Faith

Tonight I had the privilege of listening to a friend of mine give message at a local ministry event. His message was all about "FAITH". As part of the faith message, he used a baseball analogy that really caused me to stop and think for a moment. The analogy went something like this,"in baseball, there a several ways to strike out at bat" and he began to describe the possibilities, but the meat of the story surrounded the fact that worst way in the game to strike out is to let the pitcher throw the strikes right down pike, over the plate, and into the catcher's glove, without even taking a swing at the pitch. He used this image to talk about how important faith is to our calling, and really then boiled it down to risk taking. In order to hit the ball, you have to take a swing. You have to risk missing the ball and getting a strike, in order to have success at making contact with the ball. Here is where my mind starting processing things at a different level. As we swing our proverbial bat here this evening, let's look a couple of things:
1. It's by faith that we are playing in the game!
--I believe that God has a plan for people who do not have an honest relationship with Him right here in Belmont County, and I am being faithful to that vision that has been placed in front of us. Gotta have faith to step out of our comfort zone for the unchurched. "Gimme the Ball"

2. It's by faith that we swing the bat!
--I believe that all people need the saving Grace of Jesus and for that reason, I don't want any pitches to get by me without taking a risk to hit them. The stakes are too high! There are too many unchurched people that are closing there minds to Jesus because all the freakin strings we attach with religion. I am not saying take reckless swings at the ball, but we have to meet people where they are and on terms that they are familiar with.

But, as you ponder these images in your mind, let's give this faith thing some additional substance. We have the all-mighty God on our side! With 100% unconditional faith in our God, total trust that His ways are the Best ways, incomparable surrender to His desires instead of ours, and the confidence that would go along with these attributes, WE WILL hit home runs!!!! The first leap of faith is one of the hardest, but with God on our side, we can do the impossible!!

If you been at bat a few times and watched many pitches go by without a swing, or if where you are at right now, you feel the swing and misses are getting the best of you, we want to dream about "home runs" and "wins" with you! We want to desperately share Jesus with our community in a relevant way. We want to be a church for people who do not like church. We want a place of life change by and thru Jesus!! God wants us to trust in Him, with all of Heart, mind and strength--Though FAITH in HIM, he wants us to have the confidence to step up to the plate, have the riskiness to swing the bat, and the Heart and drive to knock it OUT-of-the-BALLPARK in HIS name!!

One Church...One Vision:the unchurched