Uncharted Territory

O Lord, blessed is the man who trusts in you. (Psalm 84:12)

As I was reading through Acts recently for the Immerse Bible reading, the book Canoeing the Mountains came to mind. The Leadership and Vitality teams have been reading about the experience of Lewis and Clark when they realized they couldn’t paddle a canoe over what we now know as the Rocky Mountains.

I was struck by the similarity of the disciples’ mission into all the world—they were the first to experience Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory (the subtitle of the book). Everything was uncharted for them! Yet their faith and trust enabled them to stay true to the mission.

They experienced new insights from God that reversed fundamental observances of their faith—certainly not the journey they expected to travel. Peter had a vision from God that cancelled the command he had followed his entire life to keep himself separate from the Gentiles. In obedience and trust, Peter entered into community with the Gentiles and invited them into the kingdom of God. Paul returned to the elders in Jerusalem to discuss and seek agreement on not requiring circumcision for Gentiles, another unexpected mountain to scale.

But we can learn from their strategies. When Paul was called to leave his newly formed churches to continue his mission, he “appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust” (Acts 14:23 NIV). Armed with their personal knowledge of Jesus, his teaching, prayer, the Holy Spirit, and clearly revealed instructions from God, the disciples’ faith and trust gave them the power to keep moving through the uncharted territory of their assigned mission.

I am thankful for what God is already doing to prepare Creekside for our journey—our past experience with Veritas, the EPIC workshop, lessons from Canoeing the Mountains, Pastor Mark’s leadership. I am encouraged that faith and trust in God’s abundant provision will empower us and give us new insights as we pray and work through our current needs and seek his will for our mission.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV)

Luanne’s email address is in the directory.