On Sunday, we released the first episode of our new podcast, “For the Journey,” into the world. We might have begun with a high-profile conversation or an insightful discussion of a current hot topic, but we decided to take a different tack.
We decided to share what we (and many others) believe to be the deepest movement of the Christian life, a dynamic dance that encompasses and integrates our personal lives with God and our external lives in the world. It also happens to be our motto: “Spiritual Formation for Kingdom Action.”
Bill’s sermon from 2015 is expansive and wide-ranging– from the vaunted halls of power in D.C. to the slums of Calcutta, from the pages of Scripture to the vivid testimony of a modern-day martyr. What holds it all together is the transformational insight that “our work for God in the world should always be preceded by and never separated from the process of growing more and more like Jesus.”
Simply put, the Christian call to become “little Christs,” (as C.S. Lewis puts it), was never meant solely for our own benefit– self-actualization, comfort, “fire insurance,” etc. Our inner transformation was always meant to flow outwards into our beautiful but deeply broken world.
And on the flip side, we simply cannot bear the weight of this deeply broken world on our own strength for very long, nor will we accomplish the healing and redemption we work for, without the presence of God in us working through us. Jesus’ own life models this deep dynamic perfectly, and I invite you to keep it in mind the next time you read through the Gospels.
I do hope you’ll give “For the Journey” a listen wherever you get your podcasts, and please share it with others if you feel blessed by it. But whether you listen or not, I will leave you with a few questions to reflect on with God this week:
What does my life with God look like these days?
How is that different from past seasons of my life?
Are there any invitations from God in what I’ve just noticed?
How does my life with God flow into how I engage the world around me?
Is there an area of brokenness in my sphere of influence where God might be inviting me to engage in his power?
