Does life ever come at you in such a way that you feel like you need to stop for a moment to just catch your breath? I feel that way from time to time, though honestly, opportunities for breath-catching can be all too elusive. So instead of having interludes of tranquility, we leap from activity to activity on the adrenaline rush of the latest challenge, or perhaps from fear that we will drop off the pace if our legs cease their incessant churning.
Truthfully, I like the rush of the latest challenge and the anticipation of the next opportunity. Each one affords us the chance for progress and growth. Each one can leave us ahead of where we began. In the year now past, there were many such opportunities. Some of those presented themselves to us as individuals and others as a church. By God’s grace, we sought to make the most of them.
As the year unfolded, we pursued priorities targeted at fulfilling our desire to reach out with the gospel close to home and around the world. We also focused on growing people in their faith and great progress was made among children, youth and adults through Sunday school, small groups, ABF's and more. Then, this past fall, we turned our attention to going deeper as a congregation as hundreds and hundreds of people chose to go All In with the mission of God in their lives and in our fellowship. It was a remarkable time to be a part of Pathway Church and I felt privileged to have a vantage point from which to see lives being transformed. You greatly encouraged me through that time.
I am confident that 2016 will hold equally transformational experiences. They will include cross-cultural mission trips in the beginning of the year, adventures for children and youth in the middle of the year, outreach impact at the end of the year and much, much, much more in-between. I look forward to seeing how the Lord will lead us all along the way. We are committed to finding and following that leading, and our elders are praying together weekly to hear His voice for our church body.
Of course, one of the keys to hearing from God is finding interludes of tranquility to zero in on His sometimes “still small voice.” As this New Year begins, I’m doing just that and invite you to join me. Where is it He wants you to go and what is it He wants you to do? Is it more of the same? I don’t think so. Even following an All In sort of year where our fellowship took leaps forward, there is always room for more growth and progress in the faith. If we’re going to experience it, we’re going to have to start by getting quiet in God’s presence. That’s when we’ll hear Him loud and clear.