Kelani’s Groove

With a full 48 hours between myself and Origins, I have not yet begun to come down. I still feel the warmth of the embrace of the Mosaic community wrapped around my heart. Thanks to all the new friends I encountered on the way, even those I did not get to meet. Too bad a previous engagement kept me from staying for Ethos.

As I walked across the campus on Sunday night (pre-Origins) with my fellow-traveler on this journey, MM, trying to find our room (thanks N and SC), I made the pleading comment, “I have no idea why I am here”. I really didn’t - I just knew I had to be there. God, once again, has been doing wild and crazy things in my life; drawing me into a dangerous, new relationship with him. I wasn’t frustrated, just amazed that I was off again, on a journey to parts unknown. It had a Gen 12:1 feel to it.

One concrete call on my heart, as I arrived in Pasadena, was the dream of a missional church “implant” from the midst of the fairly progressive (relatively), PCUSA church I attend. I love the church and feel God there, but I feel him urging us to so much more. I was not sent by them. To my knowledge, they did not even know I was going, but there I was.

Beyond that, I am involved in a few really cool projects (more on those later), but I surely did not think of myself as a church planter. Just a Christ follower with a desire to be a foot-soldier in the battle. In early April, I spent a Saturday at the home of a new mentor and friend in LA. I took a big bite of the “red pill”, and feel like I’ve been plunging down the “rabbit hole” ever since.

The two days of Origins felt like a new birth for me. A new call to community, to service to stewardship, to faithfulness, to creativity, to risk, to passion, to an apostolic ethos, to missional life! The vision shared by Mosaic and IMN bring hope and inspiration, and challenge. Somewhere out there is a path, with ground patiently awaiting my footprints. It will include the implant project, but my heart already knows that is just the beginning.

Meanwhile, my heart is fixed anew on him, and whatever I have to offer, pledged more firmly to his service.

PS: thanks MM, it would not have been the same with out you. JD and AM, I am so pumped.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2006 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.