Summertime, Suitcases, and Strange looks…

As I write this I am stuck in an airport with a delayed flight, which is likely a picture of the next 6 months or so of my life.  In an attempt to make good use of my time I figured I might as well reflect a little on the past couple months.  If I am honest when I left North Carolina in May I was a bit reluctant to spend so long just “sitting still.”  My prayer was simple, “God help me not waste this time.”  And man did he answer that request!  The title of this blog sums up my days these last several weeks.

Summertime—This Florida girl so enjoyed having time to enjoy a Florida summer!  I am so grateful to have the chance to spend time with so many dear friends and family.  Not to mention getting to spend my days on or near the water.  You can never get enough biking, kayaking, or beach time in, but I sure had my fair share these past several weeks…and the company was pretty good too!

Suitcases—For the past weeks I have lived mostly out of a suitcase.  While I was staying mostly with Mom and Dad, God opened the door for me to spend some time traveling to see some dear friends as well.  It was so good to see so many of you and to get to share with your churches about this journey to South Asia.  God has been truly faithful and my heart was challenged and refreshed by so many brothers and sisters in the faith.  Many of which I had never even met before, yet we share a common bond through the gospel.

Strange looks—You may be wondering what this has to do with my summer.  Over the past few weeks I have been taking care of a lot of my personal affairs…changing of address, consolidating stuff, taking care of bills, etc.   It has been quite comical to see the looks and reactions I get when telling people why I’m canceling my internet service to move overseas or why I have to sell my car because I won’t need it for a couple years.  I have also been in my hometown bumping into people I have grown up with.  The conversation usually begins by the usual questions, Are you married? Do you have any kids?  What are you up to these days?  You can just imagine the conversations when I respond…No, none, and moving to South Asia for a few years!  All joking aside if nothing else this journey has given me some great conversations already about the gospel and the goodness of our God!

With all the fun in the sun, suitcases, and even the strange looks God has blessed the past couple months and I am ready for what lies ahead.  I could write story after story about his goodness and grace this summer which will perhaps be my next blog, but for now I think its time to catch my next flight… 

Lessons learned at Petsmart...

Last January when I quit a full time ministry position to go back to seminary, I must confess part time retail at Petsmart was not at the top of my list for jobs.  However, shortly after I got to North Carolina, two things became my only criteria for a job…I needed hours and someone to work around my crazy school schedule.  Long story short, Petsmart met both. 

Now for those of you who knew the Peterson kids growing up you may remember that Justin and I had a wide array of animals and ironically enough we were not known for the longevity of life of our animals.  Regardless, this experience as kid helped me land my dream job.  Well maybe not dream job, but at least it pays the bills during this journey to South Asia.  Truth be told though I have learned a lot in the last year from work (some useful for future ministry and some I hope I never need again) and thought I’d share with you the top 10 lessons learned at Petsmart. 

1.  People take priority over the task.  My job is retail so ultimately people are top priority, but the reality is I’m a tasker and a list maker.  People “interrupt” getting work done.  The problem with this mentality is that people are the reason I even have a job.  This has been a great lesson for me in ministry as well.  Yes, there are things that must get done in ministry, but not at the neglect of people and relationships.  Without people we have no ministry!
2. Never under any circumstances make yourself available to work on Bird clean out day…if you have ever cleaned a bird cage, no explanation needed!
3. I need to listen more!  I know this may be obvious, but when you are trying to help a customer trouble shoot a problem, it requires really listening to their problem and helping to find a solution.  Sometimes in ministry we can have our “pre-packaged” response to every situation that we forget to really listen to people and what may be going on in their life.
4. Humility!  Truth is we are never above any one or anything.  My job keeps me humble and reminds me that our life as believers should be a life characterized by humility and service.
5. If I had to choose I would rather get bitten by a snake than a bird or hamster any day!   Those little guys hurt like crazy!  Never judge a book by its cover.
6. People will often surprise you.
7. I’m not a big fan of birds!  Sorry bird lovers.
8.  Everyone has good days and bad days, best thing we can do is just go with it and be an encouragement to others when we can. 
9. I have a new respect for the leaders from YBC Youth who worked full time and still made time to pour into students!
10. Did I mention I don’t like birds?! 

All that to say…so grateful for my job and yet so excited that South Asia is right around the corner!

On Mission with God...

 Evangelism.  What comes to your mind when you hear this word?  The simplest definition is sharing the gospel.  So what is the gospel?  The gospel is the freeing reality of Jesus in my place.  It is the idea Jesus not only paid our pardon for sin, but by his perfection credited us with his righteousness, freeing us to follow his example.  As a church family, we are in the middle of a five week study in evangelism or to put it another way living a life on mission with God.

As we began the study we looked at the history of the Summit Church and I want to share it briefly with you.  “Homestead Heights had dropped in attendance to 200 and lost some key members of its staff and leadership.  New leadership was hired and that came with a new name and new challenge: let’s get 1,000 people in attendance for Easter a few months down the road.  God moved greater than anyone’s expectation, and the attendance that Easter was three times what it was when the challenge was issued.”  That was 10 years ago, since that time God has done an incredible work in RDU seeing over 6,000 people in worship at the Summit Church on a given weekend.   By God’s grace we are also sending out church planters all over, from Greensboro to South Asia.

