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wings
Passionate
In my last column, I began a series about the adjectives in the Holston Conference Vision Statement. The first adjective lifted up was "bold." The word describes communities that are willing and eager to face danger or adventure with a sense of confidence and fearlessness. It is evident that we need bold congregations and bold pastors if we are to "reflect the saving grace and redeeming justice of our Lord Jesus Christ."
However, I believe that boldness flows out of passion. We need fervor - a sense of obsession and fanaticism that pushes us to act. It is a commitment to a mission worth dying for.
I have worshipped in congregations from Radford, Va., to Trenton, Ga., and in many, I sense a hunger to respond to Jesus' call to win people to Christ with urgency. The challenge is that most of us either feel or believe that we don't need passion to serve the Lord. Often we serve more out of a sense of duty, and sometimes, as if it pains us to be involved in the life of the church.
Yet, passionate people do ministry out of love and adoration for God - and for the people in their lives who are lost.
If we are to fulfill God's mission of making disciples and realize our vision (which I believe is fueled and empowered by the mission), then we must have what one writer calls "emotional drive."
My question is, "What is it about being a new creation in Christ that gets your motor running?" For me, it is seeing people come to Jesus. In your life, it may be the same thing - or it may be helping a person with low selfesteem come to understand that he or she is the apple of God's eye. Maybe the thing that gets you excited is helping children learn to sing - or leading young people to make commitments to Christ - or giving to a cause that blesses those without resources for the necessities of life. It could be all of these or more, but I challenge you to discover this passion. Release this passion, and direct it to the causes that help fulfill God's desire for your life!
I remember a gospel song from years past. The words were, "Get all excited and tell everybody that Jesus Christ is King. Get all excited and tell everybody that Jesus Christ is King. Jesus Christ is still the King of Kings." This is my prayer, my desire, and I will labor to help us do just that. I want us to get excited, to be filled with fervor, to become obsessive and move forward as the Holy Spirit directs and guides us, so that others may know and experience Jesus.
Be bold. Be passionate. And in the next edition, I will write about joy.
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Bishop James Swanson
Resident Bishop
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