Recently, I finished reading The Leap of Faith, a book by Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost. Towards the beginning of this book, Alan & Michael write,
“To learn, to grow, to mature, requires a journey from where we are now. And it is only after journeys of exploration that we will return to our most basic of beliefs and really know them personally. Without such movement there can be no real learning, development, or maturity. Whatever knowledge we might retain in the safe, self-protective space will end up being merely secondhand, dangerously depersonalized and depersonalizing data—nothing close to the way the Bible sees faith.”
This is one of many great quotes from this book and as I read it over and over again, I cannot help but wholeheartedly agree. The journey that my family and I have been on has definitely led us back to our most basic beliefs and has led us to know them in a more personal way. Each day our faith continues to grow as we are truly being molded into the Christ followers that God has called us all to be.
As we are hopefully being molded into the good news people of God that Jesus designed us to be, we are also seeing, by God’s grace, Waken Ministries molding into the organization that He had in mind.
Seven months ago, we began with a simple desire, “To waken the people of God to the mission of God.” We have wanted to help all Christ followers see their full potential as active agents of God’s Kingdom. We have wanted to empower the “religious nonprofessionals” and help them see their calling as God lays out in His Word, as missionaries in the places in which He has already placed them. This, in itself, has been so rewarding. Just recently, my wife and I received an email from a young lady. In her email she writes,
“I loved talking with you last week. It blessed my heart so much, as well as got me to start having some good conversations with God regarding how I want to spend each day of this one and only life….
I was all excited about getting on another team at church, and I still am, but God stopped me cold and told me that loving my neighbor through her hard time, mentoring her and helping her and loving her without expectation or strings, to get messy with her, and to do all of that while staying connected to Him is what I am truly called to do. That is my calling. That’s what love looks like. As you can probably guess, I’m overwhelmed and humbled and thrilled all at the same time…So, that’s where I am. And, it’s actually our talk last week that helped me get perspective and energy to help stand with my neighbor. Thank you for that.”
We are so thankful that God is allowing us to play a part in his mission and we pray that He would grant us the grace to be a part of more and more stories like this.
While we have taken every opportunity to waken the individual, and will continue to do so, we also want to disciple and train them to live as missionaries, empower them, network them together, and release them to be the good news people of God in the places God has already placed them.
To help us with this process, we have been blessed with an opportunity to partner with FORGE Mission Training Network, an international organization, to bring this type of missionary training to the North Texas Area.
Forge, founded by Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost, seeks to be a midwife to the missional church, helping give birth to the missional church anywhere it is appearing. Forge brings together denominations, seminaries and faith communities of all kinds as it trains people to live on mission, lead missional communities and create missional movements. We are very excited about this partnership; and more specifically, we are excited to launch FORGE DALLAS in partnership with Waken Ministries early this fall. To learn more about Forge Dallas I would invite you to visit www.forgedallas.org.
We are so blessed by God’s provision in helping us become the educating, paradigm shifting, empowering and releasing, and training organization that He had in mind.
Also, we are so blessed by your ongoing support and prayers. Without your partnership, we would not be where we are. Thank you! We ask for your continued prayers for God's wisdom, grace, and leading in the ministry in which He has blessed us. Please also be in prayer for financial support so that we may continue the ongoing work of Waken Ministries.
Finally and more specifically, we are having a “Coffee and Dessert” Informational this Saturday. If you are able, we would love for you to be apart. Laura and I will take time to share stories of what God has been doing in & through Waken Ministries, as well as provide more details about the newly established Forge Dallas Hub and its Residency Program starting this September.
We look forward to visiting with each of you in the near future.