Next Steps - Oct 18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it ... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. -- John 1:1-5; 14

As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. -- John 20:21

In the Old Testament, God called Abram to go, to move away from all that he knew. And he went. In so doing, he accepted God's call to him and his promise to be a people of God, a called out and sent people, sent for the sake of others. The story of the Old Testament, among other things, is the story of a people who forgot that they were a sent people and instead drew walls around them and held tightly to their identity as a chosen people. Thousands of years later, God sent Jesus out from the perfect unity of the Trinity, to go to a people, the descendants of Abram (since renamed Abraham) and then to all of humanity, to invite them back into their identity as a people of God, sent for the sake of others.

God is a sending God, and we are a sent people.

• Is being a sent person a new concept to you?
• What are some of the ways that God might be sending you?
• If you think of our Sunday Creekside gatherings as being the gathering of a sent people (as opposed to a gathered people who are then sent) how does that change the way you view what we do on Sundays? How does it change the way you think about what we do on Monday through Saturday?

As a sent people, as a people of God, we are a people of story. And, we will always have stories to tell. Jesus says that even giving somebody a glass of cold water on a hot day is incarnational.

• What is the equivalent in your life, school, family, work, of giving someone a cold glass of water?
• What could you do this week so that you have a story to tell someone else?

God calls -- invites -- you to go, in ways fitting to you.

• What is your "go" story?
• What will your "go" story be tomorrow?
• Who will you share your "go" story with this week?

Peace, Hope and Love
Doug