The church exists to embrace God and others. Jesus said it simply enough: “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Embrace is the word I use to capture the active nature of love. Love is not just a disposition or a sentiment, it requires action – it required embrace.

Explore capture the discipleship aspect, but it also reminds us that we are ultimately not responsible for our own gifts or growth – God is. We are exploring God’s terrain, we are not making the terrain ourselves. Our job is to follow the Spirit’s leading and explore the contours of grace. We don’t grow by passively acquiring new information, knowledge or skills. We grow as we put our knowledge, gifts and experiences in action for the sake of God’s kingdom. As we grow in faith and obedience, we learn to be more of what God created us to be by exploring the kingdom God is unfolding before us.

Extend is another action word, and it relates to the expansion of God’s kingdom on earth. Once again, God is the one bringing his kingdom, but he has asked his church to make a couple of important contributions. First, off we are the container for the Gospel. Of all the organizations on the earth, only the church has been charged with the task of proclaiming the good news about Jesus. The primary means by which we participate in God’s kingdom coming – is through gospel proclamation. That said, the gospel was never intended to be proclaimed without also being lived. As such, we also extend God’s kingdom when we extend peace, justice and mercy where there was none. The fact is, God has asked us to help with his kingdom expansion – so we extend the boundaries of God’s kingdom by extending God’s love to others in word and deed.

So, that’s what E3 is all about. Simple, right? The trick is doing it . We just don’t need any more Christians who know all the right answers but don’t do any of the right things. We need more Christ-followers who are willing to step out and give it a try. So, go on . . . try it: you just might find that God’s Kingdom is closer than you think. In fact, it’s at hand.

As always, we’re willing to take this retreat on the road for any church or Christian group that would like to participate. We’re also working on a youth version as well. Check back frequently for new developments.

As you’ve no doubt noticed, this site has been devoid of content for some time now. That’s going to be changing soon, but not only will there be new content – the whole site is going to be revised.

The new site is going to be dedicated to E3 ministries, a non-profit church consulting and spiritual development firm specializing in Spiritual Retreats, Church Assessment and Life Coaching. There will be plenty of content that you’ll find helpful in your daily lives, but the articles will be more focused than before. In broad terms, the site will be organized around a Trinitarian Spirituality: Encounter with Father; Equipped by the Son; Engaged by the Spirit. 3 E’s, hence the name, E3.

As a result of all the changes, the site may be down for a bit, but keep an eye open for its return.

Grace,

Stan

For example, without love, honoring one’s parent may lead to the facilitation of a destructive behavior for which that parent will one day give account to God. Love does not allow for this. With love as the rule, honoring one’s parent may require the correction of a character flaw which is anything but honorable. Love doesn’t just seek to please, it seeks what is best for the other.

Love redefines all of the laws and breathes life into what otherwise brings only death.

Through the administration of grace, we are built into a spiritual house which through the practice of hospitality becomes a blessing to God.

Perhaps I should have said, “I’ve witnessed some amazing church growth“. You see it’s the relational connection, the excitement that comes from accomplishing a large task, and the satisfaction of creating something that truly belongs to no one, yet belongs to everyone at the same time that stirs my heart. A building is just a building, and a cafe is just a cafe, but relationships are where life occurs. Churches are not in the business of building buildings, they’re in the business of building (or more aptly, growing) relationships. And that is exactly what I’ve seen happen over the past several weeks.

The experience has left me nearly bursting with pride not at what the Pathways community can do, but with whom the Pathways community is becoming. I’ve seen real church growth, and I’m anxious to see how this little step of faithfulness will translate in to greater leaps of faith.

For many people, today is so tragically flawed that tomorrow has no meaning. And when tomorrow dies, so dies hope and the ability to create a new today. Hope is rooted in the beyond – it lives in a time and space other than our own, but it invades our present and infuses it with life, possibility, beauty. But for those who cannot see beyond the tragedy of today, there can be no hope.

Bringing God’s future to bear in our present is the task of the Church. God’s future cannot be restricted to the heavenly realm. To do so robs both the future and the present of their meaning. Instead, God’s future must be fully grasped in our present, and allowed to inform, infuse and enliven our today.

The marriage of present and future seems to be most often born in the presence of poverty and affliction. As such, the American Church has much to learn from her foreign counterparts. Equally so, the white-Church in America has much to learn from our African-American Church sister. Born out of the oppression of slavery and fired in the struggle for freedom and civil rights, our African-American brothers and sister have more often found God’s future a relevant hope in their present affliction. We should listen and learn from their example. If we are humble, and willing to listen, we will hear a spiritual of hope, and we will see beauty and creativity rather than despair. We will see a people for whom God’s future is not an escapist retreat, but a creative and beautiful in-breaking of meaning that literally re-creates today. God’s future breaking into our present and creating a beautiful, hope-filled day. That is Kingdom Come, and that should be our song.