Catalyst Track: English Lessons // Day Two

This track comes from English Lessons: The Crooked Path of Growing Toward Faith, by Andrea Lucado. 

 

Sometimes I think this world is a long and spread out Tower of Babel. You don’t have to move to England in order to feel like a foreigner. It might feel like no one speaks your language in your own home, school, or workplace.

 

The most familiar things in life can cause us to feel the loneliest at times. And loneliness is the absolute worst. But it can be effective at changing us for the better, forcing the layers off and allowing us to do brave things, appreciate relationships, and find friendships with people we didn’t think we could befriend.

 

Submitting to Babel allowed me to feel connected to those around me.

 

In this 3-day track, Andrea invites people into her personal journey of embarking into the unknown, and in doing so, discovering a great need for others in the process, a need for the Church.

 

As a leader, you probably often find yourself in unknown spaces. And that can be a lonely place sometimes. But does it always have to be? Can you find your needed strength and courage in others to do what you are called to do?

 

Are you ready to find out?  Complete the challenges at the end of each day. When you do so, you’ll be entered in to receive a copy of English Lessons. 

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DAY 2 – Reminders of Truth

 

The early church members were close to Jesus; maybe some had seen him pass through their towns or perform a miracle. Perhaps one guy told a few friends about his eyewitness account of Jesus, and then those friends multiplied into a crowd, which turned the first guy into their leader, their pastor.

 

Until eventually, the church was just a group of people relying on each other, passing down information, remembering, believing, and encouraging. This is not weak or wrong. This is the church. I don’t think we’re called simply to rely on each other for comfort during the hard times or guidance during the confusing times. We’re called to rely on each other for faith in general.

 

I remember Ben making the argument with me that if Jesus was the Son of God, why did we all have to go to church every Sunday to remind each other of that?

 

“Isn’t that what church is?” he asked. “A bunch of people affirming each other in their beliefs. If it’s true and God and Jesus are real, why do you have to remind each other of that once a week?”

 

At the time, his question was unnerving, but today, I would tell him, yes, exactly. That’s the entire purpose of church.

 

Think about all the lessons we are taught and believe because our teachers in school taught them to us. I trust grammar. I trust biology. I trust physics and chemistry and geometry because they were taught to me, their methods trusted and passed down for centuries. When Ben asked about the purpose of church, he was asking a much bigger question. He was asking why humans must gather and remind each other of truth, why we must pass it down and teach and reteach and relearn.

 

He was asking, Why must humans rely on each other? And I ask, How could we not?

 

CHALLENGE:

 

Who do you have in your life who is reminding you of truth as you step into unknown places and lead others? Share in the comments below.