What happens when you sense God calling you to do something you have never done and do not fully understand? What do you do if you're young, a newer Christian and inexperienced? I think the answer is the same whether you are young or old, experienced or inexperienced.

Look to the Bible - done. Research - did that. Talk to trusted Christian friends and mentors - check. Wait on God - and then some. The other obvious answer is to pray. I had already been praying. All are important. The unsettling aspect for me was that praying for clarity and understanding and pursuing all of these other things eventually became an easy diversion from what had already become obvious - obedience. Fear God more than I fear man. Obey God's promptings. The answer never changes. It looks easy on paper, but why is action our last option in response to God's direction? For many of us it does not seem to matter whether it's in response to conviction through the Scriptures or God impressing things upon our hearts by His Spirit - movement seems difficult in response to God's revelation.

In Scripture, it does not take long to see that God's sovereignty is always preferable to humanity's best understanding. People who walk by faith in Christ are asked to do things that they do not fully understand and are never given all of the specific details. The Apostle Paul wrote that "we live by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). When we are at home with the Lord, there will be a lot that we finally understand, but until then we 'make it our goal to please him' (2 Cor. 5:9) whether we fully understand the details of where He leads us or not. He understands and His plans are for a reason and are perfect. Shouldn't faith in Christ give us confidence (in Him) instead of paralysis? Maybe paralysis in our faith happens because we are misplacing our confidence and who we want to please.

Five years ago I was serving as an associate pastor in a congregation (Rock of Ages LBC in Saskatoon) where I genuinely wanted to serve until my retirement - and I was only 25 years old! Around that time, God seemed to begin guiding me to a disturbing prayer: "God, you must have established us as a church for more..." It was not a prayer born out of frustration with the people in the church. It was a cry prompted by God for the people who were not a part of His church. It was about His mission. Admittedly, I had only been a Christian for a handful of years and really had no idea what He might be calling me to do in response to that prayer. Apparently God is not always concerned with our amounts of experience or expertise. I had such a profound experience in prayer one day that God shook me to the core and changed my plans forever. It was a defining moment, yet utterly unclear. It was so significant that when I went home my wife thought I looked physically ill. We realized that the plans we had made were gone and the direction of our lives was changing forever.

I committed to praying and getting serious about what this meant. I really did not feel like I had the freedom to share it with people since the church I was a pastor at was in the middle of bringing a church plant to a close. I am not always the sharpest person around, but I did not think it would be wise to say "Hey, let's try something like that again!" They probably would not respond favorably to this idea in the midst of pain and difficult questions. A few months later, God seemed to direct me to begin talking about what I was sensing as His call for me, but to me the timing did not seem any better. Obedience. I approached the pastor I served with, and the Elder Board of the church, and asked them to pray, test and approve whether this was for me as an individual (meaning I should bless them and move on) or whether this was for us as a church (and they would bless me to move on with their support). The look on most of their faces told me that they hoped I was joking. I told them this timing and proposal was probably laughable and that I did not understand God's timing, but I was not joking. We met bi-weekly for 6 months trying to talk this through. I lacked the proper understanding or language to convey concepts clearly. It was messy-very messy. It was also frustrating. But fortunately for everyone involved 1 Peter 4:8 says, ‘love covers over a multitude of sins'!

The reality was I was not proposing a change in the Gospel, but I was talking about a change in vehicle and culture (the church's and the world around us). One elder summed it up well when he stated, "It just seems like you are talking Japanese and I am talking English and I really want to understand but I do not speak Japanese. I know in my gut that you are on to something and saying something important, but..."

Looking back now, an easy way to sum up my call was this: To reach people no one else is reaching (which also means doing things that other people are not doing) and be the church with those who do not think they belong in a church. It meant Christians living as a sent people. It meant faith and life being de-compartmentalized where being the church means anytime and anywhere. We felt God calling us to reach out to those who had been hurt by the church, disillusioned about Christianity, skeptical, or spiritually searching. Those people are simply not showing up to worship services that are being offered - we get to go to them.

