We have been so blessed with the children we see running around every Sunday at Trinity.  They grow up so fast!  It seems so easy to grow into your teens and then on to adulthood.  I wish it were so easy to grow up in Christ.  Growing and learning as disciples of Christ has to be very intentional.  I did not always see it that way...

I do not think that I am all that different than most of the people at Trinity CRC.  I grew up in a very conservative community and in a traditional Christian Reformed Church.  I heard the Gospel preached and I memorized the Heidelberg Catechism.  I made profession of faith a bit earlier than my class at school and was even exempted from catechism class by my pastor, after all, I knew what I was supposed to know and that was all that was required.

Yet one of the greatest things about the Christian life is that you can, and should, continue to learn and understand the deep implications of the Gospel.  There have been a variety of times in my life when the implications of the Gospel on my life have had a powerful impact.  Certainly one of those times was when I was in my twenties as I discovered what God wanted me to do in my life and as a result became active in such ministries as the Degage Coffeehouse and a children’s ministry called Kid Power.

I also grew tremendously in my understanding of the Gospel when we lived in El Salvador.  Getting to know not only people who were dirt poor but also some who were millionaires in that war torn country really got me to think about the impact of the Gospel on life.  I often wondered how such inequalities could exist alongside of each other in the Church of Christ. 

The same type of growth in understanding has been happening to me in the last few years.  There is a tremendous pull on pastors to slide into the groove of ministry and spend all of their time in the groove, so to speak.  You do what is expected of you and make sure that everybody is as pleased as possible.  This often keeps pastors from being challenged by the Word or challenging others because it might require doing things that have not been done in a particular church setting.  I really believe that the changes that we are initiating in an effort to become more focused on discipling people outside of the church as well as those inside of the church, have had a very healthy impact on me, and I believe on the whole Trinity community.  These changes are healthy because they help us reflect on the importance of the Gospel of Grace.

We are becoming more focused on the Gospel ministry. The emphasis on forming community in small groups, on reaching out to those who do not know Christ, and on loving those who are poor, forgotten or disabled continues to open our eyes with regard to the impact the Gospel should be making in our lives.  We are also recognizing that the Gospel has something to say about everything we do.  It even identifies the wrong motivations for doing the things we do.  It drives us deeper into the heart of Christ, which is where we belong.  It does not focus on the way we do things but on the transformation of our hearts and lives.

Having a better understanding of the Gospel and its impact on us, is powerful because the Gospel is the only thing that can drive the changes that the Lord expects from us.  I think that we have all spent way too much time trying to dress up our exterior instead of allowing grace to change our interior, which in turn will impact our exterior.  We are learning that we need to be more occupied with looking to Jesus and seeking to please Him.  Ephesians 5:10 says, “Live as children of the light…and find out what pleases the Lord.”  I personally am being more intentional about finding what pleases the Lord and doing that with all my energy.  The very enjoyable thing is that so many others of us are doing the same thing.  Trinity is a place where people are finding out what pleases the Lord and doing that, and this is what makes Trinity a really fun place to minister and serve the Lord. 

~Pastor Gerry Konin