Introduction Assigned Sunday, January 24th.
Hi. My name is James, and I created this blog to share some of my stories. Around the time of February, the girl who had taken over as our young adult group leader at my church was tied down with her college commitments, and she handed us over to a doctor in the church who sought to do a study on the book “A Good and Beautiful God” by James Bryan Smith.
The author introduces us to the idea that he was just the average person, but he was able to be mentored by many people who were strong in their Christian faith and through the connections he made to great people and opportunities it sent him on a journey to become a pastor and help others.
Even though he was very hesitant to believe he could do it, as a culmination of these experiences he created a curriculum for Christ-likeness and he found that he could inspire spiritual change in many people, which led him to write the book.
The book is not aimed at helping people become more religious or impress God, the book is meant to help people discover the God Jesus revealed in the New Testament of the Bible, and show people how to live as apprentices of Jesus in their ordinary lives. After each chapter is an exercise to help reinforce the reading.
If you have time, I would suggest you pick up a copy for maybe $12 or so online.
As a young person I can relate to this story, because I was also the average person who God took on an adventure. I grew up in a Catholic family that never went to church and there was only so much stability in my childhood growing up. I didn’t always have good family support, and it took me several years to see the value in my education. It wasn’t until I was in sixth grade that the father of my childhood friends started asking me to come to the youth group at the nearby church where he worked as the youth pastor. I did come despite my childish disbelief, and over time I found great people and I did learn to believe. I grew in my faith through middle school and high school and it took me to all sorts of places.
As someone who majors in Journalism and Broadcasting in college, my professor taught us our goal for writing any paper is to join in on a discussion or conversation already in progress. I’m doing that here too.
– James –
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