We recently kicked off a season of gathering as a Launch Team on Sunday nights. It’s so early in the game that I never know how the nights will go; and then I am pleasantly surprised. Our nights are scheduled to run from 5 to 7ish. For another week, we laughed and got to know one another over a pot-luck dinner together. After dinner, here’s what we talked and prayed through:
mile 1 :: road
A road is one of the obvious details of the 7 Mile Road story. Everything happens on the road – over the course of a journey. But it seems like Luke clues the reader into a journey that is more significant for the 2 disciples than the physical one from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We talked about the spiritual journey that the two men take. Like how they began blind and confused and end with their eyes opened and their hearts enlightened. They begin with a veiled understanding of who Jesus is, calling Him a prophet, and end declaring Him to be the Lord. They begin frustrated and disappointed with religion and end blown away by the Gospel.
We talked about how this picture of a journey is not limited to Luke’s Gospel, but rather employed throughout the Scriptures. Whether in narrative or in metaphor, the Scriptures are replete with making the case that the experience of faith is analogous to a journey. All who experience God do so gradually, progressively, and over the course of time. We are all pilgrims or sojourners walking through life. And as hard as we may try to deny it, there’s a spiritual element to that journey. We and the people we are called to reach may be in different places, but we’re all walking. Some are believers, others unbelievers. Some have hearts filled with hope, others appear hopeless. Some are stuck in religion, others have discovered the Gospel. Some have questions about Jesus, some have found answers in Him. Some of are sprinting, others crawling. The common denominator is that none of us have arrived. We camped for around this truth for a while and let it sink into our hearts.
When it had – sunk into our hearts, that is – we asked, “Well if all of that were true at 7 Mile Road, if we really did see life as a journey, and the experience of faith as a process, what implications would that have? What would 7 Mile Road Church look like if we embedded this idea in our DNA and let this value infuse our community?” The conversation that followed was among the highlights of the night.
We envisioned a church where humility and patience and grace and hope were the rule. If none of us have arrived then we would have to be real humble. If people discovered truth over a process then we would have to be real patient. If Jesus saves sinners and sanctifies saints over a journey, then we all need grace and need to extend it to one another. And if change happens gradually, then we could have hope for ourselves and those in our community because Jesus can do His work over time. We envisioned a church where people who were in completely different places along their spiritual journey could walk together and discover Jesus along the way.
The picture that they painted is exactly the kind of church that I think God wants 7 Mile Road to be. We ended the night by praying that God would make the painting come to life.
by Ajay Thomas
Ajay lives in Philadelphia with his wife Shainu and their kids Hannah and Micah. He is responsible for preaching and vision as a pastor at Seven Mile Road.