: My EH Story

My reflection after one full year in the F3 community.

(Disclaimer: The names have been kept the same to blame the innocent…and if you recall the story differently, that’s fine but this is my reflection.  I have spent the day on my 1yr reflecting on the impact of F3 in my life, and thank you all for obliging my longwinded reflection.)

Read the reflection here

Devotion::Enjoy Today

"That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil--this is the gift of God."  Ecclesiastes 3:13

I like it when God stacks things up...

I have been listening to my first audiobook (well, if you count the time in high school when the day before school began my buddies and I thought we could just listen to a book on tape rather than read our summer reading book--who knew it takes longer to listen?) about the fall of the financial market in 2007 and 2008 called Too Big to Fail.

Then this past week, my mom gave me manuscripts from talks delivered by my great-grandfather, who was NOT an ordained pastor, but a lay church planter.  As I devoured his words, I discovered how relevant his messages from the 1950s are for us.  He wrote, "As far back as we can go...there has been one main objective in the mind of man, that is, to possess security."  Later he says, "We respect one who through his own efforts has accomplished success in material things.  Yet such a man would be the first to tell you that regardless of the amount of his worldly goods he cannot be assured of retaining his life, and certainly much of life cannot be obtained with silver and gold."

I have also been reading Ecclesiastes for my personal devotion, which is not much of a pick-me-up.  But I have appreciated how relevant Solomon's depiction of the pursuit of wealth, meaning, power, and women has been in his life.  He has tried to find security through an increase in knowledge, the pursuit of pleasure and the accumulation of material stuff...all of which he declares are meaningless.

Security, he discovers, rests only in the gift of God.  The above verse shows that we can enjoy today--the joy of table fellowship, a good conversation over Starbucks coffee, the value of hard work--because all of this is a gift from God. 

In this season of Advent, which means waiting, we can find security in our fears, doubts, anxieties, concerns through the story of Jesus Christ's birth, death and resurrection.  This story gives meaning, value and purpose to our lives as we seek to live for Him.  While we may be storing up treasures here on earth that will one day fail, His promise is that He will give us real life...and real life abundantly.

Reflection::The Gospel and Social Media

(There are many more profound articles on the use of Social Media and the gospel...this is NOT one...but a mere reflection on God's movement in my life recently and how Social Media has played a role)

Last Sunday, I went before a 200 year old church's session to share with them the mission and vision God has given us for this church plant.  One of the questions that was raised was how I was utilizing social media, and it made me recognize that Social Media plays a vital role in this mission.

I frequently laugh that it took my getting involved with a men's group whose average age was 43 to get hyper involved in Twitter.  Before the Blue Ridge Relay, our team of men from 34-47 sat at Chili's discussing the benefits of Twitter, while high school cheerleaders sat one table away lampooning the foolishness of Twitter.  However, I do believe that Social Media--when used effectively--can be harnessed for the Gospel's use.  

The witness of Jesus Christ is that God put on human flesh to enter into the world of humanity.  He met people on their turf and in their space.  It makes one wonder why God chose a technological infant era to penetrate the world, rather than use the media saturated culture we now live in.  The city of Jerusalem's total population was 40,000 people (less than Panther's Stadium), and Jesus never traveled more than 37 miles (Southpark to Davidson College)...yet He altered the realm of human history.

So how can the Church harness social media now?

I have found it relatively simple

First embrace it:  Become a city on a hill within the virtual world.  Use blogs, webpages, twitter, Facebook, Vine...and keep using them--they grow stale fast.

But then transform its use:  

We must acknowledge and realize that Social Media will allow people to peer into our lives, but it is not enough.  There seems be a cultural understanding on Facebook (and maybe it's just our Southern gentleness in the virtual world) that you can never say, "Oh I saw on Facebook that photo, status update, etc."  It's almost as though the virtual world and the real world should never collide.  

