induction

Had my induction at Brunswick Baptist Church this morning. Induction always sounds like a medical procedure to me, but anyway...it was very affirming and encouraging. That's a picture of the church building in 1912 or something... So I had to talk a bit about my hopes and whatnot...here they are:

I hope that we can become true disciples of Jesus. May we live deeply in his stories, to the point where they become our stories. May his eyes be our eyes, his priorities our priorities, his Kingdom our Kingdom. May we follow in the footsteps of a God who so ticked off the religious establishment and the government that they murdered him. A man who nonetheless loved all the way to the end, refusing to repay violence with violence but instead repaying violence with self-giving love. I pray that like him we too might take up our cross, that inevitable price of our social nonconformity, trusting God for the promised resurrection and victory. I pray that we would wrestle together with what that means for us, that we would be courageous, honest and vulnerable with one another, and forgiving, loving, and appreciative of our differences.

I pray that together, in the power of the resurrected Jesus, we might be holy fools for Christ, ordinary radicals who live the Kingdom of God into being.

They're a pretty cool mob there at Brunny. Great to be a part of it.