VENTURE CHURCH

Let the adVENTURE begin!

The dictionary definition of Venture: An enterprise in which something is risked in the hope of profit. The name Ventures originally came to us in the naming of an evangelism program my husband had written some years back. It was an outline full of adventure and life for a group of people that were motivated to see those in their own relational spheres come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes in the busyness of family life, even the busyness of ‘church life’ we can lose our focus on the Great Commission – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  We are commanded to go, make disciples, baptize those disciples and then teach them the commands of God. Does this seem like a tall order to you at times? Something best left to the pastors and the ‘leaders’? Yet to each of us the call comes. The voice of our Savior, saying, ‘What about the ones I’ve led to your doorstep? Will you lead them to Me? Will you show them the Way?’ Oftentimes, though we may not physically ‘go’, he has surely brought many to us that we interact with on a day-to-day basis that need His touch.

        Planting a new church, starting any new work for the Lord, is a great venture, indeed. “Something risked in the hope of profit”, says Webster’s. This had me challenged for a while, that risking part. I’ll admit, by nature I’m not much of a risk-taker. But it was to be my next big “YES” to my God.  Great risks are taken when there is much to be gained. We are launching into this Venture with two things – confidence in the greatness of our God and His call to step out, and the hope of the greatest gain, souls being brought out of darkness and into the Kingdom of light.