The Why Behind The What

I have been here in Florida working with Emmaus Ministries for two weeks now. These past two weeks we have been in meetings every single day crafting a new program(s), and thinking up ways that people from all over the nation, as well as central Florida, will be able to interact with God’s word and learn tools to help them study the Bible. This past week, we as a staff laid out the “skeleton” of what is going to consist of our brand new Emmaus program. Every staff member is genuinely excited about what God has crafted through us and we are excited to share it! However, we are not quite ready to let the cat out of the bag. There are quite a few details that still need to be ironed out before we are ready to make a formal announcement. Trust me, once we are ready to spill the beans I will share every detail! I promise! For now, something really stood out to me in our last meeting. Our executive director, Tom Phillips, reminded us about the vision behind the ministry and the why we do what we do. Our Vision statement (which can be found at our website) is as follows: We seek to share with our students not only God’s Word, but also our lives, endeavoring to communicate and exemplify biblical truth and it’s relevance to all aspects and domains of life. We strive to better enable Christians to flourish in the many spheres of life, making no distinction between sacred and secular callings. It is our goal that students leave our classes with a thriving relationship with God rooted firmly in the gospel of grace and equipped with a big picture understanding of the Bible; herein lies the source of healthy relationships and a life led by the Holy Spirit that impacts the world for Christ.For those who have a hard time seeing the heart behind sentence structure, stanza and grammar let me explain what this practically means. We here at Emmaus believe that the Word of God can and will change the world. We believe that when people take a deep dive into Scripture, God changes their hearts. People get so radically transformed by God’s word that it changes every aspect of their lives. Emmaus does not exist to train future pastors and preachers alone. Rather, we hold that everyone following Jesus can, and will, change the world of the people around him. We believe that everyday Christians can have massive impact in the world. In fact, 2,000 years ago one carpenter completely turned the world upside down. We have a vision for every Christian knowing the Bible, not to obtain level 3 Christianity or to get an A+ on a Bible knowledge test. Our vision is for the Monday to Saturday life of every Christian to reflect a transformation that only comes through an intimate relationship with the living God. This can change the world! This is our/my “why”: Transformation of Christians so radical that they affect every community they come in contact with. It’s why I moved my life to Florida.It’s why I’m raising money. It’s why I’ve stayed with the ministry even though the job description changed. This vision gets me excited and I want to invite you to join me/us as i continue to walk through this adventure that God has called me to!