I’ve been pondering the journey of Abraham and Sarah quite a bit recently.
God made some BIG promises to them... land, descendants, and that all people of the earth would be blessed through them... but Abraham and Sarah had to wait a long, long time to get to see the hope of these promises being fulfilled. But still... they hoped. They waited. They lived life. They messed up. They hoped some more. They took God’s Promise into their own hands, and they messed up some more. They waited. They hoped. And finally... they saw God “bust out” and work in some new and inexplicable ways, tasting just the firstfruits of God’s fulfilled promises.
The idea of The Loop was birthed in 2007, out of (what we believe are) promises of God. The first group met in 2008. We continue, in 2012, to hope. We continue to have faith. We continue to live life. We continue to share the good news of Jesus with whoever comes our way. We continue to disciple new believers. We are working hard to not take the promises of God into our own hands, and yet we sometimes mess up. And we still wait for the day when we see God “bust out” into working in a new way.
We have begun to find other journeyers who are traveling the same road... talk of “missional communities” is bubbling up in Christian circles, giving structure and mentors to our ideas. And that gives both hope and direction on our journey.
We continue to, as a group, ask questions about how God can use our talents and gifts to build His Kingdom (no matter how small we are). Out of this, Art & Soul has been birthed... a group of people who are using artistic skills to make & sell products to raise money to dig a well in Malawi (with Clear Blue). Helping God’s Kingdom in perhaps not such a small way.
We continue to learn to love one another, to laugh and cry together, to be brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers to one another. We continue to work through what it means to live a life filled with the truth and freedom and love of Jesus, leaving lies and bondage in the past.
And we continue to remind ourselves that our road is not unique, but has been paved before us:
“By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place
that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going.
By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents...
By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time,
because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said...
How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and
accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.” -From Hebrews 11 (The Message)
From a transient journeyer in this world -
Pam Braman, Pastor / Church Planter
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