Gathered again this past Sunday night for another evening together as a Launch Team. I’m loving these nights. We squeezed into a living room, sitting on couches and chairs to press into another night of prayer, study, and conversation.
mile 2 :: need
We spring-boarded from Luke 24 again. Last week, we talked about the experience of faith being like a journey. A journey where sinners and saints walk together and discover Jesus over a process. This week, we explored the condition of these two travelers before their eyes were opened to see Jesus. We used words like – blind, desperate, religious, frustrated, disappointed, disbelieving –to describe them. They knew the facts of the Gospel, but those facts had never pierced or penetrated their hearts. They were in need.
We panned out from Luke to consider the breadth of Scripture and the Biblical assessment of humanity. We saw that the same picture that Luke painted of these men before their awakening described the condition of all men before grace. We are all in need of some sort. Broken. Sinful. Blind. Desperate for truth, but unaware of where to find it.
We also considered how Luke had vividly portrayed the skepticism and doubts of the first witnesses of the resurrection. The men and women of that day were no more likely to believe the realities of the Gospel than men and women living in Philadelphia today. But we marveled that Jesus did not reject people because of their doubt, but rather engaged their doubt. He questioned their questions and showed Himself to be the answer. We talked for a while about what the questions of Philadelphians were. What kept people in our city from faith? What assumptions supported their doubts? After all, the Bible may have the answers, but what if we don’t know the questions our city is asking.
Again, one of my favorite parts of the night was when we talked about the implications that this would all have on 7 Mile Road Church. If we really do believe that all of us are in need, and the people who come to us are in need, then what will that mean for our ministry? For another week, we heard the need for humility. All of us are broken and our need seems to be a common denominator for us all. Therefore, we could take a sledgehammer and smash pious pretenses. We didn’t need to put on a show since none of us have it altogether. We spoke of the great need for the Gospel. If Ephesians 2 is right and we are dead in our sins, then the aim of 7 Mile Road is not behavior modification, but rather a supernatural resurrection of the soul made possible only through the Gospel. We said that the church needs to be once again a hospital for sinners rather than a religious club for the righteous.
We ended the night in prayer, aware that we could never pull this off on our own, desperate for God to make it happen among us.
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.