Jason Bedell Online

Every morning I pray. It's my lifeline to God to receive strength to make it through another day and live fully devoted to Him. Lately, I've had a strong and immense tug at my soul and being to feel a lot like this guy.

I grew up in the area where Forefront started. I heard all kinds of interesting things about how nuts, crazy, and intense the church was. I was serving at another local church, but couldn't stop hearing about the work going on at Forefront. 8+ years later God moved my family and I to be a part of the body here. We loved everyone immediately. The vibe was exactly as the body promoted: Love God, Love People, Turn the World Upside Down.

Two years later, I'm in the hot seat. Making the final decisions, answering people's pressing emails, helping to save marriages, leading a great staff, and looking to the future on how we can reach people who are far from God- because THAT is the goal.

But, when you accept God's call to be a leader, it's not all rainbows and sunny days. You get to see the deep-dark, underbelly of ministry. Everyone has an idea of what things should look like, sound like, feel like, etc. And in our culture (and we all can admit this) it's all about me (or you... or you over there, and so on).

This can cause a leader to be discouraged, want to fly, run, jump, or leap to anything but the call. In the 10+ years of ministry- I've felt it a few times. I can see the signs, look back at the symptoms, and and feel the burden of needing to buckle down, listen to God, and follow His leading.

This morning I woke up and felt that burden. More so than I have in quite awhile. I know I'm not perfect, and since God's church is moved my imperfect people- Forefront isn't perfect. But, that's what I love about God's grace. His loving gift that we don't deserve.

Forefront is meeting people. People far from God. People who are now moving closer to Him in the process. THAT is our goal. Those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus; we were once in the gutter too.

So, it leads me to look inside myself and ask a couple things (maybe you need to ask yourself these things too): "Jason, have you forgotten the gutter I found you in...?" and "Have your ears been adjusted so closely to the voices of those around you- that you forgot to listen to me and my call for your life? Listen close Jason, it's about other people. Unchurched people. It's time to make sure I am the reason you live and I am the one you are telling them about. Nothing more. Nothing less."

Jason *over and out*