Ultimately though, for real faith to emerge it requires a face-to-face conversation over table fellowship.  This is what God's witness in Jesus Christ proves.  Transformation occurs not through virtual means, but genuine relationships.  No booming voice from heaven, but God's word came through a larynx and the vocal chords of Jesus Christ.

While many folks crank out their friends, web hits and followers, we have to recognize that most of those are booooogggggussss relationships.  If we are allowed to remain just connected on Social Media, no depth will occur.  We should use these tweets, updates, photos, blogs, reflections, as starting points for real conversations.

I have found that as I tweet, blog and Facebook it gives people an avenue to peer into my life and faith walk.  But it isn't until I saddle next to a guy on a run, or at the coffee house when they say, "What you wrote made me think..." that the Gospel transformation gets to take shape.

Therefore, I have recently begun to hear about VINE and started to wonder how my ministry might utilize VINE as a way to open up faith dialogue during the week for our community.  Anyone want to grab a coffee and help me flush that idea out?  

Tweet to me at @wbbarry

Art::Take Note

What are people taking note of in your life?

F3::The Art of the EH

Having traveled throughout the F3 Nation this past month, I have seen the importance of BELONGing to men joining this movement.  And its broader implications for our faith lives and how we make disciples.

Read the article here

A youtube video I saw recently emphasizes the way we make disciples is not by programs but by relationships.

Devotion::In the Light

Hebrews 13:8

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever"

There is a deep pastoral promise in this phrase.  I have a little mantra that if the third person annoys me in one day, it usually is not them it's me.  This helps me reset my eyes, and consider what am I doing.  In the same way, this passage from Hebrews reminds me that if God does not change--and His love for me does not wane and fade, but it "feels" like it does, then perhaps it is me.

Consider this analogy...The sun radiates the same light each day, yet the moon reflects a different amount of that light.  Depending on the perspective, angle, the surface of the moon and other factors (planterium guys correct me at mybad@gmail.com), the moon's visibility changes.  

Likewise for us (the moon in that analogy) things get in the way, obscuring the light radiating from the Son (the sun in that analogy).  Faith however gives us the assurance of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).  We can rest assured that the light of Christ will one day return and shine brightly on our lives, warming our souls, and energizing us for His work!

Where are you in relation to the Son?  Is His presence waxing or waning in your life?  Do you feel like He is totally eclipsed from your life?  How is your life reflecting this light to others?

SCCPP::November Newsletter

Get the latest thoughts on this journey:  Read the entire newsletter here.

"40 Yards Ahead"

     Yesterday morning I joined 9 other men as we sprinted around a track.  For all 8 of my laps, just in front of me ran a man, who by my calculations remained 5 seconds ahead. Unknowingly, he helped to motivate me to stay on course and continue at that pace when I hit difficult parts of the run.
     In a similar way, two weeks ago I was able to visit my hometown of Atlanta to meet with different pastors and churches...

"Devotion: Are you worth imitating?"

From 1 Thessalonians 1:2-12 we catch a glimpse of Paul's missionary style: Relational.

"From A Spouse's Perspective:  Faith Impact"

Following up from last month's post, the most important to me is how our entire family is adapting to the changes this journey has brought.  I would answer...

FULL NEWSLETTER HERE.

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Devotion:: TheAgony

Ever since being tagged with the moniker of AGONY from the Pax of F3, I have seen this word pop up all over the place. Then Lindsay's devotion had this in it by Max Lucado

"I'm not in the business of coincidences"

Hebrews 12:1 

“Let us run the race that is before us and never give up.” 

The word race is from the Greek agon, from which we get the word agony.  The Christian’s race is not a jog but a rather demanding and grueling, sometimes agonizing race.  It takes a massive effort to finish strong.
Likely, you’ve noticed that many don’t? Surely you’ve observed there are many on the side of the trail?  They used to be running.  There was a time when they kept the pace.  But then weariness set in.  They didn’t think the run would be this tough...
By contrast, Jesus’ best work was his final work, and his strongest step was his last step.  Our Master is the classic example of one who endured…He could have quit the race.  But He didn’t.

