God’s Love is UNLIMITED / God’s potential for Collisions are UNLIMITED
As a group of 150 children/family workers passionate about children gathered together in New Zealand @ the Unlimited conference in March 2014, we brainstormed together what it might look like to “Collide” with each other across the ages.
Some felt this was such a difficult task and yet as we brainstormed together the wall began to fill with peoples dreams and desire to see what this might look like. Together we shared what we ARE doing and what we would love to SEE possible.
When something seems impossible, it is best to start with the reminder that Jesus is the centre of it all and it is HIM that desires to see this happen with His people more than ever. So, if you are stuck, first ask yourself what ways can we collide with Jesus? Listen to others are they share which brings out some key elements to transformation when we collide with Jesus.
When we are taken out of our comfort zone
When I surrendered to HIM
When I am with others and having a corporate experience of Worship
When failings and Disappointments happen
When things happen beyond my control
When I am challenged by different ages
When I immerse myself. In nature
When my environment is changed, even temporarily
When I am able to spend time with HIM in a safe place
When I sense God speaking directly to me
When I have a teachable heart
When I learn to listen and be still
When I choose to serve others
Ever get the feeling that if we lived with even half of these principals in our life that the rest would just happen? Sometimes we complicate things when we are asked to live for HIM and with HIM. Love God and love others.
When I asked the group to think about ways we can Collide with our families. The bah’ith (bah'-yith) (the household of faith) that we live within this is what they said was valuable and had brought transformation in theirs and other lives.
Here are some main themes that emerged:
Times to share God’s word together
Meal times together
Quality time
Holidays
Worshiping all together on a Sunday
Family traditions
Serving Together
Create a safe place for all members of the family
You might feel overwhelmed with where to start. I say just start somewhere and be intentional. See what happens.
I then asked the group to think about how we are the Faith Community (Mishpawkhaw) can collide together across the ages in ways that would be transformational for all.
These were the themes that came out of that brainstorm:
Connect days / Events
Talk to different ministries in the church and be open to working together.
Be a part of existing Ministries that minister together across the ages.
Combined family worship experiences
Serving together across the ages
It is overwhelming obvious by this exercise that we all want the same things. To worship God, serve Him and do life together.
Our challenge, as leaders is to create the environments where this can happen and sit back and see what God does. And as we do, we will shine the light of Jesus’ love to those who do not know HIM yet. If we live together with acceptance, forgiveness and love, they will know we are Christians by our love.
The final question I asked people was how we can create environments where we can collide with those who don’t know Christ yet. Here are some things that group came up with together when we collided our thoughts, dreams and desires.
Showing love:
Live the love
This last question was by far the most challenging for the group and therefore had the least amount of input. But, I still think we could spend most of our time and energy on the first three questions and answers and it would be surprising the effect that would have on anyone we came into contact with.
You simply be cannot be TRANSFORMED and functioning here on earth in HIS IMAGE and in COMMUNITY and not have that effect EVERYONE you met and have influence in this world. The challenge is that life needs to be lived OUTSIDE the physical church walls, we need to be careful that we are not living life to the full in ISOLATION of the community we live in.
Here is where I feel the problem has developed that our church buildings and our Sunday CENTRIC faith has been the KEY factor in ISOLATING us from shining our light in the world that needs to know Christ’s love. But first, lets start with you and Jesus…..and from there, you can see what environment you can create, just take ONE step forward.