August 28, 2009

Should I Believe in Jesus?

Posted by Garry

I am really honored to be joining the Summit staff. My deepest desire is that I will serve Christ well in helping move people toward the kind of community God intended from the beginning.

One of my absolute favorite scriptures is the exchange between Jesus and John the Baptist in Luke 7. John is about to be put to death for aligning himself with Jesus.

John sent word back to Jesus saying, “Are you the one who has come, or should we expect someone else?”

This is the same John who baptized Jesus and heard the voice of God say, “This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.” This is the same John who proclaimed that someone greater would be coming than John himself, and pointed to Jesus.

This is the same John asking, essentially, “Are you the one I worship?”

Jesus answers, “Go back and tell John the blind receive sight, the lame walk, and the good news is preached to the poor." Jesus is saying that compassion, love, justice, and mercy can be seen.

God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus answers John’s question by pointing to this tangible display of God’s intention for creation—the blind seeing, the lame walking, the good news spreading—mercy lived out in human community.

This is my vision for Summit and the multi-site campus (as it is my vision for the Church as a whole)—that when someone asks us, “Should I believe in Jesus,” our answers will be the same. We will be able to point to the tangible display of God’s intentions. Displays that we, the hands and feet of Christ, are working and praying and sweating to bring about—His kingdom of compassion, love, justice, and mercy, lived out in our human community.

August 25, 2009

What I Love

Posted by Garry

I love my family. My family will always be my primary ministry. They are the greatest blessing God could ever entrust to me and I would be foolish to allow myself to put anything above that responsibility. It is a deep desire of mine that the Christian community would continue to strive for wholeness and health in their families.

When we pour into our families, when we sacrificially love each other, when we serve each other well, when we persevere through hardship, when we affirm each other’s value, and when we take the truth of this love into the world and give it freely to those in need, it is good and the world takes notice.

I love to create. I have dabbled in digital art and photography and really enjoy that creative outlet. I would say, at times, my voice can be heard more clearly in my art than in my speech.

I love to be outdoors. Anything, particularly sports. Running, playing basketball (I’m from Indiana, come on), tennis, playing with my kids, biking, going to the beach, kayaking (I’m pretty new at it, but really enjoy it). There is something about pushing myself physically that connects me to the way I need to live throughout all facets of my life.

I don’t think it was any coincidence that Paul so often connects physical competition, in particular running, to our spiritual journey. Training, pushing on, and finishing strong are all vital to becoming the people God intended for us to be. I think sports offer me a momentary, tangible glimpse into how I need to live my life.

I‘ve also been told, mainly by former youth group kids, that I am a bit of a nerd. I think to a teenager that equates to my love of knowledge. Whoever said that knowledge is power was smart. They probably became smart by gaining knowledge, but I digress.

I love pursuing knowledge, especially, knowledge that is used as a catalyst for creative change to the whole world. Jesus was a revolutionary in no small part because he found creative ways to solve problems. There was always a new way to react, to solve problems, to relate to people, to offer hope, to reveal who God is to the people with which he came in contact. This came out of a deep knowledge of God’s intention for his creation. This is why obtaining knowledge is so important to me, because it is through knowledge that ‘the way’ can be revealed. So I read. I write. I discuss. I do these things with the hope that increasing my knowledge of Jesus will, in turn, increase His likeness in me.