F3::Determining Your Sphere of Influence

Often we are dictated how we can make an impact, while rarely considering: What's your sphere of influence?

Devotion: Our Hearts are Prone to Wander

"You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear.  Today you are driving me from the Land, and I will be hidden from your presence, I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

Genesis 4:12-13

One of the deepest longings in a man is a restless and wandering heart.  In Genesis, we are told that this is due to our disobedience, self-centeredness and pride that Cain represents.  And to wander is a devastating punishment.

The ancient story of Ulysses shows another man prone to wander once life became too routine:

"Ulysses was now safe at home, after twenty years of warfare and adventure, and at first greatly enjoyed the quiet and peace of his home life; but after a while these tame joys grew wearisome and he decided to renew his wanderings.  He therefore prepared a fleet and sailed “out into the West” whence he never returned…"

And the great song Come Thou Fount has the lines:

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above. 

In the song there is a plea that God would bind our wandering heart to Him...that He would be a stabilizing force in our lives as we tend wander and the leave the very things that we love.

For men, we daily struggle against wandering hearts.  Whether its actively pursuing an affair, or passively observing pornography.  Whether its an actively amounting piles of debt, or passively gambling away our savings.  We long for something different, and are inevitably left exhausted, empty, and chasing the next adventure from "whence we will never return."

The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ took the very punishment Cain described for us so we no longer have to wander like Ulysses out into the black unknown alone.
      1) hidden from your presence:  When Christ cries out on the cross "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me," He is feeling the hiddenness of God
      2)  restless wanderer on the earth:  Christ says that while "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His Head" and so He became the restless wanderer.

       3)  whoever finds me will kill me:  Once they realized who Jesus Christ was claiming to be they crucified Him.

Instead of wandering in search of fulfillment, Christ invites us to follow Him onto His well-trodden path.

Devotion::Remembering the Right Story

"But Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him."  1 Kings 16:25.

Omri gets a sum total of 8 verses to his name, and the above verse is smack in the middle of it.  Interestingly, Omri is well recorded by non-Biblical historians.  He is considered one of the most powerful Kings in all of Israel's history.  So much so that some ancient historians renamed Israel "Omriland."  The Bible, however, sticks him into a long list of kings, ignoring his "successful" reign.

Scripture is more interested in telling his spiritual story than his success story.

Likewise, God is more interested in our spiritual stories than our success rates. Earlier Scripture tells us that "The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." However, most of us spend days, years, lifetimes trying to gain the approval of others.  

When things are all said and done, the Lord is not going to look at our professional resumes, but if Christ reigned in our hearts.  We may build up warehouses full of trophies and medals, but those will all end up rusting in the ground.

Which story do you want to be remembered for?  Is your heart being transformed daily by the story of Jesus that frees us from our performance anxiety?  Are you wanting to be successful by worldly standards or godly?  What does spiritual success look like?

Devotion::False Replacements

One of the biggest criticisms I hear is that the Bible is no longer relevant to our modern life.  It is old, outdated, and from a context devoid of iphones, Twitter, and all the benefits of modern civilization.  However, I find that if I can open it with a prayerful heart God smacks me in the face with something deeply practical to my life.

For my personal devotion, I am reading through 1 Kings--the history of Israel's Kings from 1000ish BC to 500ish BC; a lot of hard to pronounce Hebrew names, and places that no longer exist.  Irrelevant right?

Take for example 1 Kings 12:25-33...The King of Israel, Solomon has just died; the country is dividing behind two emerging leaders Jeroboam and Rehoboam (remember I said they were hard to pronounce).  Rehoboam is Solomon's son, and king to the throne; Jeroboam leads a rebellion and takes the Northern part of Israel with 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel.  This leaves Rehoboam the two tribes and Jerusalem--where God's Temple has been built (bored yet?).  

