This MONTH's UNofficial Book Club Book is..

Restless by Jennie Allen

UnOfficial BookClub: Week 4 FINDING YOUR TRIBE

PHASE 4: Finding Your Tribes
(I am trying to keep this general and not so personal or specific to my life so bare with me!)

This chapter is all about following where God is leading you even if you can't see what is ahead! Like at all.

Jen talks about how leaving SOMETHING for ...NOTHING (yet) wont make sense to you or to anyone else...

In her case, they left their church jobs on complete faith that God was going to show up. There was no other job lined up, no plans, just trust.

She goes on to write about how God showed up-BIG by answering some of their big WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY questions..

But what I see as the biggest talk point here is the idea of trusting God with EVERYTHING. We tell the kids that Faith is believing in what you CAN'T see because of what you CAN.

What we can see is the passion that God has set on fire in our hearts for _______________________(fill in the blank here-nobody's will be the same)

I am reminded of a season in my life when I had to make a difficult decision. My biggest fear was losing my friends-my community, if I decided to go...Without sounding too much like a Steven Curtis Chapman song-God was asking me to abandon it all ..for the sake of His call.

I took that step in faith... and it turned out brutally painful. Relationships were broken (and remain so to this day)
After I left my position, I listened to an audiobook by Dr. Henry Cloud called NECESSARY ENDINGS... I was struggling and second guessing my decision and heartbroken over the loss of my closest friends.

Years later, I can look back on that time and see how right Dr. Cloud was.
(Below is a 3 min clip of his talk about NECESSARY ENDINGS)

I hope that it encourages you and I hope that you will share your stories with us on those times when you took a major risk and God showed up!

Interrupted: PHASE ONE

"I couldn't have been more floored if I'd come home to find Jesus Himself making salsa in my kitchen."

-Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted (page 39)

Week 1 of The Leslie Galema Unofficial Book Club 


Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker

Have you ever felt God ask you to do something that you felt like you were already doing?

In Phase One of this book Jen (and her husband, Brandon) write about her experience with God impressing on her heart to "feed his sheep."

We have all be there.

Those moments when we feel like there is more to what we are doing...Sometimes we get busy doing the WHAT we do and forget WHY we do it.

Can I get an amen?

Amen!

In her case, it was the church and how they were doing it.

I love what she writes on page 30:

"..I basically considered the church campus-Sunday morning the entry level-as the location and means to transform the average seeker into a believer.  In other words, if you need something spiritual, some help, some guidance, understanding, then come to us. We'll build it, and you come. Once you do, we will pour out our lives attempting to disciple you and build spiritual health into your life. My husband Brandon and I spend every waking moment with Christians.

We were servants of the weekend attendees."

Well dang.

She recalls praying for God to raise up in her a Holy Passion thinking that she meant "God, give me happy feelings" and not for an intervention that would require anything of her!

She felt drawn to John 21 when Peter declared his love for Jesus three times after His resurrection.

Like Peter, Jen was stunned by what Jesus was asking her.  Hadn't she been pouring herself into "Jesusy" things at church?  Hadn't she been planning small group discussions, sermons, and writing books about God's love?

Jen, if you love me, feed my sheep. (John 21:17)

It was then she realized what Jesus meant.  She saw her reflection in Peter: devoted but selfish, committed but misguided.

And deciding that's not going to be good enough.

"I meant well" is note going to cut it-not with God screaming, pleading, urging us to love mercy and justice and feed the poor and the orphaned, to care for the last and the least in nearly every book of the Bible.

  
TALK TANK:

What is the purpose of the local church?
 ...and what does that mean for YOU personally?

The Leslie Galema Unofficial Book Club

Join me, every Friday this September for my very first

Unofficial Book Club

Study of Jen Hatmaker's book:  Interrupted





Week 1: Friday, August 29    PHASE ONE
Week 2: Friday, September 5  PHASE TWO
Week 3: Friday, September 12  PHASE THREE
Week 4: Friday, September 19 PHASE FOUR
Week 5: Friday, September 26 PHASE FIVE