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?