Without the Temple, Jeroboam was afraid that his people would return to the south, to Jerusalem, and back into the King Rehoboam's community in order to worship God.  Therefore, he decided to make two golden calves (1 Kings 12:28).  Bad move!  One golden calf got the people in Exodus struck with a plague...two was just plain stupid.  

But Jeroboam was being pressured to provide for his people, and so we are told in verse 28: "after seeking advice, the king made two golden calves.  He said to the people, 'it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.  Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'"

Seems irrelevant right?

But as I began to pray, I began to understand the temptation of Jeroboam.  He wanted to lead his people well, he wanted to respond to their demands, he wanted to make things easy for them, he even sought the advice of others.  But he failed to seek the advice of God.

As I desire to plant this church, I understand the temptation to move along quicker than God desires, want to appease people, and quickly launch a service.  But they say the number failure of church plants is a premature public worship service...its like setting up golden calves.  

As you have begun to step out in faith and having a gospel impact in your life, family, in your neighborhood, in your city what "golden calves" are tempting you?  Have the idols of money, power, comfort and success crept back into the center of your daily thoughts?  Is it too difficult to engage God's Word daily?  Are you seeking the advice of others or of God?  

Ultimately, Jeroboam's mistake was that he was more worried about saving his life (v. 27) than serving God. 

Jesus' promise to us is that: "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." Matthew 16:25

Devotion::When Good Things Go Bad

I have been reading 1 Kings and the story of Solomon.  What's interesting is that on one level Solomon's kingdom is considered the peak of Israel's history.  He was the wisest man ever, accumulated wealth, brought together a nation who was fighting, and he built the Temple of God...

Underneath the surface, however, Solomon's kingdom became the low point in Israel's history.  Israel enslaved people to build God's temple, Solomon's wealth was extravagant, he married 700 women and had 300 concubines in strategic alliances with other nations, he worshipped idols, and he built a home that was larger than the temple.

In fact, the building of the Temple--which seemed like a good idea--begins to erode the faith of the Israelites because their religion becomes static.  God is domesticated into a building and has to wait passively for the people to show up.  Like the marketplace, the shipyard, the residential neighborhood, God's dwelling becomes just another dot on the city's landscape.

For many of us, this is what our faith becomes.  We encounter a living God, and in a desire to re-encounter (on our terms) we domesticate God.  We want to house Him in something, so we can return to it on our time-schedule, like a genie in bottle.  Either He dwells in a church building, or a mountain retreat, or a specific type of worship...and He just waits for us there.

Solomon's reign reveals to us the danger of a static religion.  It may build temporary success, but it leaves no lasting impact.  By the very next generation after Solomon, the kingdom of Israel is split in half.

Israel experienced the natural lifecycle described by Jim Collins where innovation leads to success which leads to complacency and ultimately to decline.  When we start to peak underneath the outward appearances of success, I think we will often find that good things go bad as we try to bottle that early success.

Devotion::The Exception

"Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David, EXCEPT that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places."  1 Kings 3:3

King Solomon took over where his father David left off.  He walked the talk.  Yet this passage tells us that even in King Solomon's life there was an "exception."

Reread that passage above, slower this time...

Solomon loved the Lord, BUT he still stumbled to obey.  He followed the lead of others around him (v.2) rather than leading them.

I had an old pastor who would say constantly, "You don't legislate for the exception."  In this case, however, Solomon was not an exception, but deeply human.  Like all of us, he had periods of faithful obedience, and then seasons of forgetful disobedience.

The good news is that God did legislate for the exceptions, because He sent his Son Jesus Christ to earth to demonstrate full faithful obedience to the Father to the point of death--even death on a cross--in order that He would be not be taken up onto a high place, but buried low into the ground.  And after three days when all of his friends felt hopeless, Jesus came back from death's grip, having paid for all of our sins.  

