Go.
“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, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
I can’t get those words out of my head. As the launch team and other committed pioneers have spent the last year working towards the public launch of Harvest Bayshore on 10.11.15, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to go. Jesus’ words to the disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospel are words for every disciple. The call to go out into God’s world, sharing the love of God is always upon us.
This month Harvest lives into this command to go through the beginning of worship as Harvest Bayshore, through the idea of one church in two locations. The call to Bayshore is about being in mission in God’s world. The call to Bayshore is about welcoming and being welcomed by a new community, is about growing together in our faith, and is about serving the world, beginning in the Bayshore community. Together we’ll explore the community, make friends and neighbors, serve the Lee Middle School community, and dream of creative ways to offer the love of God to those around us. We will be challenged to be flexible enough to respond to the opportunities God presents us, that we might in fact be changed as we seek to offer others the change of life with God.
Whether you worship at the Harvest Lakewood Ranch or Harvest Bayshore campus, God’s call to go extends to you! It’s a big mission, sometimes a frightening mission, but it’s always a life-giving mission to be about the work of making disciples! The invitation is yours: go welcome, go grow, go serve. Go into the world, rejoicing in the mission of God’s coming kingdom!
Rev. Jennifer Potter