Recently my pastor used the New Year to encourage us to get out of our comfortable, complacent Christianity and be active and actually keep Christ's commandments (Matthew 28:19-20 and Luke 18:22).  He also quoted a book by David Platt entitled Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.  The author here challenges us to throw off the trappings and accoutrements of a worldly society and actually examine our lives and our church through the literal interpretation of Scripture.  This means, if Christ says "go", you don't sit there for weeks "praying" about it, give a generous offering every other month, or throw some money at another missionary:  you GO and do what Christ has put on your heart and commanded of you.  (Sorry for the forcefulness, but I know it's hard to get up and go without a swift kick in the pants!)

Anyway, this is how the past couple of weeks have struck me.  I had previously been tinkering with an idea for a mission that would give me the opportunity to reach out to the hopeless, but I hadn't given it any serious thought to complete it.  So after praying, I have made it my mission to present the love of Christ in homeless shelters and recovery groups in an entertaining and engaging manner: rock 'n roll!  I am bringing together a band of sorts to play artfully-crafted Christian music to, hopefully, break the hearts of the broken and lead them to the only real peace and salvation: Jesus Christ!  (I hope to tie in donations and an evangelistic presentation of some sort as well).  I don't know how exactly it is going to work, if it will be successful, or whether I can even get it off the ground, but I am following the still, small voice and heeding His will for me.

I know that many of you are already knee-deep in some form of ministry or another already, but I hope that this will encourage you to share your faith in a real, tangible way and see what Christ has in store for you.  I guarantee that it will be hard, that you won't want to do it at times, and that the enemy will throw everything he has at you to get you to stop.  I also guarantee that you CAN succeed (whether you think you have or not), that Christ WILL work through you for the good of His kingdom, and that you will be blessed (even if it isn't what you expect).

I hope this has inspired you to do something great for God, no matter how big or small it is.  Good luck!

by Dustin Rhodes.  Dustin previously served as summer staff in 2010 and continues to assist in recreation at PVBCC.