We don't have to make sacrifices, we don't have to burn incense, we don't have to do anything for God's love.  We get to...that's the ultimate exception.

How are you showing your love for the Lord this week?  Are you doing things trying to earn His love?  Where are the exceptions in your faith walk?  How might God be helping you clean them up?

Quote::Working for God?

How do you know when you are working for God? 

You get tired, you burn out, or the opposite – you become very successful and start taking pride in your success. You begin doing what works over and over again, because you have found a formula that works regardless. That is what the Bible calls “walking in the flesh.” In spite of how good it looks, the work will burn up in the end like a pile of wood.

So how do you know if you are dealing in the success of God’s power? You are at risk; you are way over your head; you are not completely sure what you are doing; you are acutely aware of your own weaknesses; you have ventured into a place where if God doesn’t show up, you are a dead duck. Believe it or not, this is what the Bible calls “walking in the spirit.”

--forget how I got this, but it's good

SCCPP: Vision Dessert

Three years ago, I was running my favorite route in SouthPark when I saw a for sale sign in the yard of the perfect home for our exponentially growing family of 1+Triplets.  Fast-forward to this past Sunday night, and I realized that God had orchestrated things perfectly.  Our home laid out ideally to host 29 friends for our Vision Dessert.  The home bustled with conversation as connections and stories were being shared.

After doing ministry for 14 years in Charlotte, it was awesome to see how a variety of people could come together to hear the vision and mission field for the South Charlotte Church Plant.  Our mission is to equip men and women with the Gospel in order that they may live out the Gospel in their places of influence.

The challenge is that in order to accomplish this mission a core group must form; like the Green Egg this church community will be a slow cooker of building Genuine Community, on a Biblical Foundation so that we may Authentically Worship God in order for our faith to have Daily Impact on our lives.  

At the end of Matthew's gospel, Jesus doesn't tell the disciples to go and build churches, but to go and make disciples to invest in people's lives-and help someone else draw one step closer to Jesus.

If you are interested in a future vision gathering or would like to meet for coffee to learn how you can help in this mission please email me at wbbarry at mac dot com.

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The Plan for 2013

Fall:  2 to 3 more vision gatherings

October:  Trailblazer Social Gathering

November:  Trailblazers begin to meet for prayer, bible study and forming genuine community.

December:  Trailblazers gather for Advent Vespers

F3::Called to do Hard

In our pop-psyhcology, media-saturated, comfortable American lives, we tend to do what's easy and fail to embrace the Hard.  Taking one of my favorite sermon illustrations (full sermon here), are you embracing the Hard and living with NoRegrets?  Read how we are called to do Hard

Devotion: Spiritual Parent

"Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel."  Joshua 24:31

I have been reading Joshua this past month, exploring the way in which God raised up a new leader for Israel.  He had a tough job to fill by taking over for Moses, but the above verse reveals that Joshua was "successful" as a leader.  However, 

If you then read Judges (the next book) you discover that the above verse is repeatedly almost identically, and then it says, "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.  Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals."  How good of leader was Joshua?  He accomplished his task, but failed to empower a movement that lasted.

Recently, I heard that you can tell how good of job parenting you did by your grandkids.  In other words, its easier to lead, discipline, coax and encourage those in your immediate care, but if you do not instill values that are passed from generation to generation then they will be forgotten.  As parents we are committing to raise up the next generation in order that they may become leaders (parents, teachers, leaders) themselves.

The same is for our faith.  Christianity is not merely about a personal relationship with Jesus, but about a process of making disciples who make disciples who make disciples.  The people under Joshua's command were the ones who experienced everything the LORD had done; but once that generation passed everything had been forgotten.  

What we discover in Joshua is that the opposite of obedience is not disobedience but forgetfulness.  Our disobedience arises because we have forgotten the One who has done everything for us.

Are you remaining a spiritual adolescent consumed with yourself? Or are you becoming a spiritual parent reproducing faith in other's lives?