Centennial Family,
Welcome to 2025!
OK, I know, we’re more than a week into the year. But if you’re like me, it takes way more than a week to get used to that one new number whenever I write the date. As I look at the year ahead for our shared life as a community, a single, simple question keeps coming to mind. Considering all the good things going on in and through our church, this question sits as the foundation and stands out front as a guiding light:
How is God calling you to grow this year?
I’ve asked this question many times and in many places in our shared life. There is one concern that has been raised by many people, and I’d like to address it here (as well as address it briefly at the end of this Sunday’s sermon).
Isn’t this question a little too focused on me, and not enough on us or on others?
I really love that question. If you are asking it, it means your heart is in tune with the self-sacrificial, good-news-to-all, blessed-to-be-a-blessing kingdom of God. It means that the last thing you would want is for God to do something in your life but then leave someone else hanging. If that concern is such a good thing, then why ask the apparently self-centered question? Here’s why:
Every true work of God will be done through his gathered people and will result in lives of service to others. It’s impossible to be transformed by God into a more isolated and selfish existence.
If isolation and selfishness are the result, then it isn’t really God’s work. Any true work of God will draw us deeper and more transparently into community and lead us to live more generously and open-handedly for the sake of others. So, I ask again:
How is God calling you to grow this year?
Are you willing to become the best version of yourself God desires, and live for the greatest good to others? Here’s my challenge to:
Seek a clear, personally compelling, vibrant answer to this question. Seek the answer through personal prayer and reflection, through conversation with trusted community, and through study of God’s word.
When you have an answer, make a plan for how to grow in the way God calls and go in whatever direction God leads.
This is what we do every year in The Growth Challenge, but my greatest desire is that this is what every person who calls Centennial their church home would do naturally as the central rhythm of their life.
I am excited to be formed into the way of Christ for the greatest good for the world. I am excited for us to do that together. May it be so!
Grace and peace,
Karl
P.S. Our Benevolence Fund helps dozens of people every year to meet practical needs and support growth toward stable lives. It has dropped just below $10,000 recently, and the Benevolence Team encourages everyone to consider giving a little to replenish the fund. There is plenty for the fund to continue helping people as designed, but we make this request now so that it continues to stay healthy, as it has for years. Thanks for your generosity.