The Same Spirit

Today was a great day in Medellin.  We spend the day in Mentor training with the network of pastors and some from the churches the pastor who are invested in the mentoring process.  My group was a group of three Colombian pastors, a member of the FBC, Euless, team, and an amazing Pastor to pastors in this Colombian network who also is an exceptional translator.  The gentleman leading our group is a seminary student and staff member from Euless, Texas.  His task is to help us learn how to mentor others in the circle of influence God places us in.  In other words, how can we, as Pastors, mentor those in our church and train them to become mentors of others.

At our church in Wauchula we constantly talk about the importance of father passing on their faith to their children.  In essence, this passing on of the faith is mentoring.  Daniel and I try to go to breakfast every week, and while we are enjoying some of the finer delicacies of the dollar menu we talk about what God is doing in our lives and how we can grow closer to him.  I honestly cannot wait to get back and go through this amazing material with him.  Being able to take my son through a disciplined approach to discipleship will be a life changing experience - for both of us.

I am also excited bringing back the mentoring process to some folks in our community who have been experiencing the power of God in their lives.  I am thinking of several men and women in our church who have been searching for a way to invest in the lives of others and multiply their faith.  What I am learning this week is a great catalyst for that multiplication.  What better way to get people excited about sharing their faith than to equip them with all of the tools they need to help someone grow into a fully devoted follower of Christ.

One of the most humbling experiences is realizing that the Pastors here have the same joys, struggles, hurts, and passions that I do.  The fact that we are literally oceans apart makes no difference.  We serve a Mighty Big God who transcends all space.  We all worship the same God and are motivated by the same Spirit.

I praise God for my brothers and sisters in Christ in the United States.  I praise God for a family that loves the Lord, and I look forward to the day when our youngest chooses, by faith, to follow Christ as well.  I also praise God, though, for the brothers and sisters in Christ in Euless, Texas, and in  South America.  Through them this week the Lord has helped me see that people everywhere need Jesus, and the key to being who God wants us to be is simply to join God in the work He is already doing.