A Ministry Refresh and a Season of Reflection
Over the past 18 months, we have been working to refresh our ministry’s signature offering – The Journey process. We love how it has turned out. It has now been about three weeks since the refreshing, rewriting, and formatting have all stopped, and The Journey Stage 3: A Shared Life is off to the printer. Cheers!
Since then, I have begun reflecting on what we have been learning along the way as we worked on this project. And perhaps, because the timing of this reflecting coincides with the weeks of Advent and the anticipation of Christmas, my initial thoughts have mostly landed on this theme—embracing God with us, Immanuel, is at the center of our ongoing, lifelong formation in Christ as individuals and communities.
A compelling way to look at God’s character and mission is to notice a defining thread woven through the entire biblical Story–God desires to be with his people. From the garden of Eden to the Tabernacle and the Temple to the Incarnation of Jesus to the new heavens and new earth, the Triune God seeks to dwell among his people (e.g., Gen 2-3; Ex. 29:45-46; Lev. 26:11-12; 2 Chr. 6:18; Ps. 90:1; John 1:14, Rev 21:1-5).
“Immanuel is not just a Christmas story.”
“Immanuel is not just a Christmas story,” writes biblical scholar John Walton. Over and again, God’s companioning way weaves its way through the twists and turns and troubles of his people.
And this God-with-us theme climaxes with the stunning story of Jesus. John begins his gospel,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him….
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-3, 14)
“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” is the way The Message translates it. The Incarnation. In his recent blog, “Home for Christmas,” Keith Anderson expressed it this way,
That eternal Word left the safety of that perfect home,
stepping into our fragile world.
He took on human hands and a human heartbeat.
He moved into our neighborhood.
He made this aching world His home….That is the wonder of Christmas.
Christian Faith Rooted in the Person of Jesus
The Triune God’s clearest speech to fallen humanity is a Living Word, a person (Hebrews 4:12-16). What is it that God has to say to us centrally? It is Jesus.
I suppose I have been struck, over and again, throughout this Journey Refresh Project that our Christian faith is not fundamentally a set of principles or beliefs, plans or programs, virtues or behaviors, but Jesus himself and “all the ways he wants to offer himself to us and through us to the world” (Emily P. Freeman).
Knowing and serving God always implies an ongoing fellowship with Jesus by his Spirit. Come to me. Abide in me. We must learn to involve ourselves “face to face,” so to speak, with the one who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
Regardless of my level of mental distraction or inner resistance, the Spirit patiently presses in and graciously invites me, like Jesus’ unlikely invitation that day in Jericho to the unlikeable tax collector Zacchaeus, to “hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19). Am I open to hearing such an invitation amidst the twists and turns and troubles of my everyday, ordinary life?
Embracing God-With-Us in Our Ordinary Days
At the conclusion of her excellent Christianity Today essay “The Incarnation is the Rule, Not the Exception,” Julie Canlis writes, “Christ’s work was then and is now the same: to sanctify this ordinary life and make it a place of communion once again.” A place of communion, a place of friendship, a place of keeping company with the God who seeks to keep company with us. Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
Wherever you find yourself this Christmas season, find some space to turn your heart and your mind toward God. And may you be open to being surprised, to discovering anew, to receiving and embracing yet again the wonder of God’s relentless desire to dwell with his people, with you. Immanuel.
Where do you need to experience “God with us” in your life today? How might Jesus want to offer his life to you and through you to the world?
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Robert Loane serves as President of VantagePoint3 Ministries, seeking to both learn and encourage a more relational way of life and ministry. He is co-author of Deep Mentoring: Guiding Others on Their Leadership Journey (IVP, 2012) and A Mentoring Guide: Christ. Conversation. Companionship (VP3, 2019). At the core of his life and work, Rob loves helping people find ways to have better conversations about the things that matter most in their lives.