"On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus went along the border between Samaria and Galilee.  As he was going into a village, ten men with leprosy came toward him.  They stood at a distance and shouted, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’  Jesus looked at them and said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’  On their way they were healed” (Luke 17.11-14 tniv).

“The Spirit is calling the church on a journey outside of itself and its internal focus,” says missional church leader, Alan Roxburgh.   Roxburgh goes on to give greater detail about this “journey.”  He says that “God is not interested in getting more and more people into the institution of the church.  Instead the church is to be God’s hands and feet in accomplishing God’s mission.”

This is the great journey that is amazing, exasperating, frustrating, and I would dare say, even sometimes enraging us as Falls Community Church and almost every other congregation.  Maybe we thought we were just entitled to sit back and take things easy.  Most Christian congregations in this area have traditions that go back many decades (some even a few centuries).  We ourselves have history in Sheboygan County back to 1838!

But this is 2010 and apparently God is asking us to be pioneers just as God empowered our ancestors in faith.  The Spirit of God is moving us today into that path which Jesus himself chose in this world.  It is that journey to be “God’s hands and feet” as we move through life. 

As we follow Jesus on his way of healing this world, we may just discover, as those with leprosy did so long ago, that we ourselves are healed on the journey.

On the Way with you,

Pastor Marty