Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at my son's high school chapel. He attends a fairly new preparatory school here in the South Bay of Los Angeles. It was an honor being with the students at Ambassador High.
It reminded me of my time at Whittier Christian High years ago. I don't know about you but high school was one of those seasons of life where I was going through all sorts of adolescent worries: am I good enough, do people like me, am I ever going to make it in life were all questions that I was wrestling with. Did you ever feel like that? Or, do you feel like that today?
I told the students that God clearly called me into ministry during that season but I avoided it like the plague. I played the Jonah game: God wants me to go to Nineveh but I think I'll head out into the Mediterranean Sea! Not too much longer a friend invited me on a mission trip that changed my life. I went to Mexicali with Azusa Pacific University and God cemented for me that He was calling me to something different than I was chasing.
That one trip led to the journey of a lifetime where I have now traveled to 50 countries and seen God do some amazing things. I told the students at Ambassador High that he had destined them to be world changers just like me and many of the others I have the privilege of serving. No matter how we feel about ourselves, God can use us if we lean into Him and allow Him to guide and shape our destiny.
Last year I read a few books that highlighted this:
To Change the World by James Davidson Hunter was profound toward this end. It was probably the single best book I read last year! Dr. Hunter shares how leaders are formed and where networks are made and how spending time in the right circles can lead you to enormous places of influence. That is exactly what happened to me as I leaned into God's grace way back years ago in the dust of Mexicali. Slowly but surely God put me alongside amazing leaders that allowed me to flourish and gave me the wind to see amazing things happen! More on Dr. Hunter's work later...
A View from the Top by Michael Lindsay confirmed Dr. Hunter's thesis. He did tons of interviews with top level leaders showing how they emerged into leadership and how they came to positions of prominence to shape the world we now live in.
Most important though in all of this was something Dr. Hunter pointed out. He called it "Faithful Presence". Despite all the leadership insights, connections, halls of power, etc. his key point was that we simply need to be a "faithful presence" in society. What I love about A3 is that we live out these truths. We identify key leaders, build capacity in their lives and release them for missional impact... Ultimately though, we know the real power to being world changers is in Jesus!
To me, this was most evident in the passages I shared in chapel yesterday:
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." [Matthew 28:18-20]
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"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." [Acts 1:8]
The key to changing the world is shown in these two missional challenges: It is a deep connection with God himself. In the first passage we see that Jesus promise is what sustains us in world changing: "surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." And, the key in the second passage is "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you..."
No matter how you feel. No matter what you are struggling with. God has called you to be a world changer! You can make a difference in this world as you simply lean into Him and let Him direct your path. Start leaning into Him and become a world changer!
Joe Handley
@jwhandley |
