ANSWERING THE CALL IN MID-CITY

My junior year they began to arrive. Large manila-colored envelopes practically bursting at the seams due to the promises they held. Each envelope containing both a letter and a full-color, glossy brochure depicting the full extent of the rewards and hopes of collegiate life. Students thriving, smiling, cheering, and learning on bucolic campuses that always promised both freedom to the student and, of course, safety to the parents. Any college or university that I thought I might attend, I had shown them the smallest of interests, a little postcard (postage guaranteed!) with the bare minimums... my name, age and address. And for this, this tiniest of interest, from me or anyone, it is always met with the same response. A collegiate brochure demonstrating to you what your life would be like… if you only said yes (and paid thousands of dollars too). There is perhaps a certain art to college admission brochures and pamphlets. They are sales documents that ultimately sell not actually the school or its education, but rather the promise of a particular kind of future. The idea is too not only reduce your uncertainty, but also to demonstrate what and who you would be if you went there. When you look at these pamphlets, they are working to show you what it would be like if you only said yes to them. They want to show you how you would feel, what you would look like, who would surround you and, most of all, what sort of future you might have… if you only said yes.   But while university brochures do this in order to increase revenue, what if there was something that did this in order to increase disciples? What if there was something written (albeit not always in full-color or glossy pages!) to show us what it would be like if we said yes to Christ? Something that would show us how we would feel, what we would act like, who would surround us and, most of all, what sort of future we would walk into… if only we said yes. Well, over the next four weeks in our sermon series entitled “Answering the Call: What does it mean to say yes to God?” we will continue looking at some of these passages in the Bible. Each week, we will take another passage that shows us and helps us picture what is to be if we follow Christ where he leads us. I think for all of us that this will be a great learning experience in how we start to picture what might be if we all spoke “Yes” to God. Here are our topics and Scriptures each week and we’ll see you on Sunday! Oh, and if you’d like to read our Scripture before Sunday, you can find it here. Here are our topics and Scriptures for each remaining week and we’ll see you on Sunday! To Have Your Perspective Expanded  January 25th- John 1:43-51 To Share Your Journey with Others  Feb 1st 1 Corinthians 8:4-13 To Be Taught a Holistic Faith February 8th- Mark 1:29-39 To Be Transformed February 15th- Mark 9:2-9