Quick Check In

It's nearly midnight on day two of Harvest University and my mind is reeling. I can't turn it off. There are nine of us here from our core team and between the nine of us, we are attending six different tracks. My track was the only one that gave a three-ring binder at the first workshop and I knew I was in trouble. Two hundred pages later, I wonder why I can't sleep!

Ten years ago a few men had a dream to plant ten churches in ten years. This was right around the time Dave and I met James MacDonald, and I thought it was a pretty lofty dream. Ten years later I think they hit 48 or 49 plants! Pretty amazing!

By noon tomorrow, when they send us home, we will have sat in five workshops in our respective tracks and had three main sessions of worship and teaching with the other 1,000 church workers here. The conference is well organized, well run, and the enthusiasm is spilling over into our evenings and dreams. The worship is intoxicating, probably because the sanctuary is filled with committed disciple-makers. As we read from Revelation, I had a tiny glimpse of heaven, as the people shouted, "Worthy is the Lamb to receive power and glory and dominion and honor and praise!"

Committed disciple-makers.

That's why we plant. Christ said to go and make disciples, and the answer to that call is to plant churches. Churches who seek out the lost and bring them the good news of the gospel. And then they don't walk away, but they draw in and walk alongside and build up and water and encourge and prune and tend. And reproduce.

Disciple-makers.

(Sigh)

It's a lot of work, but there is no higher calling. And no, I am not referring to the pastorate. I am referring to the high calling of the believer. This is OUR calling - each and every one of us. As followers of Christ, we are called to reproduce ourselves! That's what bearing fruit means. We bear Christ's identity, and are called to make more disciples. So I am not making more Kristens but more Disciples of Jesus. Mmmm...I love this!

Needless to say, I've got a lot on my mind. I'm typing this from my i-phone so I can't really proof read - so forgive my typos and rambling. I just wanted you to know that I am alive and I've been inspired. Not ready to come home yet, but then again there is much work to do...

Hope you are all well...