From Allen Close, Mission Alive board member
I was born in Dallas, Texas, which makes me a lifelong Cowboys fan. You might expect that I would spend my life in Texas, but a different plan played out. My widowed mother married a Canadian when I was four and that sent my life in a different direction….north! When I was eleven, we moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, the place I most think of as home. Eighteen years of living in Lexington, SC, has also made that place feel like home. And now, we live in Virginia and are quickly learning to feel at home here as well. What do these three places have in common? They are all outside the Bible Belt.
Every time I visit Bible Belt cities like Abilene, Dallas, or Nashville, I am amazed at all the opportunities to hear great preaching and rub shoulders with the great thinkers of the Church. While the faraway places I have lived provided me with wonderful places to live and raise a family, they have not provided nearly as many opportunities to find help for my attempts to lead a church. This is where Mission Alive enters the story of my life. To experience the help of MA you don’t have to live in Texas. In both South Carolina and now Virginia, Mission Alive has helped me capture a vision for the future of the Church that is both a forward vision and an optimistic vision of what God is doing. Their Discipleship Cohorts have become a useful tool to empower members to keep up with what God is saying and doing. Different leaders from MA have taken the time to understand my setting so that they can speak to the needs of a congregation like mine.
I thank God for the help and partnership I have from Mission Alive. They have helped me find the courage to challenge congregations to keep up with God as he moves his Church forward. Praise God.
Want to learn how Discipleship Cohorts can empower you to keep up with what God is saying and doing? NEW COHORTS ARE FORMING NOW. Use this link to learn more and register today!