Hearing this testimony of God’s faithfulness I can’t help but being grateful to be a part of what God is continuing to do at Summit.  I also cannot help but ask the question of how?  Practically speaking how did we get here…the obvious answer is God, but the reality is that He has used ordinary people to get us to this place.  The question then arises how do we join God and reach our world with the gospel.  This is one that by no means do I have it all figured out and why this study has been so challenging for me, but I believe it starts first with a deep love for Jesus and the gospel.  For me evangelism training in the past has often honed in on a guilt tactic to produce results.  You have to do this or do that.  Through this ongoing discussion in this study in our small group it hasn’t been about guilt at all…its about recognizing what Christ has done for us and falling in love with the gospel.  As we press into the gospel the natural overflow is to share it.   The truth us that we are natural evangelists for the things that we love! 

Practically speaking I think we must look no further than the example set for us in Jesus.  He lived each day with an acute awareness of why he was here.  He lived every day on purpose.  As believers, no matter what our vocation is, our purpose is to worship God and make other worshipers.   All too often the church today has reduced evangelism to a program or something that we must do one night a week, but sharing the gospel is a way of life.  It requires us planting our life in a particular place for the sake of the gospel.  Many believers have treated evangelism in one of two ways, either totally rejecting it saying that is not for me or we’ve compartmentalized it instead of making it a part of our everyday life. 

In Acts 1:8 we find a familiar challenge for the church to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.  Interestingly enough as Jesus says these last words on earth and ascends into heaven the disciples are now just standing in awe gazing at heaven and who can blame them.  Notice then what the angels said to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?  This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”  In other words, you heard him; you have a huge task and limited time.  Quit standing around, go and make the most of it! 

Just a few closing thoughts that God reminded me of through JD’s sermon a few weeks ago.  The first is this, salvation belongs to the Lord!  It is not up to us to produce results; it is up to us to be obedient.  The second is to pray like crazy.  What are you praying boldly for?  Who is it that you are begging God to save?  Let me put it another way, if God decided to answer every prayer you prayed this week how many people would be added to the Kingdom?  Andrew Murray once said,  “The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.”  Our part in seeing people come to know Christ begins with us standing in the gap for them as intercessors on their behalf.

I'll give it a shot...

I've thought for some time now that I should give this whole blogging thing a shot and finally decided to give in and go for it!   The past year of my life has been a whirlwind and I seriously cannot believe it is December and that I have almost been in NC for a year now.  So much has taken place during this year and honestly it is just the beginning compared to what lies ahead for 2012.  With that being said there were so many things I could say on this initial post, but a recent conversation has narrowed it down for me...thank you Mrs. Phyllis!  


Over the Thanksgiving break I had a chance to spend several days in Florida and have some much needed time with family and friends.  One of the nights in particular was spent with some of my favorite people around the bonfire.   Just like old times we had a great time of fellowship together and I continue to be amazed at what all God is doing in everyone's life.  During our time together I was asked a question that I have thought much about since that night, "what is the one thing that God has taught you most over the past year?"  If I fully answered this question this first post would be whoa too long and none of you would finish reading it because I can truly say this whole year has been nothing but a learning process for me.  However, after much thought I do believe I can narrow it down to two major lessons.  Neither are new, but they have been a much needed reminder for me during this season of life.  I hope that God will use them as a reminder for you as well.

1.  The first lesson is that I need the gospel!  You would think that having been a Christian for almost 20 years now that this would be a no brainer for me, but the truth is that I had forgotten this.  I mean I knew the message, but I was not preaching it to myself daily or even realizing that I needed it daily.  You see it is not something that we grow beyond, instead we grow deeper into.  The gospel is the means of salvation, but it is also the means to discipleship.  I had been so caught up in the "do more" and "try harder" mentality that so many believers have that I needed to be reminded Jesus had already done it  all.  Many times we spend so much time working on fixing behavior modification that we forget the irony of the gospel is when we behold God and the gospel we will naturally be transformed from the inside out.  To sum it up I am being continually reminded that I do not do good works to earn God's favor---I do good works because I already have God's favor!  This favor was promised and proven in Jesus!
2. The second lesson God has taught me is to have a deep love for His Church!  This lesson came in two forms for me.  The first was in the way of leaving...ironically enough God used calling me away from a faith family that I truly love to remind me of his great love for the local church.  While no church is perfect, this body of believers was made up of dear people that I loved.  People who had encouraged me, stretched me and taught me much about ministry and community.  Many of whom today, living states apart, continue to be some of my closest friends and valued prayer partners.   God has continued this lesson by leading me to the Summit Church.  I have truly found a home at this church and it has deepened my love for Jesus and His church.  This faith family is crazy in love with the gospel and they have a true heart to reach Raleigh and the nations for Christ.  They are intentional about planting their lives and planing churches across the world and I am humbled to be a part of all that God is doing in and through this church.  We were designed to learn and to live out the gospel in community.  This year has reminded me of this simple, yet profound truth.  In a season of life that is busier than ever and I must be intentional about making time for community, I am learning all the more why it is so important.

I hope in some way you have been encouraged and/or challenged by these two powerful lesson's God has been teaching me.  Remembering the gospel...we are far worse sinners than we even realize and yet loved far more than we could ever imagine!  Jesus is all that we truly need for true joy in life has completely wrecked my life this year, in a good way.  And finally, seek out community in a local church and learn to love His church.  He does and you need that community!  Oh and one more final thought....what has God taught you most over the past year?

in HIS grip, 

Julie