Early on, we had a lot of resistance from people within the church about the type of movement we felt God calling us to. Some people thought that it could not be done. Some thought it should not be done. Others did not understand. We found out again what most people already know: we are scared of what we do not understand (see, you can identify a little with people who are searching for God or skeptical of faith!).

What was interesting (which really means: amusing now and frustrating then) was that even though most people agreed that ‘it' was a foggy idea, everyone still had an opinion about ‘it'. There was even one lady who openly wondered if I was still a Christian - apparently someone had forgotten to teach me that the place and time we gathered for worship would affect my standing before God in Christ. Oddly enough, we had amazing responses from all of our non-Christian or alienated and hurting Christian friends and contacts. There was something quite unexpected that happened when people found out that our hearts were for them connecting with God and that we were willing to try new methods and means to go to them without changing the message. I was not telling them that God was perfectly happy with them and their lifestyle, but I was responding to them out of the great length that God has gone to in Christ to pursue me and call me His own. We were just letting them know that He goes to the same length for them.

Often times it seems like our faith gets managed, tamed and degraded to speculation. It is almost like trying to study the moon without ever considering stepping foot on it to experience it first-hand. I have yet to meet a kid who wants to study moon rocks, but I have met lots who want to be astronauts. New generations are seeing that fewer and fewer Christians are living out their faith; they are seeing are more and more Christians who just want to study or be spectators or consumers.

Finally I came to the point where I just needed to get out and be obedient instead of theorizing about it. I could not answer every single question being asked and spell out all of the details in a variety of proposals. So I prayed for God to allow us to fly under the radar for a while. I am convinced that He directed me to pray that way because He was already planning it. A month later he moved our sending church to call a new pastor and buy a new building. While that meant our launch group decreased by about 75% because of the excitement of a new pastor and building, it allowed us to get going and it stopped the questions we could not yet answer. Starting with 10 people was not easy though. Fortunately, God moved our sending church and our Canadian churches to financially support us to make this at least financially viable. I do not think we would have made it this far without this stability in the start up phase. It is also appropriate to say thanks to those who formerly made up the Church of the Lutheran Brethren Home Mission department - Armin Jahr and Stan Olsen were key catalysts and provided key support, coaching and resourcing during this process.

Currently, we are basically a church of 20-36 year olds and children 8 years old and under. We have moved worship gathering locations 8 times over the last 3 years due to finances, growth and other needs. On any given week, there may be more people gathering in mid-week groups of 5-12 people than there are at a worship gathering on Sunday. We are beginning to work through what ‘Mission Shaped Communities' (MSC) of 20-50 people look like while we continue our mid-week groups and worship gatherings. We shall see how valuable MSC's will be in sacrificial living, connecting with people outside of the church and evangelism as they stretch us in our faith. We're still learning and growing. We are also still making mistakes and still fight the urge to institutionalize and manage Christ's living, dynamic church.

With all of this said, there are at least 2 important things I've learned that I want to share with you. First, dDo not make action your default setting if God is not prompting you to change or move. Second, fearful and frustrated people usually start wars and do not facilitate lasting change. This should be obvious, but here it is anyway: the only change worth pursuing is the transformative and redemptive change born of God and not our depravity. It is no secret that the broader church generally seems afraid of change, but I think there is also an unstated fear and frustration these days of staying the same. Change for the sake of change is not usually helpful. Change because of fear and frustration is rarely positive. So we get caught in the middle, get paralyzed, and get wounded by the cross-fire. Change is inevitable and unpredictable and a part of the Christian faith. Every time Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was near, He announced change. Every time we hear God's voice in the Scriptures and the convicting presence of the Holy Spirit, we encounter change. Change is actually a key part of walking with Christ.

The people of Journeys were once described as ‘a church with boots on.' That resonates with me. I'd rather have boots on, be obedient and face uncertainty, than have my foot firmly planted on brakes that stop movement and make faith unnecessary. It is definitely not ‘safe,' but neither is the Savior we follow.

Pastor Riley Sexton serves Journeys Church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan